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We had my daughters sweet sixteenth birthday party this past week, thus the reason for me being non-existent online.  We did a birthday party/open mic night at our home.  Once a month my teenagers do an open mic night at our home anyways to help encourage others in their pursuit of music ministry and this happened to be at the same time as our scheduled open mic.  It was a great turnout, fun gathering of friends and family.

We did a Mexican buffet for food.  It included:

• nacho chips
• nacho cheese
• rice
• fajita chicken meat
• taco hamburger meat
• refried beans
• lettuce
• green peppers
• tomatoes
• pico de gallo–homemade delicious!!
• guacamole–homemade delicious!!
• salsa
• sour cream
• ranch
• black olives

We had coolers filled with cans of pop and bottled water.  We used snow to keep the drinks cold.  We have plenty of that in the North here:)

 

 

This is my teens band–Redemption.  They really know how to rock it.  They did a great job.  Then after they play their songs, they open it up to any teens that want a chance to play.  We had quite a few talented teens show off their skills.  It was a fun night.

To decorate the walls of our basement, we bought 20 plastic tablecloths from Oriental Trading.  Her colors were black,white, turquoise, and purple.  So we alternated around the room the different colors.  Over the candy buffet we hung 4 tablecloths on top of each other.  Then we cut through the top three of them about 3/4 of the way up and then braided them about 3 inches down.  It gave the walls a really cute backdrop.

We had fun making our candy buffet.  You can view how we did it here.  We also made a cupcake tower for the 100 cupcakes that we had.  You can view how we did that here.

Since our basement is not finished my goal was to cover every square inch with party decorations.  We got all the walls covered with the tablecloths, but the ceiling was next.  I ordered 350 balloons from Oriental Trading and we blew them all up.  Yes we did!!!  It wasn’t as bad as I originally thought it would be.  I gained a small blister from tying them, but we did it.  We used fishing line to string the balloons onto and then stapled gunned them to the rafters.  We then hung icicle christmas lights in between the balloons.  It gave it a pretty glow.

We also made about 20 tissue paper poms.  Hung those with fishing line.  You can view here how I did that.

We decided to make a photo booth for all of her friends to take crazy pictures.  We made a picture frame out of 2 layers of posterboard with dowels hot glued in between them to make it sturdy.  We then bought Dollar store props.  Glasses, hats, feather boas, big glasses, hair extensions, etc.  We made sure to keep the colors with the theme of the party.  

We decorated the photo booth with the same backdrop as the Treats table.  So simple to make and looks great in photos.

I apologize for the dim color on these photos.  The windows were covered in tablecloths and it gave the room a bluish/purple glow and I did not change my camera settings.  We wrapped tulle strips around christmas lights to wind up the basement poles.

As you can see we got creative when it came to seats.  We took out all of our 15 passenger van seats!!!  People loved them!!  Thank goodness for a large family:)

Here are more of the balloons with fishing line.  My son did a great job of patiently stringing those all up.  Thanks Collin.

We cut out letters from black posterboard and then covered them in blue and purple glitter.  We made the following signs:

• Lauren’s sweet sixteen
• photo booth
• treats
• open mic
• party’s this way

I cut the letters out of scrap paper first and then cut them out of posterboard.The little girls had fun decorating them.  Glitter, glitter, everywhere:)

We actually made the rest of these words downstairs on the basement floor, which made most of the glitter get on the unpainted floor.  It looked really neat with the christmas light reflection and the bits of glitter on the floor:)

 

what a great time that we had.  It was a long day but a well worth it party.  I think all my little ones enjoyed the candy buffet the best, I just kept seeing them run back and forth to picking up a new piece of candy:)  Definitely a once in awhile party.  But we did it inexpensively.  Made all the decorations ourselves, made all the food and most of the treats ourselves.  It made it a budget friendly birthday that turned out to be special.

Happy Sweet Sixteen Lauren, excited to see what the Lord has in store for you!!

 

This week we have 3 birthdays to celebrate, myself and my 2 daughters.  In order to avoid birthday cake fatigue, I like to choose a different treat for my special birthday dessert.

We were recently at Starbucks and they had a sample truffle and it was sooooooo good.  I knew there had to be a way to make these treats.  After doing some research online, I realized that these amazing truffles were actually very easy to make.  That is what I decided to make for my birthday treat.

We made two different kinds of truffles.  We chose plain chocolate ones and then cookie dough ones.  It was a mixed review of the household.  For the children that like cookie dough, they preferred the cookie dough kinds, but the other, myself included we really enjoyed the chocolate ones.  Mix up a batch and decide for yourself.

For the chocolate ones you will need:

• 16 oz semi sweet baking chocolate.  I chose Ghirardelli and Bakers brand chocolate.  I got 4 ounce bars so we bought 2 pkgs of each brand.
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 T vanilla
• melting chocolate discs to coat them–I would recommend buying a more expensive dipping chocolate, you can’t beat the flavor.

In a small pot, break up your chocolates, pour 1 can sweetened condensed milk over the chocolate, and place on the stove over low heat.

 

 

Heat over low heat until the chocolate is melted.

 

It will look like this, will be a little thick almost like a marshmallow melted thickness.

Then you add your Tablespoon of vanilla.  It will make the chocolate shiny.

Then you can place your pan in the refrigerator or freezer to cool–depending upon how long you have to make them.  I used the freezer and let it sit for about an hour.

After they are cooled you can roll them into balls and place on waxed paper.

I then put them back into the freezer and froze them solid.  Meanwhile I melted the chocolate coating on low heat on the stove.

Dipped the balls into the chocolate and placed them onto the wax paper to harden.

Next we mixed up the chocolate chip cookie dough ones.  For this batch you will need:

• 1/2 c butter
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 c flour
• 1 can condensed milk
• 1/2 c mini chocolate chips
• 1/2 c chopped pecans or walnuts
• chocolate for dipping

In mixing bowl, cream the butter and the sugar on medium speed.

Next you are going to add your flour and sweetened condensed milk alternatively in your bowl.

 

Mix thoroughly, it will resemble cookie dough.If your mixture is thinner, you can add a little bit more flour to get the right consistency.  I then put my mixture into the freezer and let get quite firm.

I then used my cookie dough scooper and dropped balls onto my wax paper lined cookie sheets. The dough was a little softer than the chocolate one, but that is expected.  I put them back into the freezer to harden up while I was melting my chocolate.  
 I then dipped my cookie bites into the chocolate and let them harden. 

 

 

These were so simple to make and taste sooooo delicious.