Brownie Hack for Reunion Pot Lucks

Posted on September 7, 2020 by Aunt Mo

The secret to cutting brownies

I’m not sure what this has to do with family reunions, except that a lot of brownies show up at family reunion pot lucks, but here’s my hack for cutting brownies.

I hate when I’m cutting brownies into squares and the knife pulls pieces of the brownie into clumps that stick to the knife. It helps when the brownies are cooled but they still look so messy. The solution is simple- cut your brownies with a PLASTIC knife. Plastic knives are naturally non-stick and won’t tear up your brownies as you cut them into squares. Your brownies will have straight edges and look as good as they are to eat.

Fun Breakfast for Your Family Reunion

Posted on August 24, 2020 by Aunt Mo

Fruit in a waffle cone!

My sister in law made these fun waffle cone fruit bowls for breakfast at our family reunion. They were a light and delicious way to start a hot summer day. They were simple and easy to put together for our reunion crowd. There really isn’t a recipe, just add an even amount to strawberry yogurt to each waffle bowl, fill each bowl with seasonal fruit and serve immediately.

Fruit suggestions are sliced strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, sliced bananas, pineapple, mandarin oranges, kiwi and grapes. We used Kroger brand waffle bowls. Waffle bowls can be very fragile and even though they are packed quite well it is likely you will have a couple that are broken. I recommend buying an extra box of waffle bowls to replace the broken bowls you might have.

St Patrick’s Day Party Games

Posted on March 16, 2020 by Aunt Mo

GAME IDEAS FOR YOUR IRISH PARTY

Whether celebrating St Patrick’s Day or considering your Irish roots at your next family reunion here are a couple of fun Irish game ideas.

Musical Shamrock Game

Make very large green shamrock shapes about 2 feet square. They don’t need to be fancy just simple shamrock shapes. The ideas is similar to “musical chairs” game- you want to have fewer shamrocks than players. Scatter shamrocks over the playing area. Explain that as the music plays all the players must keep moving but must stay off the shamrocks. When the music stops players run to a shamrock. However, each shamrock must have three players on it. Those with only one or two as well as those that have nowhere to stand are eliminated. Remove a shamrock or two after each round. (You always want to have fewer shamrocks than players) Winners of the game are those who have not been eliminated when only one shamrock remains. Give out green lollypops, cupcakes or stickers for prizes.

Irish Scavenger Hunt

Divide into teams, giving each team an identical list of green items. Tell each team that they must stay together when searching for their green items.

Some ideas to search for:

Something that grows green
Something you are wearing that is green
Green crayon, green colored pencil, green marker
Find a plastic item that is green
Find something soft that is green
Something hard that is green
Find something you can build with that is green
Green snack
3 leaf clover
Fruit that is green
Vegetable that is green
Pop Can

Irish “Road Bowling” Game

Croquet is supposed to have come from a game called Crookey in Northern Ireland but another fun “real” Irish game is “Road Bowling”.
Road bowling is an unusual version of bowling that is particular to Ireland. It is played with a steal shot, (or use your own idea for a ball of some sort) which is tossed under arm by the player down a twisty road. The player who gets to the finish line with the least amount of throws wins.

Why should you never iron a 4-leaf clover? You
don’t want to press your luck.

May your blessings outnumber the shamrocks that grow, and may trouble avoid you wherever you go.

Pirate & MERMAID Family Reunion Theme

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Ahoy there, Pirates and Mermaids! We’ve just completed a major overhaul of our pirate family reunion package and now it’s a Pirate & MERMAID Family Reunion. This reunion theme package is now perfect for everyone that attends your family reunion.

The Pirate and Mermaid reunion is for everyone who has ever dreamed of sailing or swimming in the seven seas in search of excitement and adventure. This reunion includes everything the Pirate Themed reunion has plus tons of Mermaid printables and ideas. It’s a treasure chest full of step by step instructions, templates and printables to help you plan a family reunion.

Pirates and Mermaids are so popular right now and there is no shortage of swashbuckling fun with this family reunion theme. Use the over 50 pages of pirate games, decorations, activities and good things to eat to help your family set sail to their favorite Mermaid lagoon or Pirate cove. Your families’ eyes will be filled with visions of gold and jewels as they discover the real treasure in life is family.

You can find the Mermaid and Pirate family reunion theme package here

https://familyreunionhelper.com/products/products.php?ProductID=33

Our Favorite Halloween Treat

Posted on October 15, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Peanut butter Eyeballs!

We love peanut butter eyeballs. My daughter found the recipe several years ago and it has since been a Halloween family favorite. The little kids in our family like them because they’re kinda scary, Grandma likes them because they don’t look very realistic and everyone likes them because they’re delicious! The saying, “bet you can’t eat just one!” certainly applies to these delicious treats.

What you will need:

2 cups confectioners’ sugar, divided
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
3 tablespoons butter, softened
1/2 pound white candy coating (in small pieces) or white chocolate chips
24 milk chocolate M&M’s
1 tablespoon water
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red food coloring

Directions

Mix together 1 cup of the confectioners’ sugar, peanut butter and butter. Roll into 1-in. balls; place on a waxed paper-lined pan. Chill for 30 minutes or until firm.
In a microwave, melt white candy coating; stir until smooth. Dip balls in coating; allow excess to drip off. Place on waxed paper. Immediately top of each eyeball with an M and M to make the pupil.

