Fiesta!

Here's how the fiesta went in photos.

 It started like all good parties - with a fun invitation. These are just a few of the color combinations I made. Definitely set the mood.

These little guys were the hit of the party. They are Southwestern egg rolls. The filling has about 50 different ingredients (I may have exaggerated here, but only slightly), and the rolling of 70 of these bad boys took a couple hours. Then, of course, they all had to be fried. This was the point where I almost hyperventilated. You see, I've never made them before and I suddenly thought, "What if they're terrible?"

I let Aiden be my taste-tester and his exact words were, "If you are worried about them tasting bad, you don't need to worry." He was right. They were delicious...not healthy, but very delicious.

This is Southwestern burrito pizza. And yes, I asked myself, "Who makes homemade pizza crust for a shower?" It too was worth the effort, although in the end, it tasted a little too similar to the egg rolls. Next time, I'd do something different...hmmm add lettuce maybe. I don't know.

I admit that I don't know much about Mexican party food by the end of this day I decided that it's kind of all the same. I just made it in several different forms.

 Mexican dip was a nice, fresh alternative to the other fare.

The bacon and cheese quesadillas were the kid favorite. Okay, my kids were the only ones there and they had to take it upstairs with a movie. This, they thought was totally awesome, since eating is allowed in the kitchen and dining rooms only.

I had some Mexican wedding cookies for dessert along with fried ice cream. This was a fun surprise for the shower as well as an attention getter. So many people had never had it before.

I did cheat on this one and skipped the fried cinnamon and sugar tortilla for the bottom. I mean I've got to have some limits right? Seriously though, this is one is easy.

The decor was festive too. Mackenzie helped me by making loads of tissue flowers and I borrowed some Mexican guys (the small paper mache type, not the real ones) from a friend. They added a nice touch.

 Of course, there had to be sombreros too.

 These simple streamers really transformed the place.
Now I'm going to give you a few tricks of the trade.

1. I hired my kids and one of Mackenzie's friends to clean up the house for me. It wasn't perfect, but it was better than I had time to do myself. I'm telling you, they were pretty amazing. They cleaned bathrooms, mopped and vacuumed. I have great kids who will work hard if the price is right. Actually, they would have done it for free; in fact, they thought they were. I decided to pay them since they're trying to save up for some summer activities.

2. My husband set up a fry station in the backyard to keep the mess at bay and the house from smelling. He also brought in tubs of ice, loads of beer and mixed up the margarita punch. And, I should mention, weathered one crazed outburst and one meal of frozen pizza from me. Love ya babe!

3. And a great big shout out goes to my mom who told me to call her if I needed any help Saturday. Then, knowing I wouldn't call and ask her for help since she wasn't even invited, "just stopped by" that morning and stayed for several hours mixing, chopping and even making some tissue flowers. Thank you Mom! I couldn't have done it without you.

4. Of course, none of this would be possible without God. And believe me, a lot of prayer went into this project. God always comes through!