Abby's Kindergarten Luncheon

Hello! Long time no blog! I haven't had the time or desire to blog this summer, but have a couple of fun posts to share with you before summer wraps up. Later this week I'll share my 3 big home improvement projects, but today we are all about Abby's kindergarten luncheon. 

We invited 5 of Abby's friends that are all starting kinder next week over for lunch. She has known these kids most of her life from preschool and church. When they first arrived, I gave them all 2027 shirts representing the year they will all graduate and we went outside for pictures.

Back inside we sat down for lunch with only these six little ones in the formal dining room which had been decorated for the occasion. 

The dining room buffet table includes a chalkboard, apple and bell that I had on hand. I also bought a dozen globe stress balls on Zulily months ago and had the balloon topiary gifted as leftovers from a friends birthday party.

On the other side of the buffet were these adorable cookies from my friend Kelly who owns Cookies by Kelly. They were the perfect sweet touch after lunch! 

 The center of the table had lots of fun school supplies including my favorite globes from my office. I made the "ruler" runner on the table from a piece of white fabric my Mom hemmed and a black sharpie marker.

I decorated the windows with bunting from Modern June and a chalkboard bunting from the Target party section. 

Each place setting was decorated with a yellow crayon cup, a plain red paper plate with a felt stem and leaf hot glued on and the cutest napkins! I found these in the $1 spot last year and I just wrote each child's name on the napkin.

Inside the kitchen, I set up a simple lunch buffet and made it fun with another chalk board banner from Target. The little ham sandwiches were still in the oven when I snapped this picture. Along with those we served chips and dip, fruit salad, and had lunchables for the special kindergartners. I also had water, tea, lemonade, and a variety of juice boxes and old bottled sodas.

I served everything on my favorite stove top cover!

We had one little game planned for the kids. They went on an alphabet scavenger hunt. They had classic brown paper sacks where I had written the letters of the alphabet. They each started with a sack and then moved to the letter station.

At this station they dug through plastic magnets to find their letter and found the matching flashcard. Both were placed in their sack and it was taken to the toy station!

Here each kid dug in the bucket to find a toy that started with the letter sack they were holding. The kids had lots of fun looking for something with their letter and often worked together!

 After playing a little while longer, the kids left with these little packages of writing utensils and their own globe ball. I bought these notebooks on 90% off after school started last year! If you plan to throw a party like this next year, I recommend shopping in the next few weeks. Supplies go cheap fast!

These sweet six kids are some of my favorite little people in all the world and I'm so glad we could celebrate their upcoming big day together before we all go separate ways! As you can tell from their little signs, they have big futures ahead of them!

 

I found lots of ideas for this party on Pinterest. Check out my Back to School Party board here. 

New Year Eve Gold Confetti Glasses

Gold confetti is so popular right now and I thought they would make an inexpensive pair of Target glasses fancy for New Year Eve! It only took a few minutes and a few dollars!

Buy any plain glass drink ware you like. I bought these stemless wine glasses at Target in the dollar spot. You'll also need craft paint of any color, a paintbrush or similar sized object as the handle, and a cookie sheet. 

Turn the cleaned glasses upside down and using the paintbrush handle create confetti along the bottom of the glass. I like the "ombre" effect with lots of dots on the bottom and then spreading them out as you reach up the side of the glass. The spacing, colors and number of dots are your call. Have fun with them!

Place the glasses on the cookie sheet inside a COLD oven. Turn it on to 250 degrees and leave them inside for 45 minutes. Remove and let cool. They are now sealed for easy use and cleaning! 

Enjoy your fancy glasses even if you are just serving water on New Year's Eve!

How To: Stove Top Cover for Added Buffet Space

One of the stars of my daughter's birthday party this past weekend was my new stove top cover!

Do you see it below? I made a "shelf" to cover my stove top, knobs and all, and therefore make one long serving area in my kitchen. It was a super easy project and made a big impact on my ability to entertain more in my kitchen.

I started my measuring the stove top space that I wanted to cover, the height of my knobs, and the overall depth of my countertop. I took my measurements to Lowe's and found a handy salesman to explain how to make my project work easily. We found a board already cut 2'x3' which was perfect for my space. I paid for a higher quality wood with a 3/4" thickness so that I could place heavy items on my shelf and not need a middle leg which would sit on my glasstop.

Along with my wood, I bought 4 furniture legs and the metal attachments. Then, I simply screwed the metal attachments into the corners of my wood, giving myself a little room to avoid splitting and then screwed the simple wooden leg onto the metal attachment.

They had more beautiful decorative legs, but I wanted the shelf to be low profile so that it blended into my counters better and fully covered my stove below.

Here it is- it fits and completely covers and protects my glass stove top. Now, to have some fun with it!

