Muppet Party Over Here, HAAAAY!

We decided to join our kids birthday parties this year so we could have one giant muppetational celebrational party!  My family and the Muppets go WAY back, so I have been super excited about this 🙂 My daughter just turned 4 on Jan 22 and my son is turning 2 on Feb 14. Their birthdays are pretty close, they basically have the same friends, & they are still so young, I figured I could get away with combining parties… just this once!

Happy Birthday!

MY MUPPETATIONAL CRAFTS

I found all kinds of cool crafts to print out on card stock on this Disney website.  It is FULL of cute ideas for having a muppet party!  I was even contemplating making my own Beaker pinata, but time just caught up with me and I didn’t get around to it!

"These are so cool, Mom!"

Here are the muppet stick-puppets I made… By “made”,  I mean I downloaded them, printed them, cut them out and laminated them and then cut them out again! As you can see, they came in two different sizes – small (which went into the goody bags) and large.  It was really easy, but tedious. They are great though – you can do so many things with them… play like a puppet show, tape them to the windows, stick them in a plant… I keep thinking of more ways to use them!

Here are the little ones, going through my laminater!

And here are the big ones, which are taped to jumbo pop sticks. Check out the pic above with my girl for a better size reference.

Click on this great link to check out how to make these stick-puppets and more muppet party crafts.  These muppet “pookaloos” are too cute, in my opinion.

Once these were laminated, they were very versatile!

I even printed some out on special magnetic paper for my kids for some playtime at the refrigerator!

I also printed out and laminated these animal door hangers for everyone too! I downloaded these off the Disney site shown above.  (Yes, I own a laminater, and I would recommend having one!  You’d be surprised at all the stuff you find lying around that is good to have laminated!)

And of coarse, I had to make cards for the food… Just look up images of muppet characters online and you will find plenty of choices!  Just cut and paste carefully on some card stock and… ta-da!

MY MUPPETATIONAL FOOD

It sure was fun trying to think of funny muppety food for the party 🙂  I copied some of the food-labeling ideas off of other muppet party sites and then veganized things to my liking.  I actually made up 2 new recipes that are my new favorites! I really wanted to make muppet cake pops but I have never worked with fondant and most of the cake-pop dips have some milk product in them.  Luckily I found these cute little muppet rings to use as cupcake toppers on Ebay and got a whole set of 24 for only $7! (I also bought the muppet mugs you see, the muppet plates, balloons, and probably everything else you ask “where did she get THAT?!” Answer = Ebay!)

I found these awesome sigma collectible cups on Ebay for a STEAL! I even got Rowlf (not pictured)!

Kermit & Piggy’s Chocolate Death Cupcakes with Vegan Vanilla Buttercream Frosting – need I say more! (Read more about these cupcakes in my last post ‘Mama’s Sugar Cookies and more for the vegan sweet tooth’.)

These toppers were little rings!

Kermits Rainbow Connection Fruit Skewers – since its February and some fruit is out of season, it took a little looking around to get the organic fruit we wanted for these, but we managed just fine! 🙂 Recipe: Buy, wash, skew and serve!

Mmmm! Fresh fruit rules!

Scooters Back-Stage Snacks – basic hummus & veggies, chips & salsa (My hummus recipe is the first one on my blog. The salsa was store-bought.)

Chips, veggies, salsa & hummus... party staples

Rowlf’s Favorite Treats  (a.k.a. muppet sugar cookies) – I scored this set of cookie cutters on Ebay and used my moms awesome sugar cookie recipe, which she veganized for me (Thanks mama! This recipe appears in my last post!)

my muppet cookie cutters

The best sugar cookies ever - even Rowlf agrees!

Waldorf & Statler’s Raw Vegan Waldorf Salad – I took the traditional Waldorf salad and gave it a healthy spin by omitting the vegan mayo base (since it would be sitting out on the table anyway) and using a different kind of “dressing”.  I got the idea for this one after looking on a raw foods website. (I also decided not to serve it on lettuce for the party… too complicated.)  The recipe is at the end of this blog. It was SO good!!  And of coarse, I had to come up with a witty card for this one!

