Family Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt - 2015

Over the weekend, we once again hosted our annual Family Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt.  This one had the largest number of attendees to date.  With 47 adults and 49 kids who RSVP'd "EGG-cellent" (a.k.a. YES!) to our Evite - we were ready to make this another fun, memorable event for all of our guests!

All of our amazing friends brought so much delicious food - I'll be sharing a few of the recipes soon!

We served lots of champagne, and had vodka, cranberry juice, and OJ available.  Our coolers were filled with tiny water bottles, tiny sodas, juice bags, Coors Light (sorry Dad), and "not Coors Light" (a.k.a Modelo Especial, Blue Moon, Rolling Rock, and Shock Top).  I decided to label the cooler tops to avoid having to lift each one to figure out what was in them.   I also went with smaller water bottles and sodas this year because we always find the larger ones partially consumed and abandoned!

In addition to all of that, a few of our guests brought their own concoctions - Gretchen always delivers with a cocktail in this beautiful dispenser - recipe for this Gin Fizz coming soon!  Also, a home made pepper infused vodka was brought with everything to make the perfect Bloody Mary. Lastly, another friend made some changes to a traditional Incredible Hulk  cocktail (served in the mason jar) - we called it "Arizona Hooch".  

I love buying goodies from Oriental Trading for this party.  We filled buckets with hacky sacks and paddle balls to decorate the tables, threw mini beach balls around the yard, and purchased egg fillers for the 1600-ish eggs that were "hunted".

For the kiddos, we borrowed our friend's bounce house, our friend Mindy did a great job painting faces, and we hired Tim "The Balloon Guy" to make balloon creations for all of our small party goers.  

About an hour or so into the party, The Hubby and I collect all of the dads to disperse the eggs in the common area near our home. The dads love this tradition (at least that's what I tell myself) and have become quite efficient at the process. They have learned over the years that throwing the eggs across the grass doesn't work because then they just come apart.  We also freeze all of the eggs filled with chocolate ahead of time in an effort to prevent a big, melty mess once they are being opened. 

We create a little parade to walk across the street, and once there, I let the little ones go first and then have to listen to the older ones complain about it.  I stall with them by taking selfies and singing songs.  This year - a few of my friends took pictures of me with all of them as well - I love those!   The kids end up having overflowing baskets by the end of the hunt accompanied by big smiles on their faces!  

Before heading back to the house, we ask our guests to separate their treasures from their eggs so that we have the eggs back for next year's party.  

We had a lot of fun hosting the party once again this year!  I love to see everyone's photos - all of our guests always have happy faces and look so festive all dressed up!  Thanks to everyone who shared photos with me to post here!  

We always have an annual photo of the "girls" and the "guys".  Whomever is around gets in the photo and the women always require more photos of themselves than the guys.  Shocking, I know.  :)

Thank you again to all of our friends who made the 2015 Annual Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt a success!  Cheers...and we WILL see you in 2016 :)

Hard "Baked" Easter Eggs

While discussing Easter preparations with my brother, he told me that he bakes his eggs in the oven rather than boiling them.  I had never heard of this, so of course, I had to test this out for myself. Turns out, he was right!

Leisure Cooking is my big bro's Facebook page - you should check it out, maybe even give him a "Like" :)  Thanks for the tip, Scott!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.  Place eggs in a muffin tin.  Once your oven is preheated, bake eggs for 30 minutes.  Prepare an ice bath just before removing the eggs.  Place the eggs in the ice bath for about 5 minutes to stop the cooking process.  Store in the refrigerator.

Easter Party Favorites......

Over the years, The Hubby and I have hosted many Easter Brunch/Egg Hunt parties.  Our first one was in 2009, I was pregnant with our 2nd child and my oldest boy was just 2 1/2 years old.  Our very good friends from Cincinnati were visiting with their (then) elementary school aged boys and it rained.  Fortunately, we only had about 25 guests, the kids were all toddling around, and we "hid" the eggs around our basement.

