Jigsaw Puzzle Party

I threw myself a birthday party on Saturday. The theme was one of my favorite things: jigsaw puzzles!

To make my party hat, I started by coloring old puzzle pieces with Apple Barrel paint pens (affiliate links here and below). When they were dry, I coiled Twisteezwire in corresponding colors around each piece, then threaded the wire into a blue party hat. I secured the ends with masking tape. I used a Sharpie to write 54 on another puzzle piece and glued it to the front of the hat. 

Here's what the party invitation looked like. I had so much fun designing it! (I used PicMonkey, of course.)

I wore my puzzle piece necklace. It's from Springbok. I got mine for free awhile back for joining their loyalty club. I don't know that they do that anymore; probably not, since they're selling it now. 

So what do you do at a puzzle party? Puzzles, of course! We solved a neon 80's themed puzzle and a chocolate mystery puzzle. 

We made crafts using puzzle pieces. 

We played Puzzle Trivia (I'll share that tomorrow). And we played multiple rounds of Puzzle Chess. 

If you're not familiar with Puzzle Chess, I highly recommend it! We used a 48-piece puzzle; you can play with a puzzle up to about 100 pieces. Someone who is not competing completes the border and turns all the pieces face up. The contestants sit across from each other with a chess clock beside the puzzle. Start the clock, then the first player puts in a piece and hits the clock. The second player does the same. When the last piece goes in, the person with the least amount of time on their clock is the winner. It's really fun!

In between it all, we grazed. I love charcuterie boards for parties. They're so much fun to put together and everyone can grab what they like. Check out the puzzle piece candies!

I used the Celebrate It! Puzzle Piece silicone mold, sold by Michaels. I'm so frustrated that they don't sell it anymore, because it is AWESOME. As you can see, the finished candies actually interlock properly like puzzle pieces should. To make the candies, I prepared Wilton Candy Melts and added a drop of different LorAnn flavorings to each of the different colors before molding them. I didn't match the colors with the flavors logically (for example, purple was green apple), which left my guests a bit -ahem- puzzled.  

I had such a good time at the party! Thanks to my friends for helping make it so fun. If you're a jigsaw puzzle fanatic, I highly recommend throwing a puzzle-themed party of your own. 

How to Throw a 50 State Party: The Food

It was tempting to go all out and serve 50 items at our 50 State Party. Instead, I focused on foods that we discovered during our travels that I thought might be new and interesting to most of our guests. I ended up serving 11 foods and 2 drinks (the third drink I'd planned didn't arrive in time). Everyone enjoyed trying regional favorites they hadn't had before and I had several requests for recipes. Affiliate links below. 

This is the last of three posts about hosting a 50 State Party. Part one is about the invitation, guest book, and decorations. Part two is about the games and activities. Part three is all about the food. 

How to Throw a 50 State Party

While I would have loved to introduce my friends to Kentucky's Burgoo, North Dakota's knoephla soup, Oklahoma's Onion Burgers, or even Ohio's City Chicken, I'm saving them for a future dinner party. For our 50 State Party, I went with foods I could serve at room temperature or straight out of the fridge. And with the exception of one item, all were finger foods. I guess you COULD eat pie with your fingers, but I provided forks. I created a label for each food using the flag icons from my website. 

Several people asked me if there are any foods we discovered during our travels that are now part of my regular repertoire. There are many, but the one I've made most often is Biscochitos. We first discovered them in Santa Fe in 2016. They are the official State Cookie of New Mexico and they are now my go-to potluck item. Everyone likes them. 

Steen's is now a favorite in the deRosier house. It is delicious on biscuits, which is how we first tried it in New Orleans in 2019. Steve has even used Steen's for homebrew!

The first time we had Fry Sauce (more specifically, Hires Big H Fry Sauce), was during our 2016 trip to Salt Lake City. It's mostly served on hamburgers and as a dipping sauce for fries and tots, but we saw it offered on all sorts of other menu items across Utah. It's not typically used as a dip for potato chips, but that was the easiest way for my friends to taste it. You can make your own fry sauce, but our taste test determined that it won't be as good as Hires. 

Kringles are a Wisconsin favorite (they're the official State Pastry) and now they're a deRosier favorite too! There are sooo many flavors of Kringle and they all sound great. 

