About that leap day party...

I very much had a love hate relationship with the day. My kids had a lot of fun with it and I had some fun with it too.  The reason I did it was because I don't really enjoy the same stuff as my boys do and I am trying to foster a relationship with them and embrace some silly things in a way that we can both enjoy.  So since I am a huge Gretchen Rubin fan and if you are familiar with her you probably know that she advocates celebrating the minor holidays so I figured leap day qualified.

 

Frog pond jello 
I knew that going into this that the sites I used for planning were fantastic and very inspiring, and I knew that my abilities and my patience level would not allow me to really re-create the picture perfect treats.  I was a bit frustrated by my own annoyance that my stuff was not quite as planned, even though logically I knew ahead of time things wouldn't go just as I planned.  I needed to keep reminding myself to cut myself some slack and focus on what I had and how the kids were enjoying it.








Lillypad quesadillas
Yes, it was a special day and it helped us to make some pretty awesome memories and was silly.  That was the goal my goal was not perfection, even if I apparently wanted it despite my personal pep talks prior to the day. :)  One change I made was I switched up lunch because I was not able to download the Kermit template from the site I pinned, so I thought what else is green....lillypads! Boom, I kept with my theme, and it was actually so much easier, and bonus the kids loved them.




I know I try to make things really special for my kids and I think that I sometimes forget that my kids don't need everything to be super special and perfect.  My kids go nuts over the box the toy came in as much as they love the toy inside, so why do I add that pressure to myself?  I guess if I could answer that question I could write a best seller and become rich! :)


Frog legs and frog tongue
For those of you parents who want to use Pinterest but have resisted because you cannot re-create things on the same level, I am here for you, I get you, I am you.  For years I avoided it because I didn't want to get sucked into yet another internet based rabbit hole because really I can easily waste my time I don't need additional help.  I also avoided it because I didn't want to fell 'less than' and didn't want to try to compete with others that are either professional at semi-pro, I am in the hobby/amateur league.








Frog's Breath Float
So here are all my re-creations, I didn't apply a lot of filters or photo editing to any of these pictures.  Filters that I did use: Brightness and Blur to blur the background of the photos.  I also had fun using some of the bar glasses that haven't seen a lot of use recently.  The oversized martini glasses seemed like a good replacement for a parfait glass because I don't own any.  And the margarita glasses, come one the Frog's Breath Float just looked like a frosty frozen margarita but it is just sherbert and sprite.







The one thing that really gave me the most problem was the Frog Pond Cookie Cups.  Granted I only waited 50-ish minutes for the dough to set up in the fridge but still, the dough was a pain to work with.  Personally, I thought it was very messy to create the cup but then again I don't like sticky and messy dough so this was just a personal thing.  And the 'pond filling' of pudding and cool whip made a ton of stuff I hardly made a dent it and I only made 24 cups.  With the remaining dough, I just made cookies and I have put some o the 'pond' on the back of a cookie to eat it.  I am wondering if I can freeze it and then use it for something else.  I may just freeze some of it just to see how it does.  In retrospect I would not have gotten the mini frogs I would have gotten larger ones, below is a look at a few cups and then a close up of that same plate.

 






















In case you didn't see my previous post with a link to my inspiration board here it is:

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