If You Give a Pig a Party-food and decor

I've been wanting to start a series of meals based on books for a while. With our honoring of Dr. Seuss this week, I thought it would be the perfect time to dive right in. We love all the books in this particular series, but If You Give a Pig a Party one is dear to us, because it's a book I check out for each of my children before their birthday. Although it's a pretty simple storyline, I think it will be added to our personal library soon. I'm all about traditions and I love the idea of having something that we do together on their special day each year. What a great memory for them to have!

In the story, a child is wanting to throw a party for a pig. It follows a progression of "If you give her this, she'll want that". While looking for friends, the pair ends up at a street fair where they play games and eat ice cream. Food, games, and ice cream?!? Twist my arm! :-)


Assembling this meal was quick and easy! I served grocery store chicken bites without even having to warm up, clown's bow tie pasta with a few veggies, feta, and Greek vinaigrette dressing, confetti fruit salad, popcorn in circus bags, small cups of peanuts, animal crackers, and lemonade with brightly colored plastic ice cubes. Plates were full, and the kids even went back for seconds! (A sign of food success in my book.)


















Our Dollar Tree had a section of small circus themed wind up toys, clown dress up items, and even some teeny carnival games that made the greatest and (bonus)inexpensive for the table. (Um, can you say, "Goodie bags!"??) It would be cute to continue the red and yellow streamers around the table to give a "big top" effect. I have started a collection of plastic place mats to use as accents for parties, and these striped ones worked so well with my table. So that's streamers, table cloth (reused from the Lego party), place mats, circus toys, and pinwheels....for under $10! I printed some cute piggies right from Microsoft Word to bring the pig to our party. Voila! A book brought to life!



I scooped the ice cream into muffin liners ahead of time so there wouldn't be that dreaded time lag during serving time. We turned ours into clown faces by flipping cones upside down, topping with a cherry, and adding candy faces and a whipped cream collar.

At our house, there is always a party for friends held sometime around the birthday and a small family celebration on the actual birthday. This is a great option for a different end to your child's special dinner. No need to bake another cake!


Make sure you check out the games we played that turned our meal into a real party! (Coming soon)















Meredith

Make sure you visit my facebook and Pinterest pages for more meal ideas!

Frugal party planning-Part 2

Now that you've seen some of the party decor, let's talk $$. The first thing my husband asked when I approached him with my idea was, "Can we afford this?". As a frugal shopper and couponer, I was so happy that he asked, because I worked so hard to plan this party on a budget! (Anyone else like to share their shopping successes with friends and family?!?)

I was ALSO glad I had began planning a full 6 weeks in advance, because saving money often means investing a little more time into the details. Do not allow a time crunch to sink your party! Designate a notebook as your party planning book, and brainstorm ideas for food and decor. There will always be last minute addons, but you can keep from breaking the bank if you put your ideas on paper before you begin.

Make sure that at least half of your items can be prepared in advance. Before I learned this trick, I was the frazzled woman, running around the house tense and snippy. Although I enjoy making birthdays special for the people I love, these parties had me up at 5 A.M. prepping food and decorating the party space. By the time the party started, I was a MESS! Wrap boxes in colors that coordinate with your theme. Get a large piece of thin, light wood and decorate it as the backdrop. Fill candy jars with colorful treats, and get those goodie bags stuffed early. You will be amazed how good you feel with these projects crossed off before the big day arrives! These are also great ideas for your spouse to help with, if you happen to be a Type A (like myself). Delegating a few tasks to others can give you extra time to focus on the details you want to personally oversee.

Our party was mid-February, so I began nailing down the theme right after New Years. I collected boxes in every shape and size, and became the toilet paper general, swiping used rolls to be the perfect Lego toppers. Party City had the best selection of solid colored wrapping paper, and I scooped up enough rolls to turn our entire house into a giant Lego! (Ok, not really, but it FELT like it by the time we were done!)

Each of the 4 tables at the party had a giant Lego in the middle, the food table had a Lego stack, the children's table had Legos hanging above it...and my total investment was about $6.00! How's that for frugal?!?

We chugged enough water bottles to create this fun ring toss game:


I used some extrabucks at CVS to get some tissue boxes for next to nothing. These were wrapped and dotted to look like legos, and would have been set up with balls for bowling if we had needed any other entertainment for the little ones.

The menu was themed, but not too hard, or expensive to create. I cooked a whole ham and sliced it into rectangles along with cheese and bread for a "build your own sandwich" table. Strawberry, pineapple, and blueberries were stacked for fruit picks, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers were stacked for veggie picks. We made these rice krispie Legos: and served the grid pretzels along with juice boxes wrapped in lego paper.

The part of the party I was most proud of was dessert. Several evenings were spent at the dinner table painting little Lego men into this awesome mold. Wouldn't this make some adorable little soaps, or even crayons for the goodie bags after the food making is complete? I love finding multiple uses for my purchases!




We used them to top cupcakes made with my homemade buttercream frosting for a special treat. The boys loved them, and I loved not having to slice a cake!

I was able to keep the cost of the party right around $100, including the rental of the park pavilion. We had 30 guests, and could have fed at least 10 more with what we had left. It really pays to plan ahead and find ways to create magic, instead of just buying it off the shelf! Our themed party was very special, and I know the boys will remember it for years to come!

I LOVE to help with party planning. If you have an idea you would like to encorporate into your child's special day and are stuck on how to get things rolling, send me a message on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/PurpleCarrotsInc/247967425287908

Frugal party planning-LEGO Part 1

What a great use for that pile of crayons we all have in our homes! These sturdy Lego brick crayons are perfect for kids of all ages!






These make a great addition to goodie bags. They also serve as a great ice breaker activity or a party snack, because they snap together and taste like Sweet Tarts!






Visit my pinterest page for links to the great printables I was able to personalize for our coloring books!




The homemade crayons we made turned out exactly as I had hoped! Even the teenagers at the party wanted to take them home! I packaged them in little baggies along with a note that read, "Thanks for adding a splash of color to our birthday!" and included them with coloring sheets that I found.