For once, not being able to say “NO” turned into one of the best evenings I have ever had.

Background- My dear friend bought a casino night on Groupon.  I honestly thought she was nuts, buying something like that on a whim.  I was afraid she had wasted her money-who in their right mind was going to have a casino party in their home, and had enough friends to make it worthy of such extravagence? How on earth could I turn her down when she stated so simply, “Well, I thought it would be a great way to celebrate P’s birthday, he loves to gamble”.  She had me… how could I turn her down when she bought it for my husband?  Did we celebrate a big one, 30…40…even better 50?  No,  we celebrated the BIG 46!!

Okay, if we already had one foot in, we might as well jump in with both feet and do a little jig.  Let’s do it up right!

Find a weekend night without any hockey games— CHECK!

Invite 20 of our closest friends—CHECK!

Figure out how to fit 2 authentic sized gambling tables in my house—okay, we had to be reasonable on this one and settled on the backgammon table.   We came up with additional stations of  poker, craps and sequance.

Decide that this is the perfect opportunity to make a 2 layer fondant casino cake—–CHECK!  Figure out how to use said fondant (what the heck have I gotten myself into).   LISTEN TO ME…..if you have never done something before, don’t shout it from the rooftop. Keep it quiet until the finished product is done.  If it sucks, no one will ever know and you can sneak down to the local bakery and buy one! Pressure was on!  Scroll down if you can’t wait to see the finished product!  Not bad for the first time…reach and pat on back! =)

MENU

Chipotle Meatballs

Pizza Bites

Hot Spinach and Artichoke Dip (omg, this is so yummy)

Buffalo Chicken Bites

Spicy Chicken Tortilla Roll-Ups

Brownies

Casino Cake with chocolate/oreo buttercream and the ‘dice’ were white with lemon raspberry filling

Candy Bar:

( Black and Red Twizzlers, Red Swedish Fish, Hershey Kisses)

Rounding it all out…..a Margarita Machine and drunken Gummy Bears.  During the night, chants of “we love Paul” could be heard.  I am just about positive that everyone (except my husband who hasn’t had a drink since college) the next morning was chanting “we hate Paul”.  LOL!

A big shout out to A Casino Event, who did an amazing job!  If anyone ever wants to hold a casino party go to www.acasinoevent.com and ask for Jim.  He and his wife were awesome casino dealers.  As you can’t play for cash, we rounded up gifts to be auctioned off.  Big thanks goes to Belterra, who generously donated a nights stay with dinner and breakfast! WOO HOO!

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