If You Give a Perfectionist a Party . . .

November 1, 2011 By 18 Comments

Sometimes things (parties) don’t exactly turn out like you expect . . .

When I graduated from high school, Smitty and I had a joint party at my granny’s house. Before the ceremony, we twisted red and white streamers all over Granny’s deck. It was so festive. And then . . . it rained. So not only was my hair super frizzy for all the obligatory photos, but our decorations were ruined. (And Granny’s deck was pink. Apparently the ink from the red streamers ran.)

A couple years later I planned a big surprise party for my parents’ 25th anniversary. Which, for reasons that are better left un-blogged, made my mom mad. That was not a fun party.

At my wedding reception my new husband didn’t want to dance with me after our first dance, and almost every one of my college friends left early to go party at their hotel. And every single photo of Mark and me cutting the cake also featured our photographer’s wife, who was showing us how to cut perfectly proportioned pieces.

My first fundraising event was a huge success and hundreds of people attended, which you would think would be a great thing. Unless you know just how small our event space was and how loud, crowded and hot it would get in there before the night was over.

The next year, we planned accordingly and rented an enormous space – only to have a LOT fewer people show up. As a critical volunteer pointed out, it seemed like we were in an empty airplane hangar with all that extra space!

Hours before the surprise party I’d spent months planning for my husband’s 30th birthday, his dad brought a puppy to our house. For Mark. To keep. We then proceeded to have a rip-roaring, headache-inducing fight because We Did Not Need a Dog! I was tempted to call the whole thing (the party, that is) off, but instead managed to get him there on time with only slightly puffy eyes and a something-is-off smile to show for the fight.

Because I delivered Annalyn seven weeks early, one of my baby showers was held after she was born and just one day after I was released from the hospital. I hobbled in, wearing [basically] pajamas and glasses and slightly high on pain meds. And when one of my friends (who will remain nameless) arrived, she walked up, gave me a hug and said, “When are you due?” I said, “Ummmm . . . you didn’t get the email, then???”

At Annalyn’s third birthday party we reserved a shelter at the park. As we were frantically unloading the car with food and decorations, I noticed something colorful on one of the picnic tables. I walked over to see it and OH MY. It was graffiti. In the naked woman variety. (Thankfully I had kraft paper to cover the tables, but still. Ick.)

Then there was the time I invited 27 people to a party and only three showed up. (Three awesome people. But you understand my sadness, right?)

That’s just nine examples of parties or events not exactly going according to plan, despite my best control-freak perfectionist efforts. I’d like to say I handled every situation with calm and a sense of humor, but, well, that wouldn’t exactly be true.

Thankfully, I’ve learned a lot from those events (and, *sigh*, more) – and I’ve written an ebook about it. Plan a Fabulous Party {without losing your mind} is my first ebook, and it launches next week. (Woohoo! And – let’s be honest – yikes!)

Until then, I’d love to round out this Top Ten Tuesday list with some help from YOU.

Have you ever planned a party that didn’t exactly turn out right?

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Giving Up on a Perfect {Party}

October 11, 2011 By 9 Comments

I’ve been planning Annalyn’s birthday parties for quite a while now. Since the week before last year’s Veggie Tales party, she’s been telling me she wanted a Dora party. I think it’s great that Dora teaches kids Spanish and how to read a map, but her voice still grates on my nerves.

So I wasn’t too thrilled about this plan. Thankfully, she saw me looking at a gorgeous Minnie Mouse cake on Pinterest and changed her mind. From that moment on, full-on party planning was in force – for a Mickey Mouse party.

(It makes sense, because she has taken to calling Mickey “her favorite guy.” Yep, Daddy is apparently second to the Mouse.)

On top of a million ideas, thanks to Pinterest again, I had the pressure of her first friend party creating some extra pressure for this shindig – now, two shindigs. But I learn from my mistakes, so I resisted the lure of the fancier, more complicated party ideas and I started preparing early.

[No late-night attempts at cake decorating like last year!]

Annnnd, it’s a darned good thing I’d made those decisions. A few days before Annalyn’s friend party, we drove up to northern Iowa for Sara’s funeral. But since I’d started earlier that week, shopping for groceries and making a streamer backdrop, losing an entire day didn’t stress me out.

