my Oz birthday!

The first movie I ever remember seeing was The Wizard of Oz on TV. It became the first movie I ever loved, watching every annual broadcast, reading the original books by age 5, as many as I could get my hands on, and I even saved up $10 allowance to join the International Wizard of Oz Club when I was a tween! When I saw that the new remastered edition of the Wizard of Oz movie came out on Blu-ray last fall, I decided to go back to my roots and have an Oz birthday this year.

My Oz birthday actually started with taking my mom to see Wicked the musical in San Francisco two days before my actual birthday. It was the worst traffic from Sacramento to SF I’ve ever seen at midday on a Sunday, making us late, but we only missed the first song, & she really enjoyed the show. Hooray!

Mom & Britta at Wicked in San Francisco

I used free Amazon points to buy the Blu-ray “ultimate collector” set for myself & decided the perfect night to show it was on my birthday since it landed on a Tuesday movie night. Since I told people it was my birthday, over twice as many people came than usual, so it was 25 of us plus little Ellie and greyhound Gus – quite a turnout! I’ve never had so much food be gone at the end of a party! Obviously everyone enjoyed the food! Sure made cleanup easier, but only about half the people had actually told me they were coming in advance, so I had only made about 3 dozen of everything. I found a dress at Target that was close enough to be Dorothy-esque, found a paper gingham tablecloth that I trimmed to make Onyx’s bow & my hairbows, and painted a pair of thriftstore shoes with red paint & red glitter to make my own Ruby Slippers. I even played software pirate to get a copy of Heartless: The Story of the Tin Man onto my PS3 as pre-movie entertainment (I couldn’t figure out a way to do it legally so I apologize!), and everyone enjoyed that too, surprised it was so well done. I also had a lot of fun with the menu, since I made all of these below, and arranged them along the Yellow Brick Road on the food table with my Oz movie posters from my childhood bedroom walls, my vintage & new Oz books, other items from my small Oz collection, and even the Wicked Witch of the West from my Halloween decor made an appearance gazing into the crystal ball!

Dorothy Britta and Toto Onyx on the Oz patio…watch out for the Wicked Witch of the West!

Oz Menu:
Over the Rainbow Fruit Salad – stacked in my trifle bowl
Ruby Slippers – vegan red velvet shoe-shaped cupcakes decorated with red sugar for sparkle
Lollipop Guild – purchased coiled mini lollipops
Yellow Brick Road – gold foil since I ran out of time to make the cheese bricks (darn!)
Scarecrow’s Sweet Potato Straw – sweet potato fries
Tin Woodman’s Axes – vegan gingerbread axe cookies
Cowardly Cornbread – vegan mini muffins with coconut manes & painted faces
Field of Poppies – tomatoes cut into poppy shapes with cream cheese & chopped olives for the flower center
The Wizard’s Emerald City Salad – green salad, spinach, snap peas, marinated artichoke hearts
Glinda’s Bubbly Goodness – non-alcoholic (“good!”) sparkling pink lemonade
Wicked Witch of the West – black vodka with sour apple mixer layered as black & bright green

Huge thanks to Mary Jo who came a little early and made the first Wicked Witch of the West cocktail to enjoy while she cut strawberries and was in charge of the deep fryer for the sweet potato fries!

There were so many people I wasn’t sure if they wanted to play Rock Band, but when Kaelyn requested it, I asked them to sing the Beatles “Birthday” for me…very fun, and different from the now-traditional 17+part made-up-on-the-spot harmonies my singing friends usually do!

Full documentation, with step-by-step food albums, and even some short videos of some birthday cards that are very cute, are here in gallery of course. I had a really fantastic time, so I’m very thankful to everyone who joined me to celebrate!