Cruisin’ Classic Party Cars

Posted on June 17, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Cardboard Classic Cars Party Planner Food Serving Tray

Look at this fun party idea I saw!

The theme for 5th grade graduation at our school was “Cruisin’ into 6th grade”. As a party favor”, each student was given a cardboard classic car filled with candy. I thought the cars were such a great idea and my mind started whirling with how to use them. For instance, what a great idea for a retirement party, “Cruisin’ into retirement”, Cruisin’ into college or these 50’s themed cars would be great for a 50th birthday or wedding anniversary.

The cars have a compartment in them for burgers and fries, candy, popcorn or even money.

I was able to find several resources for purchasing the cars, Etsy, Ebay and Amazon all had good options. The cars aren’t cheap, you can pay anywhere from to $2.00 per car in sets of 12- 36. I purchased 36 cars for $37.80 and so that’s how many people I’ll invite to my husband’s retirement party. (Whenever that is) Several places will sell you a single car for 1.99 which would be a fun “congratulations” prize for a teenager that just passed their drivers test.

As I searched for “Classic” cars I also found options for trucks, Dunwoody, Hot Rod and blue & pink birthday versions. I thought these cars were such a fun and unusual idea for a party idea- can’t wait until mine arrive.

My New Favorite Reunion Recipe

Posted on June 10, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Biscuit & Gravy Casserole for a Crowd

Uncle Steven attended a camp out with about 90 youth this past week. When he was telling me about the camp he said his favorite thing to eat was the Biscuit and Gravy casserole they had for breakfast. It sounded delicious and so I contacted the camp cook and she shared her recipe and I tried it out on my family. Kids and adults thought it was delicious and it was very easy to make.

Biscuits and Gravy Casserole Recipe

I made 2 cake pans (9×13) of this so I doubled the recipe. I used 1 lb sausage and 1 lb ground beef.

Ingredients

1 lb bulk pork breakfast sausage or ground beef

1 can (16.3 oz) Pillsbury™ Grands!™ Southern Homestyle refrigerated Buttermilk biscuits (8 biscuits)

1 pkg of biscuit gravy mix (should make 1 quart of gravy)

Heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray.

In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook sausage/ground beef until browned and thoroughly cooked.

Using another pan, cook gravy according to package directions.. Combine thickened gravy and meat. Spoon into a 9×13 dish.

Separate dough into 8 biscuits. Cut each biscuit into fourths. Top sausage mixture with biscuit pieces.

Sprinkle with a little cheese if desired.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated and biscuits are golden brown.

Serve & enjoy but don’t plan on leftovers. I will use this recipe to feed family at two reunions this year. I think I’ll cook the meat and make the gravy in advance so I just need to assemble the casserole a couple of hours before we eat.

Five Things Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now

Posted on April 12, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Aunt Mo shares her reunion planning advise with Reunion Workbook magazine readers.

Family Reunion Helper is proud to partner with Reunions Workbook magazine to bring you, “Five Thing Reunion Planners Should Stop Doing Now”. http://reunionsworkbook.com/five-things-reunion-planners-should-stop-doing-now/

What is a Reunion Theme Package?

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Aunt Mo

At Familyreunionhelper.com we sell reunion theme packages. What’s a theme package you ask? Most of our digital downloads include 45 or more pages of invitations, name tags, water bottle labels, games,activities, templates and printables that compliment the theme you have chosen.

The following is an example of a name tag from our Heritage Reunion.

This cute invitation is from our Circus reunion. Just print it off and then fill in the blanks with your personalized reunion information.

Our Caveman reunion invitation is sure to get the kids excited about attending all the prehistoric fun.

Water bottle labels are a wonderful way to address your reunion theme and if everyone writes their name on the label, bottles don’t get mixed up or lost as easily.

Our theme packages also include pages and pages or games and activities that go along with the theme you’ve chosen. You can spend hours searching the web for your ideas but these have been tried and tested and we know they work. Here’s a page from our Superhero reunion.

Our reunion theme packages include tons of extras like these certificates from our Medieval Reunion and printable signs from our “No Place Like Home”, Oz inspired reunion.

Each of our reunion theme packages includes printable games and puzzles that go along with your theme. Like this Valentine’s game that is part of our “Home for the Holidays” reunion.

Our reunion themes also include food ideas that compliment your theme. Check out this recipe for “Parrot” (tastes a lot like chicken”)- it serves 100.

Barbeque Captain’s “Parrot”

Serves 100.

