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Fiesta Fail: A guest blog post by Kelsey Whitelaw

Today’s blog post is brought to you by my incredible nanny Kelsey. She threw a party for cinco de mayo…and tells us all about where and how she went wrong…and why you should leave the party planning to the pros like us here at Little Miss Party! Though she had some epic failures to share…overall I still think she did a great job and it sounds like a fabulous time was had by all which in the end is what is most important. Read on to see what happened..
I moved into my apartment in Jersey City back in November, but with all of the post-Sandy problems with the PATH train, I decided to wait until it got nicer to have a housewarming party. Plus, one of the perks of living outside Manhattan means I have a backyard! With the days getting warmer, I decided a Cinco de Mayo themed housewarming would be a perfect way to celebrate.

Seri thought it was a great idea and even asked if I needed any help planning. With 7 months of working for her under my belt, I felt I had learned enough about party planning to pull it off on my own. Boy was I wrong!

I had never thrown what I would call a “grown-up” party before, but working for a party planner meant I couldn’t just throw up a piñata and put out some Solo cups and call it a real party. I got to work on planning colors, décor, food and even got into Pinterest (which is truly addicting- Thanks Seri) and made some really cool DIY tissue paper pom poms!

We of course planned to serve chips and salsa along with one of my favorites- homemade guacamole! For the main event I had the “genius” idea of making Fajita Kabobs on the grill served with tortillas and all the fixings. I also made a yummy quinoa salad with black beans, tomatoes, corn, queso fresco, jalapeño  cilantro, and lime.

Now enter the day of the party, which turned out to be fail after fail.

The first problem was finding my avocados were still rock hard. In a panic I searched google to try and find a miracle method to ripening avocados  And let me tell you… they are all lies! We bought the avocados Friday with promises that the paper bag trick with bananas/tomatoes/apples would ripen them overnight and I thought “Well great! We have until Sunday” WRONG. I tried a trick of wrapping them in tin foil and sticking them in the oven at 100 degrees for a while. Still nothing. So okay, no guacamole.

I was rushing around like a madwoman trying to get everything ready for the 1 pm party. I ran to the grocery store to get ice, flowers, and a tiny $4 thing of guacamole. I even asked my friends Deanna and Matt who were visiting from out of town to help with the kabobs. Yes, I was desperate to the point of asking my GUESTS to touch raw meat and help prep. They did an amazing job, though!

Things weren’t going smoothly, but at least they were going, so I decided to get the table set up outside. Everything looked picture perfect outside and things were finally starting to look up, so I told my friends who just finished up the kabobs to go take a look. As I was inside cutting limes (30 minute countdown to the party and I wasn’t even showered and ready), Matt walked in with a broken vase. Oh no, what now! The table cover blew up knocking all the vases over, spilling water everywhere and breaking one vase. We rushed to clean up all the water and stapled down the table cover. Phew! At this point I had to hop in the shower and get ready, which I did in a record setting 10 minutes.

It was a 5 minute countdown and guests started arriving as I was in the middle of prepping margaritas and trying to clean up my disaster of a kitchen. Everyone filtered outside and I was still running around like a madwoman. I couldn’t help but think that the girls at LMP would never be rushing around like this- they make it look so EASY!

Once the majority of the people were there we decided to put the kabobs on the grill. Now this was one we were sure to get right… right? We did everything you’re supposed to do; we tested it out beforehand, we went to the sketchy U-haul place to get our propane tank refilled, and my roommate spent lots of time scrubbing everything clean. I figured all the prep disasters had to be behind me and I brought out the kabobs. As soon as I put them down on the grill I knew something was wrong. Where was that nice sizzle sound you are supposed to hear? The grill wouldn’t get hot enough. So NOW what?

I was almost at a state of panic- how in the world were we going to feed our guests? And what would I do with 3 trays full of kabobs!? Matt suggested using the broiler in the oven, which I thought was sure to burn the apartment down the way things had been going, but to my (and I think everyone’s) surprise it worked really well!

The fajitas were tasty, but it was clear that the meat we picked for the beef kabobs was too tough. Everyone pretended they were delicious as they tried to chew the through the meat. How embarrassing! Well at least the chicken ones came out perfect.

Then as our starving guests began to dig into the quinoa salad and rice, they found their forks were literally falling apart. The handles were snapping in half and pieces of the fork were crumbling off left and right. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this point. I had found the bag of forks unopened, and never thought there would be an expiration date on forks! Well apparently there is, they just don’t put it on the bag.

Everyone had a great time with LOTS of laughs (mostly at my expense), but for now I think I’ll stick to working with children and leave the party planning to the professionals. I can guarantee you they won’t serve crumbling forks with a side of tough meat topped with rock hard avocados.

xx, Seri

categories: Dip, Little Miss Foodie, little miss party, Summer Menu