Dallas turns 14!

After much pleading from my "almost 14" year old Son, we decided to have his Birthday party at Grandmas house in Discovery Bay. Dallas is the last of 5 children. His older siblings birthdays start off in March, then we are over run with Birthdays starting with 2 in July and 1 in August. By the time his birthday rolls around on September 4th, we are getting finished with summer and ready for school and fall. So the past 2 years we have given him great birthdays (call it parental guilt...but whatever it is, he has had great birthdays these past 2 years). We invited around 30 kids. 25 showed up. It was a beach themed party. I found the cutest beach cupcake idea just from googling "beach cupcakes". They showed a peppermint ball however when I went to Bobs Oldtimecandy.com (I am the candy expert after searching for almost 200 pounds of candy for the candy buffet at my daughters wedding in May) I found a cute striped cherry flavored ball instead of the red and white striped peppermint ball! Funny how as I get older...little things like that just excite me. I used graham crackers for the sand and ordered little cocktail umbrellas from eBay. (hind site...I would have gotten them from Cost Plus/World Market....25 for $2.00. I bought 100 for 10.00 and only needed about 40. So now I have a ton left over and I don't drink so no Pina Colads in my future)

 The kids had so much fun swimming, eating, playing darts, eating, paddle boating, eating, kayaking, eating......well you get the idea. 25 Teenagers can eat!

The Birthday Boy

We had Watermelon Otai, a Polynesian punch.
1 ripe Watermelon (seedless)
1 can of crushed pineapple
1 can of coconut cream or coconut milk (I prefer the cream)
1 cup of shredded coconut (I use dried organic from whole foods..but you can use the baking kind)
1 can sweetened condensed milk
Sugar to taste (optional)
3 to 4 cups of water (depending on how thick you want it)
cube and mash the watermelon in a big bowl with a big spoon, add the pineapple juice and all, empty coconut can in the bowl, add coconut and empty sweetened condensed milk in bowl. Add ice and enjoy. It is not a smoothie because it will have some pieces of fruit (pineapple and watermelon).

The kids ended the night with S'mores. We don't do your NORMAL S'mores, we go all out. We use graham crackers and sometimes flat fortune cookies. (I find them at Rite Aid) Now with Marshmallows coming in such a variety, you can get coconut, strawberry and even chocolate. For the chocolate we use Rolos, Hershey's miniatures, mini peppermint patties, mini Reese's.

 I am dying to try a chocolate bar from World Market in a S'More. It is Chipotle Chili Dark Chocolate. It has a little bite to it. I think it would make a great S'More. Ill have to keep everyone posted.

 All in All...I would say Dallas entered into the ripe old age of 14 with a great party. At the end of the day I asked him if there were any girls he liked. He answered with "theres 2" I told him good...but I need him to like 4. See that is smart Mom thinking..because if he likes 4, then he isn't thinking too much about 1!