A festival of color - what a beautiful party!

Someday I'd like to see this in person. Any party that simply celebrates life, love and the triumph of good over evil - for TWO WEEKS, I'm in.  The colors are amazing and the joy on their faces is palpable!

Party in a box (and no, it's not wine.)

Throwing parties for kids can be daunting. I'm no Martha.  And I know that my sister, who has 3 girls and a full time job, can't always get out to buy the right decorations and supplies necessary for properly representing true love and devotion which we all know parties are symbolic of in New York.  The more expensive - means the more we love you.   So one year I thought I'd send her the whole thing - everything (except us family on the other coast :(  and I found the best site to buy this "party in a box."   Birthday in a Box has many different collections for girls and boys - all in the same theme. There are animal parties (horses - omg breathe!), butterflies, movies, characters, princess / prince, sports, dinosaurs etc.  So you can get a tropical fish pinata, tropical fish games & favors, tropical fish plates & cups, streamers, sippy cups, candles and tropical fish invitations. Even stuff for sleepovers: the kids can personalize their own pillowcases or color their own dinosaurs! Everything - literally - except the cake and the kids. I have this site bookmarked because sometimes for each birthday I just send a couple of the games/favors to her house since there always seems to be more than her 3 kids running around. She has to make sure she recognizes the ones she puts to bed. 

Craftastic Halloween Spread

We had a last-minute Halloween party sneak up on us.  No, not like in a fun, Hitchcockian way (I wonder if anyone has ever made that word up and used it in a sentence like I just did) but in a hurry-up-and-look-properly-festive kind of way.  Baby Z's cousin lives in Queens so they wanted to come out to our neighborhood for trick-or-treating. Not sure what that says about Queens but, we loved the idea of the cousins joining forces for some candy hunting.  So we added another kid to the list and his parents and their in-laws in town, and they told their friends, and so on and so on... and all of a sudden, without any prep time, I'm running around like a deranged bat out of hell (in a bathrobe no less) vacuuming and baking with 30 minutes before guests are due to arrive.  I managed to scare up (I know, I just rolled my eyes too) some decorations and dug out a strand of little lights. But flaked on what Halloween treats to serve.  I do have an old standby: the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie, which, by the way, is ah-maaazing.  But seeing as how the main objective of the day was to acquire absurd amounts of candy and sugar, I needed a non-sugar, festive appetizer that contained some protein to balance out the carb overload.  I found it. Cheese!  And pumpkin shaped.  And really easy to make.   Isn't she cute?! 

Here's the recipe from Allrecipes.com:

Shape the Cheddar and cream cheese mixture into the shape of a small pumpkin and add a broccoli stem to serve as the stem. Serve with fresh apple wedges for an autumn appetzier.

Yield: 16 servings

Ingredients

• 2  (8-ounce) blocks extra-sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1  (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1  (8-ounce) container chive-and-onion cream cheese
• 2  teaspoons  paprika
• 1/2  teaspoon  ground red pepper
• 1  broccoli stalk
• Red and green apple wedges

Preparation

Combine Cheddar cheese and next 4 ingredients in a bowl until blended. Cover and chill 4 hours or until mixture is firm enough to be shaped.

Shape mixture into a ball to resemble a pumpkin. Smooth entire outer surface with a frosting spatula or table knife. Make vertical grooves in ball, if desired, using fingertips.

Cut florets from broccoli stalk, and reserve for another use. Cut stalk to resemble a pumpkin stem, and press into top of cheese ball. Serve cheese ball with apple wedges.

Note: To make ahead, wrap cheese ball in plastic wrap without stalk, and store in refrigerator up to 2 days. Attach stalk before serving.

I'm just a girl

Baby Zee went to a birthday party yesterday. I just loved this beautiful face-painting that the artist from Artscetera did.  My baby looks so exotic with that bindi.  By the time she's old enough to understand / care who Gwen Stefani is, she probably won't understand OR care who Gwen Stefani WAS.  Still super cute.