Milkaholic Party

So, like I said, I think birthdays always require a party.  My in-laws think I am crazy…. but they haven’t kicked me out yet… and I DO like to cook, so they tolerate my tendency to go a bit overboard …. Momma Lynn did draw the line at monkeys though… (Yes, I did have a party with real monkeys…. but it was just that one time… well… twice… but they were a huge hit!)

Brian’s mom and sister both have birthdays in the same month (Why didn’t they plan ahead?  January birthdays are SO hard.  I was born a whole month late so I could have a May birthday… babies need to plan better!)  Anyway… January…. We’ve just survived the holidays and been eating and parting since October … what would be fresh and fun?  Different?

A Milkaholic – Cow Party, of course!

It’s a bit of a joke to Brian’s side how much I HATE milk… I was allergic to it as a kid.  I’m better now, but I just never developed a love for it.  Not so with their crew though!  They LOVE milk.  To top it off, Sis-in-Law works with dairies (I’m not sure if that made it better or worse that it was a cow party…..) so they are all Milkaholics.

I saw this months ago on The Hostess with the Mostess‘ Blog and I’d bookmarked because it was just so cute…. I didn’t know what I would use it for, but it was just so adorable!  Half Baked – the Cake Blog actually hosted the party and they were sharing their great printables.

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Half Baked had the great idea of using Starbucks frappuccino bottles for the milk bottles.  I’ve seen where you can order the bottles online, but I like the mocha frappuccinos…. so it wasn’t exactly a chore to have to drink them.  I found Target also has frappauccino drinks in cute little bottles too for just a little bit cheaper.  After I drank all the frappuccuinos (I’d recommend planning ahead and not trying to drink 8 in a weekend like I did) I put all the bottles in a sink of very hot water to get the labels to come off.  Next I ran them through the dishwasher’s sanitize cycle.  You could probably just boil them to save yourself a step or two.

I found these cute straws at Target to use as favors.  You just slurp the milk through the straw and it flavors the milk!  They had chocolate, cookies and cream and strawberry.

To add a bit of interest to the table, I used a sheet of black & white damask wrapping paper as a table runner.  After Christmas I bought a ton of wrapping paper (at Target… yes, I am a shopaholic).  I try to get the non-Christmas-y looking paper so I can use it throughout the rest of the year.  A lot of party sites suggest using scrapbook paper, but that stuff is usually $1 a sheet…. the wrapping paper goes so much further for a much better price.  So that is why you will find me in Target the week after Christmas with a cart full of wrapping paper…. you never know what colors or styles you will want by June!

I hung tissue paper pom-poms from the chandelier to bring the colors up.  You want to bring your party colors into the room, but you don’t want to have to re-decorate your whole dining room.  Red tablecloths in the kitchen and red chargers (another after Christmas item to stock up on) in the dining room completed the look.

The cake was another blog find that I’d bookmarked and been holding on to for a while.  (Now I have Pinterest to hold all these great ideas.) iambaker created this beautiful rose cake.  It is so simple, yet so stunning!  I was feeling pretty proud of my cake…. until I squished a few roses with the cake carrier…. it still tasted great though!  Brian is in charge of making the icing (we take turns decorating).  He discovered this AMAZING recipe for Snow White Buttercream from Wilton…. it is very light and fluffy but still strong enough for most (not roses) decorating.

This party was a huge conglomeration of ideas that I’d been hording and I think most everything worked well together…. My in-laws still aren’t quite sure what to do with me….. but I think they liked it.  Now I need to start plotting next year’s party!