The two parties were scheduled on Saturdays, two weeks in a row. After putting together the streamer backdrop and two long strings of balloons, I was hopeful that the decorations would last for that week in between. And they did! We lost one balloon, but after blowing up about 36 balloons and stringing them up (which is MUCH harder than it sounds), I wasn’t about to re-do the whole thing. We just made do with a wilted balloon.

Annnnd, it’s a good thing the decorations lasted all week. Because the morning of Annalyn’s family party (this past Saturday), I woke up with a horrible, red, itchy rash ALL OVER MY FACE AND NECK.

Without giving you the gory details (or pictures, because seriously, do you think I allowed any cameras near my zombie face?), I spent the morning in urgent care, getting a steroid shot and three different prescriptions for what may possibly be a severe case of poison ivy.

My house was fairly clean from the previous week’s party, and I was only doing snacks. The cupcakes were made and decorated (although the frosting totally melted and they looked awful), but I still had to pick up a bunch of balloons for the front porch and make the Mickey-shaped Rice Krispy treats.

Thankfully, Smitty had volunteered to come early and help. So when I finally arrived home – still looking like a freak and itching like a son of a gun – less than two hours before the party was scheduled to begin, I had help throwing the party together.

I had to just deal with the fact that I wasn’t going to get my floor vacuumed or my canned food put into the pantry from a grocery trip earlier in the week. I had to accept that my entire family was going to see me look ridiculous (although I desperately wished for a shirt that said, “Yes, I have a rash on my face. No, it’s not contagious.”). And eventually, I had to realize that between a lack of sleep from an itchy night before and the massive doses of medicine I was on, I wasn’t exactly up to par as a hostess.

And yet . . . the birthday girl had a great time. And I think most of our family enjoyed the party. It wasn’t perfect, but it turned out just fine.

Giving up on a perfect party is the subject of my much-discussed and much-less-written e-book, How to Plan a Fabulous Party {without losing your mind}. And I’m excited to announce today that I’ll be launching that book in just four weeks on November 8!

I’ve got some exciting news to go along with the launch, so stay tuned for that. And make sure you’re back here in three weeks to check out my e-book!

Have you ever had a party disaster? I’d love to hear about them – and how you dealt with them, so share in the comments!

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How to Plan a Veggie Tales Birthday Party

March 10, 2011 By 41 Comments

I’ve been thinking a lot about parties lately. I’m actually in the process of writing an e-book about how to plan a party without losing your mind, and I’ve enjoyed looking back at the get-togethers I’ve hosted in the past few years.

Some of the most fun have been Annalyn’s birthday parties, so as I’m working through my book, I’m going to post some details about those events here on the ol’ blog. Even though I’ve posted pictures and plans for some of these parties before, my hope is that it will be helpful for you to see it all in one place.

Today I’m starting with Annalyn’s third birthday party. Our theme was Veggie Tales, and it was harder than I expected to find ideas and supplies. I’m going to spill all the details of our party here, in hopes that it saves the next mom planning a Veggie Tales party some frustration. (Also, I’ve noticed that VeggieTales.com is now selling more party supplies than they were last fall, so that will help, too!)

Planning a Veggie Tales Birthday Party

Invitation
In our house, birthday party invites get tossed in the trash as soon as I can write the date on our calendar. What a waste! So when I send invitations to Annalyn’s birthday parties, I like to include a cute photo so it’s not quite as disposable. (I know, it’s possible that not everybody frames the photo or even sticks it on the fridge, but it makes me feel better about the time and money invested to think that a few people might keep it around longer than the time it takes to grab their planners off the desk.)

I happened to have a slew of photos to choose from, thanks to a red pepper photo shoot we did for my post about Garlic Chicken Pasta. I uploaded the pic to Picasa, added some text and printed several copies. Next, I opened a Word document found a label template that printed eight panels to a page. I uploaded a Veggie Tales graphic I found online and added party details and directions, printed a few copies and used my paper cutter to finish the job.

