Weekend Recap - Bridal Shower

Consistent blogging got derailed yesterday when Tucker needed to go to the doctor. He was sick, or so I thought, over the weekend so I stayed home to snuggle and take him to the doctor in the morning. Then when I finally made it to work, I had so much to do that blogging took a back seat to work yesterday. But, here we are today, a weekend recap on a Tuesday!

I took most of Friday off of work. I came in for an hour to prep for a Monday meeting, then headed off to the dermatologist. My mom, who has had Melanoma before, wasn't fond of a spot she noticed on my shoulder. Given her history, I didn't mess around and called the office that treated her. They got me in on Friday and I walked out with 3 less moles/sun spots. Go get checked. You can never be too careful!  After the doctor, I got going on my party prepping. This was bridal shower weekend for my future sister-in-law and I had lots of prepping to do since it was pretty much all DIY. After a trip to Hobby Lobby for more décor materials, I made the big food shopping trip. I couldn't fit one more thing in the cart if I tried.

I got so distracted that I left my jacket in the bottom. I took it off because I knew unloading it would make me sweat (I still broke a sweat) and as I took it off I said out loud to myself "you're going to forget this" and sure enough, I did. And I just realized I still haven't called to see if someone turned it in.

I dropped things off at my brother's barn where we were having the party, made cupcakes, then picked up cookies and favors, and dropped cupcakes off to Danny's mom to ice for me while I picked Tucker up. My mom and I had intentions of decorating Friday night, but a sickish and hungry Tucker had other plans. We ate Mexican then went home. My mom and I food prepped until about 11:30, then I started in on decoration prep. I had good intentions of getting things done all week, but mid-week camping put a damper on those plans. We called it a night at 1 and Tucker got up for the day at 6.

Saturday was a blur. We finished food prep and got ourselves ready. We got all decorations hung and food finished and set out in like an hour and a half. I got kind of bossy, which my mom has forgiven me for. I kept telling her and my grandma who arrived like 30 minutes early to leave me alone. I may or may not have compared my party prepping to Joanna Gaines. She likes to be left alone while she's staging a  house and I think I just need to be left alone to stage a party.

The bridal shower was awesome though. I made enough food for 2 showers, we played this game, and watched the bride open gifts. I let her know while opening that I'm done hosting holidays now that she is equipped to handle them. I was mostly joking.

My mom and I are so excited that this girl is going to officially be family. She is PERFECT for my brother. That alone is something she deserves a party for. Seriously, I told the guests that. 

 

I failed to get pictures of the other decorations. The picture banner I made turned out really cute being that it was last minute. I bought these cute letter clips with the intentions of spelling LOVE, but ended up spelling LEVE. Not cute. Thankfully I realized this on Friday so I could improvise. The favors were adorable too. I wanted to give the guests homemade soaps that a wife of one of firefighters makes. She came up with these favor ideas and made tags that said "From Megan's Shower to Yours." They were perfect! 

 

Danny's mom did great with the cupcake dress. I made the cupcakes, we assembled the dress, and she iced it. Its so nice having a mother-in-law that can do all things! 

Saturday night I was dead. I was a zombie at the chicken dinner fundraiser we attended. I was in bed my 9pm. Which was good since Tucker was up at 10:30, 12, I slept on his floor from 1-2:30 and then he came in bed with Danny and I at 4ish I think. Rough.

Sunday was a lot of lounging and a Target trip. Tucker got sick all over himself from coughing in the car on the way home, so that was fun. Thankfully I had bought him pj's while at Target so I had an outfit. Cleaning that up was fun and sealed the deal that I wasn't doing anything when we got home.

A Fire Truck & Egg Nog Weekend

We just got done with one of my favorite weekends out of the entire year: Egg Nog Extravaganza weekend!

The weekend started out with our town's annual Christmas parade. Now that Tucker is 2, events like this are becoming more fun. I mean, it's always fun riding in an ambulance or back of a fire truck during parades, but the moment Danny has been waiting on for a few years finally happened. Tucker's first ride in a parade. We did it right too. He didn't ride in an ambulance, or the grass truck, or even the tanker. Little man got to ride in the engine! THE fire truck.

