(Day 41 & 42) The party gene.

This weekend was crazy.

Crazzzzy fun.

Full of partying with our dear friends and yummy food.

Friday:

We had a Valentines group date with our friends and I made a dessert for it that I am addicted  to. Like ridiculous. I think about it too much. Here is the recipe so others can gain outrageous amounts of weight from over consumption make them too.

S'mores cups

1 1/2 cups crushed graham cracker (I bought pre-crushed to cut down on time)

9 tbsp. butter, melted (don't hold back on this...it makes them delis)

6 tbsp. powdered sugar

4 bars of milk chocolate candy, divided (I used Symphony and it was way good)

12 large marshmallows

--Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and spray mini muffin tins with cooking spray

--Combine the crushed graham cracker, melted butter and powdered sugar in a bowl and whisk with a fork to combine. Press a heaping tablespoon of the combination into mini muffin tins to make a bowl (you might have to play around with it to make sure it comes up the sides...if that makes sense). Bake the crust for 5 minutes or until slightly brown along the edges. 

--When that is done, break the candy bars into rectangles and place on the cups and let them melt as the crust cools. As that cools, cut the marshmallows in half and put them fluffy side up on top of the chocolate. Bake for 2 minutes. When they come out of the oven, break the remaining chocolate candy bars into rectangles and break the rectangles in half. Place one on top of the marshmallows and while that melts, turn the oven on broil. Broil for 1-2 minutes or until the marshmallow starts to slightly brown. Then devour mercilessly. 

We played a valentines based white elephant exchange/game hence all the weird things we are holding/wearing ;)

I love this total candid picture. You guys are the best.

 Saturday:

We had Liams "Friend" party! It was so fun :) But this is where the craziness comes in. Richard had 2 tests the week he came back from CA for his interviews and was a week behind. Therefore, that week he came home was crazy as ever. He was gone all day learning the stuff he missed from that week he was gone so he could take the test on Saturday. So I had to do everything for the party totally on my own because Richard came home at 3:20 when the party started at 3:30. It was so busy that I was running everywhere and was sore the next day. It was pretty intense. But it all worked out and was a great party!

The theme was Curious George and I made him a monkey cake. It was the first cake I have made from scratch and boy, I am not a fan of frosting. I was in a big rush, so I didn't make it as pretty as it could be, but man it was yummy! (I don't have time to post the recipe I used, but let me know if you want me to later)

After we cut up the cake

 As an activity I taped paper to our walls so the kids could draw on them like Curious George drew on walls in the books. 

Our house was FULL of kids and our friends! It was wonderful.

The kids loved playing on our patio while the adults talked

Then we sprayed silly string over all the kids and I will just say, it seemed cooler in our minds when we were planning the party... ;)

We also played a game where the kids had to make the sound of the animal on the card they picked out of a bag for the other kids to guess

Here is a video of him blowing out his candles

 Then we opened presents! He got a lot of awesome presents from his friends! It was so sweet!

Taking a break to play with a toy

 So that is our weekend of partying. So much fun to be with our friends almost constantly while we partied! Our family is so blessed to have such great friends. Liam is going to be so sad to leave all of his little friends when we move in July, and so will we! 

One thing is for sure. We passed down a gene that is very dominant in both of us.
Our love to party and play with friends is definitely a "gene" our little boy got from us

p.s. I was also going to mention that not all of our very dear friends are in these pictures or at these parties. We have so many wonderful friends all over in our city  and also in other, cities, states etc. that we dearly love. Wish we could party with all of you!