Theme Parties

My MN Baby Shower

by Sarah Novak on July 27, 2011

On Sunday afternoon my Mom and Sisters threw a Baby Shower so our friends and relatives could celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Nia.  Given that my Mom was in charge, guests knew that they could expect a memorable time (she has a reputation!)  Being a big fan of party themes, I of course, was delighted!

Mom and the girls decided to theme the games around water, so that when my water eventually breaks and it’s ‘go time’, I can distract myself from the pain with amusing memories from this day.  Diapers also played a prominent role in the games, as you might imagine.

The first game involved collecting as much ‘pee-colored’ water in your diaper as possible and then running down to the opposite end to wring it into your collection pail.  Participants were very careful not to let much escape during the run!

The winning team was the first to fill their collection bucket to the top!

Game two involved picking up marbles with your toes in a pool of water and dropping them into a diaper.

The winning team was the one to get the most marbles out of their pool in the allotted time period.

The third and final relay game was a water balloon toss.  This was no ordinary water balloon toss though (that would be too simple!)  This relay involved unique tosses like ‘through the legs’ (as pictured above) AND…

also required participants to catch their balloons inside of a pull-up diaper!  The winner was the one whose balloon was the last to break.  Wish you could have seen some of the amazing strategies/technique that appeared during this game!

The diapers really grew on the attendees and some went so far as to turn them into new fashion statements!  :)

Games were followed by a present opening in which Nia was spoiled with amazingly cute things like this crochet hat (which she’ll wear in her newborn photos).  The weather cooperated perfectly, so we were able to have the entire party outside in the late afternoon sun.

Our friends and relatives were so incredibly generous!  My poor husband is stressing excessively about how we’re going to get everything to DC in the car (he’s currently researching car rooftop carriers).  Good thing that’s his department and not mine because it is looking to be a daunting task.  And yes, I have promised to finally stop garage saling (although I’m not happy about it).

We ended the day with a yummy BBQ that the boys cooked up (yup, I managed to convince Nick to make an appearance at the shower!)  What a blessing it was having so many beloved friends and family celebrate our upcoming life change.  It meant the world to me, especially since many came from far distances.  I’m all showered out now after my 3 beautiful events and we’re slowly getting all the things we need to welcome Nia in 3 months time.  Thank you all for sharing in our upcoming joy and making this process so much fun!

If you want to see the entire photo album, CLICK HERE.

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Designing the Perfect Ball Gown

by Sarah Novak on August 11, 2010

It’s that time of year again folks.  The big social event of the year is just around the corner – The Annual Marine Corps Ball!  Last year, as you may remember, I was forced to choose between getting a new chaise and having a gown designed for the ball.  Thankfully, there are no such decisions to be made this year and I am only left to ponder what dream dress awaits me…

I have yet to go through this process (shocking that I held out a year, I know!) but I’m told that you must start 3-4 months in advance if you want to get your dress by November because there’s really one dressmaker that does all the dresses for the ball (he’s the expat favorite).  I plan to meet with him in August, but I need to find my ideal design first.

One of the designers that’s really standing out for me is Luly Yang, an up-and-coming couture designer out of Seattle.  I recently saw pictures of her famous butterfly dress floating around on Facebook and decided to look her up.  She’s a strong contender.  I’m also taking suggestions as to other favorite designers that I could ‘knock-off’.  For you fashionistas out there, feel free and share some of your favorite names or links to images you like.

And fear not, I’ll definitely keep you posted on the progress of this….. because I know you’re interested!  :)

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In Preparation for the State Fair: My Food-On-A-Stick Party

by Sarah Novak on August 8, 2010

As most of you know, I am less than 30 days away from my visit to Minne-SOH-ta.  My energy has been ramping up for weeks and I’ve found myself talking non-stop about all the things I’m excited to do there.  In an attempt to share my joy with my Manila friends (and stop their eyes from glazing over each time I mentioned it), I decided to throw a Food-On-A-Stick Party to give them a sense of what all the State Fair fun is about!

This was the first time I’d done this theme and I have to tell you, I was pretty damn proud of it.  Nick even got really into it, which is rare.  We had some initial conflicts over how “involved” it should be.  I wanted a dress-up AND food theme.  Nick wanted a plain-old party (how boring!) and even went so far as to insinuate that the attendees would see it as college-like.  How OFFENSIVE!  We ended up compromising on an innovative food theme (did I mention we’ve become SUPERB compromisers over the course of our marriage).  Here’s how it worked.  Each attendee was required to bring either:

  • An Appetizer-On-A-Stick
  • Something-Healthy-On-A-Stick
  • Something-Random-On-A-Stick
  • Meat-On-A-Stick
  • Dessert-On-A-Stick

Check out this picture, for example.  Mark is sporting Relish-On-A-Stick, while Kristen chose more basic staples like Kebobs-On-A-Stick, Fish-Balls-On-A-Stick and my personal favorite (the deep friend corn dog).  YUM.  One can’t help but admire such extreme displays of creativity.  Some other fun ‘stick foods’ that showed up were pickle roll-ups (with toothpicks in them), Rice-Krispie-Bars-On-A-Stick and Caprese-On-A-Stick.

Of course we had to do something stick-related with drinks as well, so Nick and I required that all participants drink their wine and beer out of a straw.  I was later told that doing this causes you to become drunk faster…. oops!  I had no idea!  I would like to thank everyone for being good sports.  There wasn’t a single complaint!  :)

I must give special thanks to our good friends Sam and Lawrence who went the extra mile and lugged their Deep Fryer over!  I had forgotten how good corn dogs could be when you add in that extra fatty goodness.  Between that and the fish balls, the fryer was going all night long…

Nick was the designated ‘Mixologist’ for the evening.  Our guests insisted that his drinks were getting stronger as the night went on, but he didn’t seem to take their concerns into account.  He also amused me by finding innovative ways to reuse his sticks.  That’s my boy!

In short, it was the perfect way to test the waters for themed parties in Manila.  The attendees raved while I sparkled and flashed my biggest smile.  I may not have built up the reputation I had in MN yet, but I have no doubt that in a few months my parties will once again become the buzz-generating events that I am known for!  Check out SMUGMUG to see all the fun food being showcased…

Popsicles, of course!

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