Halloween Chocolate Party

For our Brownie meeting on Tuesday, our troop went to a local cake decorating and candy supply shop to make some sweet and scary Halloween chocolate creations. The girls dipped marshmallows in green chocolate and chocolate sprinkles to make a Frankenstein.

They also dipped pretzels and Oreos in chocolate and made a witches finger out of twisted pretzel rods and slivered almonds. They even learned how to paint a chocolate mold to make a lollipop! I have known the owner, Nanci, since I was 12. The girls had a great time! Abby ate everything before she got home!

When I got home, I made some too! It was Chasen's turn to bring snack for his Boy Scout patrol meeting. I made the Frankensteins and the witches fingers. They were a HUGE hit! Even the dads enjoyed them.

Happy Halloween!

Wicked Tea

On Monday, I got together with my tea group and we shared a witches tea. Marina made all of us some homemade pumpkin bread in these adorable wood baskets from Whole Foods.

Debbie and Sandy hosted the tea and they served pumpkin muffins, quiche, 2 kinds of salads, cucumber sandwiches and Fluffernutters (marshmallow fluff and peanut butter). We (kinda) had a costume contest. I came as Samantha Stevens from "Bewitched" and Marina had some very sparkly eyelashes and her cute witch outfit (she's not wearing her hat) so she won the prize. It was pumpkin bread mix, pumpkin butter and a framed picture of all of us at our Witches tea last year that I hosted.

For dessert, Sandy bought cupcakes from the Kupcake Kitchen (same baker of the fabulous Mad Hatter cupcakes last week). We had S'More and lemon raspberry...AMAZING!

Suzie brought all of us these pretty pink brooms and Suzanne gave us a beautiful Fall leaf dish towel from Pottery Barn.

Our next BIG tea is in December and we will also have a cookie exchange!

Halloween Double Feature

On Friday night, we hosted a Halloween Party/Movie night. We served pizza, fruit, cookies and cupcakes. I had a craft for our guests: Halloween flashlight necklaces. They could be decorated as mummy, vampire, witch or a ghost. They can use them on Halloween night when they trick-or-treat.

I also had a couple of games. I put powdered donuts on strings and they had to eat them without using their hands. Powdered donuts are best because it get all over your face!

The second game was "Scary Mummy". They stuffed cheese balls in their mouths and say "Scary Mummy" after each one. One girl got 20 in her mouth before we couldn't understand her anymore. I also passed out glow-in-the-dark bracelets (15 for $1 at Michael's)

I used cupcake picks from Paper and Cake. Sorry the pictures are bad. I was very busy with the kids. :) We showed "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" first because we had little ones and they left before the next movie. At intermission, I made hot chocolate with Halloween marshmallow peeps. The final movie was "The Nightmare before Christmas".

I'm already planning for a Christmas movie get together. Last year, we showed "Elf" and decorated cookies.

Maybe I should just be concentrating getting my Halloween decor up :)

I WON!

Last Saturday, a local charity held a Rubber Ducky Regatta. They launched 3,500 ducks in the local lake and the first 25 ducks to cross the finish line would win a prize. People could adopt a duck for $5 or a dozen for $50 and the Grand Prize was a trip for 4 to Washington DC for 8 days and 7 nights. I bought 2 dozen and kind of forgot about it.

On Monday morning, my friend Corey called and he said "Congratulations!" and I said "for what?" He went on to tell me that he calls friends whose name appears in the newspaper and he said that I won the Grand Prize for the Rubber Ducky Regatta. I was so surprised! It wasn't until the foundation called me that I truly believed it.

So I will be taking my kids to DC in April for the Cherry Blossom Festival and the Easter Egg Roll at the White House! I have only been to DC once before when I was a college grad and my boyfriend was from New Jersey. We drove down in his Jeep and we ate popcorn for meals. This time, I will be staying at The Madison and order room service! LOL

I can't wait to show my kids our nation's capital and visit Williamsburg and Monticello. Living in California, we don't get a real sense of our history. I'm so excited!
Do you have any recommendations for our visit?

Candy, Cupcakes and Twins

I got a call Tuesday from a client whom wanted to host a party for her twin daughters on Sunday. Yes, that's right, only 5 days notice! It was an over-the-top Mad Hatter party at the Spanish Hills Golf and Country Club in Camarillo.

