Mocktails and Dips - Cooking Play Date

EVENT-PLANNING + MOTHERHOOD. NOT THE FINAL FRONTIER, BUT THE ULTIMATE FRONTIER.

As one of the many hats I've donned in my life experience, event planning & the torrid love affair I have with it, has a way of secretly re-surfacing in my life at the oddest times just when it seems my love tank needs a refill.  I love it. I just really do. So, the minute Takisha asked if I'd mind stepping up to host "Mocktails & Dips 2013" the YES was already "out" & all the party details began floating in my head & the list making started in my mind from that minute on.  What fuel can be added to make event-planning even MORE extravagant? Motherhood. Is it not true we will move heaven and earth for our darling angels?  I explain all this to say, Takisha tells me the DAY before the party to not "go crazy". Too late. When everyone arrived, we had nametags so we could all feel comfortable learning each others names.  Everyone was greeted with a warm smile & welcomed to the event with general "housekeeping" instructions like where to put the entourage of bags we mommies travel with, where the bathrooms were, how to operate the dang trash compactor, etc... Then they were shown the presentation example & instructed to snag their child's bucket (Can you say play date favor?!) with all the play date gear in it & create their own mini-bar & sampling station how ever they saw fit.  

Next began the introduction of Hummus makers, Wendy & Logan, Annabelle & Sam. They set out to inaugrate my professional Ninja by making smooooooth hummus. They added Tahini paste, chickpeas, garlic, lemon, olive oil & salt. It was so tasty, so fresh! Really. All of us devoured it (and personally if I had to pass out a Mohan 5 star rating for my favorite, it was definitely the hummus!). Even the kids came back for seconds...& thirds! Smothering fresh veggies & organic chips, the hummus was gone instantly! While the hummus was being sampled, Colleen & I quickly chopped up some bananas to throw in the freezer later to go along with the caramel sauce. I began making sandwich wraps in the middle of my sweet Emilie having her roughest day in the history of her short 11 month life! Boo! 

Marie, Danie & Henry managed our guacamole creation using fresh avocados which had been purchased on Monday and were placed in a paper bag for ripening.  To the delicious bowl of avocado, they added fresh onion, salt, cilantro, tomatoes, garlic, red chili pepper & limes. The texture they were striving for was the PERFECT blend of smooth & chunky......the metal bowl was the secret weapon along with the fork!

Clare was a great taste tester walking around the kitchen sampling everything!  After the guacamole, we decided to move the caramel dip to the end because by this time in the playdate mommies were also

  getting hungry & thirsty.  We set out a variety of blackforest ham & cheese, turkey & cheese & veggie wraps for the mommies to eat while the drinks were being made. We even took care of our friend, Wendy by making her a fresh salad! We turned the bar-tending part of the play date over to Marie (who was ALL too familiar with serving up some Shirley Temples)!  Axel was mostly interested in exploring the cabinets, carrying the racket & just looking innocently laid-back & adorable (can you say future ladies man?). Marie gets an extra shout-out because she went to a lot of trouble to hunt down a small, yummy, but pricey $7 jar of maraschino cherries that did not contain disgusting dyes!  So sweet how our mammas watch out for each other and their kiddos, right?!  Well, the Shirley Temples were a cinch to make. It took ginger ale, grenadine syrup, lime & cherries.  

Picking up the pace, I made the Strawberry Daiquiri from a simplified recipe I sampled in a store at home in Indiana.  I took a carton of strawberry puree, blended it with ice, added a splash of ginger ale & boy was it sweet! I squeezed in 1 lime to balance the sweetness & served it up in a cute white cup with an umbrella, paper straw & a fresh strawberry sliced on the side!

The strawberry daquiri was quite tasty & a big hit among the older kids! 
While mommies mixed and mingled,
the kids were mostly interested in playing in the den aka designated Thomas the Tank Engine tent area just off the kitchen & downstairs in our Montessori-inspired classroom.  In spite of the kids re-surfacing at times to restock on the goodies, the laid out chef's coat (pushed down below the attached human body felt board) & learning tower remained untouched throughout our cooking time. A mom can only ask so many times, right? I mention this to point out that while we would have loved for the older kids to be more interactive with the cooking, we maintained flexibility and rolled with it... especially when it comes to the kids and the play dates!