2 1/2 cups chicken stock
2 ounces dehydrated onions
7 pounds 3 ounces catsup
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 pound 8 ounces brown sugar, packed
48 pounds chicken, cut-up

For barbecue sauce: Simmer chicken stock and onions over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add catsup, garlic powder, and brown sugar. Simmer 15-20 minutes, stirring frequently. Set aside.

Rinse chicken in cold water. Drain well. Arrange 25 pieces of chicken on each sheet pan (18 x 26 x 1 inch). Brush 3/4 to 1 quart of barbecue sauce over chicken in each pan. Bake uncovered until tender, checking frequently. Cook in conventional oven at 425 degrees F for 45 minutes.

Many of our themes have printable food tents like our Western Reunion food tent featured here.

We’ve tried to think of everything we could to make your reunion planning easier and less stressful. Check out Family Reunion Helper.com today and choose the reunion theme package that best suites your family. You can be sure that each package is jammed packed of ideas, game, activities and printables to get your creative juices flowing. Click on our logo below and follow the link.

Candy Bar Game

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Aunt Mo

How well do you know your chocolate bars?

Whether you are in charge of planning a party for family, friends, co-workers or you church, here’s a fun printable with a twist. Instead of identifying candy bars by their name or wrapper you try and recognize your favorite bars by how they look on the inside. You can download a printable copy of the game below.

Chocolate candy bar game.jpg

Answer Key

Image result for candy bar png

Although the candy bar game printable is lots of fun you can take your party to a whole new level by letting you guest actually EAT the candy bars.

Divide the group into teams. In advance, cut several well known candy bars into bite sized pieces. The object of this candy bar game is for the blindfolded person to guess the name of the candy bar by taste alone. No peeking and no hints allowed! Each player only gets one guess so give them a little time to come up with the correct answer. If the blindfolded player guesses the candy bar correctly, their team gets a point. The team with the most points at the end of the game is the winner. And what do you give as prizes- why candy bars!

Cute Christmas Treats for Your Family Party

Posted on December 2, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Perfect Treats for Your Family Christmas Party

Simple to make and delicious to eat!

These cute reindeer and snowman stole the show at our family Christmas party last year. They are simple to make and delicious to eat. You can make them yourself or use these goodies as an ice breaker activity when your family first arrives at the party.

The Snowmen are easy to make using Hostess Sno balls. Just keep your eyes open for them because they seem to only be available at certain times of the year.

Use a little white frosting to glue an orange candy like an M&M or Skittle or Sixlet to the Sno Ball. You can also just do a dab of orange frosting. Use black frosting gel in a tube to make the eyes. Cut a paper straw in half and press it inside of the Sno Ball.

Hostess Sno Balls -6ct Box

Reindeer

Making the reindeer are a little more complicated though once I figured out the process,even my little grandchildren were able to make their own reindeer.

LITTLE DEBBIE SNACK SWISS ROLLS CHOCOLATE & CREME 12 CT

Purchase a package of Little Debbie’s Swiss Rolls.

First you will need to cut two small slits on each side of the Swiss Roll and gently place one pretzel on each side.

Put a dab of white frosting where you want the eyes to go and carefully press the point side of two white chocolate chips into the Swiss Rolls to make the eyes. Use black gel to make the dots for the eyes.

Put a dab of white frosting to glue a red M&M nose below the eyes. Cut a paper straw in half and press it inside of the Swiss Roll.

HINT: Be very careful when placing the antlers and the eyes. If you push to hard your reindeer may look like this…

Family Thanksgiving Turkey Trot

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Start a new Thanksgiving tradition this year with a family 5K.

I ran into an awesome young man at our local 5K fun run in July. It was his Turkey Trot shirt that caught my eye and I had a fun time talking to him about this fun family tradition.

Every Thanksgiving, this family hosts a 5K race for all visiting family members and friends. All that want to participate, bring their running or walking shoes and burn off all those weighty Thanksgiving dinner calories before the turkey even comes out of the oven.

What a fun idea to have t-shirts made for the big race- a fun memento of a fun day. I love any activity that gets family members up off their seats and moving and a family turkey trot certainly does that whether you trot or waddle across the finish line.

Halloween Ghost Cake With Flaming Eyes

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Ghost Cake With Flaming Eyes

Posted on October 18, 2015

When I was a young mother I attended a workshop that included some fun holiday cooking ideas. The most memorable idea I came away from the workshop with was this ghost cake with flaming eyes.

The best thing about this ghost cake is that you get maximum effect for minimum effort, so, if you are a busy mom or grandma, you can whip this cake up very quickly but the “wow” factor is huge!

To make the eyes flaming you place a lemon extract-doused sugar cube inside of a clean eggshell for each eye and then you light the cubes on fire. When presenting the cake turn out the lights before bringing in the cake.