Tucker did a pretty good job riding shot gun in the parade. He did his fair share of waving until about half way through, then I had to start waving and being real animated about it so he would start up again. So, about half the town saw me waving like a fool. They also might have seen Tuck digging for gold. 

Once the parade was over, we went home so Tuck could go to bed and I could start the party prep. I also got our Christmas cards addressed, sealed and stamped. I had a fear that I would die like George's fiancé on Seinfeld when she licked all of the envelopes for their wedding invitations.

Saturday was party day. We were supposed to do Tucker's birthday breakfast at one of the diners in town, but when I tried to start laundry the washer wouldn't turn on. Which made me think the outlet in the island not working the night before was a bigger deal than I originally thought. Pair those with the fact that the outlets where Danny charges his page and I charge my wine opener (you know, our important things), you might have a real issue. A couple of hours later, my jack of all trades hubby had it fixed and we enjoyed take out breakfast. Danny took Tucker to pick up the keg so he would nap and I could focus on getting shit done. Once they got home, Tucker and I went to my great aunt's house to visit with my dad's sister and her husband. Other cousins and my brother and his fiancé were there too. We couldn't stay long, but Tucker had fun playing and he got spoiled with some more birthday presents.

Seriously, how am I so short?

Tuck and I rushed home so I could finish making the party food and be there when our BFF's who just moved to Ohio this year got there. They came over a couple hours early so we could actually visit with them. Again, more presents for Tucker (a 48-piece Mickey Mouse tool set... making a mental note for when they have a 2 year old). The kid is going to think he opens presents every weekend in December. They also brought me a festive wine glass and my own bottle of wine. They get me.

Food was prepped, wine was drank and then it was party time. Here is the menu:
Danny's chili
Spinach and Artichoke Dip - its got a bit of a kick too it. Soooo good!
Ro-tel cups - I doubled this finally. I usually make one batch and everyone always asks if there are more. I got asked anyways.
Bacon Cheddar Ranch Pinwheels
Peppermint Cookies and Cream popcorn - this was delicious. I may make a batch to take with me when I visit customers in the next couple of weeks!

I don't have a picture with just Danny, but we didn't do anything extravagant for our outfits this year. I had an awesome Buddy the Elf shirt (found at Walmart) and his sweater had Santa wearing camo pants drinking a beer. Here we are with my people. My brother, my future sister-in-law and my mom.

Annual prom picture with my senior year prom date.

He is my BFF's little brother. We made a deal when I was a sophomore, and he was in 7th grade, that if I wasn't dating anyone by prom time my senior year that he was going with me since he would be a freshman. No real boyfriend (Danny and I were on and off and I thought we were done for good when it came time to start figuring dates out.. what did I know?!) so I followed through. We do this every year, except the year the Extravaganza was combined with a diaper party for Danny. A prom pose picture at 9 months pregnant would have been awesome though.

My "little" cousin who is 5 years younger than I am, 8 inches taller and looks like she's the older one.

We love having this party. I'm hoping next year I'll be more on top of my game and have a better planned outfit!

Tucker's 2nd Birthday Party

Another birthday party is in the books.  Tucker turns TWO this Friday and we celebrated this past Sunday. Tucker is a big Mickey Mouse fan. He would watch Mickey Mouse all day if we let him. He once threw a fit for an hour and a half because we wouldn't turn Mickey on. A Mickey Mouse birthday seemed appropriate.

I've noticed that Mickey Mouse is a very common theme for a 2nd birthday. We attended one a few months ago, I saw another on Facebook, and it just so happens my 2nd birthday was Minnie Mouse themed. My mom kept the cake topper and Tucker plays with it now.

Anyways, not much went into the party. I tried to make it a little more low key than his 1st birthday but that didn't really happen. We had about 25 people and we decided to feed them. I made potato soup in the crock pot, little pigs in the blanket (Hot Diggity Dogs) and we had a veggie tray. Easy peasy.

I also decided to make his birthday cake in an effort to keep the cost of the shindig low. That and the bakery that made his cake last year is closed due to the owner having a baby. It turned out really well too! I used the Pinterest trick for making a box cake tasting more like a homemade cake. It works!! And I also found the cake idea on Pinterest too. So I can take almost 0 credit for this cake other than I attempted it and it turned out good. I ended up making 2 since each box makes 2 round cakes and I needed 3 layers. We only had about 1/3 of the second cake left so it was the perfect amount.