I pulled out my handy gingham painting mat and my cream Annie Sloan chalk paint and put 3 full coats on the  board and the legs. I then used Frog Tape to tape off an area to do a fun stripe.

I painted a stripe with chalkboard paint thinking how fun it would be to put little messages to my guests or label the food on the shelf; however, I quickly learned that chalkboard paint does not work on top of chalk paint. When I wrote, the word "eat" for my picture, paint flecked off.

So, I painted right over the chalkboard paint with Annie Sloan Emperor's Silk red paint. I then stenciled the word YUM on the stripe.

My husband thought I was crazy, but I wanted something fun on my very practical shelf.

We used the shelf at Abby's party and it happily held her birthday cakes. It allowed me to serve my guests from my kitchen counters which freed up my dining room tables for serving guests or doing crafts. 

Could you use a stove top cover? Make one yourself for under $30!

To see more of Abby's party, click here or here for more Annie Sloan paint projects.

Last Minute Super Bowl Treats

One thing I don't discuss much on this blog is football, but you should know I am a die hard NFL fan. I play pick 'em games online, own more than one jersey, can name most players, coaches and stadiums, and placed second in both of my Fantasy Football leagues. I love football and Sunday is a mixed blessing- I love the Super Bowl and hate the Monday after when we enter the black period of waiting 7 months for kickoff. I know 2 seasons- football season and waiting for football season.

Super Bowl foods are also fun- you graze for 5 hours! Here are a few of my favorite easy recipes previously posted that you might enjoy grazing on with friends and family Sunday night.

Three Ingredient Turtles

Super Simple Spicy Crockpot Bean Dip

Make Ahead and Freeze Crabbies Go Colts!

Monster Themed Baby Shower

This weekend I had the pleasure of co-hosting a baby shower for my cousin. She is expecting a little boy. I sent her a few different invitation options and she liked the monster theme. So, we ran with a monster theme. I got very lucky that Target used bright colored monsters in their Halloween decor this year. The shower was held outdoors so we made casual baskets for the tables. They were filled with baby needs, burp cloths made by my friend Natalie, monster shirts and jammies and small stuffed monsters of every color. Look at these awesome cupcakes another co-hostess made. I love them! They are wild, crazy, whimsy, and just plain fun!
We couldn't find an alien green punch, so we floated bright colored bouncy balls in the red punch!

I found these yummy monster suckers at Oriental Trading Company. They have lots of monster goodies if you want to throw your own Monster Mash!

Cinnamon French Toast Bake

Welcome Kelly's Korner readers! Your Little Birdie is excited to have you visit. The birdie's nest has lots of recipes, simple inexpensive crafts, and throws a party every now and then! Check out the links on the right to find out more!

The breakfast link includes more favorite- baby shower brunch ideas, homemade granola, peach blueberry muffins, and my favorite "meaty" breakfast casserole.

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If you have had brunch at my house or attended this cute baby shower, you've had my favorite Cinnamon French Toast Bake. This recipe won money in a Pillsbury Bake Off contest a few years ago. It is to die for!

The crux of the recipe is canned cinnamon rolls cut into 8 pieces.... 2 cans of cinnamon rolls!

This is the "bake" before it goes into the oven. How can you resist cinnamon rolls, pecans, butter, whipping cream, eggs, vanilla and cinnamon?

Here is the finished product.... yummy!

To make your own Cinnamon French Toast Bake, click here.
If you find a way to make it low fat, please let me know!

2009 Family Reunion

I attended my Powell Family Reunion in Center Point, Texas on Saturday. My father is the youngest of 8 and they are all still alive and usually attend. With each of them having children and grandchildren and the siblings of my grandmother attending we draw a big crowd. And, like a good Southern family, we drink lots of iced tea. Sweet tea usually goes first!






Along with BBQ and sweet tea buying the BEST peanut brittle in the auction is an annual favorite. The auction is made up of donations from attendees and helps fund the meat and rental on the hall. This year's auction featured homemade pickles, jelly, brittle, leftover brisket and chicken from lunch and fresh vegetables from a family member's garden. You can't go wrong with the food.

PS- I did have my green jello mold! It was as good as always.

Stock Up Your Pantry

I love having dips on hand in case I find myself entertaining. I am a working gal, a wife, a Mother and a party hoster. I think having dip mixes, like this one, on hand are important.

With most dips, just add sour cream and mayo or cream cheese and butter and a dippable food and you can host a party! They are almost always yummy, feel more special than Ranch or salsa, and come in a huge variety of options.

I find them in the most random places- gift shops, kitchen stores, fairs, festivals, Junior League Christmas Affair. So, stock up on dips and invite me over!