Hot Chocolate Bar 2013

We opened our Hot Chocolate Bar for the season during our Open House in early December!

The bar includes both child-friendly and "Adult Only" mix-ins.

Child Friendly:

Peppermint sticks

Stirring Straws

Marshmallows 

Dipping Cookies

Adult-Only:

Godiva Liquor

Bailey's Irish Cream

Whiskey

Our "Adult Only" mix-ins are segregated into a basket so that they are distinguishably different.  The child friendly mix-ins are placed in a grouping of white containers on the left.

The "be good!" sign was something we had from another Christmas decoration - I thought it was fitting here so we stuck it on the liquor basket of adult only mix-ins.

I gathered white containers from around the house and placed peppermints, chocolate chip cookies and marshmallows into them for the child-friendly mix-ins.

The striped paper straws add a fun child-like and old fashioned element to the bar - they are just thrown into a plain white mug.

The Mr. Coffee Cocomotion (on the far right below) was purchased last year for our Hot Cocoa Bar - it is fabulous addition to the bar because it will heat and froth hot cocoa by the cup (1-8 cups).  We got it on Amazon, however it looks like they are no longer selling it.  The link will give you the details on the Cocomotion and maybe you can find something similar.

To make a quick cup of hot cocoa, we bring a mug of milk to the Cocomotion, add some of the Ghiradelli Chocolate to the Cocomotion and turn it on.  Minutes later we have hot and frothed hot cocoa.  When we have parties or need to make a lot of cocoa at once, we will make it on the stovetop and then place it into our large thermos.  This thermos (link here) is a wonderful big beverage dispenser at a very reasonable price point.  It keeps the cocoa hot for multiple hours.

We love our Hot Chocolate Bar - it is fun and functional!  We will keep it out through most of January so that we can almost instantly enjoy a cup of hot cocoa during the next couple of cold months!

Have you set up a Hot Chocolate Bar?  What are your mix-ins?

Christmas Open House 2013

This post has been getting a lot of traffic from Pinterest!  To everyone who may be making their way here from Pinterest - if you have any questions about the menu items (recipes), invite or children crafts just ask in the comment section at the end of the post and I will get back to you! 

We held a Christmas Open House this year to kick off the holiday season!  It was the first weekend in December and was therefore wonderful motivation for me to get the house decorated and ready for the season!  We decided an open house was best because then people could come and go throughout the evening at whatever times worked best for their families (we have some friends with very little children and others without children) We served heavy appetizers that could withstand being out for a few hours and non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages.  Of course, we also had desserts!

Our Christmas invitations (above) went out a couple weeks before the party.  I love Christmas Jingles!

  The menu for the evening was displayed on our large chalkboard hanging in our dining room. 

Hors'dourves:

Poached Salmon with Capers and a Remoulade Sauce

Mini Club Sandwiches with an Egg Crepe

Mini Ham and Swiss Sandwiches with Mustard Sauce and Poppy Seeds

Roasted Asparagus Wreath

Bacon Blue Cheese Dip

Rosemary Cheese Ball with Fig Preserves

Bruschetta

Swedish Meatballs

Fresh Vegetables with Remoulade Sauce

Variety of Crackers and Baguettes

Drinks:

Rudolph's Tipsy Spritzer

Rudolph's Spritzer Punch (non-alcoholic)

Seasonal Beer

Soda

Capri-Sun

Water

Desserts:

Maple Glazed Apple Tart

Pizzelles

Cookies

Fudge

Hot Cocoa Bar

I think my favorite menu item was the poached salmon.  The presentation added so much to the tablescape - it was a decoration on the end of the table!

I accidentally put his scales on backwards - oops!  We will just say that "Stan" (we named him) swam backwards...he was oddball ;-)

The punches were marked with chalkboards so that there would be no confusing which was the adult only punch and which was the child-friendly punch.

The two punches were also placed on separate tables so they really couldn't get confused!

Look at these adorably cute cocktail napkins!  They worked perfectly with our Punch Name: Rudolph's Tipsy Spritzer!

We opened our Hot Chocolate Bar for the season!  Here are all the details regarding the Chocolate Bar.

 It was a hit!  The very large thermos we had holding the hot chocolate was gone by the end of the night (along with most of the marshmallows)!

Since we had a lot of children we set up our kitchen table as a craft area.  We provided lots of clear plastic ornaments (only one in the picture below that is already painted), glitter paint and for the older children ornament sets with pipe cleaners pompoms glue and scissors.  This table was definitely a hit with the children and the adults got a little more time for adult conversation while the children were crafting!

