Pairing Night // CARES

As I shared in my Painting Party post, we're the CARES Team at our apartment, which means we get to throw two events a month for our residents to enjoy! One of our events last fall was a "Pairing Party." As a CARES Team, we're not permitted to purchase alcohol, but we had heard from residents that they'd love some "grown up events."

 Zachary and I love a good cheese board and wine pairing. There's nothing quite so welcoming to us as an overflowing cheese board and good wine with some candles lit and Spotify on. It's our go-to hospitality touch, so naturally, we knew we could put together a night that any resident could enjoy while encouraging guests who'd like to, to bring their own wine to share, too, to give that "grown up" event feel we had residents requesting.

Since we have two events a month and a limited budget, we have to get creative and reuse many of our decorations. For this event, for food tags, I simply folded a note card and used a permanent marker to label each snack.

These trusty chalkboard stands and mason jars go with us to nearly every event. I snagged the chalkboard stands at Hobby Lobby on a 50% off week for $5. I buy mason jars from basically any grocery store. They come in all sizes and usually run $10-$12 for a dozen jars.

These chalkboard trays have also been a go-to party staple and I happened to score them at the Target Dollar Aisle for 3 bucks a few years ago.

I wanted the event to have that "overflowing" feel of abundance so we stocked the counters with plenty of cheeses, crackers, sweets, meats, nuts, fruits and olives- all the make up of a good cheese board.

There's something about "the cheese board" that reminds me of the Lord's table. I don't know if it's simply because it is so dear to Zachary and I's hearts and how we tangibly love to welcome others into our home, but there's just something about it that draws me to God. It reminds me of His goodness and care for us.

You gotta love glasses pics- oh that glare. I feel like the majority of my current pictures of myself, with my big glasses on, look like this. He's a cutie anyway.

After everyone loaded their plates, some guests stuck around for some games. We played Loaded Questions which has turned out to be a great party game. Loaded Questions is similar to Apples to Apples but requires a bit more creativity and is over all more interesting. 

To play, you go around the circle and have someone draw a card & read it. For example, someone might draw and read a card that says, "What is not a good first date location?" After the card is read, everyone writes their answer on a piece of paper before passing it to the "reader." The reader reads out all of the answers and the person who drew the initial card picks their favorite one. Whoever had the favorited answer gets a point. This game is more interesting than Apples to Apples because you have to use your wits and humor to come up with a clever answer. To "What is not a good first date location?" someone could write, "Your mom's basement." "The hospital." "A funeral home" Etc. Most questions illicit hilarious answers and help you get to know each other's personalities and senses of humor, too.

The Pairing Night turned out to be a great success. While we had fewer residents attend than events in the past, it was a great event to connect with our neighbors in a smaller, more intimate setting.

What's your go-to treat when guests come over? 

CARES: Painting Party

We have the great privilege of being the CARES team at our apartment Community. Our role is to help foster a sense of community within our apartment. Part of that role is to host two events a month! This has meant that my love of hosting parties and party planning has taken shape at least twice a month for the past year since we just came up on our year anniversary with CARES. I'd love to share some of our past events with you guys in the future but for today, I'l start with our painting party. 

Every month we try to come up with creative, fun events for our residents. We know the favorites and we know the magic word (It's free FOOD!) but we also like to provide a variety for the varying interests of our residents and to keep things fresh. The painting party we held in February was the first "hands on" type event we had and it was a great success! We were able to see the true talent of some of our residents. I mean, check out that Mickey Mouse above!

This adorable couple, Nitesh and Priyanka, planned out some fun paintings for the day! How cute are they?!

We love the opportunity that CARES provides for us to meet our neighbors! We love knowing the people around us. It's a great feeling to know the people you see when you take your dog for a walk in the evenings. It's very special. 

This little pack is our favorite. They are so full of energy! It's so fun to see them running and biking around the apartment.

For every party we host or party ideas we have, I create a Pinterest Board for that party. These boards serve the purpose of being a Mood Board for me! We have a very limited budget and for some events we have limited time to prepare things for it. While we can't do everything I pin, the Pinterest board for each event is very helpful in giving me ideas on how to make things special and personalized. Unfortunately, I don't have photos of the details (I'm the worst at playing hostess and taking pictures!) for this party but we made sure to have colorful decorations and of course, colorful snacks! Here's my "mood board" for our Painting Party.

"Back Yard" Movie Night

Before we moved (Oh, hey. We moved!) from our last apartment, we hosted a movie night for our neighbors. We had the perfect location, as our first floor apartment backed up to a nice grass walk way & rock wall. We set up speakers & a projector on our patio & projected The Incredibles on to a sheet we hung on the rock wall. It was a fun night and made us wish we would have done a movie night way earlier & often! We invited our church family to come out & knocked on neighbors doors to invite them over. We popped some popcorn, picked up some old school Little Debbie's snacks & stocked up on water. We set up our Tiki torches, laid out some pillows & blankets and waited for the sun to set. It was cozy, intimate and just fun.

Check out these awesome POPZ popcorn boxes I found! They were only $1 each and effortless! You just pop (No pun intended) into the microwave, set the timer & let them pop. When they're finished, you have a delicious box of popcorn. No bowls required! They were the perfect addition to our movie night and helped set the mood.

Chara, of course, joined in on the fun, but only from our patio! We tried to let her out, hoping she'd be an angel and snuggle up next to someone and watch the movie, but there was way too much popcorn falling on the ground for that. Girl was persistent to help "pick up" every fallen piece. So, to the patio she was banned.

See our little dinky sheet? Would you believe that's a Queen size sheet?! It looks so small hung on the large rock wall. To hang it, Zachary hiked up from a lower area of the wall, and tied ropes to trees & the corner of the sheet. While he was up there, he discovered a huge, untouched area of trees, grass and rocks. Ha. We knew there were trees up there but we didn't know just how big the space was. Later that week he was sure to take his hammock up there to read undisturbed in what felt like his own little slice of camping paradise.

With Nicole home from China, it's always fun to get together with her! We don't see her nearly as much as we'd like but when we do see her, it's just like old times. As you can see, Chara loves Nicole and always remembers her!

We got to choose which apartment we wanted and we knew this was the one when we saw this nice grassy view from our patio. It was so nice living here, working on the patio and letting Chara have the occasional off leash time as we threw her Frisbee, or one time french fries, up and down our little grassy knoll.

Isn't this the cutest picture ever? She's always ridiculously happy when Zachary gives her attention.

We chose an adult & child favorite! You can't go wrong with The Incredibles.

We had a treat that weekend by having Sebastian, my nephew, be able to join in on the movie watching. Though being a 2 year old, ensures that you don't watch the movie at movie night, at all. ;)

Leave it to Soph, to take a ridiculously cute picture when you just ask her to say cheese.  

Once the blankets were laid out, the snacks ready and the sun had set, we gathered with friends for the start of the movie! It was actually so relaxing to be laying out in the grass, steps from our back door, with loved ones for a good movie! Often "back yard" movie nights in the neighborhood are so crowded that relaxing isn't usually the go-to word you'd use to describe them. They're tons of fun and a great way to spend an evening, but again not necessarily relaxing. This night was relaxing and just perfect.  

We can't wait to host another outdoor movie night at our new place!! 

Have you ever had a back yard Movie night? If not, try it! Check out my Move Night Board for some great ideas!