We bought Buffalo Berry Candy on a whim in the Dakotas and loved it. None of us had heard of buffalo berries before, but it turns out they are delicious! At least, they're delicious once you add a bunch of sugar. We still haven't tried them on their own. But I'd love to! The candy is intensely fruity, tart, and perfectly balanced. I can't think of another fruit to compare it with. You just have to try it!

Speaking of berries and the Dakotas, we got to taste chokecherries directly off the bush during a ranger talk at Wind Cave National Park. Yum! And they're even tastier with a bunch of sugar in the form of chokecherry jelly! The flavor reminds me of pomegranates. Chokecherries are the state fruit of North Dakota. 

Popcorn is a big deal in Illinois. Chicago even has their own style of popcorn, which we first enjoyed at Garrett in 2018. Chicago popcorn is a half-and-half mix of cheddar cheese and caramel popcorn. I thought it was weird at first -  cheddar cheese and caramel is not a normal flavor combination. But the more I eat, the more I love it. The salty and the sweet are perfectly balanced. 

St. Louis is famous for a lot of unique foods and I was determined to try them all! The Gooey Butter Cake was even better than I expected. This recipe comes really close to what we tasted from the bakery in Missouri. 

If you love factory tours as much as the deRosiers do, go to Hanover, Pennsylvania! That's where we first learned about Utz Potato Sticks. They're soooo good! 

Hoosier Pie is the State Dessert of the Hoosier State. It's creamy and sweet and super rich. Cut really thin slices! I used this recipe for the party. 

Pan de Campo is the official bread of Texas. We first discovered it through Little Passports back in 2018. It's basically a giant biscuit, cooked in a cast iron pan or Dutch Oven, then cut into wedges or torn into chunks. Yum!

I don't like coffee, but I really wanted to try Rhode Island's iconic drink, coffee milk. I served it at the party and it wasn't half bad. I'd drink it again. It would be even better churned into ice cream. The tour guides we had in Providence said that Aristocrat is the proper brand for a true coffee milk, so that's what I used. 

The other beverage I served was pink cranberry juice from Massachusetts. We learned all about pink cranberries during our fabulous bog tour. We took pictures of it at the party, but since I put it in an opaque pitcher, you can't appreciate how pretty it is. Better to show you how pink cranberry juice looks in the original packaging. 

As I mentioned at the top of the post, I'd ordered a third drink to serve but it didn't arrive in time. I'd hoped to share Michigan's Faygo with my guests, but it wasn't to be.  

There are so many other amazing foods and drinks we've discovered during our travels. While I wish I could have a real maple creemee every day, or have a hot brown and Derby pie at the Brown whenever I want, those foods are special because I can't have them at home. They contribute so much to the memories of our travels. I'm always thankful to that Steve and Trevor are adventurous eaters, but particularly so when we visit new places. It's been so much fun discovering all this together and I'm glad we had a chance to share a little bit of that magic with our friends during our 50 State party.  

How to Throw a 50 State Party: Games, Puzzles, and Activities

I know some people enjoy parties where you stand around and chat, but that's not my thing. I like parties with options to play games, solve puzzles, do crafts, sit down for a meal, or anything else that isn't just standing and chatting. To each their own, of course, but for my 50 State Party, I wanted to provide lots of options. 

This is part two of three series about hosting a 50 State Park. The first post is about the invitation, guest book, and decorations. Today's is about games and activities. The third post, which will be live on Monday, is all about the food. Affiliate links below. 

How to Throw a 50 State Party

Games:

There are a ton of great board games and card games themed around the 50 States. I did an entire blog post about the outstanding Across America Fluxx; it's a must-have for a 50 State Party. Other great options include: The 50 States Game; Trekking the National Parks; Ticket to Ride; The Oregon Trail Card Game; US bingo; and my homemade states and capitals matching game.

I received a copy of The 50 States Game directly from the manufacturer for this party. This link goes to their website, where you can see all the other fantastic games they make. I totally have my eye on The World Game! 

The 50 States Game is based on the states and their capitals, locations, flags, nicknames, postal codes, and more. No matter how much you know about the US, you'll know more about the states after a single round of this game. And, it's easily adapted if the players have different knowledge levels. It was a hit with our guests! 

