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April Fool’s Party Re-cap

By KariV on April 2, 2013 in April Fool's Day, Holidays

When my husband told me the next Events Planning Meeting for the Arizona Chapter of the BMW Car Club of America was going to be on APRIL FIRST, I just knew we had to play a few jokes. I mean, those members are way too serious, right? So I set about researching and plotting for this party. We decided to hold a dinner before the meeting outside on the back patio to enjoy the beautiful Arizona weather.

THE JOKES

My ideas were far too many, so I edited them down a bit to include some of my favorites! And boy, did we get a great reaction!

The jokes included: Brownies, Andes Mints, Name placecards, Spilled Milk, and a Logo cake (decorated by Sassy’s Cafe and Bakery). When we first talked to Sassy’s they were excited to create this cake for us because it was the first April Fool’s cake they had done! And boy did we share a few laughs with the owners (thank you, Melody and Jeff!)

THE PREPARATION

Prep for this party started weeks before. Luckily, my husband gave me plenty of advance notice (that is quite rare around here!)

1) I used my cricut to cut out the Letter “e” multiple times on brown paper. I got the idea for the Brownies (“Brown E’s!”) here.

2) The spilled milk idea is from this website, and I just LOVED how they turned out. Although, I did have multiple “spilled milk” issues. You can read about the making of my spilled milk here.

3) The mints idea came as inspiration from a dinner out at Olive Garden, actually. Every time we go there and we get their after dinner mints, I quickly open and eat mine. Then I WRAP IT BACK up and give it to my husband saying, “Here, I don’t want this.” He falls for it EVERY TIME! If you unwrap the mints carefully, you can easily take out the candy and re-wrap them to look just like normal. I unwrapped only about 10 mints to create a top layer of “JOKE MINTS.”

THE DINNER TABLE

We started out with two 8′ tables pushed together to create a giant square (like a Board meeting table). We added black table cloths so the SPILLED MILK would really pop!

Then we added some small flower arrangements (nice and low to the table so the board members could still see and talk to each other).

To give a little nod to Spring, I used yellow napkins and cups and tied the utensils together with a striped ribbon.

You may notice that the BMW logo on each place card setting is UPSIDE DOWN! I also used an alternate spelling for the “Bored Meeting.” It took the members a while to notice that! We played jokes throughout the night, at one point even announcing that one of them would win a new car at the end of the night. (They caught on to that one quickly…ha!)

My Andes Mints got a good laugh…one board member kept pulling them out of the bowl and grunting with each empty wrapper. Everyone was baffled by his actions until they learned that some were empty!

Then, we brought out the CAKE! We talked this cake up plenty…explaining how their whipped frosting was so delicious and we were excited to try the cakes from Sassy’s because we knew they had delicious sandwiches, but didn’t realize they also took special order cakes until now. The president of the club began to open the cake box, and when he looked inside he displayed a look of shock! Everyone ran over to see what the disbelief was about…and that’s when they saw it had the WRONG LOGO!! Ha!

All the members laughed even more (and was I ever relieved)….it turns out the BMW Board members DO have a GREAT sense of humor. (whew).

Not only was this cake hilarious, this cake was also delicious! It was a marbled chocolate/vanilla cake with chocolate mouse filling and white chocolate whipped frosting! Wow.

We served the cake with Tillamook Ice cream, of course, since it won our Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test! (read about it here). And we also tried the Tillamook Chocolate Mint ice cream, which may now be among my favorites.

My final report is this: I LOVE to have an April Fool’s Day party! I didn’t think I would enjoy it, but with a few good-natured jokes spread throughout the evening, the laughs kept coming and we all had a good time (even though it was REALLY a meeting).

If you look closely, you can see TWO photographers at the same time. That’s my reflection there in the window. {A special thank you to Kait for helping with some last minute arrangements.}

If you have an April Fool’s Party (next year?), please send me over your ideas. I just might be doing this again. 🙂

Happy Joking!

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Dose of Sunshine Monday — Happy April Fool’s Day

By KariV on April 1, 2013 in Holidays

It’s the first of April and a beautiful time of year! Oh, how I adore Spring. But it’s also April Fools Day. A day of trickery and jokes. I am not a big fan of playing jokes or having jokes played on me; however, this April Fools Day is a special day. Because it’s a day the Board Members of the BMW club are coming over for dinner and a Board Meeting. Except this day it will be called a “Bored” Meeting.

