Making gourmet apples

Pardon me while I bore you with all our Halloween/fall traditions, but this is another one. I had my eyes opened to the magic that is gourmet caramel apples when I had my first bite of one from The Chocolate Factory in Park City. You know the apple pie one? Yumm! I had to try making them at home. I have a great caramel recipe that I found while working in the library at church a few years ago. See, the Lord does bless us when we serve faithfully!

So here's the scoop on making homemade gourmet candy apples, Jill-style. First you start with popsicle-speared apples. The crunchier the better. Biting into a soggy apple is just not a good experience, no matter how many layers of caramel and chocolate you give it.

Then you dip it in caramel, then chocolate, then your choice of toppings. I've tried many, but my favorite is still white chocolate and cinnamon sugar. Yummo!

Savannah's creation was white chocolate and butterfinger.

I believe Irelynd went with milk chocolate and oreos. Sounds good, but the flavors don't mesh well. Not sure what it is... I'm just biased, I think.

Spooky dinner

One of our Halloween traditions is to have a spooky dinner with fun foods. We have a different menu every year (partly because I just can't remember what we had last year!) This year we had witch hands (chicken fingers), potato ghosties, ladies fingers (steamed carrots), and root beer in a cauldron, complete with dry ice effects. The kids love this last one best. We listen to our Halloween CD Scott made for Savannah's Halloween birthday party 2 years ago, light candles, and sometimes we'll tell scary stories. This year the twins did not want to cooperate, so it was a bit rushed, like most of our dinnertimes:)

Brighton's 3rd birthday party

Ok, here is the last in my posts about birthday parties for this year. Wow, I outdid myself this year:) After the intense work for Savannah's and Irelynd's parties, this one felt like a cinch; it was lovely:) It was nice to do something simple and boyish. Brighton was SO excited for his party--he kept telling everyone about it for months beforehand. That may have been my fault, for talking it up. I was glad he was so excited, though. It made it worth the work and effort. Here are the little construction workers.

This is the invite. Brighton is obsessed with tractors so we had a construction party for him.

Everybody received a hard hat and apron, courtesy of Home Depot, when they arrived.

We played a few games, starting with Toss it, where they threw small balls into the back of Brighton's dump truck. SOme of those boys have great arms, for a three-year-old!

Then we played Fix it, AKA pin the scoop on the tractor. Yes, I drew it, and not Brighton, though he probably would have done a better job of it.

Connect it worked better in my head than in practice. What I learned from this game is that 1 set of PVC pipes + 5 3-yr-old boys= one big sword fight. We had to disarm the kids quickly and usher them on to the next game.

This was the biggest hit of the party. We made a wrecking ball with a small rubber ball, some yellow duct tape, some twine, and a banister pole. The kids loved knocking over the tower of empty boxes by throwing the ball at them. One of the boys helped me restack in between his turns so he could get a turn faster. They were hilarious to watch.

Last was Eat it. We sang happy birthday to Brighton and served brownie "cake" out of his dump truck and wrecking ball ice cream. I loved how my road table cloth came out.

It even had worms!

Here are my wrecking ball ice cream balls. I rolled them in sprinkles and added a licorice rope "chain."

Brighton had to be convinced to open everyone else's presents. He got a sneak peak inside Luke's bag and saw the set of mini tractors in it, and that was it for him. I was glad no other parents were there to see my son acting so ungraciously. Actually, after all was opened, this tool box turned out to be his favorite toy; it went everywhere with him over the next few days.

Dave having fun with the boxes after the party was over.

Dave's a little boy at heart still...

This has become my favorite photos of Brighton. What a face. This really captures him well.

And another. It was a fun day, and if nothing else, he loved his party. The party went exactly as planned; timing was good for everything, and all the boys got along and played the games as expected. (ok, if you don't count the pipe bashing game). I had fun with this one. I'm already planning his next one in my head. I think I have a mental illness...

Savannah's Harry Potter birthday party

Ok, sorry for the monster-long post, if anyone actually reads this:) For Savannah's last birthday party I finally convinced her to do a Harry Potter theme. I have been wanting to do this theme since I started doing birthday parties. Having a birthday in the fall makes it convenient for party shopping, with Halloween just around the corner. I had a lot of fun planning this party, but it about killed me--it was SO much work!!! Especially on the heels of Irelynd's Fablehaven party just 2 weeks earlier. We are scaling back next year, I tell you what! (if anyone believes me:)

We sent out invites congratulating the kids for being accepted into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and telling them to report to Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station. We hung this sign outside on our front porch...

and the "brick wall" curtain over the front doorway, so the kids could run through the brick wall, like they do in the books. It looked pretty realistic, but was So time consuming to do it!

Next they waited in the living room for everyone to arrive, and we gave them some Bertie Bott's beans, which, by the way, have been discontinued and replaced with BeanBoozled Beans. I was really disappointed, but it was ok. When everyone arrived, Scott and I greeted the kids as Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall, and led everyone upstairs to Diagon Alley to purchase their supplies, since they all came from Muggle families. Scott was a good sport to wear the wig and beard for so long.

We started with Gringotts Bank, where each student received a money pouch to purchase their supplies with. We painted little disks of wood for the coins, and put them in small bags I sewed and tied with each guest's name. I included a picture of Griphook the Goblin, and the phrase quoted in Book 1.I had some stores, just for the look, like Eeyelops Owl Emporium.

The Restricted Library was actually downstairs and just for effect.

The kids started at Madame Malkin's Dress Shoppe, where I outfitted them with a robe. I pretended to measure them around, up and down, etc, and them gave them a robe I made from black tableclothes from the Dollar Store. I wanted to do them out of felt or something more lasting, but it was going to be too expensive, so this was my solution. Actually, I think Scott came up with it. Savannah's I made out of real fabric, as it was to be her Halloween costume.