Every Age Craft Ornaments:  these were the biggest hit - all you do is take the ornament top off, squirt in some paint, put the top back on and swirl it around!  Wallah!  A homemade ornament!

Older Children Craft Kits: These kits required following a few directions, but the older children enjoyed them.

Overall it was a successful evening!  We played Christmas music and mingled with friends to kick off the holiday season!  Now we feel like we are in high gear and ready to go for Christmas!

A Few of the Menu Items:

Mini Sandwiches:

Roasted Asparagus Wreath:

The Rosemary Cheese Ball on the left and the Bacon Blue Cheese dip on the left:

Eliana in our coordinating outfits for the party!

DIY Sandcastle Cake Tutorial

For Eliana's second birthday we were on the beach vacationing.  So we made her birthday cake into a sandcastle that you could also eat!

It is most definitely not perfect!  But we used what we had while on vacation and this is what we came up with...

It was good enough for Eliana - she thought it was pretty neat!

This is how we did it: Then you can improve upon it and post your own photos!

We baked lots of cake: 1-9x13 ; 1-9" round ; 1-6" round ; 1-4" round

We made sand (above):  For the sand we toasted coconut in the oven.  We then put the toasted coconut in a food processor along with several graham crackers, some vanilla wafers and white sugar (to lighten the color).

We tiered our baked cake and added waffle cones for our towers.

We iced the cake and cones (we made a cream cheese buttercream icing - but any would work).

I couldn't have made this cake without my helper above!

We put marshmallows around the tiered layers of the cake and added one more cone on top.  (I would make sure these were covered in more icing next time so the sand sticks to them better).

We then dusted the whole cake in our "sand" (toasted coconut concoction).

Wallah!  A Sandcastle Birthday Cake for our Little Princess!

Princess Beach Birthday Party

Eliana's 2nd Birthday Party

Every year for Thanksgiving we go to Fort Myers Beach, Florida.  We have been doing it since I was a child.  It is an extended family vacation on the beach - about 24 of us attend.  The only year we have missed it is the year Eliana was born.  Since then we have celebrated her 1st and 2nd birthdays on the beach.

The invitation family members received prior to leaving on vacation:

All family members are invited and all family members participate - it is fabulous to watch grown adults teenagers and older children act like young children at a 2 year old birthday party!

Eliana is very much into princesses and dress-up - so we combined the beach with her love of princesses for a beach birthday princess party.  She wore the hat above along with her bathing suit and a tutu!

As promised on the invitation, games were a part of the party!  They included three of Eliana's newest skills:

1. Jumping
2. Running
3. Throwing

Game #1: Jumping --

All family members were split into two big groups.  They then had to compete to build a sandcastle by frog JUMPING over one another around to go get sand that was placed in a bucket and then bring the sand back to their team to build the sandcastle.  Notice that everyone is carrying a shovel while frog jumping to obtain their sand and carry back to their team.

Game #2: Running --

The actual ocean was very far from where the party was set up.  For the second game everyone had to run down to the ocean, find a full shell (not broken) and bring it back.

Eliana's Uncle James came in first place (above).

But everyone gave it a good run :-)

Eliana's Aunt Lauren and Pappa let her not come in last place ;-)

Game #3: Throwing --

The family members were split up into two teams again.  Every participant was given a mini beach ball.  They had to take turns blowing up their beach ball and throwing it into the laundry basket.  Once one team member was done, the next would blow up their ball and begin trying to get it in the basket.

Aunt Lauren (below) blowing up her beach ball while Eliana blew up her own ball.

Birthday girls get to get closer to the basket to throw ;-)

If you asked Eliana what she wanted for her birthday, she would always respond "CAKE!"  So, she definitely got cake on her birthday.

Every princess needs a castle, but when on the beach a princess needs a sandcastle!

Eliana got a sandcastle cake for her birthday.

 She was pretty excited about it!

Everyone singing "Happy Birthday":

We even served it with a sand shovel.  One of her favorite foods are berries - we we had strawberry cake and vanilla cake.

With strawberry ice of course, too!

And no beach birthday party would be complete without a few presents:

And ending the party with a dip in the pool (mostly to get off all the sticky ice cream and cake!)

We are blessed to have such a wonderful family!  Thanks for coming and participating in Eliana's 2nd Birthday Party!!!