Since then, our Easter Party has become an annual event and we have heard from numerous guests that because of us, Easter is now their child's (or even their own!) favorite holiday.  I will say Easter is pretty awesome here in the Valley.  We are pretty much guaranteed to have sun, it won't snow (I grew up in Denver - it snowed or there was at least snow on the ground on Easter), and there is potential for swimming.

I took a year off in 2010 because of the new baby, hosted again in 2011 and have hosted every year since then.  Every year is so much fun!  I used to prepare dishes, craft cute decorations, etc. but we have so many wonderful guests who bring fantastic food to share - I put more focus on the fun, the eggs, and the cocktails.   A couple of years ago, rather than buying new paper plates for the party, I went through my pantry and found all of the partially full stacks of plates & napkins from prior birthdays, holidays, and baby showers.  Perfect.

Starting in 2014, I even planned Easter "dinner" because of the over-stayers we had in 2013.  Easter Tacos were a big hit and may become a tradition.

Here are some of my favorites from past Easters...

Orange Julius Cocktail (bottom right in photo).  This was a mid-party decision to start serving these. Easy, refreshing, delicious.

Tex-Mex Deviled Eggs (bottom left in photo).  Kind of a lot of work for a large crowd, but worth it for an intimate gathering.

Peeps Pops (top left in photo).  These take a bit of time, but the kids LOVE them.  They are sugary and Easter-y.

Carrot Napkin and Forks (top right in photo).  I received TONS of positive comments on these! Didn't take too much time to put these together, but they made a nice impact on the buffet table.

Citrus Sangria (center).  Serving a signature cocktail at a party is always fun.  It makes it even easier to drink dispenser when you have a crowd!

You can see more about my Easter 2012, Easter 2013, and Easter 2014 on my blog.  We are very excited about our upcoming Easter 2015 Party and I will be most certainly sharing photos!

2014 Easter Family Brunch and Egg Hunt

We once again hosted our annual Family Brunch and Egg Hunt over the weekend and once again, it was a lot of fun!  Starting at 10:00 a.m. and ending with the last guests leaving at 10:00 p.m. - it was a full day!

I have always used Evite to send out the invitations and to track the RSVPs.  When we first hosted this event in 2009, I was pregnant with our 2nd son and figured I would be making everything myself.  Wrong!  All of our friends who attended offered to bring a dish to share and it has become a tradition to make it a pot luck event. 

The hubby and I provide all of the drinks and all of the filled eggs.  Like, a lot of them.  Like, in the 1200-ish range!  I usually make a couple of dishes as well. 

We hired "Tim The Balloon Guy" as we have done for past parties. Wet met him several years ago at one of the Chick-fil-a Family Fun Nights - he is a super talented balloon artist and the kids all love him!  My friend Mindy also came over to do some face (and arm!) painting for the kids.  She was kind enough to take some photos of the party guests as well!

Typically, we have a bounce house - but this year we had a technical difficulty with said bounce house the morning of the party.  So we scrapped it (well, we didn't really have a choice!) and the kids had a great time with everything else going on! 

Here are a few pictures from this year's event.  I'll share the recipe for the morning casserole in a future blog post!

 

 

 

 

What are your Easter traditions?

2013 Family Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt

Once again this year we hosted our annual Family Easter Brunch and Egg Hunt.  We have held this party for a few years now, this is the 2nd year it has been on the "kinda big" side.  When we hosted the first one, all of our guests offered to bring something for the buffet - I took them up on it then and have ever since! 

The invitations are all sent via Evite, this is a casual event so in my opinion, Evite is a perfect solution.  If you are using Evite and are looking for guests to bring something, you can create a list and have them "sign up" as they respond.  I didn't want to be too restrictive around what my guests brought so just asked that they add in the comments their dish of choice.  Once I started to get a few responses, I compiled a list in the details section so others could see what was still needed.  Evite also lets you see how many kids vs. adults are attending your event.  That's certainly helpful when planning food, drinks, etc.  This year we had 70 guests planning to attend...half kids, half adults. 

We kept our decorations simple.  Setting up tables and chairs outside, covering with colorful (easy to clean) vinyl tablecloths, lots of fresh flowers around, and cute masks and bunny ears to get into the fun of Easter.