Tucker was with Danny's mom for a few hours between church and the party so we could set up. I swear, without the woman and my mom Danny and I would be lost. As soon as Tucker saw the cakes he had to have them. 

I picked a few m&m Mickey's off to tide him over. Three Mickey's later he was happy enough to eat. He had to eat next to his cake because he wasn't convinced that he was actually going to get to eat it.

 

Danny found this inflatable Christmas Mickey on one of his trips to Menards for our mudroom. We got it out for the occasion. First it was in the garage, then I asked Danny to put it in the front yard to greet guests but when Tucker got home he wouldn't come inside, so back to the garage it went. Danny enjoyed having the right idea the first time.

Tuck didn't really understand blowing out candles. Or that you only put 1 candle per year of age. So he ended up with 4 candles. 

 

He got TONS of presents! Lots of toys (including a small Mickey drum that unfortunately came from a family that is done having children and I can't return the favor), a few clothes, and one really awesome gift from his Gigi. A train table!

 

A few weeks ago when I was on my girls trip, Danny took Tucker to a place that sells playsets, basketball goals, and fun stuff. My mom met them there since Tucker was staying all night with her that night. In this building full of slides and swings and trampolines, Tucker played with the train table for over an hour! I'm pretty sure my mom ordered his train table the next day. He loved it! And he loves it so much that it was totally worth having to rearrange the living room to fit it in the house. I actually like the layout of the living room better so it was a great gift.

I cannot believe this little boy is going to be 2 at the end of the week. Two years went by in the blink of an eye!

Show & Tell Tuesday: Favorite Party Hosted

This week's Show & Tell Tuesday with Andrea @ Momfessionals has my name all over it. I love hosting parties. I love watching an event that I'm hosting come together and everyone having a great time. It's worth me running around frazzled. Totally worth it.

I've got 2 favorite parties. Let's start with the first one. Our wedding reception.

Obviously, we had a good time. I don't know who captured this lovely picture, but I just think it is so funny. Every once in a while Danny really gets into the music and gets his groove on.

I talked about our wedding and all the details HERE a couple of years ago. This ecard basically sums up the event...

The next party that I love love love hosting and look forward too every year is our Egg Nog Extravaganza! Right after we got married, we were "given" this party. A guy that Danny works with and his wife used to host the party, but when they started having kids they just kind of stopped. We happily took the reigns. My brother wants to change the name to "Keg Nog Extravaganza" but we don't feel right doing that since this is an inherited party. We try to have it the first or second weekend in December before family Christmas events start. We provide food that is easy. Chili, a couple appetizers, and I usually make something sweet. We also get a keg that is usually gone before the night is over, or the party ends when the keg is gone is more like it, and egg nog, duh. I get the bottles in the liquor section that all of you have to do is open and pour. I don't make it. People usually end up bringing food or drinks to share. We had a cooler of jello shots and rum punch last year.

 

One year we got stuff to do Minute To Win It games, but I quickly learned that people would much rather drink and chat than play games other than beer pong (I swear we're adults), cards or corn hole.

The attire is probably my favorite part. Most everyone goes all out for this. Well, the people our age anyways. Our parents just show up to watch the chaos. Danny's dad might throw a Santa hat on, but that's about it. My brother and my prom date usually get the most laughs. We award a prize to the Best Dressed Guy and Best Dressed Girl. Something small like a gift card.  Each Egg Nog Extravaganza my senior year prom date and I recreate our prom pose, so these photos will best showcase my outfits. His are pretty noteworthy too.

2011, 2012 and 2014

I'm pretty sure when we looked at our house we both said "this garage is perfect for egg nog!" and it truly is. I don't really decorate for it. I might throw a few decorations out, but that's it. One year I printed out Christmas Vacation and Elf quotes and stuck them on the cabinets, but that's about as far as I go with it. People don't come for the decorations. They come to eat and drink. This party has even been the cause of a surprise pregnancy! Not even kidding.

It's a really fun time and I hope we can host this for many, many years!

Tucker's Birthday Weekend

We survived our big boy's first birthday weekend, along with his big party!