I had a craft table set up for the guests to make White Rabbit goody bags and color Alice in Wonderland pictures.

We filled the space with lots of colorful balloon arrangements and organza table toppers.

The kids really loved playing Flamingo Croquet out on the grassy area next to the pool.

The cupcakes were made by the Kupcake Kitchen and looks so festive with all of the colorful gumballs.

The mom also wanted a candy bar filled with lots of treats.

To add to the children's sugar comas, we had the kids make up their own Sandy Candy tubes.

The twins are the girls on the left and center. They were so sweet. One twin brought me a giant lollipop and piece of cake.

There was also a DJ and an ice cream sundae bar. Everyone had such a good time!

Spooky Disneyland

On Monday, I took my kids to Disneyland. Disneyland during Halloween is my favorite! They transform many of the attractions into Halloween themes. Space Mountain has ghosts in the Cosmos and the Haunted Mansion (although creepy all year long) turns into a combo of Christmas and Halloween thanks to the movie "The Nightmare Before Christmas". A lot of people dress up, especially to kids, but we found this cow joining in on the fun at Big Thunder Ranch. Ever see a cow in a pink organza skirt? Me either.

This is a mantle all decorated at Big Thunder Ranch.

Matt decided to sit in on a poker game between 2 pumpkin cowboys but soon found out that they were cheating, so he left the game.

Here is Jack Skellington and Sally out for a buggy ride.

They have pumpkin carvers on the premises demonstrating their art. So many amazing creations!

Sheridan even tried on this beautiful pumpkin crown.

There are a lot of great photo ops in Disneyland. I especially like to vintage feel of this one, also at Big Thunder Ranch.

Doesn't the Haunted Mansion look great at night?

Main Street is so festive with pumpkins and banners adorning every window and ledge.

Disney put on a new Halloween themed firework show at Cinderella's castle. It was fantastic! Jack Skellington's dog, Zero, flew across the night sky as they played music from all of the Disney villians and shot up the most amazing fireworks. Matthew and I just marvel at how they put on such amazing shows every night and I just think about how they store all of the decor and catagorize it. Mind boggling!

Wedding Details

At the wedding I coordinated on Saturday, the bride had the guests sign the inside lid of a Longaberger basket instead of a traditional guest book. It was custom painted with the family's name and a fireman motif to represent the groom's profession. The bride's mom has been a Longaberger rep for many years and even the flower girls carried petals in their baskets and Longaberger baskets held flowers at the end of the pews.

The bride wanted the seating chart to be in keeping with the wedding venue. She hand painted all of the guests name on river rocks and then the table number on the underside of the rock. She then sealed them and they were placed around the fire pit during cocktail hour so the guests could find their table.

Candlelight was very important to the bride and there were a lot of candles. Some of the containers were glass yogurts containers and were placed on the tables, walls and mantle. There was even a roaring fire in the outside fireplace to keep the evening chill away.

In the previous post, I mentioned that I went to my prom with the bride's uncle. Here is our prom picture from 1983 on the left and our picture at the wedding on Saturday...26 years later!

Vineyard Wedding

I had the honor and pleasure of being the day-of coordinator of a dear family friend. The bride, Anna, used to babysit my kids and her mom, Dana, used to babysit me! I grew up across the street form the Hansen family. Dana was the oldest, Lisa, Mark (I went to my prom with him) and Juli, my best friend I would spend ALL day playing Barbies with. I feel like part of their family!

Anna married a fireman at a beautiful vineyard in Camarillo, CA. It was the last wedding of their season and they will be harvesting the grapes next week. It was a GORGEOUS fall day in southern California-sunny with a gentle, cool breeze. Above the fireplace, Ann put together wedding pictures of her and her groom's family, Parents, grandparents and great-grandparents and called it Generations of Love.

The bride's mother made the wedding cake and it sat on a barrel from the vineyard.

At 5:30 Thursday morning, Dana, Anna and I went downtown LA to the flower mart to buy all of the flowers for the wedding and Anna did all of the arrangements herself. The centerpieces consisted of wood planks that the groom cut, glass cylinders with decorative rock and floating candles, flowers in a square bowl and table cards made by the bride (she is a graphic designer). It was all surrounded by votives.

It was a perfect day and I loved being party of their celebration. I will try to post more pictures this week.