I forgot to take off the lid for this picture - DOH!

Dr. Teeth’s Secret Stash (of candy) – This was a great way to get help rid of our leftover candy!

Electric Mayhem-osas – yep, we made a pitcher of mimosas for the adults to enjoy!

Dr Bunsen Honeydew & Beeker’s Latest Creation – their latest creation, in this case, was a fresh batch of apple-orange-carrot-ginger juice, made by my Brevelle juicer! Mmmmmmm!  Recipe: buy, wash, chop, juice, drink!

Please excuse my plastic wrap!

Animals Drumsticks – These were just simple bread sticks for quick munching!

Fozzie Bear’s “Bear-y Good Snacks” – these were cinnamon and chocolate teddy grahams.  I had to have something I didn’t make myself!  I discovered that these were vegan by looking at this website, which I check frequently for easy store-bought vegan goodies.

Usually I eat Annie's bunny grahams, but these were perfect for a quick find for Fozzie.

Camilla & Gonzo’s GarGONZO Bean Salad – This bean salad is sooo good, healthy and quick to whip up!  Even though it was a kids party, I tried to have as many healthy foods as I could. This was my first time making this and it worked beautifully.  It was delicious!   Think bruchetta without the bread, & add chickpeas.  This was one of the first things gone! The recipe is at the end of this blog 🙂

Sorry for the bad pic! At least you can see the cute card 😉 This was before I stirred it - it was a party favorite!

MY MUPPETATIONAL GIFT BAGS

We made our own recyclable party sacks by carving a Kermit stamp out of a potato and we used finger paint to stamp each bag!

our Kermit potato stamps

Here they are before I added the red mouths

Inside each one we had muppet coloring pages, bubble stuff, mini muppet stick-puppets, an animal door-hanger, a pack of muppet bandz bracelets & muppet stickers in each bag for the kids.

Here are SOME of our Muppet dolls & puppets!!

My sister made this awesome Muppet throw she found at JoAnne Fabrics! She also made the picture board thingy on the left! What are those called?!

Muppet t-shirts were mandatory.

Who isn't happy with a mouthful of frosting and a Miss Piggy ring?!

Muppet puppets RULE!

...And so do Fraggle puppets!

Now THAT'S a smile!

Even MY friends came to the party... with their kids, of coarse!! I still can't believe that me and my high school girlfriends are all mamas! Apologies to those not pictured. (That's me in the Animal T-shirt.)

It was truly a terrific muppetational celebrational party!

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 THE RECIPES:

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Camilla & Gonzo’s  GarGONZO Bean Salad

• 5 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 6 Roma (or any kind of small) tomatoes
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 Tbsp fresh minced basil

In a bowl, combine the oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  Whisk well, then add the beans.  Toss.  Place tomatoes in a serving bowl (I used a nice glass tupperware with a lid) and add onion & basil.  Sprinkle with a wee bit more salt and pepper if desired.  Top with the bean mixture.  Cover and refrigerate at least an hour.  Toss before serving.

Waldorf & Statler’s Raw “Waldorf” Salad

• 1/3 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
• 1 Tbsp amber agave nectar
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups diced apple
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• > 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• halved grapes (optional – I didn’t add these, but i meant to!)
• lettuce to serve on (optional – again, I didn’t use lettuce because I thought it was just great as is!)

Mix the orange juice, agave and lemon juice.  Add the rest of ingredients.  Stir together and chill or simply serve straight away! DEVOUR!!!!!!

 (If you wanted to make this more “traditional”, you could leave out the orange juice and add 1/3 cup vegan mayo and maybe a splash of water, if necessary? Never done it, but I’m just sayin’…)

Both of these recipes above are also gluten-free 🙂