I could have kicked myself that night because I forgot to take pictures of everything until the party was over, so I didn't get the full effect of the set up.

Another store just for effect was Quality Quidditch Supplies. I hung some brooms from the ceiling with fishing line to make it appear like they were flying.

We sent them to Flourish and Blotts to get their textbooks. This was a timely and expensive part of the party, which I think was totally wasted on the kids. I made each of them a textbook with trivia relating to each of the subjects they would be studying at school that night. Unfortunately, they got put together out of order so it was a complete waste. Oh well, I'll know for next time...

Borgin and Bourkes covered the entrance to the bathroom and closet

I think this was the kids' favorite part--when they got to pick their wands at Ollivander's. Scott made the wand holder. It was a cut-off pop container with a small flashlight attached at the bottom. We made wands for everyone. We collected small branches for months beforehand and stained them all. I had intended on having them in small boxes with descriptions, like in the book, but decided it would not be feasible, and the kids wouldn't care about the little details. When the child chose a wand, they would tap the jar and say "lumos." If the jar lit up (or we turned on the flashlight), it was a match. If not, they had to choose again. To turn off the light they said "knox." I borrowed this clever idea from other party planners on the web.

After being outfitted with all the neccessities, we "apparated" back into Hogwarts, where I gave them the speech McGonagall does in Book 1. Then we sorted them into houses using the sorting hat Scott made. I was so impressed with his genius with this project, more than any other he's ever completed in our marriage. He made this sorting hat with only a computer picture as his guide. No pattern whatsoever! I was proud of my man, let me tell you!

It looked better than the one at the store for $30! Here is the artiste modeling his creation!

This is the only picture I got of the Sorting Ceremony. We sorted the kids equally in the 4 houses. Savannah, of course, was in Gryffindor.

Next we had the feast in the Banquet Hall. We made large House banners from felt, and Scott printed and laminated great big house seals that we pinned onto the banners. We added "floating candles" and the room looked so great! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the entire effect, with the tables set up.

As the kids were sorted, they sat down at their house table, where I had colored scarves over their chairs for them to put on to tell them apart. They looked so great!

Here's another view. I had 2 tables for the kids, sitting 2 houses together, plus a teacher's table. They ate on gold plates over my gold chargers, with gold cups and flatware. I had candles, but they soon melted the tableclothes, so we had to blow them out. I found recipes online for pumpkin juice and butterbeer. I even juiced a pumpkin for it, but none of the kids liked the pumpkin juice and some wouldn't even try it. Butterbeer was too sweet, but the kids liked it best. We also served fish sticks, chicken poppers, carrots, rolls, and mashed potatoes.

We had the kids sing the Hogwarts song, and gave them instructions before we sent them to their various classes. We had 4 classes, and split the kids up into 2 groups, with Gryffindor and Ravenclaw together; Slytherin and Hufflepuff together.

The first class was Care of Magical Creatures with Hagrid. The kids had to each find a magical creature, which was worth a certain dollar amount. When they found it we awarded them the number of galleons it was worth.

Scott was again, a good sport for being Hagrid for me in yet another uncomfortable mask. This party required 3 costume changes: Dumbledore, Hagrid, and a House Elf, which was his own invention in order to remove the Dumbledore costume.

My friend Teresa consented to come as Professor Trelawney and teach Divination for me. Thanks a million Teresa! Doesn't she look great?!

Next was Herbology with Professor Sprout. Thanks Sallie for coming to help! The kids had to pick a bubotuber pod and poke it to release the bubotuber puss, which they then had to each fill a vial with it. I filled black balloons with green-dyed vanilla pudding, which was not an easy thing to do! I expected that the pudding would just ooze out of the small hole created with the safety pin. Unfortunately, some popped and sent bubotuber puss everywhere. Luckily, the class was outside and afforded easy clean up.

Savannah got covered in it.

Here are the pods and vials. You can see the aftermath on the table.

Next was Potions with Professor McGonagall filling in for Professor Snape, who was on special assignment from Dumbledore. I created about 20 different vials of stuff for the kids to make potions with. The first class followed the recipe for Polyjuice potion, but it took too long, and the second class just poured and stirred, which I think they thought was more fun.

Some of the potions.

Divination with Professor Trelawney was taught in our laundry room. We created a crystal ball from an upside-down candleholder and glass light cover. It was pretty realistic. I had intended on putting dry ice inside it to create smoke, but ran out of time. Here is the aftermath of letting the kids pour and mix haphazardly. Gross!

Birthday cake was cauldron cupcakes--the filling is apple flavored cotton candy.

I used "magic" candles for Savannah. She'd never heard of them before, and you can see on her face her reaction--she was freaked out by them! It took blowing them out 3 times before she realized they weren't normal candles. She scooted her chair far back from the table like they were going to bite her.

As everyone was finishing their cake, we took small groups of 3 or 4 kids into the kitchen and let them go shopping with their earned galleons at Honeydukes Sweet Shoppe. This was my favorite part of the party to create. I realized that food excites me most with parties. What does that say about my potential to ever be thin???

I made jelly slugs, cockroach clusters, peppermint toads, chocolate frogs, and licorice wands.

Group photo just before going home. We had some dueling going on, as you can see!

I was fairly disappointed in how this party carried out, but I think it was a lot to do with the amount of work I put into it, and my expectations. THere was too much dead time in between activities for the kids; if I did it again I would NOT separate the kids for classes, and just cut down the number of guests. I worked so hard on decorations, I neglected the details of flow in carrying it out. I think the kids had fun; I didn't get much feedback from anyone, but that's been typical for me. Savannah loved it, and that's what matters I guess. Next year, we're going to Chuck E Cheeses...or so I like to tell myself.