Harry Potter Party

 I have been dying to do a Harry Potter party since the first movie came out.  I put it on our bucket list for last summer, and it didn't happen.  I finally decided it was the time to do it this summer after we finished reading the first book as a family.

There are so many fun ideas out there on the net!

 We invited some fun cousins over and had a party.

 The boys got out their Halloween costumes from the past few years.

 My favorite part was the Butterbeer.  We loved it and it definitely reminded me of the yummy stuff we had when we visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter last year.  Yum yum.

Aren't they cute (Hunter was Dumbledore)

We had a fun party!

Olympic Opening Ceremony Party

 My pictures are so all over the place.  I have a dead computer with some and a external hard drive with a virus that I can't get anything off of.  I haven't been posting anything because I had hopes that I could get the pictures off of both of them...well, I decided I just need to get the show on the road and post some.  So...here we go.

Our family LOVES the Olympics and thought it only appropriate that we celebrate the beginning of them.  We actually got cable for one month just to watch them :)  They were on all day and late into the night.  It was so fun to watch Michael Phelps become the most decorated Olympian of all time.  I will always remember that.  It was awesome.

For our party we invited some of our favorite friends over to celebrate.  I made some of the food that I have been learning how to make in my cooking class.  These were Harvati Stuffed Pesto Burgers.  They were so good!!

 We were so excited to watch the U.S. in all of the events.  I was so proud of all of the accomplishments in this Olympics!

 Yet another of my favorites from the cooking class, Baked Herb and Parmesan fries with Lemon Garlic Aoli Sauce.  Heaven seriously.

 The kids weren't as excited about all of the "gourmet" food, but Josh and I were big fans!

 McKay and little Cole are good buddies.  They are so cute together.

 One of my favorite friends Brittany.  She brought a cute craft for the kids to do.  They made Olympic torches out of their hand prints (see below picture)

 There was all sorts of art going on that night.  The kids really did great and the adults were able to watch the Opening Ceremonies!

 Didn't the torches turn out adorable!  We also did face painting (something on our bucket list)

For some reason I didn't get a picture of Hunter (he is always running off some place :)  We all had such a fun time.

We always love Olympic season and this one was no different. It was so much fun!

Germany Party

I have decided that I need to beware of lists. I become obsessed with them to the point that I HAVE to get everything done on them. I am still working away at the 20 or so things that we didn't get done on our Summer Bucket List. I listed 83 things and we are so close to accomplishing the all. I have now created an Autumn Bucket List (which I will post about soon) but I can't seem to shake the few things left on the summer one...

Learning about a new country was on the list and I was so excited to find out that one of my new friends in this area was from Germany and some of our new neighbors lived there for a while and spoke German. I decided that was perfect for some great information about Germany.

We had them all over for a German party this last Sunday. My friend Nadine let me borrow some things from Germany to decorate with. I made some paper wheels in German colors and mounted them on BBQ skewers put them in some of the beautiful ceramic mugs that Nadine brought over. The table above was the children's table.

This was the adult table.
We also put German words all over the house to let the kids learn a few words in German.
Dinner was authentic German food (except the fact that we had hotdogs for the kids :)
Our great neighbors made this German dish called Zwiebelkuchen (onion cake) It was SO GOOD! Even my kids loved it.
I was so impressed with Palmer he was pretty adventurous. he tried just about everything! The funny thing is that I cut up cantaloupe and fresh pineapple for the kids to eat and that is what he didn't want. His pickyness mostly extends to fruit.

We had zwiebelkuchen, brats and sauerkraut (which I had never had and LOVED) garnished with real German ketchup and mustard. It isn't like ours, Authentic German potato salad (complete with German pickles) and German rice pudding. We also had the fruit and hotdogs for the kids. The kids were all pretty good to try the German food.
Josh printed up different facts about Germany and gave one to each of the kids to tell everyone about. They were things about population, holidays, school life and customs. We all learned a lot. It was fun because after someone would share a fact, those who lived in Germany would tell us things about their experiences.


We then told the kids to each go and find a German word and teach it to us. It was a frenzy for the kids to get the words they wanted. The funniest were the ones who wanted the one on the ceiling.