Then I bought a pack of brightly colored, folded cards (and white envelopes) for the actual card. I used double-sided tape to stick the photo to the front and did the same on the inside with the details and directions. The whole process took just a couple hours and cost less than $15 (plus postage).

littel girl red pepper

Food and Drinks
Before you can send out an invitation, you have to decide a date, time and place for your party. For me, the time is totally dictated by what kind of food I want to serve. And that decision is often influenced by our party budget. For this party, I considered a full meal but ended up going with snack foods (and an afternoon start time).

To go with the veggie theme, I had a full veggie plate with carrots, celery, cucumbers and grape tomatoes. I also had a couple different veggie dips to choose from. In addition to the veggie tray, I also served fresh fruit (grapes, strawberries and bananas) and chips, and we had a cooler full of bottled water.

I love how vivid the colors are – and how well they matched the Veggie Tales colors! I really wish I’d made time for carving veggie bowls for the dip, though. Don’t worry! That sounds a lot fancier than it is! I simply wanted to scoop the seeds and gunk out of bell peppers and/or gourds and then serve the dip out of that. [Here's a tutorial.] Wouldn’t that have been cute?

Also, looking back, it would have been fun – and not that labor-intensive – to make Veggie Tales labels for the bottled water. Just print a Veggie Tales graphic on strips of paper and secure to the bottle with double-sided tape or whatever adhesive you have on hand. However, if I did that, I would not have dumped the bottles in a cooler full of ice, because that would have ruined the labels.

Decorations
Coming up with party decorations is my favorite part of any event! I inevitably have dozens of ideas and have to scale back to fit my budget, timeline and skill level, though. Even with those restraints, I was really happy with how this party came together.

red green yellow balloons

We held our Veggie Tales birthday party in a local park, so I had five picnic tables and a shelter to work with. But before I went to work gussying up the park, I started a little closer to home. I bought Annalyn a shirt with Bob the Tomato on it, and I convinced Mark to wear a green shirt. (It takes no effort to convince myself to wear a coordinating red shirt, as my closet is so full of red shirts I could wear a different one every day of the week. Yes, I like red.) Then I found a Veggie Tales CD that we could play with a boombox to set the mood.

[Unfortunately, our shelter did not actually have an electrical outlet, so we didn't get to play the CD. So - tip for you and for me - check for outlets in advance when throwing a party somewhere other than your own house!]

For the food and gift tables, I let the colorful fruits and veggies serve as decorations, along with red, green and yellow paper plates and napkins. I did frame and display an 8×10 print of Annalyn with the life-size Bob and Larry she met a few weeks before the party. But for the most part, we didn’t need anything extra cluttering up that space.

Note: You can purchase Veggie Tales napkins, but I decided to keep it a little more simple. I did, however, purchase square Veggie Tales stickers (from eBay) and put them on yellow paper cups. However, since I didn’t end up serving lemonade (as originally planned), we didn’t need the cups and are still using them for special occasions at home.

Edited to add: When I planned this party, it was virtually impossible to find a good set of Veggie Tales paper goods, especially at a reasonable price. But now, DaySpring is selling a line of party products with the “God Made You Special” theme. You can get a whole party set (for eight) for less than $25. Or you can buy everything separately: invitations, dinner plates, dessert plates, cups, napkins and thank you notes. Oh, how I wish these had been available when we had our party!

The rest of my decorations included balloons, streamers, a birthday banner, table coverings and centerpieces. The balloons were red, green and yellow, and I ordered them from a party store.

I planned to use red, green and yellow streamers to create a streamer backdrop, but tthe day of the party was crazy windy, so that didn’t happen. Here’s a tutorial, though, if you’d like to do this. It would really jazz up a party space, and would also make a great backdrop for photos – perhaps a photo of the birthday boy or girl with each guest!

My idea for a birthday banner was inspired by the dozens (hundreds?) of cute banners – some paper, some fabric – I’ve seen online, like this one by Parties by Hardie. I decided to keep it simple when making my own. I downloaded a font that looked similar to the one used in the Veggie Tales logo (you can see – and download – it here), then printed the words “Happy Birthday” in a point size large enough to require one page per letter. I centered each letter and hit print. Then I used double-sided tape to adhere the letters to cute scrapbook paper and planned to use mini clothespins to string them along a matching ribbon at the park. After realizing the wind would destroy a ribbon banner, we improvised and taped them vertically, as you can see in the photo above.

veggie tales birthday party

Finally, I decided to make simple, veggie-themed centerpieces for each table. “Simple” doesn’t exactly describe this little project, but now that I’ve done it (thanks to my best friend, who stayed up late the night before the party helping me!) I think it would be a snap. For you. Because I’m probably not going to throw another Veggie Tales party.

