OUR RED, WHITE, & BLUE BBQ | 2016

We had our Red, White, & Blue BBQ this past weekend and it was a blast! If you have been around here for nay length of time then you know my husband and I love hosting dinner parties and I love planning them.

Since we weren't able to have our cookout on July 4th weekend we had it the weekend after. Side note, if you are having a holiday themed party after the actual holiday has passed go to the store and stock up on all the clearanced party decorations!

Thankfully the weather worked out for us this time. It was very sunny and very warm, the humidity wasn't terrible though! We had planned on going to a Sounds game but decided to all go see a movie instead since it was so hot outside. Instead of making everything this time we asked people to bring a side. We provided appetizers, the BBQ, drinks, and desserts. Our dinner spread turned out great and I gained a few new recipes that I am excited to try out myself and share with y'all!

 {Printable}

I made Loaded Baked Potato dip, Rotel dip, and Cheddar Bacon Ranch Pinwheels for our appetizers.

In order to keep things simple and budget friendly we usually just do sweet tea, lemonade, and water. I got the paper straws from Dollar Tree and the washi tape from Wal-Mart. The washi tape sprucens things up and is the best way for people to label and keep up with their drinks. A few of you asked where our drink dispenser is from, so I wanted to be sure and share that with y'all this time. I picked it up at Wal-Mart! It's from The Pioneer Woman's line and I love it! It comes with two cute decorative lids and two plain metal lids, two chalkboard labels, and the metal stand they sit on double as an ice bucket. They work perfectly for our dinner parties and people always go on and on about them. 

After appetizers we all went outside and played croquet. My FIL recently bought this yard game and let us borrow it for the weekend. Some of the guys rotated between playing Xbox inside and playing croquet outside, while most of us girls hung out in the shade chit chatting and watching the guys goof off.

After we had enough of the heat we went inside and then it was time for dinner.

After dinner we played games until it was time to go to the movie. Almost everyone spent the night with us this time. We had a full house, and as always, we are so thankful for our home, and that we are able to host so many sweet friends.I think this was our last dinner party for the summer since school starts back up next month, but we have some fun events in the making for later this fall and early winter (I may or may not have already planned about 95% of Friendsgiving) that we are pretty excited about! 

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OUR RED, WHITE, & BLUE BBQ | 2016

RED, WHITE AND BLUE BBQ INSPIRATION + INVITATION

Matthew and I have decided to host another cookout next month. Our Summer Soiree was such a hit we decided to do it again. Since some of our friends will be out of town or have other commitments for July 4th weekend we are doing it a little after but we are sticking with the July 4th theme. So our theme is...Red, White & Blue BBQ! I am so excited and have been planning away. I finished up our invitations the other day and I am excited to share those with you today, as well as some inspiration that I have found on Pinterest. All pins can be found on my July 4th Pinterest board.

and now for the invitation

And here is my inspiration board

There are so many cute ideas floating around Pinterest, it is hard to narrow it down to just a couple!! 

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RED, WHITE AND BLUE BBQ INSPIRATION + INVITATION

HOT DOG BAR PRINTABLES

A lot of you asked about the labels I used for our Summer Soiree, and here they are! I made all of these labels through PicMonkey...free and easy to use. If you've been around here any length of time then you know I am a pretty big fan of PicMonkey.

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 All you have to do is 'right click' on the picture and save it to your computer to print whenever you want to use them! I got the hot dog menu ideas from Kristen's blog but just changed up the look.

The BLT Dog

The Chicago Dog

The Classic Dog

The Southern Dog

Hot Dog Bar

And here are some other labels that can be used at any summer themed party!

Appetizers

Desserts

Pasta Salad

Baked Beans

Cole Slaw

Potato Chips

Lemonade 

Sweet Tea

Water

Tip: I printed them all off on card stock paper. The smaller labels I taped to card stock paper tents that I made. They were very sturdy and I can use them again in the future.

Enjoy!

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HOT DOG BAR PRINTABLES

50's themed surprise party

This weekend went by very fast and it's probably because we were so busy but it was a good one! For the past few months we have been planning a surprise birthday party for my nanny. She turned the big 75 this year and we decided to go all out. We decided to have a 50's themed party, since that was her favorite time. My mom worked her tail off planning this party and everything turned out great! Friday night I came home and started helping decorate, we had the party in local church gym at home, which was perfect. The size was perfect and we had a kitchen to use and plenty of parking.   Saturday we got to the gym to finish some last minute decorating and to prep the food. Nanny was being picked up by some friends to "go to a jewelry party" at the church. I haven't downloaded all my pictures from my camera yet so here are some Iphone pictures for the time being  

 Grandkids & great grandkids with nanny...aaaand my eyes are closed.

 

sisters 

 My cousin with his sons!

 

Root beer floats for the win!  

 cake & cupcake table

 

a family friend made the cake and we loved it!

 

mom found old pictures of nanny from the 1950's for the centerpieces!

 

 

my 2 best friends were able to come!

 

my dad's mom and my mom's mom!

 

 aaand the birthday girl! We had an outfit at the party for her to change in to after she got there!

 

they were lovin' the party!

 

 

It was a great time with all the family and close family friends! Nanny was completely surprised and so overwhelmed at first but was so happy.

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50's themed surprise party

DIY glitter candle

 

    I found these on Pinterest and just knew I had to make these for my sisters big sweet sixteen surprise party back a few months ago. Her theme was Madison & Co. Inspired from Tiffany & Co. so I chose blue glitter.  

I bought simple white candles at Wal Mart but I bought the glitter at Hobby Lobby. I wasn't sure how I was going to do it and Pinterest surpringsly didn't give a step by step tutorial.  
So what you will need: -Plain candle -Glitter -Paper plate -Modge Podge -Sponge brush -Double sided tape -Laquer -Sticker or printout from computer *I printed the numbers 1 & 6 out and used the double sided tape to tape it onto the candle.     Step 1: Tape paper or put sticker onto the candle where you do NOT want glitter to be. Make sure you put it on the candle straight so it's not crocked because you can't change it.  

 

Step: 2: Using a sponge brush paint the modge podge all on the candle on the sides (wherever there is modge podge is where the glitter is going so if you don't want glitter in certain spots don't put modge podge there!)   Step 3: Pour glitter out onto the paper plate, not the whole bottle just some to roll the candle in, depending on the size of your candle is the amount you will need to pour out. Once you pour some out spread it around with your finger a little and then lay the candle on it's side and roll it in the glitter. Pick it up and roll the other side so that the whole thing is covered in glitter. Work fast because you modge podge dries fast.  

 

Step 4: Sit up right and just let it dry for about 30 mins without touching it.

(I would advise sitting in on a clean paper plate to dry)

 

Step 5: Take the candle outside and sit it on a flat surface (concrete, wood,etc) and spray the whole candle with laquer. This will hold the glitter in place so it doesn't all fall off every time you touch it or pick it up. I sprayed each candle about 4 times just to make sure it would all stay in place and it did!

 

Here they are at her party....

 

They were perfect centerpieces! 

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DIY glitter candle