This is a laminated newspaper that was put out in Germany when the Berlin Wall came down. Nadine told the kids about that and explained about families being separated by the wall and how excited everyone was for it to come down. I think it was so mind boggling for the kids to think about something so extreme.
Nadine had an actual piece of the Berlin Wall. It was funny because when I first put it out Palmer saw it and said "wow cool, a German rock." (we are easily impressed in our family). Little did he know how cool it actually was (he found out though).
For dessert we had apple strudel. I was so nervous to make it for the first time, but it turned out so yummy!

German night was so great and now we need to go and see Germany for ourselves :)
P.S.  Even though I am not in one picture, I really was there...promise

Back to School Dinner

Every year I want to do a special back to school dinner and since my boys have been in school it has only ever happened once. I was determined to do one this year and invited some great friends we have made in our new ward to come and share it with us. I used the same idea for the tables that I did for the 4th of July Breakfast. I had lots of the paper I used on the tables left over, so I thought it would be great.
I wanted the dinner to be totally kid friendly and used the "theme" of "school lunch". Long ago I bought these perfect sectioned plates from Pottery Barn Kids and my boys love them (especially since they make it so their food doesn't touch. Very important). I had enough for all of the kids and I thought they were a little like the lunch trays from the lunch room. We actually do have lunch trays, but not enough for all of the kids and PBK doesn't sell them anymore (bummer because we LOVE them!). I put those on the adult table (which I forgot to take a picture of).

I love this idea found here, and used it for a little favor above everyone's plates. They are made by wrapping a package of Rolos in yellow cardstock and attaching pink cardstock for the end and wrapping a strip of aluminum foil around it for the eraser. The point is just a Hershey's Kiss. I thought they turned out cute.
The food was meant to be kid friendly as well. My boys all love sandwiches, so that is what we have (that is very school lunchish right...well I guess it is more brought from home lunch, but whatever. It worked) We had PB and J and peanut butter and honey along with a little more gourmet of a sandwich for the adults. For the bread I made French Bread using this recipe and then I just put out lots and lots of choices to put on your sandwich. The drinks were mostly drinks that you would put in a lunch, but I am not too big of a fan of those kids drinks so I got some bottled fruit juices for the adults.

I love Utah/Idaho Supply and always wish that I could buy their teacher stuff (I got my degree in Political Science, but one day I am getting a teaching certificate...I think teaching would be so fun. Hopefully I don't just want to teach so I can buy the stuff at Utah/Idaho Supply!) and so I did for my little party. It was so fun to pick it out as I love pretty much everything in there.
I wrapped the counter in the bulletin board boarders. I think the Suzy's Zoo stuff is so cute!
I wrote each of the kids names on an apple and hung it above the food table (you know, like REAL teachers do at school. I really did have a ball planning this whole thing! Just living out some dreams...)
This was my table centerpiece. The kids colored the paper on the table with the crayons and it was something for them to do while they were waiting for dinner.
All of the kids together. Lincoln was doing some crazy pose in the picture. He thought it was so funny (I love to see what my kids think is funny). The funny thing is that I am pretty sure it is the sign for "witches honor" from the old show "Bewitched" (I love that show.)
And we just had to get one more shot of it.
The sandwiches got a little big with all of the toppings!
McKay was so excited to sit by all of the big kids (I got an new calling at church, and right when they had me stand up, poor McKay fell wacked his face on the pew in front of us! He started screaming, so I just had to grab him and head out the door.  He got nailed pretty bad!  They timing on it was crazy!)

These two are so awesome! We had so much fun with them.
I always forget that I am wearing an apron. I can't even count the times where I have left it on for a really long time.
This awesome family brought HEAVENLY Peanut Butter Bars (perfect for school lunch right?) for dessert. I ate my weight in them as did everyone else. I have got to get the recipe. McKay obviously enjoyed them.

School is now in full swing and I am trying my best to get our school rhythm down. It always takes me a second to get back into the swing of things and this year is no different. I love school and all that it brings with it, so I guess I am ready to let go of summer...