Killer Parsley & Lucky Bamboo

I lived in Japan for several years in college with a Japanese family who owned a sushi place. The restaurant was the first floor of the building, and the "house" the second floor. There were many benefits to this set up, namely that I got a lot of free sushi, draft beer, and even the potentially deadly puffer fish (don't worry, my host father had his license, which is required to prepare and serve it). My host mother* was a feng shui NUT, visiting a feng shui consultant/fortune teller monthly, if not more.

Here in the U.S. we think of feng shui as sticking a plant in the right place (more about that later) or painting rooms a certain color, but in Asia, feng shui is serious business. My host brother was not allowed to purchase a Mitsubishi car because the particular variety he wanted was manufactured in an area NE of his house--which was a bad direction for him. My other host brother, however, was allowed to purchase an Acura NSX (fancy sports car) because it was manufactured in an area that qualified as good for him.

Anyway, one day my host father got into a car accident, in a week and on a day that was supposed to be "good" for him. He immediately started questioning the soothsaying abilities of the feng shui consultant, so my host mother went into a panic. There HAD to be a reason for this accident.

Well. Poor, somewhat bored exchange student yours truly had decided to grow some parsley for cooking. Since my host family did not have any potting soil, the woman across the street gave me some. After spending the day conferring with her consultant, my host mother remembered the parsley growing outside her front door and realized that the potting soil had come from across the street, a BAD direction for my host father. So there it was, my parsley plants had caused the accident--imagine the guilt. The parsley became known as "killer parsley" in my family (my U.S. family, that is) and if I had thought feng shui was a little weird before, and I was really off of it then.

Fast forward to present day, where non-feng shui believing moi purchases a lucky bamboo plant at target a year or so ago. It's in my office now, and every time I empty the pot and put new, fresh water in (it's potted in rocks) I get an order from the same sales rep that very day. This is a very Time-Life books type of occurrence, no? Should I give it fresh water every day? What do you all think?

*my host mother was a very nice person, just for the record.

Not a good sign

when it takes close to 15 minutes to enter the game and practice schedule for your 8 year old son's baseball team. And games are 2 hours, with the kids pitching, and no alcohol served (that I know of). Thank god I like the other parents.

The best is that in the middle of the schedule they have, in bold type, the dates for tryouts for the TRAVEL baseball teams. Yeah, I want to add travel time to the 2 hour games for my 8 year old. Already this baseball league has begun to resemble some sort of fantasy league for the dads, with much behind the scenes trading, which actually tickles my funny bone, mostly because my son doesn't really care what team he's on, and neither do I, as long as the coach isn't a hyper-competitive screamer. So, I can't imagine what kind of intrigue and high jinks the travel league must have!

As it is, we are officially at the point where we have many days where one child has to be one place, and another has to be somewhere else (and possibly the third will need to be sleeping, but I am just blocking that tiny potential inconvenience out for right now). This is mostly because my two oldest boys have very different interests, and although I can be a mean mommy right along with the best of them, I am not going to force one to do something they don't like just for my convenience. Well, not yet anyway.

I forgot to post earlier about the leprechaun traps: the report was NO LEPRECHAUNS CAUGHT. Both boys reported their classrooms "trashed" and there were a lot of green footprints and hand prints on desks and the traps themselves. The boys felt very confident that the gold robins and pots of gold were huge draws, even if the traps didn't catch anything.

Parties & More Parties

I have been incognito because I have been busy attending some very fun parties, including one at Carol's house. If you are beginning to think that Carol is the most prolific hostess ever, you would be correct. She hosted a 50th birthday party for our friend Lynn, who happens to be the runner up (just in case Carol cannot fulfill her duties) most prolific hostess ever. This party for 50 or so people was the night after the spaghetti dinner party for her daughter's ENTIRE forensics team. Yep, back to back parties, people.

Now most of us would shy away from doing something like this, or would still be in recovery from the previously mentioned scavenger hunt party. How does she do it? I have some theories, but embracing them successfully means that you have to throw out the window many of the Martha Stewart-esque party hosting notions you may have. Work with me here, ok?

First, do not clean your house top to bottom. People should not be running around touring your bedrooms and what not anyway,* so just make sure that the bathrooms are clean, and have hand soap, towels and toilet paper. No one notices (or, at least, cares about) dirt if they're having fun. And they'll have more fun if you haven't made yourself nuts cleaning all day.

