garden party | East Sac Edible

May 12, 2014
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Garden Theme Party Part 4: Birthday Favors

No party can go without party favors! To go along with our birthday theme for the babies I made thank you seed packets and a make-your-own-party-favor station. I used various flower seeds to fill the packets and printable labels for the thank you note. I really liked the look of these scalloped labels and it was super easy to download their templates online. I topped off the thank you seed packets with red and white ribbon and jute to tie into our red and white check and burlap theme.

On the day of the party, we set long reclaimed pieces of wood onto wine barrels. We bought straw bales for the children to sit around the make-shift table (the straw will have a dual purpose of serving for mulch in the garden). Children gathered to paint terra cotta pots with outdoor paint. When children were ready to go home and the paint was dry, we gave each child their pot in a strawberry basket and put their seed packet inside so they could plant their flower seeds at home.

May 12, 2014
by East Sac Edible Leave a comment

Garden Theme Party Part 3: Flower Height Chart

For the children’s birthday party, my sister came up with this idea for a height chart for one of the children’s activities. She put up an old piece of cardboard on the wall. Her good friend is an amazing artist and frequently does mural work for children so we asked her if she could be our muralist (as well as our face painter for our party!). My sister researched heights of various flowers and our artist beautifully painted the flowers on the cardboard the morning of the party. The flowers from biggest to smallest were: Sunflower, Rose, Dahlia, and Daisy. My sister also cut out little leaves out of paper and wrote the names of the children attending the party so that they could stick their names next to their corresponding heights.

May 12, 2014
by East Sac Edible 1 Comment

Garden Theme Party Part 2: Food

Now my sister and I always go a little overboard with the food at parties. But in our defense we were expecting 75 people to attend this party and we didn’t want anyone to go hungry.

Let’s do the rundown:

Appetizers

Assorted cheese platter with nuts and bread

Pesto

Chips, beans and salsa

Jalapeño-Artichoke Dip

Clam Dip

Hummus and Veggie Sticks

Baked brie

Salads

Andy Spark’s Orzo Salad

Garden Green Salad

Greek Salad

Potato Salad

Edamame Salad

Chinese Chicken Salad

Main Dishes

Mac ‘n’ Cheese

Beet and Goat Cheese Tarts

Roast Beef and Turkey Sandwiches

Karaage (Japanese Chicken)

Salmon-zushi

Maki-zushi

Turkey Meatballs with Sesame-Garlic Sauce

Desserts

Garden Scene Italian White Cake with Chocolate Frosting

Carrot Cake

Pineapple Coffee Cake

Madelines

Fudgey Saucepan Brownies

Banana Bread

Lemon Pound Cake

Hay Bales (Rice Krispy Treats)

Candy Station

We tried to have as many ingredients from our gardens as possible so we included lettuces, kale, peas, beets and basil from the garden. The entire menu was made from scratch. Many are recipes passed down from our grandmother.

Now for some photos:

May 12, 2014
by East Sac Edible 1 Comment

Garden Theme Party: Part 1

My daughter and my nephew were born 10 days apart last year. For their first birthday, we had a joint birthday and of course the theme was a garden party! We quickly decided on a menu and a color scheme for the party. We decided to do red and white checkered pattern with burlap for our decorations. We bought yards of this fabric to make tablecloths, decorate candy jars and flower vases. A friend made red and white pom poms which we hung from the ceiling and around the photo montage wall.