We also played a version of 20 Questions. To play, one person pulls a flash card from a pile and shows everyone except the guesser. The guesser can ask up to 20 yes/no questions to correctly guess the mystery state. You can narrow down geographically (Does the state touch an ocean? Is the state west of the Mississippi? Does the state border Canada?) or you can focus on history (Was the state one of the original 13 colonies? Did the state secede during the Civil War?). You can ask about names (Is the state in the first half of the alphabet? Does its capital city have more than one word?) or culture (Does the state have a professional football team? Is the state home to a famous parade?) You can ask about weather (Is this state famous for its rainfall?) or geography (Does this state have a National Park?) or anything else (Jonna asked if the state she was trying to guess was one the deRosiers had trouble entering. LOL, yes!) 

Another popular activity at our 50 State Party was this puzzle. It's from PuzzleYOU, which makes very high-quality personalized puzzles at a reasonable price. I used the same design as the t-shirts we wore on our first day at our 50th state. 

There was always at least one person, and often more, sitting at the puzzle table. I thought it would be a relatively easy design since so much of the puzzle is words, but nope! I accidentally made a REALLY tough puzzle. The only easy parts are the pencil, and the blue US TOUR, and the dates. 

A handful of guests chose to do a Sticker By Number. The book is full of beautiful designs inspired by the United States. You choose a design, then use the included stickers to fill it in. It's a lot of fun!

I totally didn't expect gifts, but several of our friends brought us something. Totally unnecessary, but greatly appreciated! Trevor's friend gave him this awesome Mission Accomplished t-shirt. 

On Monday, I'll tell you all about the food I served at the party. 

How to Throw a 50 State Party: the Invitation, Guest Book, and Decorations

When we met our family goal of visiting all 50 states, I had already started planning a party to celebrate. I wasn't sure of the details, but I knew I wanted it to have a 50 States theme. I love a good party theme (scroll all the way down to see past themed parties I've thrown) and "50 States" is a GREAT theme. It's completely different than a patriotic party, which is focused on the USA as a country. A 50 States party focuses on the individual states within the country. I'm happy to report that it all came together and we had a wonderful time! Affiliate links below - thanks for supporting my site.

How to Throw a 50 State Party

The Invitation:

I love hosting dinner parties, but I wanted the 50 State Party to include more people than I'm comfortable having over for dinner. I also wanted it to be more casual so that I could just enjoy the party instead of focusing on cooking. I settled on a Sunday afternoon, open house style, and invited around 30 local friends who have been following our travels. This is the invitation I sent: 

I used the final graphic from our year-by-year progression GIF, then added the party information to it. I thought it was self-explanatory, but I can see how someone might have thought we were having a 50th birthday party (I'm 51 and Steve is 47). Oops! I should have clarified on the invitation that we were celebrating visiting all 50 states!

The Guest Book:

I wanted a way to document which of the 50 states our guests had visited. My solution was to create a "guest book" of sorts, in the form of a US map tablecloth that I hung on the wall. The tablecloth comes with pens, so I asked each guest to write their name in each state they'd visited. It's big enough that multiple people could write on it at the same time. 

It was so fun to learn which states everyone had visited. All of our guests had been to California (obviously), but the only other two states that everyone had visited were Arizona and Hawaii. All but one person (the youngest) had been to Nevada. Other states visited by most of our guests included Oregon, Idaho, and Colorado. The majority had been to Maryland and Virginia, due to their proximity to Washington D.C. The only state that no one had visited (except the three deRosiers, of course) was North Dakota. 

The Decorations: 

Finding patriotic party supplies is easy, but I wanted to decorate with what we already had on hand. I moved Steve's pin board and Trevor's US Capitol LEGO to a small table across from the front door. I lined the stairs with Trevor's collection of state flags. On the piano, I put my homemade patriotic coasters, state flash cards from my teaching days, some mini puzzles, Trevor's 50 State Album, and the certificate we got when we joined the Best for Last Club. 

On the wall by the door, I hung a "little d" wreath that Jonna brought us. It began life as a "capital P" wreath, but she moved the hanger to make it perfect for the deRosiers. I surrounded it with reference maps from my teaching days. We used these for one of our games. 

