If you LOVE food...COME PARTY WITH US!!!

Next to the decorating within theme, the food is probably next in my top three favorite things about hosting an event. The possibilities are endless ESPECIALLY now that I have my new addiction to Pinterest.

But with all the different recipes floating around on the pinning addiction site how do you know which ones to choose and use? The following is a link to appetizers, desserts, and drinks I have served at events within the last year that I got from Pinterest that have ACTUALLY worked out and been a hit at my events. click here to get to my TRIED AND TRUE RECIPES board on Pinterest.

There are tons of options out there and the list above is obviously minute compared to the other stuff out there, but if your not someone who is frequently cooking up this stuff and trying it out on multiple innocent party goers it's nice to know before starting if this is something that's really gonna taste like it's worth the hassle. Another thing I learned at the nesting baby shower I just hosted a couple weeks ago is that SAMS CLUB has an awesome chicken salad that you can buy premade and serve on croissants. DELICIOUS! I think I ate 3 of them at the shower, and I must say, they are way better than mine. And my hubby tells me mine are great, so they must be pretty good if they are better than mine.

YOU WANT US TO DO WHAT?!? Part 2- Adult Parties

Ok, so I have been informed from a friend that showers are for girls and it's not just girls checking out this blog (even though only girls seem to post any comments... Ehem!) Regardless.... I have had a request for things to do OTHER than drinking at adult only parties. Sooooo, here you be Mr. R!

Image credit to canstockphoto.com

When hosting an adults only party I try to keep two things in mind.

1. What kind of a crowd am I going to be hosting for? Is my crowd a more intimate group willing to share personal info or perhaps embarrass themselves in front of the others without having a serious breakdown the following day when they realize what they have done? Or is it a group that is a little more reserved and just wanting the opportunity to relax and enjoy the company and socialization?

2. What kind of a time will I be working with? Do most of the adults that are attending have kids they will have to leave and pick up within 2 hours or will they be able to stay relatively late and play a longer game or multiple activities?

With these things in mind here are a few ideas for games I have played at gatherings I have either arranged or attended that seemed to be a big hit.

*Card Games: yeah yeah I know you've probably done most of these but when playing try to find ways to alter the games to make them more interactive. I know one time when we played the game P&A the person who was the A had to wear the box of whatever beverage was being served on their head until they were no longer in that position. The box generally had a sill statement or accusation added to the front of it decided on by the other players of the game and a photo was taken of the A while wearing it. My stomach hurt so bad the next day from laughing. (photo credit to mking)

*Board games: for a more reserved group any board game should suffice. If you have a group that would enjoy getting a little more wild there are plenty of games out there that work great for adult only parties such as Partini, Truth or Dare, or Would you Rather, Apples to Apples.

*The Box Game: This game was a real hit the night we played it. I will warn you that repeating it again at another party is not quite as fun if you have all the same players. The way this game works is you take an empty box of some kind that would be around the same weight as a empty beer box, or soda box. Take scissors and cut off one of the square ends of the box so that with the open side up the box stands tall. Stand the box up on the floor with the open side up in the middle of the room. Guests are encouraged to stand in a circle around the box allowing for plenty of feet between themselves and the box for others to complete the task about to be assigned. Then you go around the group one at a time and guests must walk up to the box and with the bottom of both feet touching the ground, and without any other part of their body touching the ground, the box, or anything else to balance themselves, they must bend over or squat to pick up the box using only their teeth within 2 minutes. Sounds easy right? At first yes. Once everyone has completed the task take your scissors and cut the top of the box down an inch or two and everyone goes again. It is just like doing the limbo, if someone falls down or touches the box with hands or touches floor with arms they are out. You keep going and doing rounds of this until the last person is standing or your box is literally flat. Try it, you will love it. (photo credit to mking)

*Yard Game Parties: Bocci Ball, Yard Golf, Bean Bags or Cornhole (whichever you prefer to call it), Horseshoes, or steal an idea from my previous post for the color parties for kids and spray paint a large twister game on your lawn.


