Party time!

On the 5th of July, B and I hosted a party at my mom and Ralph's new house for our Bay View friends. It was 90 degrees and their air conditioning had broke that week (uggggg), so it was a scorcher of a party, but we had fun anyway. We made all the food and drinks the evening of the 3rd and the morning of the 4th.  I took some pictures, but I'll give you a full run down of the menu below.

Saw this idea on pinterest and just had to do it.  So cute!  We had a few left at the end of the night and they were the perfect clean up snack. You really could use any cookie cutter to make the shapes on the skewers for any theme. I would have to recommend making the slices as thin as possible so that the cookie cutter goes all the way through. My slices were a little thick, so I often had to trace the cookie cutter with the knife in order to get all the way through to the other side.

Close up of the watermelon stars.

Chicken skewers with peanut sauce.  The skewers had poultry seasoning, soy and terriyaki sauce, and garlic on them prior to being grilled.  B found a peanut sauce recipe online that include peanut butter, sugar, water, soy sauce, and garlic. I don't like peanut sauce, but everyone else raved about this.  It was really easy to make too!

Veggie tray with hummus and pesto cream cheese dip.

This is one of my very favorite summer recipes.  It's fruit salsa with homemade cinnamon chips. If you are ever going to a party and need to bring something, this is always my first recommendation.  Everyone loves it! It's also really good left over the next morning over pancakes or the next evening over ice cream :)

Annie's cherry and goat cheese bruschetta is definitely worth trying.  It's delish and unexpected! This picture is terrible, sorry!

We also had grilled pork tenderloin sliders with a homemade peach compote, lemon curd with berries, brownies, and regular tomato bruschetta for the food table. We served beer, wine, skippers (ie: skip and go nakeds- limeade, clear rum, and beer), and Pimm's cup at the bar.

A picture of all the girls later in the evening once the sun had gone down. I look HORRID here (note to self: don't let people pull you to the center of the picture and stand face forward when EVERYONE else is on an angle- not a good look!), but I'm glad I have the memory!!

We were really excited to celebrate a great week with our friends and enjoyed having a chance to catch up sans kiddos!!