Birthday Party

Couple quick birthday party ideas from Brooke's b-day last weekend:

1) Jen did a "make-your-own-pizza" station on her island for the girls using pre-baked mini crusts and a bunch of toppings - I love that she set up everything down the middle of the island so they could assemble their pizzas from all around the island instead of going in a line...good thinkin'. The girls then put the pizzas on cookie sheets (2 or 3 per sheet), we baked them at 450' for about 7-8 minutes until the cheese melted and the bottoms browned.

2) For her present I wrapped and numbered 14 things and put them all in one big box that I also wrapped so it just seemed like she was getting one gift - I do this at Christmas too so everyone just has one box to open but then inside are all their gifts. I got Brooke a couple real gifts then bought silly/fun little things to come up with 14 total - candy bar, bath bomb, nail polish, etc. I numbered the best gifts #13 and #14 so she worked her way up to the good ones.

Click here for the post about her (overly sprinkled) cake!




one year ago today: beans in marinara sauce inspired by a dish we had in Greece.

Storing Gift Wrap

So I save small pieces of wrapping paper - not to the "hoarder" extreme but I hate to throw away paper if it's at least big enough to wrap a small box in the future...especially if it's pretty paper. To store the smaller pieces I layer and roll them onto an empty gift wrap tube and clothespin the ends. Between layering over top of each other and the clothespins they stay rolled up neatly and not wrinkly from being shoved in a drawer somewhere. I store all my wrapping paper on the wall on pegs but this would also work if you have the rolls standing up somewhere or laying under the bed, or wherever you hide your paper!