Second, have a theme for your party, even if it's just a small, casual dinner with friends. This makes it easier to set the menu, and then, if you have kids, they can contribute by making some fun table decorations or concocting activities. For a Chinese New Year party we hosted, my kids made lanterns out of construction paper (nothing fancy), some signs saying "Happy New Year" in Chinese, and a "pin the tail on the Boar" game. The kids felt like part of the process and it was all stuff they could do with minimal supervision.

Third, have a signature drink. If it's thai food, serve something fun and frothy from a coconut or pineapple. In the case of this last party, it was a "Lynn-tini" in honor of the birthday girl, and lots of Guiness and Harp (it was also St. Patrick's Day). Keep the drink selections simple, and more often than not, everyone will find something to drink.

Fourth, you do not need to prepare everything in advance. People love to help, and if you have a few things that require last minute assembly, guests can help with this. Then, you've got company in the kitchen, and they feel like they've done more than stand around and be served.

Give these tips a try and let me know how it goes!

*Unless you live in a real showcase house with hot and cold running staff, in which case, have the staff tidy up, because people will want the grand tour.

The pool party, etc.

For those of you living in the Midwest or anywhere else that is generally cold for obnoxiously long periods of time, I highly recommend a mid-winter pool party for kids. Well, wait, let me qualify that a bit: I highly recommend a pool party for kids ages 6 and up (I'll tell you why in a minute). We hosted a pool party for our son's 7th birthday this Sunday, and after 1 hour of swimming, those boys were cashed. Not even a 3 layer marble cake with fudge filling and a blue "wave" of buttercream frosting could rev these kids up after the swimming (oh, and no, I did not make the cake--baking is not really my thing, and let's leave waves of buttercream to the experts). All those tired, water logged faces were a spectacular sight, and an unexpected benefit of the mid-winter pool party. Had the party occurred during the summer, 1 hour of swimming would have no effect on them, I'm sure, but for their cooped up all winter bodies, 1 hour was a lot.

Now, here's why I say that this is a great idea for ages 6 and up: not every kid takes swimming lessons, so even at 6, you can't be sure that a kid can swim. There were a couple of kids at our party who were teetering on the edge of not being able to swim, so even with 3 adults in the pool and a lifeguard it was a little nerve wracking. I guess I could add "Don't send your kid to a pool party unchaperoned if he/she can't swim" to my list of birthday party rules...tempting.

Anyway, once the cake was eaten and the water footballs were given out as goodies, everyone left tired and happy, which was a great way to wind up a Sunday afternoon.

This week in our house we are busy thinking about, among other things, leprechaun traps. My older two have to make them for school, because there is a rumor around school that the leprechauns come in and trash the classrooms around St. Patrick's Day. The challenge is to build a trap to catch the sneaky devils. Here, according to my 7 and 8 year olds, are the things that might entice a leprechaun, just in case you all are having problems with them:

-shiny stuff
-money (natch--think pot of gold)
-robins (as in the bird. This one confuses me a bit, but don't shoot the messenger!)

The plans so far involve tin foil, glitter, and a shiny, possibly GOLD robin (double whammy) to entice them, and lots of double sided tape to ensnare the leprechauns. I'll let you know if we catch any.

This week has also been filled with my bold attempts at meal planning. Although I love to cook, and make dinner almost every night, I am a terrible meal planner. So, armed with my menu for the next several days, I hit the grocery store yesterday and then Costco today. Yesterday's meal was Chinese Chicken Salad (yum & easy...napa cabbage & chicken tossed in a hoisin vinaigrette), and was successfully made. Score one for me. Today was supposed to be Oven Fried Chicken with steamed broccoli...and then I forgot to defrost the chicken from Costco, on top of remembering at 5:50 p.m. that the 8 year old was supposed to be at a birthday party...at 5 p.m. After much rushing around, the end product was quesadillas. So, I have decided that my meal plan must include last minute contingency options, some pinch hitters of the dinner world, for those evenings when all of the best intentions fall flat. As for tomorrow, well, I can't even remember what I have planned for tomorrow and don't really feel like leaving this comfy chair to look at my list and tell you. Sorry.

The word from my hostess with the mostest friend is that the scavenger hunt was a wild success, and I promise to give you all the scoop in a future post. Something else to look forward to: some cards from our new Completely Custom line are going to be featured on Cool Mom Picks (link at right) in a few weeks. We're excited!

'tween friends

My friend Carol is an excellent hostess and always has the most fun, innovative parties for her middle school aged daughters (as well as her adult friends). I am working on her for an interview, as I find her style inspirational and refreshing, and think you will, too, but until then, she's allowed me to share the details of her best party ever for 'tweens.