Ghost Cake Recipe

Ingredients:

1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix, mix according to package directions
1 (7.2-ounce) package fluffy white frosting mix or make your own 7 minute frosting. (No Cook 7 Minute Frosting Recipe)
2 sugar cubes & 1 teaspoon lemon extract
Licorice string, chocolate chips, m & m’s- whatever you want to make a mouth

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 13 x 2-inch baking pan.

Prepare the cake mix as directed on package. (When you break the eggs, crack each in the middle and pour out the egg. Then save the 2 best shell halves. Wash these halves and turn upside down to dry.) After mixing, pour the batter into the pan.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. When cooled, you can remove the cake from the pan and put on a sturdy piece of cardboard or a tray so that you can trim your cake to look more ghost- like. I just left my cake in the baking pan and felt like it looked ghost- like enough without the extra work to decorate it.

Frost the cake. Place the 2 egg shell halves round sides down on cake for eyes. Place 1 sugar cube in each shell half. Make a mouth of licorice string.

Just before serving, pour 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract over each sugar cube. Light the eyes and amaze family and friends!

Lemon Jell-O to Feed a Crowd

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Aunt Mo

A Favorite Family Reunion “Side”

I love this salad, it’s inexpensive to make, quick to put together (it takes awhile to set though) and everyone loves it. I’m not really sure that you should call it a salad, there’s no fruit in it, let’s just call it a “side”. The fun thing about this side dish is that it separates and looks like you’ve spent a lot of time working on layers. In reality, it just makes the layers all by itself.

Lemon Jell-O for a Crowd

3 (3 oz.) pkg. lemon Jell-O
4 c. boiling water
1 (12 oz.) can frozen lemonade consentrate
1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip
1 (12 oz.) container Cool Whip- for the top layer

Mix Jell-O and water until Jell-O is dissolved. Add lemonade and stir. Refrigerate until syrupy.

Fold in the whipped topping to the Jell-O and pour into a clear glass dish (I used a 10 x 15 Pyrex glass dish) and refrigerate until firm.

In the above photo you can see the layers beginning to form even as I’m folding in the whipped topping.

Spread a top layer for whipped topping over the Jell-O when set.

You change this recipe up to make it a fun side dish for using orange Jell-O with a can of orange juice and serving at your Halloween or Autumn gathering.

I’m not a great food photographer, I’m more of a, “I’ve got 80 people to feed how do I do that easily, inexpensively and deliciously” type of person. This lemon “side” is the answer for our family reunions and parties.

Build Your Own Pizza Party

Posted on September 18, 2017 by Aunt Mo

Build Your Own Pizza and Team Pizza Building

Most families like pizza and for many families, pizza is part of their Friday night fun, but skip ordering take out and try one of our pizza party ideas with a twist.

Pizza Bar

A favorite pizza activity of our kiddos is making their own own pizzas- This is a great way for kids to create their own custom pizza and you know they’ll eat it because they get to choose their own toppings.

The only tricky part of a Build Your Own Pizza party is choosing the crust you want to use. You can make your own pizza dough or buy a premade crust. Pictured below are some options. We have also used English muffins, French bread or pita bread, left whole, for crust. If making your crust from scratch be sure to keep each crust “personal” pan size.

Image result for pizza crust

Set out popular pizza toppings. To get you started, the 10 most popular pizza toppings are listed below and are a good place to start:

Pepperoni
Mushrooms
Onions
Sausage
Bacon
Cheese
Black olives
Green peppers
Pineapple
Spinach

Our family would include barbeque chicken and Canadian bacon to that list. You might also want to consider offering a white sauce and a red sauce as options for your pizza bar.

Pizza Making for Teams

To add some suspense to a traditional pizza party, divide your family and friends into teams. Give each team a premade pizza crust, a jar of pizza sauce and a bag of cheese.

Wrap pizza toppings in gift wrap or newspaper and let each team pick 2 or 3 of the wrapped toppings. These are the toppings that they must use on their pizza. They won’t know what toppings they have picked until they unwrap their packages. Decide if trading toppings will be allowed.

After all the teams have “decorated” their pizzas and baked them, set them out for all the teams to try. Cut pizza in small slices so there are lots of samples. You can even give prizes for the most delicious pizza creation.

The challenge with any pizza party is getting them baked. Individual pizzas are great because you can fit more that one pizza in your oven at a time. As pizzas bake you may want to play an ice breaker game to keep your guests entertained. You can find some our favorites HERE.

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Category Archives: Family Reunion Food