Party Time

Since I started writing more I have been cooking less.  Well this weekend I was in party mode.  I’m usually very social and even through the winter I will have dinner parties and get togethers.  I haven’t done much of anything but hibernate since the holidays ended.  This weekend I planned a family get together to celebrate my son’s birthday, plus my great niece will be 5 this coming week so I figured why not have cake for both birthdays. 

I love my family.  Sure, they can drive me crazy but I love them anyways. Family are the ones who really know you, like every side of you.  Angry, sad, happy, silly, they see it all!  I have been blessed to live close to my family my whole life.  In fact, sometimes too close, as we all shared a duplex for a few years.  But since separating off on our own ways, I began to miss them.  I especially miss my nephew who recently moved to Texas with his dad.  And even more recently, like the past two weeks, my sister moved out to Colorado.  So our family events have been shrinking and it’s made me more aware of just how lucky I am to have a close family. 
My parents were blessed to have three beautiful daughters, or as we like to call ourselves,  Charlie’s Angels, because my dad is Charles.  They also have 5 gorgeous grandchildren and 2 adorable great grandchildren. 

I spent a good portion of my weekend cleaning and preparing for the party.  I was in cooking mode once again.  My niece requested butter finger cheesecake bars and of course she knew I couldn’t say no.  Plus I wanted to make cupcakes, although 3 dozen may have been a bit much for only 12 of us including the kids, but like I said I was in cooking mode!

There had to be pink because, like most 5 year old girls, that is Ny’s (my great niece) favorite color!  And even though my son is now 18, he is secure enough in his manhood as to not discriminate nor be intimidated by pink cupcakes with sprinkles.  Don’t forget, he’s a Valentine’s baby! 

I also made a spinach pie and a couple of pizzas from scratch, including my son’s favorite buffalo chicken pizza.  Yes, I make my own pizza dough.  Bacon wrapped chicken bites were another favorite appetizer and I threw together a cilantro slaw because we needed something healthy to balance out the sugar fest! 
The party was to start at 3pm, but like any other event my family has, no one showed up until about 4pm, including my son.  A friend of mine came with his wife and their son, who happened to have his 2nd birthday this past week as well, so we celebrated 3 Aquarian birthdays.  My son’s girlfriend also came to the party and as you can see by the photos, everyone enjoyed the cupcakes!

I got my cooking fix in and now I’m ready for a cleanse, or at least some light healthy eating this week.  Although, the one thing about cooking is that you often aren’t as hungry once you finish making the food.  However,  I definitely snuck in a taste or two while frosting cupcakes and slicing dessert bars.  My body is definitely feeling like it’s time for some serious veggies!
Over all it was great to spend an afternoon celebrating birthdays and just being with family. 

How was your weekend?