Teacher Appreciation Dinner

about two years ago, i felt God nudging me to host some of my fellow homeschool moms monthly in my home.

there is a group of about 15 women from our church who homeschool. we try to get together every month to do field trips.  the field trips are fun but as moms we never had time to connect during the field trips. there is the hi how are you? as someone chases after a toddler or answers a question from their school aged child.  there wasn't time for us to have time to really talk. time to vent if needed, ask questions, and get encouragement and support.

i knew when i felt that nudging that this was something we all needed.

i will admit that some months it's a bit crazy getting ready for our get togethers but it is always worth it. these ladies are all so dear to me.  i gain so much wisdom and encouragement from all of them.

this year for our last get together i wanted to do something a little more special, so i hosted a mini themed dinner.  it just so happened that our dinner fell during teacher appreciation week :o)

it was the end of the school year and kind of crazy so i really didn't do much for decorating but added a few touches to spruce up my kitchen.

 i had some extra green and navy fabric. i cut big sections of the fabric and sewed then together for a table runner. i didn't even hem the fabric.  i picked up a green table cloth at target and added some flowers from costco.

 with the same fabric, i made a quick bunting to hang over our patio doors.

 i used what fabric remnants i had to tie onto mason jars for their drinks. i went through our straw stash and found any green/navy looking straws.

for our main course food, i decided to go with a mexican theme since it was shortly after cinco day mayo.

 i made fruity white sangria to drink. 

it was so yummy!

 i made a fruit salsa

 with cinnamon and sugar chips

 taco bites

 {i normally top with cheese, sour cream, salsa but since we were having so many different mexican themed foods and i had toppings out for the other foods i let everyone top their own taco bites}

 southwest chicken bites

{i tweaked the recipe just a bit to fit our families tastes}

 pork chalupa's for mini chalupas

i had the usual array of toppings: lettuce, tomato, olives, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, refried beans

for our desserts i wanted to carry over our mini theme. 

so we had a variety of mini desserts:

top: mini cupcakes made by morgan

middle: mini chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches

bottom: sugar cookies as the base for mini fruit pizzas

the "frosting" and toppings for mini fruit pizzas

i am so thankful to have a group of women to gather with each month and travel on this journey of parenting and homeschooling with them.

it was so fun to treat them to this fun mini party.