Pink and Green Party

Back in the day (early 80s), my aunt would always make fun of the tourists who came up to Harbor Springs for vacation as they always wore pink and green and would eat nothing but fudge and ice cream for a week straight.  My aunt complained about this enough that my mom and dad decided it would be hilarious to throw a surprise pink and green party and not tell her about it.  So they invited family and friends to come to the cottage in their best pink and green attire for the party.  My aunt showed up before most of the guests in her red pants and white shirt and finally realized the joke was on her when everyone else was in pink and green (as well as the plates, napkins, jelly bellys, etc).  The party became a yearly ritual while my parents owned the cottage, and it was a really fun party (so I hear- I was still very young and often didn't attend).

Since those years, whenever my entire family is together, we have held a family pink and green party.  Everyone loves dressing up for it, and it always makes the best family pictures!  This year just happened to be one of the years that almost everyone was up north for vacation, so the party was on!! 

Haley's pink sparkle Toms.  The perfect shoe for the party!

H, A, &B

Spencer in his helmet (it's rare that he doesn't have it on for something) and two of the three boy cousins that he hung out with all week.  Even though they are 12, 10, and 8, they really were great with both my boys and played with them constantly.

In the driveway as people were arriving.

Aunt MA and my mom wear Lilly well, don't they?

E- he is 3 and has the BEST hair!!

Sweaty Spence after riding his tricycle forever in the driveway.

The best family photo we took- blurry and horribly weird faces.  Again, this is NOT easy!!

The watermelon shark.  My cousin made this for the fruit salad.  It was amazing.  L (E's twin) thought it was hilarious and kept eating the eyes off it, sticking her hand and head in the teeth and then screaming as people would pretend to eat her.  Hysterical.

My brother and his girlfriend.  They're adorable together.

Cousin K.

B, E, and Spence

Yep, JFK Jr look alike.  J is my cousin's husband and he's just as sweet and smart as he is good looking.  They have a fabulous relationship and an adorable almost 1 year old.

K, S, and I

After dinner, drinks, croquet, and ladder golf, the family went down to Gram's beach to have a skipping stone contest.

Spence in his jammies throwing stones

My brother and uncle paddleboarding

Sweet L gets all wet in the lake.

The croquet champ of the night

The whole family.  Literally, this is my mom's entire family minus three cousins.  We were so lucky to all be there to play together, spend time together, eat together, and learn more and more about each other and how amazing it is to have a family like this.  I love my family even more than I love this party!!

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!!