Such excitement in this house!

We absolutely love the new year here in this house. It brings about a fresh start and school restarting. HOWEVER, it also brings about PARTIES. My family hits party mode mid-October and we don't end that mode until the beginning of April. It's CRAZY.

In October, we got to enjoy my birthday with those who were closest to me (and celebrate birthdays). We then celebrated Halloween with Trunk or Treat at church and trick or treating around the neighborhood.

In November, we held a Creeper party for Bullfrog who turned 10 and then had a great Thanksgiving.

This was the second year that we didn't do much for Turtle's birthday, but she didn't care. We did hold a celebratory dinner for my friend.  We would have done Christmas as well ... but we all got the stomach bug. We were sick from Christmas day to the Sunday after (which caused us to miss my husband's work party as well).

Now that it is January ... we have a whole new set of parties to throw! So, what's on the agenda?

January 17 - Family Christmas Party

January 24 - HousePary Reynolds Make Meal Magic

February 21 - Peanut's 12th Birthday (Chinese New Year theme)

February 28 - DisneySide Party

I am unbelievably excited. I have been working on re-arranging my apartment for about 2 weeks now. It isn't easy when your husband works 80 hours a week and you are parenting 4 children ... all home for winter break. Over the next few weeks, I plan to give sneak peeks on what our plans are and things that are coming together.

While all this partying is going on ... you may wonder about my huge 2015 goal of becoming fit. Well ... I am still watching what I am eating and controlling the portions. I have also started another blog where I will dive deeper into my Path to Health, and hope you follow along there as well!

Let me know in  the comments below what your agenda looks like for January and February ... OR if you have any suggestions to add to the parties I have listed!!

Recipes from the Minecraft Party

I held a Minecraft party for my boychild knowing that Bullfrog LOVED Minecraft. I had EVERY intention of doing super simple treats ... like apple slices dipped in caramel for the apples and purchasing mini cookies for the cookies. However, how do you say no to a little boy whose eyes light up when he asks you so sweetly to make a couple different goodies.

To start with, Bullfrog wanted Grinch cookies for the cookies. I made them a few years ago using sugar cookie mix. I really didn't feel like using a sugar cookie base this time, so I went searching for a new Grinch cookie recipe.

This time, I turned to a blogger who made crinkle cookies. The picture isn't great so refer to her blog post for better pictures! One major downside of my apartment is the inability to take good food photographs. *sigh* (I know, blogger problems)

Okay, so by visiting A Northwood Christmas' blog on Grinch Cookies, you will have the recipe base that I used. However, I made some alterations. Let me tell you about them.

1. I did not use peppermint extract. We felt it was a little overbearing last time so we just omitted it this time. It tasted GREAT.
2. We didn't use Andes chips ... I DID however, visit the Dollar Tree and purchased a small bag of Andes mints and chopped them up myself. I know that Andes chips are about $2 to $3. I was perfectly fine with chopping my own mints and saving a buck or two.

I did roll them in powdered sugar and they turned out fantastic ... but I'm also a sucker for crinkle cookies.

Okay, moving on ... the apples. Those are Caramel Apple Blondies by The Love Nerds. I only changed the recipe a touch and it was due to my stupidity in forgetting to pick up a couple items. LOL

1. I forgot the parchment paper ... do not forget this. It causes MASSIVE problems.
2. I used Honey Crisp Apples ... these were SUCH a yummy addition. I could totally see how Granny Smith apples would be great, but I prefer Honey Crisp over EVERYTHING!
3. I forgot the chocolate chips for the topping ... do not forget this ... chocolate should NEVER be forgotten.
4. Cook for the FULL 35 minutes even if it kinda sounds odd. I cooked for 30 minutes and they could have totally used another 5 minutes ... didn't realize it until they were cooled and ready to cut.

So ... there ya are. Caramel Apple Blondies for the Apples and Grinch Cookies for the cookies ... and one very happy birthday boy!

Creeper Party

My son turns 10 next week and all he has wanted for the past two years is a Minecraft Party. I wanted to make sure that it was a party that would be bigger so I could justify the bigger expense. I had NO idea that the party would be so cheap! I absolutely LOVE how this turned out ... however, my pleasure with the turnout had no comparison to how happy it made my son.

So, I turned to Pinterest for ideas and found many that I liked. I don't have a color printer though so I had to get a tad more creative. We decided to have a 90 minute party and do pictures, a snack bar, presents, and then two types of crafts.

I used leftover table cloth for the backdrop and then cut 2x2" blocks of black construction paper for the face.

Snack Bar:

The snack bar was several items that are available in Minecraft. MOST of the food I got at the Dollar Tree and the rest was cheap at the grocery store or I homemade.

• Gold - Rolos
• Sticks - Pretzel Sticks
• Coal - Rice Krispie Treats (with black food coloring)
• RedStone - Hot Tamales
• Slime Balls - Cake pops with Green candy coating
• Bread - Oyster crackers
• Cookies - Homemade "Grinch" Cookies (recipe to come)
• Carrots - Baby Carrots
• TNT - Twizzlers
• Diamonds - Blue Jelly Bellys
• Emeralds - Green Jelly Bellys (LIME not sour apple - don't get me started)
• Melons - Candy corn (*I* was going to use melon rings but boychild wanted candy corn and it's his party)
• Pumpkins - Harvest pumpkins (thank you after-Halloween sale!)
• Apples - Caramel Apple Bars (recipe to come)

Crafts:

The first craft we did was make Minecraft items out of Perler Beads. The kids had a blast. I got a HUGE container of Perler beads at Walmart for only $13. Anything not used today was part of JJ's gift. This was the most expensive part of the party.

She made a splash potion

Then our second craft was making dynamite sticks with a full size Rolo bar. We put red construction paper over the candy, wrote TNT on it, and then tore off a small piece of Twizzler Pull & Peel for the fuse.

The party went over awesome. I think that we could have added another 30 minutes on just for the Perler bead crafts. OH! I also used a free font from dafont.com for the cards that were on the snack table!

If you have any questions or comments, please add them and I will get back to you!