Friday after I left work I made a quick trip to the grocery to order some of the food for Tuck's party and pick up some of the drinks. I came home to dinner waiting for me in the microwave and some play time with Tuck. Danny worked overtime Friday night, so after Tuck went to bed, I parked my butt in the recliner with a  drink and some popcorn and caught up on some tv. Watching tv while Danny works used to be my favorite weekend night activity. Now, I spend my spare time working out, catching up on housework, folding laundry. Not this time though! My body needed the break. And apparently still does. I ended up going to bed before 10pm.

Saturday we were all up/home by 7:30. Danny brought breakfast home so that was nice and unhealthy! After a while we headed to get the rest of the party supplies. We decorated our tree after we got home and as we were doing that the bakery where I ordered Tuck's cake/cupcakes from called and said I should come get the stuff since they closed 15 minutes ago. Whoopsie! They were really nice about the whole thing though. Saturday night we went to the Christmas Parade in town. It. Was. Freezing! We were happy to get home and warm up!

Sunday was the big day, Tucker's 1st birthday party! I think he knew what was going on because he woke up at 5am. Oh well, I got some extra snuggle time! Everything about the party worked out perfectly! Everyone behaved/got along, I didn't forget anything, and Danny and I didn't kill each other. We had the party in our garage. It's a finished garage with heat/air, a full bathroom and basically a whole kitchen (just missing a fridge). Perfect for parties! Since it was farm themed, we had a farm themed menu: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, cole slaw and biscuits. There was a veggie tray as well.

His cake and cupcakes turned out so stinkin' cute too. Danny's mom made the ones with the green icing, but the rest came from a bakery here in town.

 

Tucker had a good time.  He didn't really know what to do with the cake. I think it was because it looked so pretty and kind of like a toy. His favorite part was the cow on top, which was fondant and completely edible.  And he looooved being the center of attention!

 

After cake, we opened gifts. We never let him look at one particular gift too long in fear that he would stop all together.  He actually did pretty well with opening. He ripped a few pieces of paper and pulled out of a couple sheets of tissue paper along the way. He get TONS of toys! I think we're gonna pull a Holly and hold a few back for Christmas. 

It was a pretty perfect weekend! 

 

Now its time for a busy week. I've got a jewelry party to go to on Tuesday, the fire department Christmas party on Wednesday, a Christmas program on Friday and then my brother's graduation and our own Christmas party on Saturday, The Egg Nog Extravaganza! It'll be a busy week for sure, but so worth it!

Rum Punch

This recipe is courtesy of my mother-in-law, who doesn't really drink unless she's at a Christmas party at our house.  She told me about it a few weeks before my bridal shower and offered up the recipe to my mom. My mom made it for my shower and I fell in love, along with everyone else. My friend Rachael made it for my bachelorette party a month later. The next summer I made it for myself (I shared) on the 4th of July to take to fireworks. Fast forward a little bit to this summer, and my friend Rachael is getting married. We were talking about what she was going to drink all day and she mentioned Rum Punch. I told her I'd make it for her since she made it for me.

So, like a good little pregnant girl, I waltzed through the liquor section and a couple other aisles to get the goods. Plus, its very Overman(maiden name) of me to be pregnant and STILL show up to a party with booze. You can always count on us to make sure everyone gets good and liquored up.

Here's what you need:
- 2 small cans of pineapple juice (you'll probably just have to buy a 6 pack
- 2 cans of Hawaiian punch (the sell small bottles of this like the one in the picture. Just measure out 24 ounces)
- frozen lemonade concentrate, thawed
- Fifth of rum (Danny's mom never specified if it was just white rum or coconut. I'm a Malibu lover so I always use that. Makes me feel tropical)
- A pitcher, large container or something that will fit in your freezer

Ready for the directions?
Dump it all in the pitcher and make sure its good and mixed up. Yes, you dump the whole fifth. As your stirring make sure the lemonade concentrate is dissolved in case it wasn't 100% thawed. Put in the freezer OVERNIGHT! It takes longer to freeze than a normal punch because of the alcohol.

Take it out the next day, right before you leave to go to your party or right before guests start arriving. Take a spoon and break it up to make it all slushed.

It made about 1/2 of that large ass pitcher, by the time it was all slushed up and had melted a little bit.


It's almost too easy for something that delicious. I think next summer I may just make some to keep on hand. Doesn't sound like a bad idea to me!