How to throw a really good (and wild) party

I used to be a coordination fiend, a 'matchy matchy' kinda chick. You know, back when coordination and 'matchy matchiness' was still cool.
I'll give you an example- my pocket book had to match something I was wearing. I never mixed gold and silver jewelery, nor did I ever wear black and brown. Like ever.



And my kids birthday parties were all themed out. Sesame street this, that and the other. Sesame street all up in ya face, puking Elmo, total Ernie and Bert overload. The party stores and online stores these days are so good, that they just smother your creativity- all you have to do is walk into aisle 7 and viola, total Ben 10 party!  And then you have 'birthdayinabox.com'.  Guilty user here and I still love them.  Just not for EVERYTHING, EVERY year. Perfect for classroom birthday parties- just hand the box to the teacher, provide cake and pizza and dunzo. But when it's all in your hands and you don't want a cookie cutter party, here's what you do.



First, you have an adorable Principessa, who just happens to be obsessed with animals and the farm, and nature. ( Dunno where she gets that from).

  Invite family and a few of her like-minded buddies (so now you're committed, you gotta do something, right?

Locate the furthest, least convenient to you (or any of your guests for that matter), most rustic farm EVER. (Sorry guys.)

Make sure nothing matches.   Ofcourse.

Go Pumpkin picking

 

Have Pizza

Eat cake

Have a blast.

It's okay to theme out the goody bags.   Animals are adorable, no overload possible here.

Stickers, plates, lollipops, animal masks, all courtesy of oriental trading. Animal crackers from any grocery store. :)


Come home with the spoils of war - Pumpkins, corn and other vestiges of the great outdoors.  

Then on her 'real 'birthday, eat 'recycled' cake again. (Serve cupcakes at farm and bring real cake home. Works better that way.)

                                                               Dig in, Sista
Thank you friends and family. Principessa would have turned two regardless, but not like this. Not this fabulously.

                                                                          Hay ride. Best Ever.

So much fun. So much joy.

And no matchy matchy stuff either. :)

Happy birthday to my principessa, xoxo pp

Frugal Foodie

I used to be that girl. You know, the one that ate out every other night. Just because, hey, why not? '1789' for anniversaries, 'The Charleston' for lobster bisque (yummers), 'Cafe de Paris' for crepes and duck, 'Bob Evans' for banana bread etc etc etc. And some days, I'm not even gonna lie - I wanna be that girl again.

But, I don't know if you've heard of this little here thing called, ahem, the recession? Well, yeah. These days, the whole eating out thing? Well, not so much. I mean for special occasions, yes. And some occasions, we have to defer to life and 'da billz', yo.

So, this is where we get creative. It's all about using the formal dining room, whipping out the 'good china', splitting a bottle of great tasting muscato, and splurging on a good cut of meat. Cooked at home. By a man I love. Whom, I might add, just happens to love me.

I'd rather be this girl, methinks.

And so, I daresay, would she. (principessa with daddy on his birthday @ Chez Prada)

Can I say that the wine was $9, the beef wellington prepared by my hunnybunny was priceless, and the occasion was - you guessed it - 'just because'. Mmm hmm, we're living it up, peeps. :)

Egusi, garri and bud lite with lime. Don't sleep on it, people.

Bon Apetit,pp

MonkeyBoy turns One!

Where does the time go, eh? That gurgling, tiny, almost translucent looking primate is one and big and into everything and in LIVING COLOR! Truly God has been gracious to me and mine.

We had a rollicking good time, with a traditional 'good old days' birthday party, in the basement, with balloons, cake and kids music blasted from the home stereo system. Sans the kiddie entertainer and face painter, it could have been 1984 again!

I just love to share my ideas and new finds, so here goes:

I am on a 'personalized' kick this year, cos it just makes it all the more personal, right :)? So I did the custom m&ms from mymms.com. I had always wanted to try them and it was the perfect opportunity - not for myself per se( too egocentric), you can pick your own colors and write whatever you want on it and - get this - upload photos to put a face on them!!! Now how cool is that? I know!!!! I am still in awe of this phenomenon - the personalized m&m.

As we all know, your party is only as good as the entertainment. For Numero Uno son's first, I had the most awesome magician/comedian/balloon artist, which was great for the older kids, but hardly registered with my son, as he was all of one. so this year I opted for a 'Gymboree' style person who could coordinate games, songs and activities for all ages. it turns out Ms Ann Goodman of 'Parties for Toddlers' was the best investment ever. I mean, who wants to be organising musical chairs and hosting their own puppet show on their sons birthday, when there are a million and one other things to do? She was so good, I joined in the fun myself! 'The wheels on the bus go..." Whoo hooo!

And there is Amy Tam - yes, almost like the brilliant writer, just swap an 'm' for an 'n' and face painting for writing. She is an artisan - that is the is the only way to describe the creativity this lady possesses and the lightening like speed with which she does all this, without sacrificing the beauty of her work is a plus. With squirming babies and temperamental toddlers, I crown her genius saint of birthday parties and all events. Of course I got my face painted. Like, hello?

So, oh yeah, happy birthday Monkeyboy. Cake is awesome, right?

party animal extraordinaire, pp