Party Royalty:Men could have a scavenger hunt looking for noted items on a provided list throughout the location of the party, in the meantime women could have baggage hunts as they call them. You ask for random items and the first woman who pulls that item out of her purse or bag she is carrying gets a point. Total up all points at the end for a winner and then total up the number of scavenger hunt items the males got in their game and award a point for each item. Winners for each gender are crowned the party royalty and a photo taken and splashed all over their social networking sites for friends to see and make fun of. :)

Well I hope this helps a little. We will see what kind of review my male friend decides to give me after this one. If you know of any other gender friendly games or activities for adult parties that DO NOT require alcohol and are EASY PEASY TO LEARN I would love for you to share in a comment below and I'm sure my friend Mr. R would too. Thanks again for reading!!!

You want us to WHAT?!?!?! PART ONE-BRIDAL SHOWERS

Everyone knows there are two big events that usually happen for a Bride before her big day.

The Bridal Shower and The Bachelorette Party.

 

Bridal showers can be fun if you know what to do to keep the guests entertained here are a couple of games to try....

 

BRIDAL GOWN COMPETITION: You'd be amazed at the things people can make with only a few random supplies. Go through and split your guests up into even teams and have them designate a team captain. Generally I would advise you not to tell the guests what the game they are about to play is until you get these team captains assigned. Once this is completed deliver a box to each team with all the same items in it.... These items could include rolls of toilet paper, table cloths you didnt end up using for decor, tulle, garland, ribbon, tape, rubberbands, string etc. Now inform the guests that the team captain is now a bridal gown model and they are competing in a design contest. Guests will design bridal gowns using only the items in their box on their team captain. Tell the brides they have 10 minutes to complete their gowns before the runway opens up and the bride will get to vote on the dress she thinks looks the best. Winning team gets a small prize for each guest, or gets to get their food first, or gets to have the bride open their gifts first.

 

 

HE SAID SHE SAID:  Prior to the shower call the bride and groom to be separately and ask them a list of questions. Preferably funny ones like: Who will be in charge of taking out the trash? or What is the stupidest thing you have ever done?  and keep track of the answers. At the party Pick your top 10 responses and list them out on paper for each guest with a spot for guests to guess whether it was a statement from the bride or groom. At the end announce who said it and have guests tally up their points. One thing to have in mind is a couple of tie breaker responses just in case you need them for a sudden death tie breaker. 

BRIDAL CLUE: As each guest arrives have them write on an index card something they have done with the bride or groom that shows their relationship bot not list their name....For example I might use "the bride and I slacked off together at our mall job trying on RIDICULOUS mismatching outfits one night" or "the groom convinced me to break up with my current boyfriend to date his roomate, who is now my husband".  Then after you have started the party mix up the cards and hand them out to the guests and inform them that they have 15 minutes to find the person that the card belongs to by only asking other guests if they are the one who insert index card info here.  When the time is up anyone who still has not found their person and has not received their own index card back has to make a toast to the bride to be in front of the group.

These are just a few of the games I have used in the past that have gotten a nice response. You can find more ideas HERE at theknot.com.

Bachelorette Parties:
 Since this is a relatively family friendly blog I don't want to go into detail on parties I have hosted or attended, but I will make a quick mention that if you ever are in need of purchasing decor, games, or other items for a bachelorette party here is a legitamate website I have used in the past for bach parties. They have quality items, for low prices and quick shipping. The one time they made an error on my order they were quick to correct it. I will warn you though that items on this website range anywhere from silly to raunchy so prepare yourself.....  But the prices just cannot be competed with here in Topeka on the items I have purchased without going to a million different locations.   www.bacheloretteparties.com

Until next time... Make sure you keep it EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY!

IM SORRY...DO I KNOW YOU?

Ok, let's be honest for a number of you the moment you receive an invite to a shower you brain immediatly goes to that place that thinks, "Yay....another present to buy and take to a party where I know very few people and don't really get to talk to anyone anyways because we are too busy watching someone open presents!" wah wah waaaaaaahhhhhh!

