#tbt Family Reunion Breakfast

I’ve been brainstorming ideas this week for my family’s reunion this summer, so today I’m throwing it back to my 2014 family reunion and highlighting the breakfast we hosted.

For our family reunions, we assign meals to different couples so that no one person has to be in charge of all the food. Then, we typically come up with a theme and decorations for that meal as well.

We were in charge of breakfast one morning, and since the reunion was being held in Hot Springs, Arkansas, I thought it’d be fun to make our theme Arkansas! I loved brainstorming ideas and coming up with the decorations, and bonus! the colors of the Arkansas flag are red, white, and blue, so I’ve been able to reuse most of the decor every 4th of July.

One challenge was needing to plan everything in advance without knowing exactly what the space would be like, so I came up with a few items I knew would be easy to incorporate into any space.

This tassel garland was my first attempt at making my own. I would call it medium difficulty, and honestly for roughly the same price of all the supplies, I’ve ordered them pre-made to save time. Nevertheless, I was pleased with how it turned out – I used tissue paper and mylar sheets to add a variety of textures, then topped each tassel off with striped washi tape and added a basic string to hang the tassels on.

I created tags that highlighted all the state symbols, not really knowing what I’d do with them once I got to the reunion. They ended up finishing off the edge of the counter nicely. Those little milk jugs were one of my favorite finds, and since milk is the state beverage of Arkansas, it worked out perfectly. I also made both the star napkins and napkin rings. The napkin rings were a project idea I found on Martha Stewart’s website, and they were actually pretty simple. And the mini flags were definitely a hit with the kids!

Speaking of the kids, I printed off an Arkansas state coloring page and found some fun treats for them to take home. Inside the treat bag there were star shaped crayons, a bird whistle (the mocking bird is Arkansas’ state bird), a milk tattoo (I happened upon those at my local ice cream store and couldn’t believe my luck!), candy cane, and their own Arkansas flag.

For the food, we went with stuff that could be prepped the night before and then put in the oven in the morning so we didn’t have to get up super early. We did cinnamon pull-aparts (some people know it as monkey bread) and two different quiches, strawberries, and mimosas. After breakfast, we were off for a day on the lake!

This year’s family reunion is in New Jersey on the beach, so I’m enjoying brainstorming some new ideas. Everyone is flying in for this reunion so we might have to downsize our decor (for Arkansas most everyone drove so we could bring more stuff), but I’m up for the challenge. Can’t wait!

Party on!
JW