Purim - Panic = Success!

I was talking to a relative on Friday and telling them about Sunday's party. He asked, "why is it that you always have to host the party every Purim?" "Because I LIKE to!," I replied automatically. And I do. The one year I didn't host Purim I was literally depressed all day. Despite my usual panic, I really do love throwing parties. Which brings us to yesterday's party.

This year's annual Purim bash was SO MUCH FUN! We decided to go with a Sesame Street theme. I was Grover, Shimmy was Big Bird, Sophie was Abby, and Lilah was Cookie Monster. We had a great group of friends over, great food, and no pre-party panic! I'm not even sure how that happened. I'm always prepared, so it's not the last minute rush that stresses me out. I have been known to have the pre-party panic even if everything is 100% ready and I am sitting down waiting for guests to arrive. Maybe blogging about it last week helped? If I put it out there in the universe (or internetz) it can no longer attack me from within? Who knows. All I know is that yesterday we had one heck of a good time.

Since Lilah's birthday is this coming Sunday, I had already thrown parties the previous two Sundays, and the same group of friends would have been invited to a separate birthday party, we decided to celebrate her birthday yesterday too. This weekend we will celebrate with family!


(Best family pic of the day even though Shimmy had lost his costume by this point, Lilah took off her hood, revealing very messy hair, and Sophie is wearing/holding the entire contents of the dress up bin. Hey, I look okay.)

Location:
Our house, which was clearly made for entertaining. We can seat 30+ people around tables comfortably in our dining room. Love it.



Menu:
Glazed corned beef
Sweet and sour meatballs
Chicken stuffed wontons
Mock shrimp cocktail
Sesame noodles
Whipped potatoes in phylo shells
Vegetables and dips

and for dessert:
Ambrosia (I cannot wait to make this again- it was SO GOOD)
Pumpkin muffins (per Miss Abby Cadaby aka Sophie's request)
Hamantashen of course, with a BIG birthday hamantashen for Lilah (also Sophie's idea)



Activities:
Eating, hanging out, and a costume contest for the kids, which Lilah won! I think people voted for her because it was her birthday party. She was super cute in her cookie monster costume, but she had some good competition.


(Sophie was Hawaiian Abby Princess Aurora- she definitely got points for creativity)

Party favor:
Our Mishloach Manot bags, which were Sesame Street themed to match our costumes! The bags contained Bert's Oatmeal, Cookie Monster's Cookies, Oscar's Mud Cakes (brownies), Big Bird's Bird Seed (sunflower seeds), and Elmo's Juice Box



As successful as it was, I'm taking a break from parties for a while. As the host, that is. I'd love to be a guest if anyone else is so inclined to do the planning :)