It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share!

 

It's Friday night, and you know what that means..

It's time to Dare to Share! 

Happy Friday! 

Are you excited about the start of the Olympics?  I am! My favorite sport to watch is women's gymnastics.  I used to be on the gymnastics team back in high school, so I know a little bit about the sport.  What they are able to do is truly difficult, and amazing to watch. I am also rooting on Simone, and I hope this time around she is able to fully compete.  

While you are watching the Olympics and wanting some ideas for Olympic themed snacks, you can find some easy snack ideas here on my post Olympic Party Food Ideas. 

Last weekend, we did end up doing something fun that I wanted to share about.  We went to the Ohio Balloon Challenge Saturday night glow. It is so cool to see the different balloons light up the night sky. Afterwards there was an amazing drone and fireworks show. It was the best fireworks we saw this year.   Have you ever been to a hot air balloon festival?  I highly recommend visiting one if you are able to. 

I am a bit later than normal getting this party started tonight, because I went to the Friday night dance with D and my friends.    Since it is getting late, let's get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

 

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Olympic Party Food Ideas

 

Are you planning to watch the summer Olympics when they start this weekend?   If you plan on viewing with family and friends and having a party, here are some easy food ideas to help you get into the spirit of the games.  

One easy treat you can make it so make cookie Olympic gold medals.  Use a package of Golden Oreos and attach  some fruit by the foot as the ribbon. A bowl of Bugles also make a super easy snack.   An easy way to make an Olympic torch snack is to fill ice cream cones with Cheetos. 

If you are looking for other options, you can make they Olympic Ring Snack Board.  The three rings in the back are blue, black and red.  The two in the front are yellow and green.   Blue and black do not have as many choices as some of the other colors blueberries and blackberries work well.  Red has several fruits and veggies that you can use, such as strawberries, cherries, cherry tomatoes, and red peppers. Yellow also has many choices like pineapple, bananas and yellow peppers.  You might also for some cheese and crackers that would be good for yellow.   Some food ideas for green are kiwi, green grapes, honeydew, avocado, and green peppers.

Since the Summer Olympics are in Paris, France another idea is to use French inspired food.  You could serve a plate of macarons, mini croissants with chocolate, or baguettes with cheese.   "French" fries or a charcuterie board are also options. 

If you want some treats to root for team USA, how about a Red, White and Blue dessert.   You can find even more red, white and blue inspired ideas here.

Be sure to check out my post How to Throw an Olympics Party for more easy Olympic party ideas. 

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Let's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what means..

It's time to Dare to Share! 

Happy Friday! This week kind of flew by for me. I was busy with work and also not feeling well... again.  This virus does not seem as bad as some of the others I had in recent weeks.  It came on quickly, and hopefully it goes away quickly too.  

 With the summer Olympics starting in just a week, I shared a post with How to Host an Olympics Party. While we had our party a few Olympics ago, a lot of the ideas are still relevant today.  I will also be sharing a post with some Olympics food ideas shortly.  

While Halloween is a few months away, I am starting to get excited. While rearranging out basement we found box of Halloween pans and molds that I can't wait to start using. I have not seen them since I moved here two years ago. We are doing a big Halloween market in October, and hosting a local Murder Mystery at the end of August.  We are currently starting to think about which treats we will make and serve.  I do know that I will be making some special cookies. I recently took a decorating course and learned so many new tips. 

Another thing we did this week was celebrate my bonus son's birthday.  Doesn't that cake look amazing.  While I can not take credit for making it, if you have a Meijer near you, you can find it there.  

We are finally expecting some good weather this weekend and might be doing something fun.  I will share more about it, if we actually go.  

Well it looks like it is getting late, so I better get this party started.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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How to throw an Olympics Party

 

A few years back, well in 2018, I threw a Winter Olympics Party . With the 2024 summer Olympics in Paris right around the corner, I though it would be a good time to revisit my Olympic party ideas. One of the things we did was make an Olympic Flame Cauldron out of a bowl, crepe paper and craft foam.  It become the centerpiece of our table. 

** this post contains affiliate links 

A lot of our party supplies came from Oriental Trading, and still available on their site. 

The square flag plates, and cups are still available, but the napkins and tablecloth are currently out of stock.  

The table top flag fountain centerpiece looks a little smaller than the one in my picture, it is an interesting decoration.  

In the cups on the sides of the tables are the 72 flags of several nations  They are many ways you can use these flags as decor, or while cheering on your favorite athletes.  

While the medals I had bought for our party are slightly different, there are similar party favor medals available here. 

A fun backdrop that would make for some great photos is this Podium Door Banner.

If you want to have a feel of Paris at your party, how about this 88" standing Eiffel Tower.

If a smaller tower is more your style how about a tabletop version.

Look for another party post in the new few days with Olympic Party food ideas.

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It's Time to Dare to Share!

It's Friday night, and you know what that means.. 

