The Mr's Birthday Party

Well Sunday was the Mr's birthday party.  We usually do a family dinner at the restaurant of our choosing (and we like to force our very chain oriented family to go outside the box so we look for restaurants all year to drag them to!)  This year the Mr wanted this really good food truck.  Well, that's not really feasible when you have a few elderly grandparents and a mama that's bone on bone in the knees.  So we looked into parks that were close to the food truck, no go.  They either didn't have picnic tables (seriously!?) or had outrageous shelter fees that just weren't in our budget.  I found a reasonable place not too far from our house so we decided we'd just buy the family's dinners then eat it at a reserved shelter.

From there it ballooned.

I wanted to invite a few extra friends.  Then I wanted invitations to make it cute.  Then I had to tell the people it was a surprise party and by invite only so they wouldn't talk amongst the people that weren't invited  because while I'd love to be able to invite the free world, it just wasn't possible.  Just inviting one branch of the family tree would've more than doubled the amount of people that showed up so we had to keep it somewhat intimate and thankfully, kid free.  The Mr saw me working on various projects over the past few weeks but he's not really a big picture guy.  He can see all of the components separately but doesn't know how it comes together until it's together which works in my favor for stuff like this.

While I had all of my projects pretty much done prior to our Traverse City trip, the one thing I left for the day before was dipping cake balls/truffles and let's just say that ended up with a carrot cake ball being murdered on the kitchen counter in complete frustration with the Mr eagerly picking up the pieces from the floor, just thankful it wasn't him.  I learned a few things during this process:

1. I will never use Wilton Melts again.  They are too thick and I can't thin them no matter what.  It's not worth my sanity given the already very short fuse I have.
2. One cake ball will always give its life to save the lives of others in a moment of sheer breakdown.
3. I will always utter "this is the last @&%#ing time I'm making these stupid things!" knowing damn well its likely not.  The Mr knows this and therefore laughs at me every time.

I have some pics I took during the process but as far as a ton of great after pics to show you how it all came together?  Epic fail.  I used every single second of time I had to set up and clean before people started showing up.  I did manage to get some though!

I made the banner.  It was kind of a last minute project but I really like the way it turned out.  It wasn't supposed to be draped like that but the other place I put it was blocked by pillars so this has to do.  The tables were covered in craft paper then draped with 2 glittery mesh tablecloths I bought and sewed together.  The centerpieces were mini hay bales with mini pumpkins and red delicious apples.  The drink table was set up with a picture board in the shape of his age and then the drink tubs and iced tea container.

The price of beverage containers is ridiculous so I went to Home Depot and grabbed a galvanized trash can bottom (I think, I just knew it would hold my cider mason jars and that's all I cared about!) and a big ol' tub. I spray painted them the color I wanted and made a little sign for it and a mason jar for the paper straws.  I'll be going more into some of these projects this week.

If you remember the two tiered sea grass thingy I got from Sur La Table, this is what I used it for...

I made some of the Mr's favorite treats.  On the left are carrot cake pumpkins on a bed of caramel candy corn.  (Sooo dangerous.  An open bag isn't going to last around these parts)  The bottom tier was his favorite cookies- M&M chocolate chips on a bed of regular and pretzel M&M's.  People snarfed these like they were going out of style and what they didn't take, the Mr's co-workers got, of course!

We had a good time visiting with family and friends...

...singing to the Mr and watching him attempt to blow out 6 candles with bruised ribs and when everyone left, we enjoyed the fire and even had a pizza delivered to the park and roasted a s'more or two with big ol' pumpkin marshmallows.  We closed the place out and were there four hours after people left just enjoying our time together, fending off rude people who literally came back and started taking pictures of us, played some games of skill at which we sucked and cleaned up with 5 minutes to spare before the park closed.

We sent people (and the pizza man) home with a favor box.

Each box contained 3 truffles, either two maple pumpkin kiss ones and one chocolate covered nutter butter pretzel stuffed one or vice versa on the variety.  It kind of stunk not being able to see people's faces when they ate them but I saw the Mr's face and that was enough.

It was a special day with special people and he seemed to enjoy himself.  I know I did even if I felt like I barely got a chance to catch my breath until the end.  I love putting all of the details of things like that together and have people appreciate them.  Everyone raved about stuff and even the store bought cake was REALLY good.  I had to sleep sitting up if that's any indicator of how much crap I had...and I thought I was pretty restrained given what I wanted to eat!

I'll do a couple of tutorials this week if you guys want, just let me know in the comments.

What is your favorite party tip/staple?

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