There are two worst case scenarios that could happen:

1. Nobody shows up....

2. People show up and CAN NOT WAIT TO LEAVE.

Your first scenario can be caused by numerous reasons... Examples might include conflict in scheduling, sick kids or family members, out of town, no money to bring a gift and too embarrassed to not bring one, or that the party looks boring.

photo credit to clipart.com
 

There is any easy fix for this: First of all ask the person you're throwing the shower for to give you their top 5-10 people they absolutely would hate to miss the party, then email those guests and throw out a couple options on dates that have been pre-approved by the guest of honor and yourself for them to vote on and you go with the date that works for the majority. You also have to give the party goers an incentive. Something to make them not want to miss out on this for any reason. Perhaps it's a surprise that nobody except attendees get to see, or in my case I find that bribery goes a long way. Generally anyone who shows up and participates gets their name in drawings for some cool prizes ranging from handmade gifts to $10 gift cards to local vendors. This obviosly isn't guaranteed to make every invited guest show up but it definitely can up the numbers for you. Getting them there is the hardest part so you have to make it worth their time....or at least for the ones that don't see honoring the bride or mommy to be as worth it enough.

For the second scenario you just have to remember that these people didn't just come out to watch someone open gifts. They want to be included in the fun. Keep them involved, get them out of their seats everyonce and a while, and make sure if the guest of honor is going to open presents you have given the guests something to do at the same time so they don't get bored.  The biggest compliment I get from my events is when guests come up afterward and tell me that they were not expecting to have so much fun. I am always trying to do something new that MAKES the guests socialize with each other even if it's not people they would normally go up and talk to.

 On the next few posts I am going to list out some different games and ideas for parties to get your guests involved. So get ready!

At Easy Peasy we aim to PLEASE-Y!

I know Pleasy-er is not a real word, but it sounded good....or at least I like to think so.

Since my posts are very verbose I try to make sure I'm don't add too many pictures and make them seem even longer. I have, however, had lots of requests via email and Facebook messages to show more pictures. So to make things more PLEASURABLE for my lovely followers...drum roll....

 

EASY PEASY EVENTS NOW HAS A SECOND PAGE AVAILABLE CALLED PHOTOS!!! 

Be sure to check out the tabs at the top of the page. There is one titled HOME this is the one you are currently on with all my periodic posts. The one on the right is titled PHOTOS! CLICK ON IT and it will take you to a gallery of slideshows of pics you might enjoy.

Please keep in mind that although I may periodically share photos of ideas from online or from friends in my posts, the ONLY pics that will make it to the PHOTOS page are events I have attended or hosted myself.

I would, however LOVE to feature your super cool events on a post if you have something you've hosted that turned out awesome. Shoot me a message and your original images and we will work something out!

Now since there wasn't really any cool info in this post here is a simple money saving tip for your brain:  Christmas is almost upon us. While some people still like to wrap up presents with paper there is a TON of people who love to use gift bags! For the party planner this is an awesome opportunity. Generally people don't keep the gift bags when everyone is done. I DO..And call me weird, but I keep the tissue paper too. Wanna know why? If the bags are plain I can reuse them for game prize bags at parties and showers, or if they are christmas style I can reuse next christmas. As for the tissue paper I flatten it out as best I can and use it to make tissue poms at numerous events!!  Enjoy!

THE IMPORTANCE OF AN RSVP

I have been helping host parties, weddings, and showers since my wedding in 2009. If I have learned ONE thing from all of them it's this: PEOPLE HARDLY EVER RSVP ANYMORE!

It drives me BATTY!!! (LOL-INSERT CUTE BAT PICTURE STOLEN FROM GOOGLE IMAGES HERE:)

photo credit thepartyanimal-blog.org

Herein lies the problem: Nobody has any idea how much food, drinks, tableware, thank yous, party favors or seating to have available when nobody RSVPS. I ran into this problem on the major side when I had my wedding. Both my husband and I have been blessed with HUGE families. All very fun, entertaining, loving, and wonderful people. We also are both pretty big social butterflies and have always had a large group of friends. Both of these are usually wonderful characteristics to have. Unless you are needing to feed, seat, and entertain a rather large number of them on your own dime. 

