My beautiful mother turned 50 this year on 11.11.11. She wanted to have a big party to celebrate based on the magical date. I decided I was going to help make this happen since I'm the only one with so much free time, and my mother doesn't ask for much. She definitely deserved this party. She is such an amazing woman. The theme was 'Make a Wish on 11.11.11' since you're supposed to make a wish when the time is 11:11. This is going to be a lengthy post, but it was a pretty awesome party and thus warrants lots of pictures, all done by my wonderful sister Brianne. See more of her awesome work
here!
I frayed the black streamers, which I felt gave them more of a punch and less 'eh', an idea I got from
Oh Happy Day although I did it a tad different, and then hung gold and silver stars we cut out from sparkly paper. My hope of putting them together was to make it look like a night sky, to go along with the make a wish part of the theme, you all know the Disney song,
"When you Wish Upon a Star".
This was my secret project. I got a number of relatives to send me memories of and notes to Vauna and then went through all of our pictures and picked out my favorites of my mom, made them black and white for consistency, and then hung them all on ribbon with mini paperclips. There was a station for people to write notes to add to it. There is subtle theme-ing here...I hung them in 11.11.11 fashion. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who noticed or cared, sometimes I get a little carried away. It was so neat to see what people had to say about my mom, and to see the pictures of her over the years. I hope to age as well as my mom has!
Now for the food! The chocolate cake above was my dad's project, a recipe based off of Magleby's chocolate cake, which is my mom's favorite, and was the only non-vegan food at the party. Can you tell he's excited? (When he saw the picture he was upset with what ever he's doing with his jaw, I had to tell him he actually makes this face from time to time, and dubbed it a 'Mike Davis face' I think it's one he makes when he's excited).
Surrounded by four different types of chips and crackers is the best Hummus recipe I've ever had. Seriously so good. I believe it's roasted red pepper. I'll post the links to those I found online, this is one you should definitely try if you're a fan of this chickpea treat.
Olive Tepenade and Bruschetta, we slathered this on toasty slices of baguette. We took a shortcut and bought the bruschetta pre-made from Costco. Not bad but I felt there was kind of a bite to it that took some of the enjoyment out of it for me.
These Pinwheels were sooo good! We used Tofutti cream cheese, which I think is pretty dang good personally.
Cucumber Slices with Chickpea Puree and Thyme. I got the recipe from the
Whole Living website. These were pretty good, although the puree wasn't quite as smooth as I would've liked, and I needed to add more salt. I enjoyed them, especially the cucumber, but not my favorite thing at the party.
Seriously the best ginger cookies I've ever had in my life. Soft and chewy, sweet and the perfect amount of ginger. Delicious. We made the dough ahead of time, refrigerated it and then cooked them the day of.
Coconut Pumpkin Bread. I could just eat and eat and eat this. These are two of my most favorite flavors, together. It's a union to celebrate.
Herb Roasted Mixed Nuts. Quite tasty.
Some pretty good punch from
Paula Deen. I tried making a batch and then adding a second, but I didn't prepare the second batch of boiled sugar water, so I was just adding in extra water to not make it so strong. Super good recipe though. Next to it you can see the peanut butter balls, they aren't a really sweet treat, but make a great snack.
Guest took home "Eleven Goodies" choosing from a delicious selection to put in their goodie bag with closure stickers (address labels :) with 11.11.11 printed on it. We had way too much candy left over, which my mother, as health conscious as she is, has hidden...and now can't remember where she has hidden it. You KNOW this is driving me crazy. All that goodness laying around feeling unwanted!
The party ended with a 'Wish Release.' Throughout the evening people wrote their wishes on these sky lanterns (we had eleven total, surprised?) that we lit and released at 11:11 pm. It was absolutely beautiful. Most people had to leave before it got that late, but it was really something to see them all float up into the sky. I ordered them online from
this site (looks like they have a deal right now too), and I was pleased with them! I chose all white in three different shapes. I think they were really cool, and an awesome idea that my dad had (I had been planning on releasing a bunch of balloons that people attached their wishes onto, he made the astute observation that at night we would only see them 5 feet up into the air.) This was so much better.
