Mad Hatter's Tea Party Part Two - Photo Booth Props

Since I last posted, the party has taken place. So, I have more pictures to share with you.  It was great fun and I have heard from many of the Mums that their girls had a great time.

One of the projects I completed for the party was to create a set of photo booth props. I found this picture on pinterest:

I set out to recreate it using colored card stock. As it turns out, my card stock didn't have the stability I thought the props would need, so I drew out all the colored pieces freehand, and then glued them to a backing of posterboard to make sure they would be extra sturdy before attaching  the wooden sticks.  I am sure that I could have purchased sticks to use, but as I was trying to be frugal, I simply used some wooden skewers that I already had on hand.  I made sure, however, that the pointy end of the skewer was secured to the back of the props, so there wouldn't be any sharp points sticking out!

Here are the props that I created:

And here is the Birthday Girl and her Bestie having some fun with them!

Mad Hatter's Tea Party Birthday Bash - Preparation Part One

Our family only throws birthday parties every other year for the girls, to try to help keep life a bit more manageable.  This is Sophia's year to have a party, and as she is turning 10, I figure it may be my last opportunity to really "martha" a birthday party. Sophia picked the theme Alice in Wonderland, and I'm going to "martha" the heck out of it!
We explored many other options in and around London for a birthday party, but wow - can they be expensive.  Sophia's first choice was to invite all of her friends to do the double-decker bus tea party. The prices just weren't feasible for our family to swing inviting all of the girls she wanted to invite. So, we took the idea of a tea party, and built on that, with the help of Pinterest.

First, the invitations...

We discovered these wonderful invites on etsy, and worked with the designer (who was terrific, and very prompt) on a custom design for Sophia. I won't show Sophia's actual invite here, as it includes our personal information, but you get the gist of it.

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/482248785/alice-in-wonderland-birthday-party?ref=shop_home_active_11

Due to family schedules, the party isn't to take place until several weeks after her actual birthday, so it allows me plenty of time to get my "martha" on!

I used this handy printable party planner that I found to gather and organize my ideas for decor, activities, and more!

It can be found here - http://thecraftingchicks.com/party-plan-printable/

I was inspired to do some chalkboard art as simple decorations.  I will place one outside the front door to welcome guests, and the other inside near the food table. 

I found these inspirations on pinterest.

In an effort to be economical, I only purchased two chalkboards, thinking to repurpose them after the party by giving them to two of my girls to use in their rooms - perhaps even hanging them on the outsides of their bedroom doors.

I did a little research online to make sure that I wouldn't permanently leave the designs on the chalkboards. Sure enough, they need to be seasoned first. This is done by turning a piece of chalk on it's side and rubbing the entire surface of the chalkboard with a liberal layer of chalk.  Then, wipe clean with a dry cloth.

I purchased the chalkboards and chalk markers on Amazon.

Here is the finished product:

More in another installment!

Hello Fresh - Baked Cheesy Chicken Taquito with Zesty Salad

Hello Fresh is a company here in the UK that delivers recipe boxes directly to your home. 

I was visited this past week by a lovely young lady who was a representative of Hello Fresh, offering a promotional deal. I had already heard of Hello Fresh, and had researched them briefly in the past. So a promotional deal to give them a try was tempting to me. I signed up, and received my first box yesterday.  I decided on a family box, with two meals, each serving four people. I was able to go online and choose between the options available for the week, and this is one of the recipes I chose - Baked Cheesy Chicken Taquito with Zesty Salad.

The box was filled with all of the ingredients I would need for both of my chosen meals, and recipe pages with photos and detailed instructions.

One of the appeals of the service offered by Hello Fresh was that I would receive only the amounts of ingredients needed for the recipe, and there would be no waste - no extra tortillas that would grow stale in the cupboard, or veggies that would not be used!

Another appeal is that I would stretch myself a little and try new things, maybe discover some new family favorites!

Above you see just the ingredients for the taquitos - the little cheese cubes look adorable, but I am not necessarily looking forward to trying to grate them!

I loved the detailed instructions and pictures of the various steps.  The recipe card said it would take 30 minutes to prepare and it cooks for 10-15 minutes.  So... that means I have to do all the prep in about 15 minutes. Hmmmm. I think that is assuming I am a faster cook than I am, but we shall see!

The cheese provided came in the form of three tiny blocks of cheese, similar to that I would give the girls as a snack. I thought that might make it more challenging to grate the cheese without grating a bit of finger in with it! :( But, I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually just fine.  Once I saw the amount grated, though, it occurred to me that my family would have probably liked more cheese to be included, but less makes it healthier - right?

I sauteed my onions in a bit of olive oil...

Then added the chicken and spices...

Here is the filling, with the onion and chicken tossed together with the fresh spinach and cheese and sour cream (or soured cream, as they call it here in the UK)!

I filled and rolled all of the taquitos and filled them as full as I thought I could, while (or whilst, as they say in the UK) still being able to actually roll them up properly.

Sadly, though, I had a bit of filling left over. However, that was not a problem, as several hungry children wandered through the kitchen and snagged a bit of filling until there was none left!

Here is a side by side comparison of my finished product and the sample picture provided by Hello Fresh.  Theirs is obviously the one above.  I cooked my taquitos for 15 minutes, but they probably needed a bit longer to get browner and crispier. But, the aforementioned hungry children, and the fact that I had to get one fed and out the door to her gymnastics class, precluded me from cooking mine even a minute longer!  

They were quite delicious and all of the girls gave them a big thumbs up! Even though I would guess that the complete preparation time was closer to 45 minutes to an hour, I didn't think it was unbearable.  And the finished product seemed well worth the time.   

My conclusion is that, so far, I am quite pleased with Hello Fresh.  We have one more meal to try out this week. However, I have already checked out the offerings for next week and didn't see anything that I fancied trying, so I suspended my delivery until the following week. If I continue the service beyond that will be determined by if I find anything tempting on offer.  We shall see!