DIY Party Hats

At our house, every year culminates in a New Year's Eve dance party with the kids. This may sound crazy, but I think we have more fun that night than we do any other night of the year! We eat snacks, and wear party hats and glow bracelets; there is a lot of giggling while we dance to the awesome playlist Daddy puts together (lots of Muppets tunes this year); then we all settle in to watch a movie. One slight change this year was that we decided to make our own party hats instead of buying the cheap paper ones that only last for one day.

To make the party hats, I purchased sheets of foam from our local craft store, and downloaded a party hat template from Oh Happy Day. (For reference, you should be able to get 3 party hats out of a 12 inch x 18 inch sheet of foam.) I riffled through my stash of craft supplies for trims, sequins, buttons, and anything else that seemed like it would bring some happy to a party hat. It's just possible though that my husband may have succeeded in bringing a little less happy and a little more weird to his party hat. I guess you could say that he's the life of the party?

Birthday Food.

We don't have a lot of traditions in my family. But it seems to me that we have food traditions. There are certain things we eat on certain holidays (turkey on Thanksgiving, ham on Christmas, lasagna or stuffed shells on Easter), but aside from that we tend to go a little crazy with side dishes. Yep. Apparently we like variety. This past weekend we celebrated that my husband and I both turned a year older (we share a February 4th birthday); this dinner was also in honor of my Dad whose birthday was just a week ago. Two of my sister's live out of town right now, so it's not quite the same anymore as it seems one of them is always missing.

As far as food though, this year certainly didn't disappoint. My mom always works so hard making food for our family, and my sister rounded out the menu quite nicely. My sister Bethany loves food, and manages to find time to put together some really delectable treats!

The main course was  chicken enchiladas and steak fajitas. For appetizers we had guacamole and salsa, spinach and artichoke humus, sliced mango, candied grapefruit peel, fig and goat cheese spread. Believe it or not, I feel like there are things missing from that list. You can find the recipe for the fig spread on my sister's blog. I'm telling you, that stuff is SO good I could eat it all day long. Seriously.

In lieu of cake, we had cookies and biscotti for dessert. The pink cookies on the top of the tray were new this year, and were definitely my favorite; they were kind of like a thumbprint cookie with rhubarb in them. My mom wasn't thrilled with the recipe so she added a black raspberry icing. I thought they were delicious, and could totally forgo the sweetness of the icing so that the tart rhubarb could come through a little more. Bethany made her yummy coconut chocolate chip biscotti. She also canned grapefruit in mint syrup. Oh my. I'm a grapefruit lover, but this brought grapefruit to a whole new level for me. I almost shed a tear when it was gone.

Ice Cream Cake Goodness.

:: surprise :: photographic print

In my family we have one birthday tradition: my poor mother slaves away in the kitchen to create the birthday dinner of our choosing. I say "slaves away," but really I know that she likes to do it even though it is a lot of work. I have three sisters, one of whom is married, and another who is engaged to be married this summer, so now my mom has three son-in-law types to cook for as well. I suppose it wouldn't be so bad if they had the decency to spread their birthdays out, but all three of them were birthed in February. I used to be the only February birthday in the family. Not so much anymore! My husband and I share a birthday, so that helps a little. Unless, of course, we can't agree on the main course. Then there is much gnashing of teeth and stabbing with forks.

Ever since I was small, I've dreamed of having an ice cream cake for my birthday. There wasn't a lot of money to spare in my growing-up years, so I never had the heart to ask for one because I knew they could be very pricey. It never occurred to me that ice cream cakes are generally simple enough to make, so when I mentioned my ice cream cake wish to my mom she was more than happy to fulfill it for me. She loves me.

It turns out that there are an infinite number of ways to create an ice cream cake. Who knew?! And while none of these were used to create my 30th birthday ice cream cake, I've collected a couple of recipes for you to try.

oreo & fudge ice cream cake

This recipe is brought to you by the fine folks at Kraft. Super easy to prepare with only five ingredients, this cake features ice cream sandwiches so it can be assembled in one sitting without having to stop and chill it in the middle of production.

tiramisu ice cream cake

There isn't much that comes out of the Martha Stewart empire that isn't pretty amazing, and this cake seems sure to please. I mean, Tiramisu? Yes, please! The obvious choice for a coffee lover, or connoisseur of fancy desserts. I want to have a go at this one myself.

triple chocolate ice cream cake

Love chocolate? Like pound cake? Then this recipe via Rachael Ray is just right for you! The detailed how-to photos should make this cake a snap.