I covered the three picnic tables with kraft paper, and then I placed a few fresh vegetables (carrots, peppers, little pumpkins, tomatoes) in the center of each table. And for the piece de resistance (please hear that in my very best French accent, ala the Veggie Tales peas), I filled terra cotta pots with dried peas and stuck pictures of Veggie Tales on popsicle sticks in it. I wrapped a bright yellow, polka-dotted ribbon around each pot, fastened it with a glue gun, and voila! Adorable, “simple” centerpieces!

Two things to know about the centerpieces: I stuck floral styrofoam in the bottom of each pot and covered it with a piece of cardstock cut to the shape and size of the pot’s opening. That way, I only needed a couple cups of dried peas instead of several pounds. This is a lesson I learned the hard way and might never have figured out without Smitty’s help!

Also, the colorful Veggie Tales pictures I used on the popsicle sticks are from Who’s Who, a Veggie Tales Riddle Book. I scanned the pages and then printed copies, cropped them and adhered to colored paper and then the popsicle sticks.

Veggie Tales birthday cakes
Now, if you know me, you know that I often take shortcuts to preserve my sanity and generally make my life easier. That’s why I’m a huge proponent of paying someone to make a cute birthday cake for my child’s party. I am not a pastry chef or cake decorator at all. However, as you might have found if you’ve ever planned a Veggie Tales party, it’s not easy to find Veggie Tales-themed items. And that includes cakes.

According to the head baker at my grocery store, in order for a store to make a cake with licensed characters, they have to buy the rights to do so. And while they can make all sorts of cakes with Dora the Explorer, Winnie the Pooh, stupid Spongebob Squarepants and our beloved Mickey Mouse, they don’t have the right – literally – to make a Veggie Tales cake.

So . . . it was up to me. After searching all over the Internet, I quickly came to the conclusion that I was doomed. I couldn’t give up, though. As Larry the Cucumber says, “It’s for the kids!”

I decided to make one rectangular cake and one round cake. I’d ice the round cake with red frosting (Bob the Tomato) and then cut the rectangular cake into a cucumber shape for Larry. (I originally planned to make green cake balls for peas, but ran out of time. I did make mini cupcakes and frost them green, but my less-than-stellar icing skills made the little faces I painted look evil. I left the evil pea cupcakes at home.)

bob and larry cakes

Let me just tell you, I was terrified of cutting into that 9×13 cake! Smitty suggested practicing, and that was smart. I drew weird-looking oblong shapes on paper until I was satisfied, then set the final template right next to the cake. (Of course, I waited until they were cooled before doing anything – cutting, frosting or decorating!) It took a LOT of food coloring to turn my white (canned) frosting into bright green and tomato red, by the way. It wouldn’t hurt to buy two sets of food coloring.

For the faces, I used pre-rolled fondant and black icing (this edible marker would’ve worked great, though). I’d never used fondant before and was so scared to try it. But it was actually pretty easy to work with – and kind of fun, too. (Still doesn’t taste great, but that’s to be expected.) Annalyn was thrilled with the cakes, and I was just so darned impressed with myself. I’m not saying I want to do it again, but I loved the final product!

I know it sounds like a lot, but it was really a fairly simple party. And, most importantly, Annalyn and her guests loved it!

Have you planned any fun parties lately? What’s your favorite (or, if you must, least favorite) part of planning a party?

Affiliate links were used in this post. This post will be linked to Show Us Your Life at Kelly’s Korner.

photo UHeB-443x443_zpse5c4c396.png

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Planning a Chinese New Year & Superbowl Party

February 8, 2011 By 20 Comments

chinese new year party

Hosting a Chinese New Year-themed Superbowl party was a little ambitious. And maybe, just maybe, overkill for our small party of five. But you know what? Sometimes it’s fun to go overboard!

