Tag: party

Clop, Clop, Neigh: Kentucky Derby 1st Birthday!

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Welp, we survived.  One full year of parenthood.  The late nights, early mornings, breast feeding ups and downs, emotional roller coasters, highs and lows, fights, baby cuddles, milestones, bumps, bruises, giggles, cries, teething, ginormous poops, spit ups, fevers, stroller schlepping, tears, yelling, singing, laughing, heart-bursting-right-out-of-your-chest first year of raising a child is behind us.

So, like any parents do, we celebrated baby H’s first birthday in style.  With lots of drinks.

Christian and I are fairly…preppy.  We love a good Tommy Hilfiger sale, freshly pressed collared shirts, gorgeous pair of loafers and old fashioned lawn games.  Yep, we’re those people.  I, in particular, also have a slight obsession with the south.  I actually have a theory that I was meant to be born in Georgia, South Carolina or perhaps Tennessee.  I love all things southern charm: wrap-around porches, big hats and of course…the Kentucky Derby.  (Fact: Attending the Kentucky Derby Race is actually on my life bucket list).  So, we decided to bring the Derby to Toronto!  Self-serving party theme?  Maybe.

First up: a fun and creative welcome sign for our front door.  I wanted to mimic a First Place ribbon from a race; this was super easy to do using:

  • a party “fan” decoration from the dollar store
  • glitter paper
  • white & blue bristol board
  • Hot glue gun
  • mini star hole punch

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Just as I did for my mother-in-laws British Invasion themed 60th birthday party, I love to spread little touches throughout the house during any party, and I squealed out loud when I found these incredible and FREE (free!) Kentucky Derby themed printables on Pinterest from the Hostess with the Mostess.  Simply amazing coordinated ready-to-print cut outs from cupcake toppers to bunting banners.

Check out the framed sign and win-place-show flags below:

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What’s that?  You’re wondering about those Bourbon Balls?  Don’t you worry – I’ll be sharing that recipe shortly.  My sister-in-law even voted them MVP of the party (next to baby H, of course!)

For the living room, which is a bit more formal feeling and also happens to be the room right at the entrance of our house, I opted for something a tad more fancy.

I found the “Run for the Roses” themed printables on-line at Polka Dot Chair …also FREE…also AMAZING.  I loved the classic black-and-red color theme so much that I had to include it too.  The black and red mini paper “fans” were actually left over from my friends little mans’ first birthday, so they were also FREE (do you see a theme here!?)

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One of my favourite little details came from my dear friend Alison, who not only grew up riding and racing horses, but who has actually BEEN to the Derby!  She dug up some old ribbons from Carriage Races her family had placed in and they were such a welcome and authentic addition to the decor around our home:

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In keeping with the theme, it only seemed appropriate to tweak the traditional “pin the tail on the donkey” game.  I bring to you:  Pin the Baby H Jockey on the Horse!  Big shout out to my friend Charlotte for masterfully photo-shopping H’s head onto the jockey.  Such an awesome touch – it’s already been saved in his baby book!

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You can find both the poster and jockey printable (you guessed it…also FREE!) here at Hostess with the Mostess as well)

We tried to stick to southern-style cooking as best as we could, while also offering some healthier options (we are the “Happy Healthy Huggetts” after all!).  My mother-in-law whipped up some delicious finger sandwiches, our friend Merv made his epic Mac’n’Cheese (rumor has it he used FOUR bricks of cheese in that baby), and Christian and I made:

For dessert, we didn’t want to give baby H a complete sugar rush on his first time having something truly sweet, so we opted for these Mini Chocolate Quinoa Cupcakes with Avocado Icing.  (TIP: They are very cocoa heavy, so if I were to do it again, I would pick to either do the cake OR the icing as cocoa-based, not both)

Here is Baby H giving the cupcake a try (he wasn’t so sure about them)

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Oh…and about those Bourbon Balls.  Yeah, there’s NOTHING healthy about them.  But boy were they good.  You can find the recipe here – we doubled the amount of Bourbon, because, why not?

And the birthday boy: he certainly looked the part. I bought this seer-sucker blazer off another mom in one of the on-line buy and sell groups I’m a part of for $8 when baby H was about 6 weeks old.  I hadn’t planned the theme for his party yet, but I KNEW he was going to wear it.  And wear it he did.

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The bow-tie actually makes my heart melt.

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… BOTTOMS UP to a fantastic FIRST BIRTHDAY celebration!!  Happy birthday my love!

