My 'Welcome Back' Party Update

 

Hi everyone and welcome back! As you my know, there's only six months left before I'm ready to move back to Lawrence Kansas. So here's an update of what's to come on my first ever 'Welcome Back' party here at South Park in downtown Lawrence.

Okay so, I got word from my dad that he and mom are gonna get the condo sold this week. So I let Stephanie know that in the month of May (before the beginning of June), I'm finally back in Lawrence Kansas. I let her know on a text and kept her updated with more details. I can’t wait to reunite with all my friends that I know.

Anyway, time for an update on my first ‘Welcome Back’ party in South Park.

Here’s what we need for the party:

1. Food and refreshments including cheeseburgers, pizza, chips, fruit salads, soda. Grill up the burgers to make the cheeseburgers. (Pizza courtesy of Pizza Shuttle)

2. Music of any kind I like. I’ll be the DJ for music, requests are also included. Also I need someone to help set all this up. Plus, a special live jam.

3. Special ‘Welcome back’ tropical punch. How to make it.

You’ll need:

Sherbet, strawberries, fruit juice, and cream soda or lemon lime soda.

Then stir it up and serve.

4. House warming gifts.

5. Fun games and prizes. [Water balloon toss, water balloon fight, pie in face, etc.]

And maybe a bounce house to rent for the party.

There’s gonna be plenty of more stuff to check out when this ‘Welcome Back’ party is in full effect. And I can’t wait ‘til I’m finally back. Before you know it, it’s party time! Hey, I wonder what house warming gifts my friends will give me when I come back.

Oh! And you know what else might be really good for our party? It’s something special that you might consider trying out. Stephanie, would you be so kind is to make me a special 'Welcome Back' cake called the Burger and Fries cake please?

Here's the video's link on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbXh4SfM71A

I'll give you the instructions on how to make it.

So... Here's what you will need to make it:

• Three 9 inch round cakes (two for the bun and one for the burger)
• One 8 inch square cake (for the fries.) You can make the cake batter from two boxes of yellow cake mix, or if you're making the cake from scratch, you have to double your recipe.
• 1 can of store bought chocolate frosting or 2 cups of homemade frosting
• Decorations: tubes of white, yellow, and red frosting for the mayonnaise, mustard, and ketchup, green and red gumdrops for the pickles and tomatoes, shredded coconut colored with green food coloring for the lettuce, and crispy rice cereal for sesame seeds for your bun.
• large plate
• knife
• spoon

Now here's what you'll have to do to make it:

1. Check with a grown-up and wash your hands before you start this.

2. Put one of your round cakes on a large plate. This will be the bottom bun for your burger. Make sure to leave plenty of room on your plate for the fries!

3. Squeeze some white frosting on the top of the bun. This will be the mayonnaise.

4. Sprinkle the green coconut lettuce.

5. Put another round cake on top. This is your burger. Frost the top and sides of the burger with the chocolate frosting.

6. You can stick some more of the "coconut lettuce" on the sides of your burger.

7. To make the pickles and tomatoes, press the green and red gumdrops with the back of a spoon until they're flat. Put the pickles and tomatoes on top of the burger.

8. Now squeeze some red frosting on the sides of the cake--this is the ketchup oozing out of your burger. Do the same thing with yellow frosting for mustard.

9. Now place the other round cake on top of the burger. This is your top bun. Sprinkle on some crispy rice cereal on top for the sesame seeds.

10. Your burger is done! To make the french fries, cut the square cake into long pieces.

11. Pile them on the side of the plate next to the burger. Squirt some red ketchup frosting on top.

12. And there you have it, a hamburger and french fries for dessert! Bon Appetit!

In case you didn't know, I found it from the CafeZOOM section from the ZOOM website long time ago. And I think that you should give that recipe a big try. Besides, this special cake might be perfect for my 'Welcome Back' party. And I heard that this recipe is "crumblitious".

Okay now, moving on to the next level. The music!

For decades in my younger years, I’ve been to the school dance and I get to get down on the dance floor and have some fun. Well now when I’m finally back in Lawrence, my ‘Welcome Back’ party will have plenty of music to jam to. And I will be the DJ like I always do in parties. It’s just like the time I DJ’d at a Best Buddies vent in KU. There was pizza from Papa John’s and plenty of sodas to enjoy.