[If you're just now joining us, I've wanted to learn how to cook Chinese food, I love themed parties, and the Chinese New Year took place just days before this year's Superbowl.]

I researched a lot of different decoration ideas, but I didn’t want to get too crazy for what was basically a dinner party. Eventually, I decided to go with red and gold balloons, some paper lanterns (which my daughter thought were from the movie, Tangled), a red tablecloth, and red and white paper goods. I forgot to order Chinese paper placemats like I originally planned, but I did wrap red plastic flatware in a napkin and tied it with some gold ribbon. Then I used some red takeout boxes to hold the flatware and napkins, crackers, and – of course – fortune cookies.

party decorations

Knowing my tendency to let my party planning get out of control, I tried to keep the menu simple. I planned three appetizers, two main dishes and dessert.

Then . . . I decided to add some carrots to the appetizer course, just in case we needed something a little less salty. And then . . . I saw the cutest dessert idea in the HyVee sale paper: chocolate-covered strawberries decorated to look like footballs. Of course I had to make those, too!

chocolate-covered strawberries

See how cute they are? Well, except for that smudge. I’m not really what you’d call an icing expert. Now, on to the rest of my menu . . .

My appetizers were bacon-wrapped smokies, baked crab rangoon, chunky cheese dip and carrots. (I don’t like celery, so I didn’t think it was necessary to pretend just so we had a balanced veggie plate.) The bacon-wrapped smokies were unbelievable, although slightly overcooked. That’s what happens when you try to do too many things in the kitchen at once.

Or so I’ve heard.

[If you like bacon, make these bacon-wrapped little smokies. Making them is messy, but it is so worth it. And coming from me - who HATES getting messy - that's something. These are SO good!]

The dip was just fine, and I even went back to the store to get Mark’s favorite crackers (Club crackers, though I prefer Wheat Thins!). And the carrots were . . . carrots. The crab rangoon, though? Not so good.

I LOVE crab rangoon. It’s my favorite part of Chinese food, and I was so excited to make it at home. Allison has a recipe for baked crab rangoon that looked delicious – and easy. It seems it was not easy enough for me, though.

I couldn’t find the wonton wrappers in my grocery store, so I subbed in mini phyllo crusts. Then I moved onto finding crab. Or, I should say, imitation crab. I don’t like seafood, so I was completely lost. And holding my breath. That fish department stinks! I bought some fake crab, though, and thought I was on my way. I don’t know. My friends said they were good, but I didn’t like them at all. Possibly because cutting up crab legs (I mean, flaking the crab meat, the fake crab meat) grossed me out.

Long story not short at all: I will not be making crab rangoon again. I will order it from the Chinese restaurant down the road and bring it home.

What worked GREAT was the beef skewers. Mark spent way too much on a piece of meat, but the marinade was so tasty I [temporarily] forgot about that. [You can probably expect to see my full take on the recipe on a Monday sometime soon!]

The General Tso’s chicken worked out . . . kind of. I used way too much red pepper flakes, but if you could get past the crazy heat (which, sadly, most of us could not), it was delicious. I’ll definitely make it again . . . sans the too-spicy red pepper.

The dessert was delicious. After all, what can go wrong with Oreos? And, well, we needed something super sweet after the super spicy chicken!

All in all, I have to say that a Chinese-themed Superbowl party works for me (linked up to Works for Me Wednesday). What’s working for you this week?

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Veggie Tales Birthday Party Plans

September 22, 2010 By 19 Comments

Thanks for visiting Giving Up on Perfect!
Click here to see how my plans turned out
(including centerpieces and a Bob and Larry cake).

Ten days from now, I’m holding a Veggie Tales themed party for my daughter’s third birthday. And, I’m sad to say, I’ve barely started planning. No, it’s not like me. But it’s been a little crazy around our house lately, and I just haven’t had the brain power to plan. It’s like I don’t even know me anymore.

When Annalyn requested “Bob music” a couple months ago, I knew I’d scored. Sure, it’s been fun to sing along – and hear her singing along – to “God Made You Special” and “Where is My Hairbrush?” But more importantly, this resurgence in Veggie Tales love provided the perfect opportunity for diverting her attention from the princesses.

