Open House

March 23, 2011 Meghan

On Friday, March 12, we had an open house for the plebes that we sponsor and their families who were in town for Plebe Parent Weekend. It was such a lovely group of people and we were so happy to have the opportunity to meet/see all of them. One of our very favorite things about being here at West Point is sponsoring these cadets.

One of the dads mentioned to Sean how lucky we are to get to see their sons in an environment where they are able to just sit down and share their stories. He was saying that they are always excited to have their son home, but that they usually get to see him when he first comes home, and then he is with friends, playing XBox, or whatever else kids do these days :). It was a great reminder that it is a privilege to spend some nice quality time with these kids outside of the more regimented West Point life.

It was fun to get the open house together - thank goodness for our sweet babysitter, Kayla. Sean wasn't there for the first hour and a half or so because he was wrapping up at his department's open house. I wouldn't have been able to pull it off without Kayla. To be honest, I am surprised I allowed anyone in the house with me before a gathering like that! It seems that I am always scrambling until the first guest arrives (ok, maybe even sometimes AFTER they arrive ;)).

I bought a few yards of fabric to use as a tablecloth...

The menu...
Apps:

--Southwestern Egg Rolls with Amy's Cilantro Cream Sauce (a new favorite of ours that Jamie introduced us to!)
--Potato Skins (does anyone have a good recipe? I prepped these and froze the empty skins ahead of time...but I didn't think that they looked that great...would love to hear if anyone has a good recipe!)
--Taco Dip
--Caprese
--Pesto Breads
--Rosemary Cashews (Jean introduced us to these - they are addictive!)

Desserts:
Sour Cream Caramel Cakes
Chocolate covered strawberries
Lemon Bars

Paddy is one...menu planning

December 23, 2010 Meghan

I am as bad at menu planning as I am at picking out paint.

The menu wasn't finalized until probably 3 days before the party, even though I made a valiant effort to have it done much earlier.

The gathering was from 2-4, so we didn't need to serve a full meal, but being that a lot of cadets were coming, I wanted to have enough substantial food that they would leave feeling full. So, at the last minute we decided to add some meat to the menu.

Here was the final menu...

Food:
1. Artichoke Breads
2. Grandma's French Onion dip and chips

3. Ina's Hummus with tomatoes, feta and black olives sprinkled on top with pita chips
4. Cheese, Crackers, Apples and Grapes
5. Caprese with fresh basil

6. Sausage Cheese Balls (I always just google these before I make them, so I never have a consistently good recipe - does anyone have one that they always use/like??)
7. Chinese Chicken Skewers with dipping sauces (ginger, sesame and mustard vinaigrette)

Sweets:
1. Red Velvet Cake Pops
Once these were made, I covered them with glassine bags and tied them with orange polka dot gingham ribbon)

2. Brenda's famous carrot cake cupcakes (I made small and regular sized cupcakes for guests at the party and I made Paddy a ginormous cupcake with a silicone mold that I found on eBay. His cake turned out completely lopsided and weighed about 20 lbs. Too funny.)

cupcakes...

from a distance it doesn't look quite as bad as it really is...

here is the leaning tower of carrot cake...at least Paddy enjoyed it...

3. Chocolate covered marshmallows (it took me a while, but I finally found the really giant ones at WalMart. I used baking chocolate in the disposable plastic containers to make it easy on clean up and then sprinkled with orange/blue sprinkles. Once they were set, I stuck lollipop sticks in the bottom of them. I had a large hurricane that I filled with sugar that we stuck the marshmallows in for display.)

4. Chocolate covered graham crackers (just because I had lots of melting chocolate left)

5. Texas Sheet Cake (recipe from my mom)

Drink:
Orange Sherbert Punch (equal parts orange soda and ginger ale and then add orange sherbert ice cream)

If I had to do it over again...

1. I would not make hummus...I feel like this is a food that people either like or hate....not too much of it was eaten.
2. I am SO glad that we decided to make the chicken...almost every skewer was eaten! We made ~5 lbs of it.
3. I would try to make the foods as accessible on the table as possible...those that were less accessible were less eaten.

Halloween Grinch

October 29, 2010 Meghan

I am a total Halloween Grinch...maybe that is what I should have dressed as for the party we went to on Saturday. I love to blame it on my 6th grade Halloween when my friends and I had our candy stolen from some 'bullies'...one friend was even flipped to the ground. Most of the girls just laughed it off...I was a little more shocked by the whole thing. What? Halloween bullies in Glen Ellyn? How could that be?

That is an easy excuse, so I stick with it. I am hoping that kids will make Halloween more fun again. Or...maybe if Sean and I could ever come up with a good costume?? We try to think of good ideas, but come up short. We were going to have one of us be a Chilean miner, and we would just have one of us stay in the basement all night with a pipe running downstairs. Okay, not the most practical idea.

All that being said, we were invited to our neighbors for a party the other night. I knew 'A' & 'B' would be all over the details, and 'A' blew every little detail out of the water. She claims she copied everything (which is all I seem to do!), but just pulling together all these details in one party was definitely all 'A'.

They have these very detailed cut outs in their windows and the perfect lighting behind them...'B' did the cut outs himself, and he even incorporated a rat being dropped into a cauldron as a 'shout out' to our little rat issue.

So, 'A' is clearly the champion of themed parties...check out all the food and the perfectly coordinating names!

This 'spooky punch' was super tasty, and it had an ice skull floating in it! I wish I would have gotten a better picture of that...

Mummy Marshmallow Treats...

Boo-tiful Brownies...

Spiderweb Eggs...a Martha idea...

Marinated Moons...little buffalo mozz balls marinated in yummy spices...

Guacamoldy with Jack-o-Lantern dippers ('A' cut out all those pumpkins from tortillas and then baked them...so yummy!)

Pina Ghouladas...notice the corn syrup/red food coloring mixture that mimics blood running down the glass...nice...

On the walls, they even blew up pictures of all the families that were at the party where they had 'photo-shopped' our pictures and placed us in front of haunted houses...adorable!

There were even more perfect details, but I didn't get great pictures, so I will stop here. Thanks for the great time, 'A' & 'B'!

Square Root Baby

February 8, 2010 Meghan

So, Sommer has an awesome theme for her son's first birthday party. He was born on 3/3/09, making him a rare "square root baby"...which turned into the theme for the party....LOVE IT! (I already told Sommer I may have to sort of copy her and do a Friday the 13th theme for SP.)

She made adorable invitations, and is planning a menu where everything fits the theme. She is going to take lots of pics...I am hoping I have convinced her to either guest blog here or I will link to her inspiring new blog when she posts all the fun details!

I asked if I could help from afar and make a few little fun accessories for the throwdown! So, I kept with the theme and color scheme of chocolate brown and black. I created some straws, food picks, and food labels. They were all so much fun to make...thanks for letting me help, Sommer!

The front of the 'party picks'...