What I love about the following idea is that you can do as much or as little "from scratch" as you'd like, but either way, it will be a party your kids' picky friends will remember. The concept is simple: a make your own pizza party. But, since the 'tweeners are at an age where you need to encourage positive, collaborative interactions whenever possible, Carol took the concept one step further.

She divided the guests into teams, and each team got blank t-shirts, poster boards, and paper chef's hats. With these goods in hand, the teams were responsible for naming themselves, developing signage (the poster board) and team apparel. Next, the teams headed into the kitchen, where they received a slab of pizza dough and every kind of topping you can imagine, including candy. You can imagine that things got quite heated at this point, with a lot of attempted sabotage! Each team created a signature pizza with the ingredients of their choice.

At this point, the "celebrity" judges arrived--a teacher who gamely agreed to participate, and moi, who, while hardly a celebrity, would never pass up a party! The teams then had to present to us their name, signage, apparel and pizza, and convince us why they were worthy of a prize. There were several categories: teamwork, best tasting pizza, best signage/slogan. It was really gratifying to see these kids, who are at an awkward stage socially & physically, come together and present themselves and their teams. They had a blast, and because they were divided into teams, had to work with kids they might not have chosen if left to their own devices.

So, here's how to recreate this party from scratch and in parentheses I've given suggestions for an easier buy it all route if that's more your style.

Invitations: Buy small cardboard pizza rounds and hand print or glue on printed invitation. Mail. (buy pizza themed invitations and have the store print them for you)

Team necessities: Men's white t-shirts, paper chef's hats, poster board, fabric markers and sharpies (skip the chef's hats, and just stick to the rest of the items).

Pizza dough: If it can be made from scratch, Carol makes it from scratch, so the pizza dough is no exception here. You'll need one crust for each team you've got, which is a lot of kneading. (Buy Boboli or other similar pre-made crusts)

Toppings: Pizza sauce, herbs, several varieties of grated cheese, cut veggies, M & Ms, other candies, chocolate sauce. (Buy jarred pizza sauce, pre-grated cheese, pre-cut veggies, the candy of your choice and canned chocolate sauce)

Baking: If you are lucky enough to have two ovens (and even better convection ovens) you can cook at least two, if not four, pizzas at once. If not, have the teams make smaller pizzas so you can bake multiples at one time or even put your toaster oven into service.

Goody Bags: The kids have done their own, by creating a unique, memorable t-shirt for their team. What could be better?

Tonight Carol is hosting a village wide scavenger hunt, complete with parent chauffeurs and digital cameras, for her 7th grader. If it is as successful as I think it will be, I'll post the details on hosting a similar event at a later date.

The welcome mat

is officially out here at hen and barley. Aside from all the hen and barley press & stationery news you could ever want, I also hope to bring you many tidbits related to some of my favorite pursuits. You'd be amazed how many things relate to the world of stationery!

Many babies seem to have been born in March 7-8 years ago, because a lot of kids seem to be having parties. See, just watch me relate this post to stationery...

Despite being in the stationery business, I know that it is easy (and oh so tempting) to use the invitations that your child's party venue gives you for free. I get it, I do. But, if you have the time & energy to devote to a more attractive invitation, here are some ideas:

- for his 8 year old's race car party at a slot car place, a creative dad cut out a car shape from dark red card stock, and then in simple ink, drew a little race car and the party's details. Nothing fancy, but completely adorable.

- for a 7 year old girl's party at a local party zone type place, the parents printed big flowers on photo paper, along with the who, what, when, and then folded it into an invite. Easy!

- for my son's 7th birthday, a pool party, we chose a border from hen and barley's new Completely Custom collection and after picking our colors for the border and text, voila, had a completely unique invitation. Click on the hen and barley press link at right for more details about Completely Custom.

Now, while we're on this topic, let's throw in a little manners tutorial. There are a few absolutes in the world of children's birthday parties, and they are:

1) Do not distribute invitations at school, or anywhere near school, unless you are inviting the whole class

2) Tell your child not to discuss his/her party at school, no matter how much they want to tell friends how awesome it's going to be. The first time your child is the one to hear about a party they weren't invited to, you'll understand this rule better, trust me.

3) Respond to invitation you receive, people! And I don't mean send your child to school and have them tell their classmate they'll be there. That's not responding, that's violating rule number 2. Pick up the phone, or fire up the computer, and respond properly (or better yet, have your child do it).

4) Tell your child not to talk about the party after the fact with kids who weren't there. Since kids are forgetful, I remind my kids about this one often, because there's nothing worse than letting someone know they were left out.

Next time: fantastic party ideas for the tricky, tricky 'tween set.