I know it’s just a matter of time before my opinionated little toddler turns into an opinionated little girl – and I’ll have to let her have some say in things like birthday party themes, Halloween costumes and the like.

But for now? I’m all for convincing her that SHE had the idea that I came up with in the first place. As soon as we picked up those CDs and popped one in the stereo, I started prepping her. “Veggie Tales are fun. I love Veggie Tales; don’t you? Wouldn’t you like a Veggie Tales birthday party?”

I know. I shouldn’t manipulate my own daughter. But I figure this might be our last non-princess-themed year for a while – and I wanted to make sure we made the best of it.

Since deciding on the theme a couple months ago, I have scribbled out four or five lists and plans. I have reserved the park shelter and sent {adorable} invitations. And I have periodically reminded Annalyn that she’s going to have a Veggie Tales birthday party and isn’t it going to be so much fun?

I have not:

  • Ordered a cake
  • Purchased streamers, tablecloths or paper goods
  • Decided on – much less started making – decorations
  • Finalized a menu
  • Received more than one actual RSVP

Oh dear. Just putting that on paper {okay, screen} makes me nervous! Maybe you can help me with some ideas? Here’s what I’ve thought of so far (this makes quasi-list and semi-plan #6):

Veggie Tales party décor and more

  • If I do centerpieces (maybe just one on the food table?), I thought I could fill terra cotta pots with something cute.
  • Also, I could use small pots filled with dried beans to hold the utensils. (Get it? Beans are veggies?)
  • Red, green and yellow streamers, maybe even a streamer backdrop like Mandi made
  • Regular red balloons and long green balloons (as far as I can tell, nobody makes or sells actual Veggie Tales Mylar balloons anymore)
  • I’m debating on tablecloths to cover the picnic tables. It’s fun for color and nice for, well, clean-ness. But SUCH a pain if the wind is blowing at all.
  • I’m going to buy plain red, green and yellow plates, cups, napkins and flatware. (Okay, flatware might just be white.) But if I can find Veggie Tales stickers, that would be a quick and easy way to customize the cups.
  • I love birthday banners. Etsy is full of them, and the blogosphere has a million tutorials. But actually finding the time and/or money is the issue here…
  • I bought Annalyn a Bob the Tomato shirt to wear. And I’m making Mark wear a green shirt (like Larry the Cucumber). Red is my favorite color, so finding a red shirt to wear won’t be hard. Not feeling like I actually resemble a round tomato might be. I’m just saying.
  • I bought a Veggie Tales greatest hits CD to play during the party. (Finally! Something that’s DONE.

Veggie Tales party food

  • Even though it’s a little weird (cannibalistic and all), I’m going to have a huge veggie tray (carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, cauliflower, pickles, broccoli).
  • My plan is to scoop out the insides of pumpkins, gourds and/or peppers to hold a couple dips for the veggies.
  • Fruit kabobs – I know. Melons, grapes and apples aren’t veggies. But what kind of birthday party only serves veggies?
  • And in that case, we might as well give in and have some candy, too: M&Ms and Skittles.
  • The Cake. Originally, I planned to make cake pops that looked like peas and cupcakes with red frosting to look like tomatoes. But Annalyn has her heart set on an actual Veggie Tales cake, so I have to make a trip to the HyVee bakery and pray we don’t end up with a Cake Wreck.

Veggie Tales birthday presents

  • Fisher-Price Tricycle: Annalyn has been practicing riding in physical therapy, and I think it will be great (and fun) for us to have one at home.
  • Sweetpea Beauty Veggie Tales video: Okay, so this is a compromise between princesses and Veggie Tales. I can’t wait to watch it! I mean, give it to her.
  • Two Veggie Tales books: We’re having Annalyn’s party a week before her birthday, so I wanted to have a small gift to give her on her actual big day. When we were at the bookstore, I found two big board books (I know, she’s not a baby anymore. Yes, they’re board books but they DO have words in them.) for $10. Total. I thought it was a good deal and snatched them up.

So, that’s it. Any ideas for making it easier/more fun? What’s the best party you’ve ever thrown?

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