I put the tablecloth map on Trouble's wall. It's heartbreaking to type that; I miss him so much. His StickTogether portrait is still hanging on the back wall of the dining room. 

Anyway, between the map and the portrait, I hung two of our 50 state t-shirts. (We were wearing the third.)

Next to them, I hung some of my patriotic crafts, as well as some of my California crafts. 

I left plenty of empty space so that our guests could hang their projects. Tomorrow I'll tell you about that activity, along with the 50 State games and puzzle we did. 

Donut Cake

Along with Trevor's donut birthday banner, I got him some donut-themed gifts and baked him a donut cake. It was the easiest decorated cake I've ever made. It barely counts as decorated - it's that easy. Affiliate links below. 

Donut Cake

Materials:

• round tube pan
• Cake Release
• your favorite cake recipe
• ganache (equal parts heavy cream and chocolate)
• parchment paper
• Tic Tacs or Mike & Ike

Steps: 

Follow the directions on the Cake Release to prepare a round tube pan. I don't own a round tube pan, but I made due with a bundt pan. I took extra steps to deal with the fluted pan; skip those if you have a smooth tube pan. 

Bake the cake and let it cool completely. Frost the fluted area with buttercream, filling in the dips. Refrigerate the cake until the frosting is solid. Dip a knife into hot water, wipe it clean, then use it to smooth any ridges in the frosting. You want a nice, smooth surface (in other words, exactly what you'd naturally get if you use the correct pan). 

Make ganache by gently heating the cream, then adding chopped chocolate. Let it sit for a few minutes, then stir until it is smooth and glossy. Set the cake on a tray over a sheet of parchment paper. Let the ganache cool until it flows smoothly (without being runny), then spoon it over the cake. 

At this point, Steve walked by and pointed out that most donuts are dipped rather than drizzled, giving them a cleaner edge. He's totally right, but I was already committed so I continued to spoon on the ganache. For that cleaner look, pour your ganache into a baking pan that is slightly larger than the cake, dip the top, and then invert it onto the tray. Regardless of which method you use, the final step is to add the candies to mimic the sprinkles on a donut. 

Here's the birthday boy with his cake. I thought I was being clever using the 5 (which I thought was left over from his 5th birthday party, but apparently not) along with a standard candle to make a 15, but the flames were a wee bit mismatched. Oh well!

Because it was just the three of us, we have plenty left over. Not that I'm complaining - the cake was delicious! 

When Life Gives You Lemons... Celebrating a #Quaranteen Birthday

Yesterday was Trevor's 14th birthday. Obviously, hosting a party was out of the question because of COVID-19, but it was really important to me that we make the day as special as possible. It had been twelve long weeks since Trevor had seen his friends, so we made plans to bring cupcakes and goodie bags to nearby friends' houses for a socially-distanced drive-by birthday celebration. Trevor had requested lemon cupcakes with lemon frosting, so we went with a lemon theme.

Specifically, our theme was: When life give you lemons... share them with friends. 

We contacted his friends to make sure they'd be home, then mapped out a route that would take us from house to house. We made seven stops. At each house, we handed off the cupcakes and goodie bags and backed away to a proper social distance for a quick chat. It was a wonderful way to celebrate and I'd definitely recommend it if your #Quaranteen has a birthday.  

Happy birthday, Trevor!

Celebrating 13

I've already told you about Trevor's Peanuts-themed 13th birthday party; here's the layout about that fun day. 

13th Birthday Party (affiliate link)

Every item, except the white cardstock, is from the Party Boy collection by Photo Play. Sometimes it's nice not having to dig through different collections or different manufacturers to find embellishments that coordinate. It certainly makes scrapping faster to stick with a single collection. 

Children's Party Ideas

As one of my responsibilities as Editor of Fun Family Crafts, I handle our Pinterest account and regularly search for new ideas for the Children's Party Ideas board. For months, I've been wanting to make graphics for all of the party themes I've done over the years. It was a lot of work, but I am finally done. From now on, I'm making the graphics as I go - it's so much easier that way! 

You can click on the graphic to go to the post(s) about each party.