Glimpses of Easter

I hope you all had a wonderful day!

St. Patrick’s Day Cupcakes

“Lucky in Love” ~ St. Patrick’s Day Brunch

This morning I hosted a Saint Patrick’s Day Brunch at our home for our friends & their spouses. I themed it ‘Lucky in Love’ to celebrate the love in our lives & Saint Patrick’s Day all in one.

The menu consisted of Scrambled Eggs, Oatmeal Mint Muffins, Sour Cream Pancakes (with all the fixin’s) , Lucky Charms & some Mint Chocolate Cake Pops.

 

 

I used this recipe, but altered it a little bit for the muffins. They were delicious & super moist! I will definitely make them again.

 

For Pancake toppings we had Syrup, homemade Sweet Cream spread, Strawberry Jam & Sliced Strawberries.

 

I dipped the cake pops in melted Ghirardelli Mint Chips….so yummy!

 

As an activity, we filled out these little tags for our spouses with 10 reasons why we are lucky to have each other. I found the printables here from the Dating Divas & put them together beforehand.

Such a fun idea for a delicious brunch!

“Queens of the Court” Basketball Party

 

This weekend I threw a party for the girl’s basketball team that I have been coaching this winter. Our final game was last week & I wanted us to be able to get together one more time since most the girls go to different schools.

I made some individual cake pops for all the girls…aka my ‘Queens.’ :) I used a orange & pink theme and had a great time preparing. It is surprising easy to find orange food items!

 

Also on the menu were chocolate covered Oreos, Cherry Vanilla Cupcakes & a Rice Krispy Cake.

 

I came up with the theme “Queens of the Court” based on one of the drills we do at practice. Plus, I wanted to make this party a little girly instead of just sporty.

 

I tried to add some healthy items to the table too. I have been doing that a lot more lately…just to balance things out!

 

While the girls were playing some games, I set up their completion certificates. I hope they are all proud of themselves and the fact that they finished the season strong!

 

We had a great time! It was fun to get together off the court & see everyone's personalities come out even more. We ate, played games & the girls danced their butts off playing Dance Central.

And here is my team & I:

Thanks for a great season ladies!

Colorfully Healthy Birthday Party

Yes, I had yet another party. That makes three in a row, one each week of February! And, I love it.

But, because of all the sweets I have made this month, I decided to focus this party on healthier food items and less desserts! My cousin Kirsten turned 27 this week and we were already planning on having a girl’s night, so I decided to make it a real party with dinner and décor. I chose the colors based on the ‘Happy Birthday’ banner that I already made a few months ago. I had almost everything for this color scheme already, so that made for super easy setup.

As you can see, I looked up the health benefits of each food item served and added that to the label.

I made turkey sandwiches with bread I bought at Kneader’s Bakery. I tried Asiago Cheese and 100% Whole Wheat this time and they were both really yummy and fresh. It was much cheaper to assemble them myself than to buy premade sandwiches and they tasted delicious!

I made oil-popped Popcorn throughout the night and added some Agave Nectar & salt for a Kettle Corn taste. Yummm.

Of course, I had to have some sweets, since it was a birthday party with all women! I made Kirsten’s favorite mint Oreo cake pops and then had some colorful candy that I found in the bulk section of Winco (why yes, I do shop there a lot…).

I still can’t believe they had individual bins of gummy bears in the exact colors I needed! Can you say meant to be?? At least that’s what I told myself & Scott when I came home with them…

We had about 8 of our female cousins there and it was lots of fun. We watched some major chick flicks (any other “She’s The Man” fans out there?!), played some games, ate and talked. It was great to get together with everyone and we need to do it more often!

Happy Birthday Kirsten!