We kept the food inside the house but the party outside.  This year it was a great day - warm weather with an overcast, perfect to keep the sun out of everyone's eyes. The kids were entertained with crafts at the "kid tables", our play area, an awesome face painter (contact me if you are in need of a talented face painter and I can get you her info), a corn hole and ring toss game, and a bounce house courtesy of some friends who own one (how cool is THAT?)

Photos Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Photos Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Photo Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Once again, our buffet was full of yummy food - and this year I made none of it!  I knew there would be plenty, so decided to have one less thing to do.  We had everything from potato dishes to quiches to fruit/veggies to salads, including a Chicken Salad with Mango, to muffins - so much to mention.  And of course the desserts!  Lemon bars, cake pops, so good! 

Photo Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

For drinks we had coolers filled with water, sodas, juice bags, and beer.  We also had a citrus sangria, champagne, vodka, orange juice, and pineapple/orange/banana juice.  At some point during the party, an Orange Julius Cocktail was introduced....you'll have to read more about that in my blog post here.

Photos Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Last year we really raised the bar on the amount of eggs we filled for the hunt....1200...for about 30 kids!  We had about the same number of hunters this year - so went with the same number of eggs.  One tip from someone who lives in a warm climate, if you are filling any of the eggs with chocolate, freeze or refrigerate those eggs until the party - that will help prevent a big melty mess when the little ones open their treasures!   This year we filled the eggs with some candy but also goodies from Oriental Trading Company such as sticky hands, erasers, and bouncy balls. 

We have a nice common area across the street from our house, so about 20-30 minutes before the hunt, the hubby collects a few other dads to head over and spread out the eggs.  Once they are ready, I head over - parade style - with everyone else.   I let the littlest ones go first, usually 2 and unders, then 3s and 4s, then everyone else.  The most fun?  Making those older kids WAIT!  While I give the little ones time to get out there, I ask questions of the older kids....and get "NO!" after each question....."Should we sing a song?  Should we tell a story?  Should we sit and rest?"  Once I know the small ones are out of the way I ask "Should we hunt for eggs???"  Then I get a big "YES" and they are off!

Once all of the eggs are gathered, we collect back the empty eggs.  It's very green of us, I know.    Everyone sits down around a laundry basket to separate their eggs from their prizes.  Prizes back in their Easter baskets, eggs back in my laundry basket. 

Photos Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Many of our guests left shortly after the egg hunt, a few of our closer friends hung out for the day. The dads took the kids swimming and we found a few frozen pizzas to heat up for dinner. Yes, dinner. This all day tradition will likely continue in the years to come - I have already decided to plan some sort of a "second course" for next year!

Photos Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography
 

The Bubbly Hostess Taking A Break....Photo Courtesy of Gretchen Wakeman Photography

Thanks to my friend Gretchen for taking a bunch of photos.....I have failed at this job two years in a row now, it's hard to host a party and take pictures at the same time!

Tex-Mex Deviled Eggs

Easter is right around the corner and I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes for deviled eggs.  I found this recipe years ago in the magazine, Southern Living.  This was well before the days of Pinterest so with all other recipes I wanted to keep, I ripped it out of the magazine, stuck it in a sheet protector, and added it to my 3 ring binder of recipes. 

This is a twist on your typical deviled egg recipe adding “Tex-Mex” elements such as cilantro and jalapeños.  I have served this at Easter, Thanksgiving, Christmas – or sometimes even just because the hubby loves them so much.  They have always been a big hit – I hope you give these a try this Easter season and let me know what you think!

 

Tex-Mex Deviled Eggs
Makes 12 deviled eggs
Recipe courtesy of Southern Living Magazine

6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled
1 tablespoon diced green onions
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 small serrano or jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped (wear gloves!)
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Chili powder

Cut eggs in half crosswise; carefully remove yolks.  Mash yolks, and stir in green onions and next five ingredients. 

Spoon or pipe into egg whites halves, note that if you decide to pipe, make sure you use a tip with a large opening.  Sprinkle with cheese and chili powder.  Cover and chill before serving.