Sunday, July 17, 2011

Pirate Party!

Yesterday was Teeter's 5th birthday party.  She was dead set on having a pirate themed party, but I did not want the party to be all black and red and skulls.  So I made the theme a little more beachy with pirates too.   I found some girl pirate clipart here.  Then I used photoshop to change up the colors a little bit.  Her cake was a pirate's treasure chest.  It look me hours and hours to make, but it turned out perfectly!  I was very pleased.  Everything was edible, from the hard candy jewels I poured myself to the wood made from fondant.  Our kitchen table was set up as a pirate gear station which was a HUGE hit!  I ordered a pirate hat kit from Oriental Trading.  It came with 12 craft foam hats and hundreds of foam stickers.  All the kids had an amazing time decorating their own pirate hats.  I also ordered from Oriental Trading some big round gold clip on earrings and some skull rings.  At the Dollar Tree I found some little plastic telescopes and compasses.  I bought all different colored bandannas from Hobby Lobby, and bought grey, pink, and blue craft foam and cut out swords for each of the guests.  For the swords, I found a clipart image that I liked the shape of.  Put it into Word on a legal sized page and stretched it to fill the entire page.  Then I printed it out and cut it out.  I cut the handle off of the blade and traced each one on the coordinating colored craft foam.  Then I simply glued the handle to the blade.
The party favor boxes were found at Hobby Lobby in the wedding section.  They came with the stickers and ribbons.  Tip on these:  the packaging does not tell you how to print on these.  If you go to Hobby Lobby's website there are templates for this brand as they made invites, favors, etc.  The pirate punch was a fun idea I had.  For her party invites, I did messages in a bottle.  They are pictured below.  I had a bunch of bottled left over and decided to print labels and fill them with strawberry lemonade.

For her dessert table, I found a template for popcorn cups here.  I used the altered clipart I had purchased to decorate the popcorn cups.  There is an amazing popcorn and candy shop in Downtown McKinney, TX.  It's called Mom and PopCorn Company.  Teeter picked out this purple candied popcorn which went perfectly with the rest of the party.  We also had cookies, her cake, and Hershey's chocolate nuggets which I printed custom labels for.  We also had these beautiful lollipops that I ordered from Hammond's.





Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Mississippi BBQ

On our vacation, after leaving Vicksburg we decided we needed to try some Mississippi BBQ before we left the state.  Oh my goodness!  These were the best ribs I have ever had!  All eight of us loved every bite.  It was a little hole in the wall called Leatha's Bar-B-Que Inn in Hattiesburg, MS.  You can check out there website here.




Ice Cream Crank Off

A couple weeks ago Downtown McKinney hosted their annual Ice Cream Crank Off.  There were all kinds of rides and such and quite a few ice cream contestants.  I truly wish I could tell you this ice creams were amazing and it was so hard to pick one to vote for, but that was not the case.  We tasted only one that was remotely good, but the idea of the crank off is super fun.  It is a newer event in McKinney and really needs some tweaking, but hopefully next year there will be some good entries and more organization.  Either way, the girls had so much fun on the pony rides, merry-go-round, and airplanes.









P.S. Doesn't Bulbs look beautiful in the apple dress my aunt made for her?

Fourth of July Trifle

Over the weekend we went to my mom's house to swim and have some lunch.  Since it was 4th of July weekend, I decided to take an Independence Day Trifle with us.  It was fresh, light, delicious, and beautiful! I just had to photograph it, and they are some of my favorite food photos!  Enjoy! I got the recipe here.











All images are copywritten images of Bree Harris

Vicksburg, MS

For those that do not know...we drove to Disney World for our vacation.  Yes, drove.  18 hours each way.  With four children and four adults.  It actually went much, much better then I had imagined it would with four small children.  On our way to Florida we stopped in Vicksburg, Mississippi to see the Civil War site and drive the park.  It was stunning.  The history was rich, everything was so green, and the monuments were beautiful.  All eight of us really enjoyed this stop.





















All images are copywritten works of Bree Harris

Farmer's Market Summer Time

Trying to catch up on some of my blogging this week!  I am way behind!  The farmer's market here in McKinney is in full bloom with summer fruits and veggies!  I shared pictures of the beautiful tomatoes and such a couple months ago.  These peaches are by far the best peaches I have ever had!  So full of flavor and always perfectly ripe.  We have so much fun going out to the market, and the girls always enjoy it as well.  I love walking under the shade trees and listening to the blue grass bands while looking at and eating some of the most beautiful food I have ever seen. 




















All images are copywritten works of Bree Harris