 

I have come to the conclusion that this is not something I can punish people for but I would like to start spreading the word that it is SO MUCH MORE POLITE to rsvp to an event. It literally takes 1 minute to complete and can save the hosts a TON of money, time, and effort to make your attendance at the event more enjoyable.

 

Im curious.... Have any of you had an issue with RSVPs? I would love to hear your stories via comments below so I know I'm not the only one.

 

Follow THIS LINK for tips on how to figure up a relatively close guess on attendance for a wedding event without relying solely on RSVP response.

 

 

Ladies Night In Part Two- The How To!

Photo Credit to Women of Google+

Ok so we've talked about what you wanna do, now let's talk about HOW to do it! Here is the RECIPE of how I generally host my Ladies Night In. You can tweak it to what suits your group best.


INGREDIENTS

Invites:

Generally since I'm cheap I stick with a healthy combination of Facebook invites and mass text messaging (for those who refuse to get/keep Facebook pages). I include all the info in the email about childcare, food, drinks, location, start time and end time, and I make sure to encourage the ladies to bring friends. There are only 2 rules that are not to be broken under and circumstances:

 

#1.Absolutely, positively NO MEN ALLOWED. Even MY own husband is kicked out of the house for the whole evening until the last woman leaves. If for some reason he cannot stay gone he is confined to our bedroom for the remainder of the evening. Generally, you're not going to have a hard time convincing your hubby to stay away from a house filled with 20 women.

 

#2. Absolutely, positively NO DRIVING HOME DRUNK. Be sure to have PLENTY of non alcoholic drinks available. In most cases your Ladies Night In is going to be serving the purpose of allowing some much needed socializing and the opportunity to try a few drinks they enjoy or havent had before. If binge drinking is the sole purpose of your party, then I suggest finding ideas elsewhere, becuase this is not the right recipe for your kind of party.

 

Childcare:

The one thing I always make sure to have on hand no matter how many ladies plan on attending is a responsible babysitter and a very SOLID BACK UP BABYSITTER just incase. HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU CHARGE? Make sure when you have the ladies RSVP you ask for a head count of how many kids they are bringing. I generally figure in that on average I have about 10 kids show up. So if I make a donation of $5 and then charge a minimum $2 donation for each kid that sitter is for sure going to make at least $25 and all they have to do is watch the kids tear up my kid's bedroom for a couple hours without hurting themselves. Generally since I call it a donation a few of the moms who can afford to chip in a little more. Some do/ Some don't. I also make sure near the end of the party to go upstairs and make an announcement to the kids that if all the toys that they got out are put away within 15 minutes I have cupcakes and punch for everyone downstairs. THIS HAS YET TO FAIL ME. Why should I be left cleaning it all up the next day by myself when 10 kids can be bribed to do it with cupcakes in a fourth of the time?!??!

 

Food & Beverages

On the invite I request that each lady bring some sort of appetizer of their choice and to RSVP with the appetizer so we don't end up with 23 different crackers and dip combos (this happened at the first one...lesson learned). One thing I have learned is this gives alot of my friends the opportunity to try out one of those 6,437 recipes they have pinned on their Pinterest Page LOL! I also make sure to include on the Invite to bring a tupperware container, as we always have a ton of leftovers. And this way if they didnt have time (or stomach room) to try everything, they could try some later in the comfort of their own home! Not to mention it gives me the opportunity to use those cool serving trays I got from my wedding registry that I never use otherwise!

 

Entertainment:

I won't go into a lot of detail on this one but some people will entertain themselves with socializing at the food and drink table, some people will want to play games, some may want to watch a movie.... Ultimately the best part about a ladies night in is that you can do all of these at once if you wanted! Or if you are like me and plan on hosting one each month you could take suggestions each month and let your guests vote by a certain date. The possibilities are endless on this section.

 

 

Directions:

Mix all ingredients in any size home and see what you can cook up with these EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY LADIES NIGHT TIPS!