Roy’s 30th Birthday party was on June 22nd and it was great! We celebrated his birthday at our home. It was an adults only party and it felt great to not worry about the kids for one night. Sometimes parents need a break or two (or five, ha). It was a pretty easy party because my husband did not want any fancy decorations. He is a pretty simple guy. I tried to convince him that tissue pom poms are a must but at the end it was HIS party so I went with simple “30th Birthday” decorations from Party City. My Silhouette Cameo got a break! We got rope lights for the inside of our gazebo area, lights for the umbrella, and lights for the 10×10 tent. We also added lights to our fence. It really gave it a nice ambient feeling. We’re keeping the lights up indefinitely 🙂
30th Birthday Party Ideas
Spiked (alcohol-infused) Gummy Bears
The spiked or alcohol Gummy Bears were a hit! Super easy to make and taste delicious.
Here is what you need to create your own Spiked/Alcohol Gummy Bears
- Bag of Gummy Bears
- Bottle of alcohol (I used Absolut Miami Vodka – passion fruit/orange blossom flavor)
- a bowl/container
- Cling wrap or Saran wrap
I used a rectangular container and poured the gummy bears. I tried to keep the gummy bears in one layer so they wouldn’t stick to each other but my bowl wasn’t big enough to have one single layer so I did have some gummies on top of each other. I poured the Vodka on top of the gummy bears making sure they were submerged entirely. Next, pop it in the fridge overnight so the gummies can absorb the liquor. They were in the Vodka from about 9pm, Friday night until 5pm the next day. Try not to leave it too long as you don’t want them to get mushy. The gummies will get slightly bigger in size. When you are ready to take them out just use a strainer to grab the gummy bears. I actually did not have any liquid leftover. The gummies really soaked up the alcohol. They also were a little hard to separate so I just put them in a platter (see picture above). I put toothpicks out for people to grab. Next time, I will try a bigger container so the gummies have space to “grow” and they won’t be so stuck together. I definitely will be doing this again as they were so delicious and everyone loved them!
Spiked Cupcakes – Margarita and Pina Colada flavor
I wanted to try to make my own cupcakes but I decided that I needed to be honest with myself and admit that I can’t bake for anything sooo I did a trusty Google search for “spiked cupcakes”. I also asked in my Facebook mommy group I’m in if anyone knew a place. Lo, and behold I found Spiked Bake Shop on Yelp.com. The reviews were good and the flavors sounded amazing (the pictures looked awesome too – I’m a sucker for amazing food pictures).
When I took one bite of the Pina Colada flavor, I was kicking myself for not buying another dozen. The margarita cupcakes had the best tasting frosting, so delicious!
Fiesta Cheese Dip using the Crock Pot
I wanted to do a cheese dip that would stay warm for the duration of the party.
1 can Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup
2 cans Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup
1 2lb box of Velveeta Mexican block cheese (cubed)
1 1lb box of Original Velveeta block cheese (cubed)
1 16-oz jar of salsa
I dumped all the contents into the crockpot and left it on high. I did mix every once and awhile to get a nice combination. After about 2-3 hours I left the crock-pot on low. It maintained a good temperature. It was delicious, cheesy, and just the right amount of “kick” from the salsa and Mexican cheese.
Food – Vicky Bakery
I really didn’t want to stress myself out by cooking a bunch of food so I decided to do some research on some pastries. I wanted to have finger food available since I knew people would be drinking and finger food would be easy for people to grab. One Sunday I got a discount flyer in my Sunday paper for a place called Vicky Bakery. I was intrigued. The coupon was for $5 off $20 purchase. I quickly did a search online and found the menu. It didn’t have prices so I sent an email to inquire about the different packages. The following weekend we went to taste out the pastries. We really liked the “pastelitos de queso (cream cheese pastry)”, “pastelitos de carne (meat pastry)”, and the “relleno de papa (potato ball with meat in the middle)”. The order was $25 for 25 of each of the different pastries we wanted plus a quarter sheet of cake with the coupon it was a great price for all that food. We definitely will be visiting again when we need our pastry fix!
I also ordered 50 chicken wings from my local Publix supermarket for $22.99. Our very good friends made the BBQ meatballs. I made Baked Zitis and Roy made his sausage and peppers (we were so excited to use peppers from our garden!). My mom made the arroz con gandules (yellow rice with pigeon peas). We had plenty of food and plenty of drinks.
Brownie cake pops
I used my cake pops maker to create some brownie cake pops for the dessert table. I didn’t have a lot of time and I had great success using the cake pops maker in the past (see picture below).
I used Candiquik chocolate melts. I prefer these over the Wilton Candy Melts. Candiquik works so much better and tastes so much better. I found mine at my local Walmart Supermarket – they have chocolate and white chocolate(which is tintable). I also love that it comes in a tray that is microwave safe so less dirty dishes and messes! Yay!
My neighbor helped me decorate the cake pops with different sprinkles. Nothing fancy just sprinkled them on while the chocolate was still wet. They were delicious!
That is pretty much it for food. We played beer pong and flip cup. It was my first time playing flip cup and it was really fun! We had music outside and out tiki torches for the mosquitoes. Those tiki torches actually work it was a great night with no bugs!
I also have a 30th Birthday pin board if you want to see my inspiration. If I come across any other clever 30th birthday ideas I will continue to pin to that board. Afterall, my 30th birthday is in two years! Have to start planning…