And I’ve got a few other tricks up my sleeve. Nothing mean or mean-spirited, just a few friendly funnies that I hope will bring a few smiles and laughs. Those BMW folks need to be a little less serious. 🙂

So for now, I have a joke for you, and a Happy April greeting:

Soon I will post some more of my April Fool’s funnies: wait until you see the cake we have ordered just for this event!

Until then….

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Easter Burlap Bunny Bag

By KariV on March 31, 2013 in Easter, Gift Ideas, Holidays

This is the first Easter where I have not put together Easter baskets for my kids….I usually have a basket for at least one of them! But this year they are ALL adults and all out on their own. And I’m not liking it one bit. Nope, I do not particularly enjoy the “empty nest,” it’s a little too quiet, a little too uneventful, a little too boring. We didn’t even color eggs this year.

Before you get too sad for me and my kid-less situation, I must tell you that we did have a BEAUTIFUL Easter Brunch and Easter table setting! 🙂

And I did sew up an adorable “Burlap Bunny Bag” for my daughter.

I had all the makings for an adorable Easter pouch to send to my daughter: burlap, pink gingham ribbon, pink glitter iron-on vinyl….(I’m in love with this new glitter iron on vinyl! I learned about it from The Glitter Academy…and now I’m sold. What else can I make with this stuff?!? I am sure I will be coming up with more fun projects for this new vinyl.)

I sewed up a simple bag (using a straight stitch, and then a zig zag stitch on the edges to keep the burlap from fraying), then ironed on the glitter vinyl bunny. {I cut out this bunny with my Cricut earlier.} I used a tea towel over the vinyl as I ironed it down for about a minute or two. Then I peeled off the protective covering to reveal the brilliant glitter. I stitched on the pink ribbon and Voila! An adorable Burlap Bunny Bag to send to Amber!

I’m going to fill it up with plenty of Easter candy and maybe a special small treat just for her (like nail polish or hair ties)! Do you think she will like it? I sure did miss her this Easter!

I hope your Easter is overflowing with Hope, Joy, Peace, Kids and Easter Baskets! 😉

Linking up with Lil Luna: $Lil\'Luna$

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Easter Surprise Rolls

By KariV on March 28, 2013 in Dessert, Easter, Holidays, Recipes

These Easter Surprise Rolls are simple to make and delicious! I made these growing up and I think since they are SO easy to make, we actually made them more often than just Easter time! They take only minutes to put together, and are so fun to make with kids (I know, I made them when I was a kid!)

First gather the simple ingredients: Crescent Rolls, Marshmallows, Cinnamon Sugar, Melted butter.The next steps are super easy, and I will show you how to assemble them in pictures:

Seal those crescent rolls well…you don’t want the marshmallow to escape! Dip just the bottom of the roll in butter and place it in a muffin tin. Now just bake them at 375 for 10-12 minutes! But be sure to put a cookie sheet underneath your muffin tin. The marshmallows tend to seep out a bit and they like to drip. {You will thank me later!} While the rolls are baking, prepare the glaze.

Just 3 simple ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. I used my Watkins vanilla for this one. (Read the vanilla taste test here). After I made the glaze, I realized that I could have used my CLEAR vanilla and it would have kept the glaze a nice white color.

Allow the rolls to cool a bit, then drizzle on the glaze.

The surprise comes when you bite into one of the warm rolls and find they are EMPTY! What happened to the marshmallow?!

Easter Surprise Rolls

1/4 c. sugar
1 t. cinnamon
2 pkg. crescent rolls (refrigerated)
16 large marshmallows
1/4 c. melted butter

Dip large marshmallow into melted butter and roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place in wide end of crescent roll, fold corners over and roll to point. Seal edges well. Dip point side into butter and place down in greased muffin tin. Place pan on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes. Remove rolls from oven and allow to cool for a few minutes. Glaze while warm.

Variation: Place spoonful of canned apple pie filling in crescent roll and then put a large marshmallow on top of the pie filling. Fold, roll and bake.

Glaze:

1/2 c. powdered sugar
1-2 T. milk
1/2 t. vanilla

Whisk ingredients together. Spoon over warm rolls.

Aren’t they beautiful? Enjoy!

Linking up here:

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Dose of Sunshine Monday — Easter Hope

By KariV on March 25, 2013 in Easter, Freebies, Holidays, Inspiration

Happy Monday! I’ve been singing this phrase in my head lately, so I thought I’d better put it into a printable format. (Does that ever happen to you?)

Here is my chalkboard rendition for Easter Hope: