Birthday Party BBQ Buffet! *Pix*

I’ve neglected my blog all week, but it was for really good reason. I was busy prepping for my newly minted 7 and 5 year old's joint Birthday Party (a perk, I must say, of having children with birthdays that fall w/in a week of each other ☺). When I plan a party, no matter how small, I tend to get a little meticulous and I really threw myself into it being that it was for my children.

I so wished I had time to document all of my prep, but alas, I was spread thin on time per usual. I did manage to get pictures of the finished product and that’s as good as anything! I figured I’d also include the recipes I used so look out for those after this entry should you be interested.

The party was at noon and was going to be aimed at a family crowd so I decided on a BBQ buffet and tried to stick with kid friendly foods.


It was a Spongebob/Tinkerbell themed party so I tried to parlay the theme in when and where I could – hence the little place cards describing what food item was before it. Here are “Squidward Dogs” and obviously “Krabby Patties”. I really wanted to make my own mince mix and press my own burgers but my dear husband talked me down from it. And true, I had a lot to do so I conceded to using Bubba Burgers (which are mighty tasty in their own right, and it’s awesome that they go from freezer to grill. My 3 already-packed refrigerators were thankful for that, seeing as I really had no room to properly defrost them even if I wanted to ☺).



I tried to do a vegetarian BBQ Bean dish from scratch scratch (most recipes will use canned beans). It turned out in the end but I swear I cooked those beans for a good 12 hours. That and I added and added and added things to it to try and get it to taste like traditional baked beans. I fancy calling this my “evolution beans”, haha. But I am convinced now that canned may just be best and next time will opt to use Ms. Paula Deen’s recipe. Oh, and next time I will also use bacon. BBQ beans aren’t meant to be vegetarian :p.


Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip


A Chopped Salad served with buttermilk ranch dressing, avocado dressing, croutons and feta.


A “The Works” Baked Potato Salad


7 Layer Dip (vegetarian)


Fruit Skewers with Yogurt Honey Dip


The only picture I was able to get of prep was of this awesome strawberry!
(I usually use gloves when handling ready to consume foods – I use a non-latex variety that I order off amazon.com)


Instead of doing up party favor bags, I created a candy buffet to color-coordinate with the party themes. Kids (and adults) were able to custom fill their own baggies at the end of the party. Only problem is, there was plenty left over and I find myself to be gorging on it /shamed face. Today I found that sixlets left in a hot car are much like a candy-version of caviar in that the filling is liquid once the shell bursts on your tongue /more shamed face. Haha..

I got all these candies from OhNuts! , a NY based candy store online


And in lieu of serving cake, I opted for a cupcake station where kids could choose their cupcake flavor, color of frosting and pick from 20 different kinds of cupcake sprinkles (which I procured from www.shopbakersnook.com - they sell most sprinkles by either 2 cup or 1 oz tubs. I got different colors of dragees, non-pareils, jimmies and sugar sprinkles for between $0.79 and 0.99 each)
I did 3 flavors for the cupcakes, chocolate, pineapple and strawberry. And for functionality, I made a large batch of Creamcheese Frosting and tinted it three different colors.





So that was that! I think I am well within my lane to say that a good-time was had by all. And if anyone was like me, they crashed right when they got home from the sugar high :D.

Recipes to follow in the above post.