Now when we have my 'Welcome Back' party in South Park, I'll be in charge of the music. So this means that I'll get to choose the music of my favorite choice including my favorite music genres, plus get everybody to do the Cupid Shuffle, the Cha Cha Slide and the Electric Slide. Song requests of any kind are also included. And we gotta get this music DJ thing set up the party at South Park. And trust me, it’s gonna be really cool. And to do that, we need all the help I need.

Now let's review the snacks.

We'll also need to add Chex Party Mix, the bold and traditional kind. Or you can make it homemade. It's your call.

All you need are:

An assortment of Chex cereal, bagel chips, hard breadsticks, and pretzels.

Brazilian Fruit Salad

What you need are:

Fresh fruits such as mango, pineapple, kiwi, berries, peaches, oranges, star fruit, grapes, bananas, and watermelon tossed with orange juice.

So here are some tips on how to make it.

First off, choose seasonal fruits. Fresh fruits must be firm yet ripe! The best time of the year to make this recipe for tropical fruit salad is when tropical fruits are in season, or during summertime. They taste better than a canned fruit cocktail.

You can add other fresh fruits such as fresh grapes, kiwi, berries, peaches, dragon fruit or pitaya, sweet oranges, and star fruit for a more exotic fruit salad. You can also sprinkle some shredded coconut on top or stir in thinly sliced fresh mint leaves. Or whichever you choose to make it sweet.

Toss the fruits and the dressing gently, avoiding smashing. Avoid using frozen fruits because they get mushy easily after thawing.

Add the bananas about 10 minutes before serving the salad to avoid oxidation. 

Then, chill your tropical salad for 2 to 24 hours before serving! It will make it much more refreshing and will avoid spoilage. That way it'll make it even more easier.

Now you may ask, what fruits are good for making a Brazilian or Tropical fruit salad. Well, any firm, ripe fresh tropical fruits in season are good for making fruit salad. We usually use pineapple, mango, bananas, watermelon, and papaya tossed with citrus juices, but you can add any other seasonal fruit of your liking.

You can also make it ahead of time. So that means you can prepare it the night before, allowing the fruits to marinate in the sweetened citrus juices in the fridge. It will make your tropical salad more flavorful and refreshing! 

Now if we're gonna grill up the cheeseburgers to make them on a plate, we also need ketchup, mustard, and mayo.

Plus if you're really bringing some potato chips, try the kettle chips. One of my favorite kinds, along with cheese puffs. That could be really good, and it would be nice if everyone can share them.

The sodas we need are Coca-Cola, Coke Zero, Diet Coke, Sprite Zero, Flavored Sparkling Water, Fanta Zero, Barq Root Beer. Or at least maybe sodas which will be found at a soda shop at the Mass St. soda shoppe. I’m also talking cream sodas too.

Phew, okay! Enough with that already! Now that we’ll get the food all planned out for the party, let’s move on to the next part. And I promise you it’ll be really quick.

You know about those bubble machine they use outdoor for parties and/or outside the porch in their backyard to play around with at their house? Well, I’d prefer adding the Gazillion bubble machine for the ‘Welcome Back’ party. You can find them somewhere at Walmart, Target, or any other store you’d find in town. It’ll be a great addition for my party in South Park. In case you’d forget, here’s what it looks like when you see this picture.

See this picture? Right above here. You can see the machine with the bubble soap on the right. Pretty cool huh!

Also we can do a water balloon toss and a water balloon fight. All we need are these Zuru water balloons of any kind but we really gotta find a hose somewhere in the park.

And maybe we can get somebody to rent a bounce house for the party. I'll bet the guests and the kids would love that one also.

Now get this, my dad’s coming to Lawrence to see my friends Stephanie and David, Lois, and everybody else including his friends from Americana. Greg can’t wait to see him too. My friends are gonna be so happy to see me once again, and I can feel it. And the best part is, my dad can take my friends out to dinner. Who knows what they'll think of next? And when I finally came back again, I'm gonna call my friends and plan to hang out with me. I can't wait until the time comes and it's gonna be really fun. I can finally see it now!

If anyone loves my next blog that I wrote for you to check out, feel free to help me get things set up for my 'Welcome Back' party at South Park. RSVP!

Here's where my 'Welcome Party' will be located in case you forgot. Right there!

Take a look at this picture of where's it's located. That way we can have more room.

Well that’s it for now! Check back later for more new stories on the next edition of my Lawrence Kansas monthly blog. And if you like this blog entry that you're reading right now, let me know on the comments below and on Facebook. Hope you have a great rest of your day and I'll see you real soon. Peace out!

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