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Last Friday I was busy getting ready for the baby shower for my soon to be granddaughter, and did not have a lot to share during the Dare to Share party.  I am happy to share this week that the shower turned out great! Everyone had a nice time, and loved the theme.  You can read more about it,and see what we did in my post Baby Woodland Animal Baby Shower.  Planning this shower has definitely made me want to plan more parties again. It may be happening soon, since we want to expand the bakery and event business by adding party planning.  :) 

Tonight since we were not in a rush we are able to stop by a balloon glow festival, and then go to dinner at a new to us restaurant.  I love nights like that when we can do something out of the ordinary.  

Well it is looking to be that time again. Now that you know what I have been up to this week, I would love to see what you have been doing.  Link up and HAVE FUN! 

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Baby Woodland Animal Baby Shower

* this post contains affiliate links 

This weekend we had a baby shower for my bonus daughter and soon to be grand daughter.  I had so much fun planning the shower.  I made all of the decorations from my Canva account, and bought few items from the Dollar Tree. I plan on adding a baby shower kit to my Etsy Shop soon. 

Mom and Dad-to-be love nature, and are always doing something outside, so a baby woodland animal theme was a no brainer. I also had some really cute woodland animal graphics with the perfect colors for a baby girl. 

I made this banner which we hung in the kitchen. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of it hanging up. After the party I gave it to the parents-to-be so they can use it again if they would like to. Each piece of the banner is an 8.5" x 11" piece of printer paper, so it is pretty large.  It would be easy to adjust the size, if a smaller banner is needed.  

If you are looking for a girl or boy balloon, be sure to check the Dollar Tree.  I found this one a day or two before the shower. 

 

 Another item I used from the Dollar Tree were these fairy garden mushroom houses.   The mushrooms are normally red, I painted a few pink, and a few light green which were our party colors. They looked so cute. 

 

I found these green frames at the Dollar Tree.  In addition to this little deer, I also had a framed hedgehog and a framed skunk. Each frame was decorated with pink roses.  

 I used another frame on our make your own trail mix table.  

On the trail mix bar I used twelve plastic bowls from the Dollar Tree.  The mom-to-be is gluten free, so we had several gluten free options available for her to make some trail mix too. 

The gluten free options  we had were Corn Chex Cereal, Honey Nut Chex Cereal, Limited Edition Berry Cheerios, Snyders GF Pretzels, and Dandies Marshmallows.  We also had regular marshmallows, regular mini pretzels, M & Ms, chocolate chips, Haribo gummy bears, Planters peanuts, and dried cherries. She was able to eat some of those items as well.  The little circles one the bowls had the names of the items and marked the gluten free options. 

I made these animal signs and used them through out the party. We bought this little rose for the mom-to-be. The skunk is the dad's favorite animal, and deer represents mom who is mama deer.  

A fun addition to our food was this hedgehog watermelon. I have made hedgehog watermelon before, like the one I made for my daughters Woodland themed birthday party.

We had a pretty healthy menu at the shower. We served fruits and vegetables in plastic serving cups from Dollar Tree. We did this before at my bonus son's graduation party and at my bonus daughter's wedding reception.  I like doing this for many reasons,but especially because it is a great way to keep germ sharing at a minimum. It is also great portion control. 

In addition to the fruits and vegetables, we had chicken salad croissant sandwiches. 

We also had these appetizer skewers. They were so good, and the perfect size for a party. 

 

 The cupcakes were gluten free, and made to look like pink and green mushrooms.  The cupcake toppers were each of the woodland animals.  I don't normally eat gluten free cupcakes but they really good, and we only had a couple left by the end of the shower.  

We played several games at the shower.  The baby bump game I found at the Dollar Tree.  Each participant cuts a plastic strip guessing the size of mom's baby bump. Maybe it was because I have had three babies, but I guessed exactly right. My sister-in-law who also has three babies was only an inch off.  Not pictured is the diaper game we played.  We used some cheap diapers, and melted miniature candy bars. Each person playing had to guess the candy bar by looking at and smelling it.  We bought the mini candy bars at Dollar Tree where we found Snickers, Hershey's, Milky Way, Three Musketeers, Baby Ruth, Kit Kat, and Crunch.  

The three other games we played was guess when baby will be born, a word scramble and a celebrity baby name matching game.   As a keepsake for the new baby everyone filled out a Wishes for Baby sheet that she can read someday.  There were some really sweet wishes. 

Since I was the one of the hosts, I did not get a few pictures of all the printables I made for the party.  This is not everything since some of it went home with the parents to be, but you can see in the invitation, some of the signs, and some of the animal pics.  

Now we wait a few weeks to see who will win the guessing what day she will be born game. :) 

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It's Party Time! Let's Dare to Share

It's Friday night, and you know what that means!

It is time to Dare to Share! 

Happy Friday!  I am going to make today's post short and sweet.  As you are reading this I am very busy preparing for a baby shower we are having Saturday for my bonus daughter and our soon to be grand daughter.  I still have a few things to do with not a lot of time to do it all.  I can't wait to show your  more about our shower in my next post.  :)

With that, it is time to get this party started!  Link up and HAVE FUN!! 

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