Party Punch–Recipe

One thing I love about parties is the punch! Seriously – I don’t remember a punch I didn’t like. Growing up my Aunt Jane made the best punch ever (and now that I think of it – I am going to ask her for the recipe!!). I looked forward to her punch and drank so much my belly hurt.

So naturally, I always have punch at the boys’ parties. At Mason’s Pirate Party I made the usual party punch. I adapted and changed a few things from a punch I found in an issue of Taste of Home.

Ingredients:

• 4 quarts of water
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 2 package of cherry kool-aid
• 1 can of orange juice concentrate (thawed)
• 1 can of lemonade concentrate (thawed)
• 1 46oz can of pineapple juice
• 1 liter of ginger ale

In a sauce pan combine 2 cups of water with sugar. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved. Remove and stir in kool-aid. Add remaining water and cool completely. (I usually let mine sit in the fridge overnight and I also pour a little into a Bundt pan to make an ice ring!)

Then when the kool-aid mixture is cooled combine OJ concentrate, lemonade concentrate and pineapple juice. Just before serving add ginger ale and stir-stir-stir! You may have to stir it a few times throughout the party because the concentrate settles to the bottom.

It is the best punch EVER!

Enjoy,

Death by Chocolate {My Way}

Instead of birthday cake for Mason’s party I made Death by Chocolate. I figured it would be fitting for a pirate party – death and chocolate in one? Just what every pirate wants to hear!

You will L-O-V-E this if you are a chocoholic!

You Need:

• Chocolate or Devil’s Food Cake Mix
• Oil
• Eggs
• Water
• (2) Instant Chocolate Pudding Mixes
• Milk
• Cool Whip – thawed
• Caramel Sauce

First - make the cake according to the directions on the box in a 9x13 pan. After it is done allow to cool.

Make the pudding and only use 1/2 of the milk it says to use on the box. Place in refrigerator until the cake has cooled.

In the bowl or dish of your choice layer 1/2 the cake. I break it up into chunks using my hands. Next layer 1/2 the pudding and then half the cool whip. After that drizzle caramel sauce over it. Then repeat the layers again 1/2 cake, 1/2 pudding, 1/2 cool whip, caramel drizzle! Refrigerate until ready to eat!

This is an amazing dessert! Unfortunately only half of this dessert disappeared at the party and now I’ve been tempted to eat the rest! Please excuse the ten pounds I will probably pack on by the end of the week!

Linking up here-

The Pirate Party!

Today was the day of the infamous Pirate Party. The one you have all heard about and are probably tired of by now! Here it is – no words needed.

Enjoy,

I’m linking up here-

Pirate Party Preparations {Part 3}

This is the last preparation post before the actual party! Party is in 5 days and I am not stressing because I started preparing WAY in advance. Don’t ask me how I feel Thursday night though – I will probably be a stressed out mess! Luckily I work today and tomorrow but have the rest of the week off. Wednesday and Thursday you will find me in the kitchen baking! (Cake pops, cookies on a stick, death by chocolate – I can’t wait to share the recipes!)

This weekend I put together the dessert table area..here are a few sneak peaks! Sorry that these aren’t the best photos – it was late!

I sewed ruffle streamers (thanks to instructions from MADE) and help from my Wyatt.

(Yes that is dirty laundry in the background and my vintage sewing machine! LOL!)

I made rock candy which will be ‘Rubies’ for the dessert table.

Made ‘Shot o’ Rum’ for the adults. I CAN NOT wait to share this recipe! You are in for a surprise on this jello shot!

and I finished up the favor bags! They include:

• Rolos (Gold Nuggets)
• Compass
• Blow Favor
• Swedish Fish (Shark Bait)
• Red water bottle
• Ring Pop

It was a busy weekend!

Enjoy,

How to Make Affordable Custom Water Bottle Labels

With Mason’s birthday party coming up I wanted to create custom water bottle labels. I knew that having them made by somebody else was out of the budget, so I made my own. I measured the bottles and created the design I wanted in Adobe Illustrator. Then I printed it onto Avery sticker paper (8.5 x 11 shipping label paper).

Silly me! As I was telling my husband my plan to make custom water bottles I realized that once the sticker paper got wet the ink could bleed. I looked up ‘waterproof’ and ‘water resistant’ papers on the internet and they were also out of the budget at upwards of $20 for 10 sheets of paper. I searched the web and found that some people suggested using clear packaging tape.

Here is what I did - 

I took my printed water bottle label page and cut the labels out using my paper cutter. (Make sure your tape is about .5 inch taller than your labels so that the tape will overlap the top and bottom to seal the label.)

Then I removed the label from my water bottles and wrapped them in a layer of packaging tape.

After wrapping the packaging tape around the bottle, I removed the sticker backing from my labels and wrapped them around (centering it on the tape to ensure there was tape above and below the label).

Now take one more piece of packaging tape and wrap that around the bottle. Make sure that the tape is centered once again so that the two layers of tape make a barrier and enclose the label.

I’m so happy with how they turned out! It was really easy and I used materials I already had on hand!

Linking up here-

Enjoy,