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Party Planning 101: British Invasion

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Well e-friends, it’s been 1.5 months in our new home and we’ve already survivied the “ice vortex” (including 3+ day power outage), nearly completed a basement renovation, spent a few sick days on the couch, and have thrown two significant parties!  We’re starting to feel good and settled, with the exception of the empty living room (we’ll get there one day).  I also owe you a post about buying awesome furniture on Craigslist.  But today’s post is reserved for a topic that I truly love: party planning!

My former career before joining the dark side of sales was event planning.  I’d like to think that I always had it in me, and that my professional experience just made me fall in love with (some) elements even more.  Over the years, I have helped to plan and execute 4 friends’ weddings, plus my own wedding, and now I’m in the midst of helping my dear sis prep for her upcoming April wedding!   I also threw a heck of a 30th birthday (if I do say so myself).

This past weekend, Christian and I hosted his mum’s 60th birthday.  She’s was born in England and lived there for the early part of her life.  Although she’s been in Canada for decades, she still loves all things Brit – I look forward to pouring over her “Hello!” magazines every time we visit.   You can take the Brit out of Britain….

Christian and I chatted about a way to elevate the fun factor of the shin-dig, and quickly landed on a “British Invasion” theme.  So fun.

First, the menu.  A good theme starts with some menu planning.  And plan we did:

  • Cottage Pie (basically the British version of Shepherd’s Pie)
  • Bangers and Mash
  • Roast Beef with Yorkshire Pudding (our first time making either)
  • Classic Fish n’ Chips

We cheated and just did store bought Fish n’ Chips, but everything else was made in our new kitchen!  Here’s the Cottage Pie coming out of the oven on Saturday afternoon, all bubbly and delicious

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Whilst our food was being prepped and cooked, I got to decorating!  I managed to find a few jems on-line, including a red, white and blue pennant banner (aka – bunting) that I strung from the ceiling.

buntingThen it was onto the little touches, some of which you can already see in the photo above (yes, there are cut-outs of a London Bus and Beefeater on my patio doors).  One of my favourite big-bang-for-little-buck decorating ideas it to find simple printables on-line.  Who doesn’t have a bunch of simple photo frames kicking around the house? (yes, I removed family photos from some to make way for my British invasion).  Stack ’em up and replace your framed photos with some clip art or printed pics from Google images.  Here below we pay homage to her Majesty the Queen.  The Union Jack flags were a steal from the Dollar Store at 3 bucks a pop:

Decor1Now that the mantle is looking festive, on to the next location = the couch!  We actually had Euro-sized red cushions on our bed upstairs, so I brought them down to the join the party.  My wonderfully generous colleague brought a toss cushion of the London tube map from his bed at home!  The best part is that the pillow is made out of tea towel (next project anyone!?). Anyways, it came together quite nicely in our living room with the red pillows in the background:

pillowOnto other areas: the bar!  The bar menu included:

  • Gin & Tonic (Bombay Saphire Gin is my fave, but a friend recently introduced me to Dillon’s Small Batch Gin.  It’s quickly become my “lady” gin.  Delicious)
  • Pimm’s (apparently the second most popular beverage in the UK after tea?).  Check out the receipe here, but we made ours with Pimm’s, lemonade, cucumber, blueberries and strawberries.  It’s very refreshing – you can see it in the pitcher below!
  • Boddington’s beer, Strongbow & Guiness

BarYes, even Christian’s City of Oxford bar towel made an appearance – an ode to his time spent there on exchange in university!

And finally, dessert!  We opted for classic English Trifle and my favourite: Sticky Toffee Pudding.  To make these mess and fuss free, I actually found these neat little disposable baking cups at Home Sense (they come in mini loaf containers as well).  You actually don’t even need to put them on a baking sheet or anything and they are good in the oven up to 400F.  I was able to serve out of these as well.  The best part?  No pre-greasing required!  They are coated and ready to go in all their non-sticky goodness:

StickyToffeeBecause I’m all about the presentation, I took a cardboard cake stand (also purchased from Home Sense for just $3.99! Again: big bang, little buck) and attached a Union Jack decoration that I picked up for a few bucks at a party store on top with scotch tape.  Instant pizzaz!

TowerYou can see my sticky toffee puddings have now been topped with caramel sauce…and that a few have already been eaten – nom nom!

Playing in the background for most of the evening was Songza’s British Invasion Playlist.  Oh, and we of course awarded the birthday girl with a jeweled crown and sash when she arrived – living like the Queen herself for the evening!

So there you have it – how to make a theme flow 101, brought to you by Melissa.  The opportunities are endless…just remember to think beyond the napkins and include all the senses 🙂