Blog Parties

Friday, May 11, 2012

Cinco de Mayo Party

I can't believe how fast time is flying this year.  It's already almost been a week since I had my Cinco de Mayo party.

This was the first time I have ever hosted one.  Not a party, but a Cinco de Mayo party.  And we had it on the 5th of May.  Go figure.

Here are some of the tissue paper flowers I made.  I kept putting off making them until the morning of the party.  And wouldn't you know that I forgot to take photos of the small single color ones I made for my outside tables.  In fact, I didn't take any photos of my outside tables.  Can you believe that I am a blogger that forgets to take photos? 

I also don't style my photos.  Keeping it real folks, keeping it real.

Nachos was round one of our Fiesta.  The Fiesta plates & napkins came from Dollar Tree.  The bright colored cups came from Sam's Club.  All the plastic silverware came from Walmart.  All my brightly colored plastic bowls came from Dollar Tree or the 99 Cent Only store. 

The beverage dispenser was a new purchase from Sam's Club for $19.99.  I really liked this one as it has a tube for ice to keep the beverage cold without watering it down.

The plastic margarita glasses are from Party City.

The blue tin pitcher that the tissue paper flowers are in came from Michael's.  Purchased with a coupon of course. 

I did make the colorful table runner.  Well, it isn't actually a runner.  I was going to make a runner, but got too lazy.  I had purchased a yard of fabric from Hobby Lobby on sale.  I ended up just turning under each edge & placing in the center of my table.  Hey, it works for me.  

Remember last week when I posted about making the punched tin napkin rings.  Here is how they look when done.  My sister in law was the one who wrapped the silverware in the napkins & then she just wrapped the punched tin strips around everything.

If I had more time, I would have made them more round and perfect.  Who am I kidding?  I would have done the same thing since I am a procrastinator and I wouldn't have had time to make them perfect.  Obviously!

And another thing while I'm thinking about it.  Why do I even bother buying napkins.  No one but me seems to use them.  I found most of the napkins still wrapped in the napkin rings once the party was over.  Oh well, at least I try to be a nice hostess.

You can tell, I didn't style this photo either.  Picture taking was my after thought.  I was too busy trying to get everything ready and food on the table.  You are lucky there are any photos.

Now we will move outside. I had wanted to hang those paper banners that they have hanging in Mexican restaurants.  I forget what they call them.  But the real deal is expensive.  I did find this cheaper version at  Party City.  I wanted them hanging all over my backyard.  Problem is, even though this is the cheap version, it was still out of my budget to get more than one.  Plus I had no idea who I was going to string them across my yard.  And lack of time always gets in the way.  So I had to settle for just this one.  I clipped it to the edge of my retractable awning.  It is actually brighter than the photo.  I guess it was the time of day and the angle when I took the photo.


Here is where all my time went decorating.  This area was our "Photo Booth" for the party.  I spent a couple of days making the crepe paper garlands.  All of my crepe paper came from Dollar Tree and 99  Cent Only store.  The 99 Cent Only store had the more vibrant colors.  

One day was spent making the fringey ones (single colored ones).  I pretty much just followed the tutorial over at Oh Happy Day blog.   I had a lot more of the fringey garlands that I didn't have time to hang.  I guess there is always next year. 

I took the day before the party off so I could complete all my unfinished craft projects (which was everything needed to decorate).  But all I got accomplished was sewing the ruffled garlands (multi colored).  Took me most of the day to sew.    I fell in love with the ones I found at MADE.   I just knew I needed to make some for my party.  However, mine didn't turn out quite as fabulous.  I used my friends sewing machine, but it was having issues that day.  I was too lazy to dig out my machine, and my friend lives right next door and has a room dedicated to sewing (lucky girl).  

My ruffles started coming undone by the end of the day (dang wind).  But they did  brighten up the joint. 

And again you can tell I didn't style my photo since the serape hanging on the back of the bench looks a mess. 



I have  this 3 tier planter that was void of real flowers.  So the morning of the party I whipped up these tissue paper flowers.  They remind me of going to Tijuana when I was a child.  Too bad I didn't have a burro to go with the flowers.  That would have made my photo booth fabulous.  Smelly, but fabulous.  


I think this is my favorite photo from the party.  You get a better look at my ruffled and fringey garlands.

We actually ate food all afternoon.  We started with round one which was nachos.  Then we moved on to round two which was homemade chicken & pork tamales my hubby made.  They were pretty yummy.  I usually don't like tamales, but these were pretty good.  Plus my sister in law made a killer green sauce.