Soon, our tummies were feeling quite satisfied & while we were ready for Pina Coladas, darling John was still napping on his mommy, Takisha, so we let him!  Colleen and Katie took to putting their cooking skills to the test by making the caramel sauce for their first time ever!  They began with boiling the water, salt & sugar, using a candy thermometer.

In another saucepan, they combined the butter & cream.  When all temperatures were reached, the caramel was blended & served up!  We dipped it in apples.  We dipped the bananas in it. We dipped our fingers in it. We slurped it out of the sample cups...and the next night I warmed the extra up & drizzled it over my popcorn. YUMMY!  Since caramel is my all time favorite, the hummus had serious competition!  Also, while a lot of us enjoyed the caramel, Annabelle, in particular who is not a fan of caramel, braved the sample, which I was so proud of her for!  Even tho it wasn't her taste, we made it up to her by not counting how many dark chocolate Godiva's she ate (yes, again, over-the-top hostess thought every mamma braving a cooking play date deserved spoiled with chocolates!).

Next, once Takisha's angel woke up from his nap, she threw him on her back & they gave us the 411 on how to pick a fresh, ripe pineapple & cut it.  She even wowed us with using her fancy pineapple corer gadget!  She combined ice, fresh pineapple, coconut milk & limes to serve up a refreshing Pina Colada!

 While that wrapped up the cooking part of the play date, we lingered, cleaned up, relaxed & chatted while kids played & babies slept, ate & needed diaper changes.  Some mommies stayed & some mommies left when they needed to. Unfortunately, a cloudy, milder temperature day spoiled the chances of us hopping in the pool, but promises were made to have those meet up times later when the weather was more cooperative!  Final farewells were said around 8 pm & all in all it was the perfect day because event-planning + motherhood is truly the ULTIMATE frontier!

Lyndhurst Sprayground

What a great idea for fun, unstructured free-play time. This play date was set for a Tuesday at 10:30am at Lyndhurst Spraypark.  The spraypark is open from 10am-4pm but on Tuesdays there is restricted parking for street cleaning from 8-10 so some of us found out the hard way that you can't go early.  Then, once we get to the park we were surprised to see a ton of older kids.  Turns out there was some camp visiting the park and the babies were overwhelmed with all the commotion so we were forced to leave and spend some time on the swings in the adjacent park.  Luckily it didn't take long for the camp kids to clear out and we were able to get some time in the spray park without any big kids.  Once it was less crowded even the crawlers had a blast!  If you plan to visit this spraypark with your little one be prepared to get wet! 

Address: 367 Valley Brook Ave. Lyndhurst, NJ

Cost: $1 per person including little ones.

367 Valley Brook Aveg

367 Valley Brook Ave

Finger Paint Fun

We were invited to an exploration play date by Artista Child. It was all about using homemade paints and having the children explore colors and textures. Unfortunately, my little, big guy wasn't too interested in participating . [Of course it didn't stop him from getting mommy messy.] All the babies looked so cute exploring the paints while wearing just a diaper. I witnessed plenty of them stepping in the paint, mushing it between their fingers, and even attempting to eat it. I was very lucky that I was able to snap a pick of the artwork we created on the wall.

I'm hoping that over time, art will be one of the projects my child can't get enough of!

Snow in the Summer Playdate July 16, 2013

Today was a sensory extravaganza! We explored textures and temperatures, and even tastes and smells. The theme of our playdate was "Snow in the Summer" and each mom brought a sensory bin with a substance that resembled snow or ice. Our bins included:

Cornstarch
Coconut Flakes
Extra Large Marshmallows
Mashed Cooked Cauliflower
Ice Pebbles
Ice Cubes
"Fluffy Stuff"
"Cloud Dough" (we used canola in stead of baby oil)
Popcorn
shredded paper
Crayola Mod Podge


We started by letting the babies feel and eat the dry ingredients. On one side of our picnic blankets were the edible bins, on the other side were the inedible. The babies really enjoyed feeling and tasting the popcorn, marshmallows, and coconut flakes. It was hot out and the marshmallows got a little sticky, but were fun nevertheless. On the inedible side, the babies loved making it "snow" the shredded white and silver tissue paper, squish the mod poge, and they really loved the silkiness and scrunchiness of the cornstarch.

