Real Pirate Party

This past Saturday we celebrated K's 3rd birthday with a Pirate Party!  The weather was lovely, a bunch of the guests came in costume and overall the party was a blast.  Below are some highlights of the party.  I will detail certain parts of the party later this week.

Sneak Peek #2

I have been re-miss this past week and have neglected all of my friends in the blogosphere.  Things have been a little hectic, but that's no excuse.  Can we still be friends? :)

K's Pirate Party is coming up this Saturday.  I wanted to give you one more sneak peek into some of the things we have planned.  Our house is just buzzing with excitement.  She definitely has my love for entertaining.

Enjoy!

Mickey Mouse Party

So as you know, we are in full throttle birthday planning mode for K's Pirate Party!  And it is coming at me hard and fast.  I am a little stressed about getting everything done but super excited for it to happen.  (I'm kind of giddy about getting to share it with all of you, but in due time my dears)

For K's second birthday we had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party. 

*Disclaimer - the party was by no means photographed for a blog tutorial so please forgive the pitiful pictures.  I will still attempt to provide as much detail as I can...*

First of all - Invitations.  Really, I don't have anything against store bought invites.  I have even been known to use them in the past, but I don't prefer them.  We actually went a really low maintenance route for K's invite.  I took an image of Mickey and the gang and photo shopped K into the picture and had them printed in a local photo lab (i.e. Wal-Mart).

Mocktail Bar

Celebrating with a mix your own mocktail bar adds a great element of fun to parties, especially parties with young children.

Stock your "bar" with lots of ice, fruit juices, sparkling water, grenadine, sparkling cider and other mixer ingredients.  Add garnishes such as maraschino cherries, lemon twists, orange slices and lime wedges. Provide plenty of glasses, a martini shaker and a jigger to measure ounces.  It doesn't have to be anything fancy or formal - just fun!

Print your favorite mocktail recipes on cards and place them at the bar for your guests to use.  An easy and inexpensive way to add an alcoholic offering is to include champagne on your bar, if you desire.

Even if you decide to offer a traditional cocktail bar, consider a few of these alternate recipes for the non-drinkers or DD's in attendance.

Below are some of my favorite mocktail recipes.

Yellow Bird
1 oz each OJ, pineapple, grapefruit
2 oz sprite
Add ice
Float grenadine on top and let it dribble for effect

Baby Bellini
2 oz peach nectar
Chilled sparkling cider
Pour nectar into champagne flute. Slowly add sparkling cider.

Cinderella
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz OJ
1 oz pineapple juice
2 oz ginger ale
Dash of grenadine

Pour juices into cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into a glass and add ginger ale and grenadine.

Cosmo-Not
3 oz peach nectar
2 oz cranberry juice cocktail
1/2 oz grenadine
1 oz Sprite

Mix juices and grenadine in a cocktail shaker with ice.  Strain into glass.  Add Sprite.

Shirley Temple
6 oz Sprite
1 dash of grenadine

Pour soda and grenadine over ice.  Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Mock Mai Tai
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 Tbsp lime juice

Place ice in bottom of glass.  Add ingredients, stir and enjoy.

Cheers everyone!