My beautiful mother turned 50 this year on 11.11.11. She wanted to have a big party to celebrate based on the magical date. I decided I was going to help make this happen since I'm the only one with so much free time, and my mother doesn't ask for much. She definitely deserved this party. She is such an amazing woman. The theme was 'Make a Wish on 11.11.11' since you're supposed to make a wish when the time is 11:11. This is going to be a lengthy post, but it was a pretty awesome party and thus warrants lots of pictures, all done by my wonderful sister Brianne. See more of her awesome work here!
I frayed the black streamers, which I felt gave them more of a punch and less 'eh', an idea I got from Oh Happy Day although I did it a tad different, and then hung gold and silver stars we cut out from sparkly paper. My hope of putting them together was to make it look like a night sky, to go along with the make a wish part of the theme, you all know the Disney song, "When you Wish Upon a Star". 
This was my secret project. I got a number of relatives to send me memories of and notes to Vauna and then went through all of our pictures and picked out my favorites of my mom, made them black and white for consistency, and then hung them all on ribbon with mini paperclips. There was a station for people to write notes to add to it. There is subtle theme-ing here...I hung them in 11.11.11 fashion. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who noticed or cared, sometimes I get a little carried away. It was so neat to see what people had to say about my mom, and to see the pictures of her over the years. I hope to age as well as my mom has!
Now for the food! The chocolate cake above was my dad's project, a recipe based off of Magleby's chocolate cake, which is my mom's favorite, and was the only non-vegan food at the party. Can you tell he's excited? (When he saw the picture he was upset with what ever he's doing with his jaw, I had to tell him he actually makes this face from time to time, and dubbed it a 'Mike Davis face' I think it's one he makes when he's excited). 
Surrounded by four different types of chips and crackers is the best Hummus recipe I've ever had. Seriously so good. I believe it's roasted red pepper. I'll post the links to those I found online, this is one you should definitely try if you're a fan of this chickpea treat.
Olive Tepenade and Bruschetta, we slathered this on toasty slices of baguette. We took a shortcut and bought the bruschetta pre-made from Costco. Not bad but I felt there was kind of a bite to it that took some of the enjoyment out of it for me.
These Pinwheels were sooo good! We used Tofutti cream cheese, which I think is pretty dang good personally.
Cucumber Slices with Chickpea Puree and Thyme. I got the recipe from the Whole Living website. These were pretty good, although the puree wasn't quite as smooth as I would've liked, and I needed to add more salt. I enjoyed them, especially the cucumber, but not my favorite thing at the party.
Seriously the best ginger cookies I've ever had in my life. Soft and chewy, sweet and the perfect amount of ginger. Delicious. We made the dough ahead of time, refrigerated it and then cooked them the day of.
Coconut Pumpkin Bread. I could just eat and eat and eat this. These are two of my most favorite flavors, together. It's a union to celebrate. 
Herb Roasted Mixed Nuts. Quite tasty.
Some pretty good punch from Paula Deen. I tried making a batch and then adding a second, but I didn't prepare the second batch of boiled sugar water, so I was just adding in extra water to not make it so strong. Super good recipe though. Next to it you can see the peanut butter balls, they aren't a really sweet treat, but make a great snack.
Guest took home "Eleven Goodies" choosing from a delicious selection to put in their goodie bag with closure stickers (address labels :) with 11.11.11 printed on it. We had way too much candy left over, which my mother, as health conscious as she is, has hidden...and now can't remember where she has hidden it. You KNOW this is driving me crazy. All that goodness laying around feeling unwanted! 
The party ended with a 'Wish Release.' Throughout the evening people wrote their wishes on these sky lanterns (we had eleven total, surprised?) that we lit and released at 11:11 pm. It was absolutely beautiful. Most people had to leave before it got that late, but it was really something to see them all float up into the sky. I ordered them online from this site (looks like they have a deal right now too), and I was pleased with them! I chose all white in three different shapes. I think they were really cool, and an awesome idea that my dad had (I had been planning on releasing a bunch of balloons that people attached their wishes onto, he made the astute observation that at night we would only see them 5 feet up into the air.) This was so much better.
Wow! Great job Taryn! What a fun party. What are you doing in 9 more years? I might have to hire you out, except it's already too late to age as well as your mom has.
ReplyDeleteThis looks great, I need some lessons on how to throw classy parties! Oh and a sister who is a professional photographer to capture it all:)
ReplyDelete