Round three was taco bar.  We had carnitas, carne asada and chicken fajitas with all the trimmings.  Plus beans and rice.

Final round was dessert.  Hubby made some dessert tamales with chocolate inside.  They were OK.  I personally only like milk chocolate or white chocolate.  These were made with semi sweet chocolate.  I'm not really a fan of semi sweet.  But I gave it the old college try.

And then there was some strawberry covered cake that someone brought that was a hit.

Luckily it was warm enough to go swimming (for the adventurous).  Everyone else who wanted to get wet, went in the jacuzzi.  And no, I don't have any photos.

People started to leave and I almost forgot about my photo booth.  I did get some of my guests to venture in for some photos.  

The first ones in my photo booth were my niece (on the right) and her best friend and best friend's baby.  

I was obsessed with finding Sombrero's for my party.  You can't have a Mexican Fiesta without Sombrero's.

I first found some at Hobby Lobby for $3.00 each.  But then when I went to Dollar Tree, I scored them for a buck a piece. $1.00 each!!!  And they were more colorful.   Of course, I took back the ones to Hobby Lobby. 


The old men (my brother and hubby) at the party weren't afraid to get their photos taken half naked.  Chippendale dancers they are not.  That is the only thing great about being old.  You don't care what people think of you anymore.  At least most of the time. 

My hubby is trying to get our dog Cookie to wear a Sombrero.  She was having none of it.


My son did a better job at getting her to wear the Sombrero.  Bread always does the trick with Cookie.  Bread is like Catnip to her.

I never did get a photo of me, or my other son in the photo booth.  My plan was to do so after everyone left.  But my hubby and his friend decided they would help me by taking down the garlands before I was ready for them to come down.  Plus they ripped them as they were taking them down.

MEN!  Why do they help when you don't want their help.  And not help when you do.  MEN!



This is my niece's husband.  My niece didn't come as she had just had a baby.

My neighbor & good friends chillin's.  I love that they wore their ponchos and let others use them for photos as well.  They also provided the serape on the bench as well.   I did take a photo of them with their mom and dad, but my friend doesn't like everyone seeing her photo.  So I was a good friend and didn't post it here. 

We had about 26 people total at our party.


The neighbor girls from across the street getting into the spirit of Cinco de Mayo.  I had cut out a bunch of mustaches to use for the photo booth.  I was going to glue them to sticks, but all but one mysteriously disappeared.    Everyone just kept taping the one mustache I had to their face.

More friends.  You can tell we had to pull a couple of the kids from the pool to take their photos.  The Dad was getting into character so much that his youngest son didn't know who he was and wouldn't go to him until he took the mustache and poncho off. 


Isn't he the cutest?  Love the crooked mustache.


Do any of you remember Hobo Kelley from the 60's?  When ever I see these huge sun glasses, that is who I think of.  So when I found some at Dollar Tree, I had to get them for my photo booth.  




Finally it was time to do the pinata  (I have no idea what key to push to get the squiggly line above the "n" in pinata).  My friend who lives next door made the pinata from a Mylar balloon left over from her son's birthday party and some party hats I had on hand.  She already had all the tissue paper.  So this pinata was basically free.   Isn't it fabulous?  Better than any pinata you can buy at the store.  


And was it ever sturdy.  Most pinatas break after the 2nd kid whacks it.  But this one lasted for all 6 kids that stuck around.  In fact, the last kid (the 12 year old), had to smack it a bunch of times to get it to break.

 It was filled with candy (most of which was left over from Easter), streamers and some cheap toys as well as some glow bracelets.  I bought a bag of candy and toys from Walmart for $6.00.  I thought that was pretty cheap.  The glow bracelets were left overs from last Halloween from Dollar Tree (yes they still worked) and some I got at Michael's for a buck.

I gave each kid a paper bag to put their loot in.  Each kid's bad was half full.  

Afterwards, everyone used the broken up pinata as party hats.  I can't believe Cookie is actually wearing a hat without having to be bribed with bread.

All in all it was a fun party.  I didn't get everything done that I had planned.  But then, I never get everything done.  But what we had was more than enough.  Everyone had a good time and a full tummy.  And best of all, no one got Montezuma's revenge the next day.

I hope you have enjoyed my first Cinco de Mayo party.  I just wish I had taken photos of the tables outside and of the rest of the food.  I was just too busy cooking, eating and visiting.  But then, that is the most important part of a party.   Having fun!

1 comment:

  1. Looks like a festive party. Fun to see the photos, Kim.

    ReplyDelete