Three is the Magic Number Part one

We held our Third Annual Vodka Infusion Party this weekend. And it was yummy. But let's back up shall we....

Since it was the third year of the party - we debated for a good long time about whether we were going to go with a Beyond Thunderdome theme:
Two vodkas enter - one vodka leaves....
Or A Die Hard 3 theme
Rye Hard Three - With a Vengeance

 In the end - how can one go wrong with School House Rock
or De La Soul

 You can't. That is the correct answer.

 So year one we had small trophies and last year we had foam number one fingers This year?

We found bowling trophies FOR FREE at a garage sale (five of them!!!!!). The husband took the bowling pins and bowling people off of the trophies. We (my friend Laura and I) spent Labor Day weekend drinking down tiny bottles of UV blue so we could have tiny vodka bottles to adhere to top of the trophies. The husband then spent some time spray painting the tiny vodka bottles gold.

And actually getting them on the trophies

Which was, probably, the largest amount of prep we did in advance of the party.

 Other than our own infusions

Mine was candy infused -- hence Candy-o

 The husband did Tang and Vanilla Bean.

Simply so he could name it Wu-Tang. Heh. He won the best vodka name

 Other entries?

This was the best overall vodka. And I am still not sure what was in it. But it was smooth. Lando Calrissian smooth.

Chocolate infused vodka. This won for sweetest. And it was. Even though it beat mine. WHATever.

This is Mountain Dew Infused Vodka. And it tasted exactly how you would expect Mountain Dew infused vodka to taste like. It tastes like high school.

An awesome case of pandering to the hostess. Sour grape I believe this was. I like sour. So I quite liked this.

The winner of the best label. AND ANOTHER SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK REFERENCE! Lolly lolly lolly! More pictures and whatnot tomorrow. Miss Andrea is ready to put the computer down for a tiny bit.

Three is a Magic Number

It's that time of year again. And by that time. I mean vodka infusion time. Whoo hoo!

I am wondering what sort of fantastic blends we will be trying this year. Some of the awesome previous entries include

Super Sweet Sleep Over

The child had another birthday.
We spent a good part of February debating between several options. The one the child wanted was, what I will refer to as, the rent a limo and go to the mall themed party. Erm. No.
There was also the Clue/Spy theme -- that would be too much background writing for too many girls (we had already negotiated 12). There was also the glow-in-the-dark theme. Where we landed was the universally loved theme of CANDY!

Here is the invite the husband designed

We went with the Super Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet sleepover theme.

So swinging right into it....

Upon the girls arrival we had them guess how many jellybeans were in a vase



At any of the child's parties I insist that there be an activity for the guests to do until everyone arrives. For this party it was creating bracelets and necklaces out of licorice rope and gummy life savers.



Once everyone had arrived and made their candy jewelry, we moved onto a candy bingo scavenger hunt in the backyard. We made bingo cards (alas! a good use for Publisher!) using the logos of the Wonka candies that were in the 3-pound bag of candy from Target. The candy was spread about the backyard (and thankfully the Wisconsin weather did not mess with us too much). The girls were each provided a card and an explanation of what to do. We had the girls line up and on go run! run! run! The first one to get bingo (or candy!) received a prize!




From the candy scavenger hunt we went to pizza!


For drinks, we purchased loads of sports drink (because it's so colorful!)and made a new label.


And then onto the very exciting candy stations.
We had a chocolate lollipop station



And the ever so yummy and fun candy kabob stations. Candy kabob you ask? Loads of soft candies on a stick.




Some wonderful samples of candy kabobs can be found on A Baked Creation or Halloween themed ones at Hostess with the Mostess

And the topper of it all, the one sugar item the girls were actually allowed to have during the party, cotton candy. This cotton candy maker allows you to use hard candy to make the cotton candy. We used Jolly Ranchers and allowed the girls to pick out the flavors they wanted.


That cotton candy maker is a new toy for the family. And one the child intends to use this summer to make money. The machine is not expensive and the girls all LOVED IT!

From the fun! fun! fun! stations we moved onto gifts (yeah and thanks!). And perhaps more importantly. CUPCAKES!
With the fun and bright color theme were using we decided to try out tie-dye (or rainbow) cupcakes. Fun to make and fun to look at! We used Can You Stay For Dinner as our inspiration.






To work off off the cupcake sugar energy, we played the game where you stop the music and the girls would have to freeze. You move and you're out. I will have some video of this. Eventually. For now enjoy the song the girls danced to:


The girls were able to wind down after this with the Kids Choice Awards. Did I say wind down? I meant being screamy with every announcement of a nominee. Oh Justin Bieber and Jaden Smith. How you make the 10 year olds swoon!

Thankfully one of the child's gifts was the delightful Mr. Bean. THAT mellowed the girls out. Of course. No one fell asleep during it. But ah well.

After the all donut breakfast - we broke out the promo t-shirts for the party (ironed on with love by the birthday girl's father)


This year we used fabric markers and encouraged the girls to sign each of their t-shirts. This has to be one of my favorite give aways for the child birthdays.

And with that...the girls wandered about and cleaned! yeah to another year!

Vodka 2 Electric Boogaloo

Whooop! Our second annual vodka infusion party came and went last night.
We are already working on ideas for next years event (Vodka 3 = Mad Max Thunderdome Theme).

The awards for this event were made by the husband, and they were all sorts of awesome!





'Cause who does not need a foam finger with a breakdancer?

We had a really good assortment of infused vodkas too:

As with last year, every invitee brought an infused vodka and then all of the guests voted on 5 categories (Spiciest, Sweetest, Best Label, Best Name and Best Overall)
My own Wasabi infused vodka (Name? Oh The Humanity with a picture of the Hindenburg on the label;) lost to Blackheart (as it should have, the Blackheart HURT. Sweetest Vodka was taken by Kettle Plum. Best Name Senor Mustachio (I am pretty sure Pistachio flavored) and the best label, the very elaborate Pumpkin Spice. The husband's root beer barrel (with a hint of vanilla) infused vodka won best overall.

Lots of fun to be had









And with the closure of this party, HPM is moving on to the annual ornament exchange, a cookie exchange party for the daughter and her friends and a 60's (hopefully 60's zombie theme) themed birthday party.