Kat's Birthday.....Finally!

My oldest daughter turned 14 a few weeks ago and she is an amazing teenager. She also likes to have parties. She begins planning months ahead. This year the list somehow consisted of 14 teenage girls plus a few young adult girls from church. I remember hubby saying to me, “what made us say yes to that many girls?”. I had no answer for him.There were soccer teammates, a friend whom she grew up with but moved away, and church friends. That made for quite the “mingling” dilemma. They did great though.

Have you realized that birthday parties can be expensive? You are probably saying “yes! That’s why we don’t have them, or that’s why we don’t have big ones!” My heart is usually bigger than our finances, meaning that if I could I would lavish my girls with amazing parties beyond their dreams; not to spoil them, but because they are amazing, unselfish girls and they deserve it. We have not always had much money to spend on lavish parties (I drool over some of the parties I’ve seen others throw in bloggy land). My girls never complain. Often Kat will pitch in her own money to help pay for her parties, and sometimes her presents from us have to wait.

Once again Kat planned her party. It was a huge success. I admit I wasn’t sure how things would turn out since she was inviting many of her soccer teammates who I really didn’t know too well. We sat down the week before the party and made our grocery list. The menu? Teriyaki Kabobs with Brown rice and salad. For Dessert; lots of fresh fruit served with Yummy Out of this World Fruit Dip and Chocolate Fondue (recipes below). Boy do those girls know how to eat. Breakfast the next day; Costco muffins and my Orange Julius Breakfast Drink!

After the girls arrived, they headed out in three groups for a Scavenger Hunt around our small town. On their list of things to find: 1) Dollar Tree Bag 2) Safeway receipt 3) Starbucks cup 4) business card 5). Picture of a restaurant menu 6) A picture of Michael Jackson 7) a piece of gum 8) Roll of TP 9) a house for sale flyer 10) dog biscuit 11) 3 paper clips 12) a picture of them with a store manager 13) a job application and 14) foreign currency. They had a blast with this!!

After returning home we ate dinner, Kat opened presents, and then hubby shuttled them all to the church to watch a movie (Imagine That) and then to play floor hockey.

Once home again they chowed the fruit, fondue (I made 2 1/2 batches of fondue) and fruit dip and then just hung out playing Scene It Disney and “What if…..”

Once it was time for bed poor Kat could not stop coughing so she ended up sleeping downstairs on the couch and I slept on the chair! I felt so bad for her.

Morning dawned and the sleepy girls ate up muffins and drank all the breakfast drink. I then drove them to the church where their parents picked them up. My girls headed into church and I headed home to bed. I still was not feeling good and had little sleep that night. All my body wanted was my bed!!

Kat thanked me several times for her party, and for cleaning up after all of them. She said over and over how much fun she had and that afternoon when we went to her indoor soccer game several moms told me how much fun their girls had.

Now! On to the recipes that made this party a hit. The nice thing is that they were all very easy to make with very few ingredients involved.

Out of this World Fruit Dip

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

½ c. frozen whipped topping, thawed

½ c. marshmallow cream

food coloring

Combine all ingredients, chill and enjoy!

(printable recipe)

Chocolate Fondue

12 oz. dark chocolate (chips or roughly chopped if from a block)

**I used semi-sweet**

8 oz. heavy cream

A pinch of salt (oops I forgot this…I don’t think they noticed)

In a double boiler or in my case a bowl on top of a pan of boiling water, warm cream over moderate heat until tiny bubbles show and begins to lightly and slowly boil. Add the chocolate and whisk until smooth and fully incorporated.

I left the bowl on the pan and brought that directly to the table. The bowl was stainless steel so it stayed hot. I went through two batches before the girls were full.

(Printable Recipe)

Orange Julius Breakfast Drink

1 6oz. can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed

1 c. milk

1 c. water

¼ c. sugar

1 tsp. vanilla extract

10-12 ice cubes

In a blender combine all ingredients and blend till smooth. Serve immediately!!
(Printable Recipe)

It was overall a really fun party!  

With Joy UNquenchable,