party time: more 4th of july pics



An hour or so before the party was to start, the girls sat down to watch The Cat Returns (again!). Don't you love retro apron and headband? I got the apron at Anthropologie on sale last Christmas and the headband and dress at the naartjiekids. (I made her put on the apron when she was writing the welcome message on the chalkboard so her dress wouldn't get messed up before the party.




Handmade pops of watermelon puree/lemonade/blueberrylemonade. Too bad we didn't get around to eating them at the party! Too much other food plus I kinda forgot all about them till the end of the party when everyone was too-sugared out.




Home-made strawberry cake (recipe here). We served it with Jamie's home-made coffee ice-cream, which we discovered is an awesome combination! This is one of the reasons why we never got around to eating the ice pops!




Kids's table (from Ikea). I bring it outside for all the kids parties. Has served us well.



We let the kids throw down some  poppits. Even Zara had a go.

 


A to Z : the two two-year-olds played well together!





I love bringing out the art easel at parties: as a welcome message at the start of the party and then later as an activity for the kids. I strung some of my ubiquitous tissue paper flowers (tutorial here) on the frame.

 


Balloon rockets originally bought for Zara's party but never used were a hit. Even though several balloons popped and a few landed on the roof, it kept the kids entertained for hours.

 


Balloon fireworks (how-to here) were a perfect way to end the evening. Hannah and I punched the confetti and filled up the ballons to hang on the low branches of the big elm tree in the backyard. I gave the older kids pins to pop them.

 
Other highlights that I didn't get photos of:
home-made lumpia + mojitos (first time I made them) + running through the sprinklers + "camping" (playing in the tents) + water balloons + grilled burgers with all the fixings + toasted almond/tangerine green salad with viniagrette by hannah + good company (no pics of the adults!) + lovely, hot weather.

overall, a great 4th!

housewarming + hiking

This weekend we had our housewarming party. We invited neighbors and friends - family too, but none of our relatives live in the same town (or state!). I think it came together well (even in my extremely self-critical rehash of the event - something I do after every party/gathering I host. After cleaning/decorating/organizing the house for the past 3 weeks, the event finally arrived on Saturday. It was a potluck so that relieved some of the stress of preparing food. Jamie grilled burger and hotdogs. I made a pasta salad and cornbread and veggie/fruit platter (except I forgot to put out the ranch dip - oops!) We had lots of sweets and a few savory dishes. And a few people brought us flowers :) And to keep the kids occupied, I laid out a table for some papercrafting. I trimmed some scrap paper into 4x6 sheets and stapled them together to make little books. And set out some scissors, stickers and markers. Most of the books were gone so I think it was a success. Also a great way to get rid of sb supplies!

But of course I still stressed about cleaning the house. But it did force us to do a little decorating: we put up my framed photos on the blank wall in the dining room. I framed several of my scrapbook pages (both digi and paper) in black 12 x 12 frames. We only hung up two before the party but at least I have them ready for later. We bought a rug for under the dining room table and big leather chair for the living room (jamie's video game chair) at Ikea. I got rid of some remaining boxes from the move that were in the hallway (shoved into the garage). We bought a patio umbrella and swept up the yard, did a little weeding.

And the biggest change to come of the party? I finally organized my scrapbook room! I could still stand to get rid of some supplies but hey it looks 100 times better than the mess it was just a few weeks ago. I even added a little table for Sofi to do her own arts and crafts while I'm doing my thing and a space for Zara to hang out.

At the party itself, we got to see people we haven't seen in a looooong time and got to know some of our neighbors a little bit better. And Sofi was a great hostess to all the kids. Well, she did get a bit bossy when showing playing video games, but she was so excited to have so many of her friends over at one time. Most of them were from her pre-school so they already knew each other.

My only regret? Not taking more photos! I have a few of the kids playing video games and some of our friends max and aya and their newborn aria but that's it.

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Today, we munched on leftovers. Played Rockband. I played Lips. Sofi had her friend from next door come over. We cleaned up. Jamie weeded. Then I thought we could all use some time out of the house, so we went hiking. I even had Zara in the Bjorn to burn some extra calories. (Jamie snapped that photo :) When we got home, Jamie made a yummy marinara sauce from the tomatoes our friends brought from their garden. Don't know where he got the energy to cook after grilling most of the afternoon at the party. Go Jamie. Now the kids are asleep. And I'm blogging. A good weekend. Good times.