Once they had played with the dry bins, we brought out some of the wet sensory bins. Things got messy here. The Mashed Cauliflower was fun to squish but was really stinky, especially on such a hot day. The Ice Pebbles were really pretty and easy to make: Just a drop of diluted blue food dye in a balloon, fill balloon with water about a third of the way and freeze. Once frozen just snip the balloon and peel away. It took a long time for them to freeze. Overnight wasn't enough time for some of them and they sort of exploded as I peeled the balloon away. Fluffy Stuff was a really crazy feeling texture made with shaving cream and cornstarch, and the Cloud Dough was sand-like feeling and was made with flour and vegetable oil.

All textures were fun and different, and cheap! A box of Cornstarch for $1.49 provided hours of fun for 10 or so babies! Can't beat it :)

The best part was taking a dip in the kiddie pools to cool off and clean off before heading home.

Ice Cream Play Date Fun!

I scream! You scream! We all scream for ice cream!

I planned this play date because I'm a lover of all things ice cream and all things MESSY!  This play date

was particularly easy to plan because there was not much involved.  As the host, I supplied ice cream (and frozen yogurt for the babies) and each attendee simply brought 1 topping for the adults and one for the kids.  Take a look at all the stuff we ended up with even with a small group!

We each created a bowl of ice cream for our kids and let them explore it freely.  We supplied lots of different textures to foster a full sensory experience.  There were sticky sauces, crumbly cake, squishy fruit and more.  I think my favorite part was watching each of the kids put great effort into properly using their spoons.  While our babies happily played away, the mommies made and enjoyed our own bowls of ice cream!

I would like to give a special thanks to all the moms who made homemade toppings!

Brookhollow's Barnyard

If you missed this playdate this is definitely somewhere you should visit with the family when you get a chance!  Brookhollow is a large farm and the "barnyard" area is a small section surrounded by different animals that the children can touch and feed.  It's like a petting zoo only way better!

In the middle of the petting area is a large section of grass that contains all kinds of stuff for the kids to do including a child size play house complete with an outdoor clothes washing station, a toy train house, a sandbox loaded with tons of toys, and hand pumped water troughs (we had some fun doing duck races here!).  There are also small ride on toys scattered about for the children to play with.  Most of the boys were in overalls which made for some really cute mini-tractor pictures! There is so much more this farm has to offer but I only offered a review of the the things we did while we were there.  Check out their website to find out more: http://www.brookhollowsbarnyard.com/

The kids were fascinated by everything, but they especially loved the peacock!

Music Playdate

I feel like our playdates just keep getting better and better!  This was definitely another favorite of mine.  I think this is because, thanks to great planning by Lauren, it ran amazingly smooth.  The gathering started in Lauren's huge backyard.  We set up a bunch of blankets so we could all sit in a large circle.  (In the future we need to remember to use thick, stiff blankets only.  Thin sheets caused the toddlers to trip easily.)  Everyone brought lots of instruments for the kids and we dumped them all in the middle of the blanket for the them to explore.

After giving the kids some time to explore and choose an instrument, we moved on to song and dance time.  We simply went around the circle and let people chose any song they wanted and let them lead the group in song.  We did songs with dance moves, repeating, and simple directions.  We even had some of our older kids feature some of the the songs they knew!  SO CUTE!
Here is a great shot of Suzanne and Lauren excitedly performing a dance song they knew:

Here is another of my favorite shots.  We did the Hokey Pokey and I really wonder if the moms were having more fun than the kids!

Halfway through we were interrupted by a sudden shower, so we were forced inside, but the party didn't stop!  We sang some more inside and the kids all played.  This was a great play date where both the kids AND moms had lots of fun!