Make squiggly lines to make the eyeballs look “bloodshot”.

Makes about 2 dozen eyeballs.

Jelly Bean Bracelets Ice Breaker

Posted on October 8, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Ice breakers for all kids

Whether planning a family reunion or party, I always like to provide an activity that gives family members an activity to do while waiting for the organized activities to begin. For instance, in the Caveman reunion, reunion goers decorated dinosaur sugar cookies. This is a great way to get family members reconnect with each other and shouldn’t require hands on attention from the reunion planner.

Here are fun idea that fit the bill-

Jelly Bean Bracelets

What could be better then jewelry you can eat?

Purchase lots of bags of Jelly beans (Try buying these at after Easter sales), sewing needles, Jewelry cord that is stretchy and scissors.

Cut the jewelry cord about 7″ long. Tie knots about 1 inch from the bottom of the cord. Thread the cord through the sewing needle. Tip- be sure the the cord you use will fit through the eye of the needle.

Push the needle through the center of each jelly bean to thread them, then push them down to the bottom of the cord. Continue to add jelly beans, about 15- 20 depending on your wrist size, until the bracelet is long enough. When your bracelet is long enough, tie the two ends together securely using several knots.

Tip: If the needle gets sticky give it a quick cleaning with baby wipes to clean off your needle.

Working on this project will kids talking and help them get reacquainted. I think you’ll be surprised at the fun color combination your family will come up with. Have I mentioned that this is a fun idea for your Easter celebration?

How to Light Up Your Family Reunion

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Or… how to say reunion thank yous with candy light bulbs

My son is an electrician and for his birthday my daughter came up with these cute light bulb favors for everyone that came to his party. It was the perfect idea for an electrician’s birthday but I couldn’t help but think about how to use these bulbs for a family reunion.

We purchased our “light bulbs” from Amazon. Follow this link- https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X66WJBI/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1They are about a dollar a piece. We filled them with Skittles candies. It was kind of a pain separating the candy into different colors but it looked cute when we were done. I liked how the yellow ones looked best so if I ever did this again I would probably fill them with Lemonhead candies.

Although I haven’t used this idea for a family reunion, though I will, here are some ideas I came up with:

If you have a contest and want to give a prize to the person that gets the most answers correct, you could say, “You’re the BRIGHTEST bulb in the box”.

To say thank you-

Thanks for sharing your BRIGHT ideas.

Thanks for being a LIGHT to our family.

You LIGHT up my life! Thanks for all your help with our family reunion.

Thanks for making our family reunion BRIGHTER

Encouragement-

Be BRIGHT share your LIGHT

You’re future is looking BRIGHT

Let your LIGHT so SHINE

I’m sure there’s a lot of ideas out there- if you have one you’d like to share, please comment and let us know. SHINE on!

Campfire Cookies

Posted on September 9, 2019 by Aunt Mo

An Easy to Make Treat for Your Camping Family Reunion

One side of our family always goes camping for our family reunions and when I saw a photo of these campfire cookies I just knew we needed to add them to our reunion schedule.

Begin by frosting a sugar cookie with green frosting. Crush 2 snack size Oreo cookies on top of the frosting to resemble dirt.

Add 3 unwrapped Tootsie Roll candies for logs and cut up red, yellow and orange gummy candies to resemble fire.

Put 3 mini marshmallows on the ends of 3 pretzel sticks. Place sticks on each cookie in a pyramid shape over the campfire, making sure the marshmallows touch at the top.

For added fun, take a lighter and run it over the marshmallows to give them a roasted look!

Pancake Bar

Posted on August 20, 2019 by Aunt Mo

Pancake Party- a delicious way to feed your family.

Pancake bars are easy to put together and can easily be customized to your family’s needs. The toppings are limited only by your imagination and the pancake recipe can be your favorite store brand or a family favorite recipe.

I’ve hosted a couple of pancake bars over the years, and it’s one of my favorite ways to celebrate pretty much anything. Christmas, neighborhood get-togethers, church functions, birthdays and fund raisers or sleepovers. It can also be a pretty inexpensive way to do breakfast at a family reunion.

You can cook your pancakes on the spot or make a big batch of pancakes ahead of time. Just be sure to let your precooked pancakes cool then stack them between sheets of parchment paper and freeze them for later. When you’re ready to use your premade pancakes you can reheat the pancakes in the oven, microwave or Dutch oven.

I like to serve a variety of toppings with plenty of options for those that are eating healthy and for those that like to to make the craziest looking pancake they can.

The most popular item on my pancake bar is the spray whipping cream. When planning your pancake bar, you can really just think ice cream sundaes and that will help you come up with some fun toppings. Here’s some of our favorites:

Butter
Peanut Butter
Nutella
Honey
Yogurt
Fruits such as peaches, blueberries, strawberries, and sliced bananas.
M & M’s
Crushed butterfingers
Toasted nuts
Gummy Bears
Sweetened shredded coconut
Sprinkles
Mini Marshmallows
Mini chocolate chips
Whipped cream
Syrups such as Maple, Cinnamon, Raspberry of Strawberry
Hershey’s syrup

You can serve your pancakes alone (which is what I like to do) or add a side of bacon,, sausage or eggs. Either way, everyone can find something to love on a pancake bar and no one should go away hungry.

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.

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