Root Beer Themed Party Idea

In honor of my dad's birthday I decided to throw him a little root beer themed party! Who says adults are too old for themed birthday parties? ;)

I wanted to get inspiration for the party, so where did I go? Pinterest of course. And I found a couple cute ideas, but the one that stuck out the most was this printable from Rachel at Family Ever After for a Dad's Root Beer Stache party. She did it for Father's Day but I totally reused for my dad's birthday instead.

Remeber the pin wheel craft I did earlier? Yup, those are making a small appearance in this party as well.

I printed out the mustaches and attached them to popsicle sticks with a glue gun. I thought it would be fun to have a couple pictures of the family with mustaches!

Aside from the decor of the party, Ryan thought it would be cool to have the food match the theme. So we did just that! Ryan found this recipe for pulled pork with a root beer barbecue sauce for the main dish. It was pretty easy to put together. You brown the pork in a skillet before putting it in the crock-pot. Then inside the crock-pot you put the pork, a cup of root beer and two onions cut up in small wedges. About 30 mins before the meat is done you make the spicy root beer sauce-sound weird? It's not! Ryan happened to have made the sauce a little spicer than probably intended, but its a good thing we have a family that enjoys spice! ;)

And from a recipe we saw in our Taste of Home Magazine, I baked Root Beeer Cupcakes for dessert. You start with a boxed cake mix and add root beer concentrate {which we found at Walmart}. Then the frosting is simply Cool Whip with some root beer concentrate whipped together. Simple, easy & tasted frothy just like root beer. 

With all that root beer goodness, how did the party turn out? Glad you asked! Here are a couple photos from the blessed event.

The party was a HUGE HIT! My dad really enjoyed the theme and the time with family. YAY.  :o)

My Grown Up Birthday Wish

Have you ever heard of that song by Kelly Calrkson 'My Grown Up Christmas List'? I love how it talks about how your desires change from when you were younger to when you grow up to be an adult. Now this isn't going to be an entire post about things I want for my birthday (which is next week) like world peace and something unattainable, no there are certainly things I want that can be purchased...it's just interesting the change from not that long ago.

Case in point, I would love to have a maid come in and clean my house again. Yes, again. I had it done previously, since it was on my 30 before 30 list, but I would totally love to have it done again. I hate cleaning certain areas in the house, like bathrooms (eek) so this would be great to have again.....now, do you think the young me would have cared about that? NOPE! ;)

Another thing I would love for my birthday? These beautiful Jessica Simpson flats that I keep eye-balling at Dillard's. They are absolutely adorable and extremely professional...a shoe would certainly be something I would ask for, but (and even though they are super cute) I wouldn't typically ask for professional looking one.

Wine....wine is always a good gift for me. Even when I was younger (talking collage not teenage/high school-just wanted to clarify) I enjoyed wine. But what has changed is the type of wine. I used to only enjoy Arbor Mist type wine. Not "real" wine. Or maybe a fruity white wine.  Now, I enjoy a good red wine that is oaky and has a smooth finish like Shiraz or Merlot. See I'm "maturing"! ;)

Another thing I would totally LOVE for my birthday? Someone to come in and revamp our entryway. Seriously, I saw this one revamp from Love of Family & Home and I have been thinking about it NON-STOP since. I love doing home improvement projects in the home, and this project would not only be functional but also super cute for the aesthetics of our home. Ah...if only! Again, doing projects to the home would have never made the list when I was younger. LOL

Mason Jars. No joke, I would love some mason jars for my birthday. I've been seeing so many DIY/craft projects to do with them, and I've already expressed my love for mason jars in a previous post, so I would really enjoy getting my craft on with some mason jars. Not extremely expensive and I can totally pick them up myself at Walmart or something. But why do that when I have a b-day coming up? ;) Do you think the teenage version of myself would be jazzed to open up a wrapped present filled with little glass jars? Not so much. Me, now, on the other hand I would totally want to use them for so much stuff like organizing, painting & displaying them in the office or as a vase. Possibilities are endless...

Gift cards. Seriously. My mother use to beat into my head that gift cards are the "in-personal" gift for someone. They don't say "I care." Which is true, but does that take away from the value at all? NO! I would love gift cards for places to eat (I don't eat out often, so this would be a treat) or to go get a massage or have my nails done. I think a younger version of myself would have been okay with gift cards, but probably for clothes (which I wouldn't say no to now). Even then, my version of clothes that I want now is WAY different then when I was younger....ahhh, maturing. ;)

Aside from the material items (there are more than the list above, but they are fun little things like jewelery or scarves and hair accessories for my new short hair cut), I would totally be happy as a clam spending time with my family and friends. There-that's an honest to gosh grown-up birthday wish!! I spend so much of my time stressing out about adult things (finances, work, work, finances) that it would be nice to have some time to not stress about the adult things and really go out and enjoy myself. I would love to do an activity like put-put (there's the inner child in me) or go to antique shops; walk around places I don't typically go and explore. Whatever it is, I would just love to spend time with those closest to me. Getting older isn't tough, in my opinion (although I have some bones that would disagree with me). The number is just a number. But what is tough is feeling like you don't have enough time to do the things you really enjoy. Like spending time with family and friends....

This is my grown up birthday wish.

Whoopie Pie Masterpiece

A friend of mine has been discussing her desire to make whoopie pies for her daughter’s first birthday party. Apparently they are the next “big” thing for baking (of course I’m partial to make cake pops), but I thought I’d give it a whirl and see what all the fuss is about. After all, how hard can it be?

          

I took to the internet to find instructions that would be stupid simple, caz I’m all about the easy way of baking! Something that doesn’t required ten thousand ingredients (those suckers can get expensive) and my entire day (fortunately I’m mastering my cake pops so that’s no longer the case). Here’s a recipe and instructions I located from AllRecipes.com with a little tweak I did to make the process that much simpler:

       

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 ounce) package red velvet cake mix
• 1 tub of cream cheese frosting
• 2 muffin pans
• Pam (cooking spray)

Directions

1. To make the cakes: Prepare mix as directed on package. Drop batter onto greased muffin pan with an ice cream scoop (only 1/4 full). Bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean (about 20 minutes) and let cool.
2. Once they have cooled, turn the little cakes over on their backs. Spoon a dollop of frosting onto half of the little cakes. Place the other half of the cakes on top of the filling to form sandwiches.
3. And viola you have delicious whoopee pies!

              

*Please note you can create any combination you’d like, for example I think I might try lemon cake (b/c that’s a huge hit in my household) and lemon frosting or spice it up with strawberry! WHOA!

Here are some of the pictures of my creation…recognize that it was my first attempt so judging is strictly prohibited!

                 

My little whoopie pie creations!

Look at all that frosting! YUM!!

Anyone want whoopie pies to go? :)

Lessons learned: I thought using a muffin pan would be easier so the whoopie pies would keep it's shape. I think next time I might try just using a baking pan & reducing the water to see how they'll form. Maybe it'll help form the perfect shape?!  Who knows...

I’m bringing these little guys into work tomorrow to show them off to my friend. Hopefully it’ll give her confidence about baking several dozen for her little angel’s b-day party.