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! 

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

OUR RED, WHITE, & BLUE BBQ | 2016

WEEKEND RECAP: FRIEND EDITION

Our weekend started with some pizza and Netflix as soon as work was over on Friday. Later that night I decided to get majority of the cleaning knocked out so I could focus on prepping the food and rooms for everyone to stay in once they got to our house.

Saturday I was awake by 5:30 because I was so excited for everyone to get there. I finished the last little bit of cleaning and then started on getting out sheets, blanket and pillows for everyone. Matthew pumped up the air mattresses and I put the other beds together, and made sure the guest bathroom was stocked and ready for our guests. I made these breakfast muffins and this bread for our breakfast on Sunday morning. 

This was my first time making bread, and I don't know why but I was so nervous it wasn't going to turn out well. Since there was only a piece or two left I'll take it that everyone liked it and approved!

I knew we needed something quick and easy before since we would be headed out the door to church, and those were perfect for a quick breakfast! While those were baking I put this Caprese pasta salad 

together and prepped our burger toppings. Matthew ran to our local butcher shop and got meat for the hamburgers, and hot dogs. Can I just say how nice is it to have a good butcher shop about 5 minutes away from where you live? Hello, fresh meat!

My sister came over for a little bit to bring us this adorable basket! She and my mom put together a "sunshine basket" for us since we had a rough week a little bit ago. Isn't it just too cute?! Everything from house products to some yellow golf balls for Matthew. Also, you can't really see them but the two small bowls by the loofah are SO cute. I should have made a separate picture of them. They are the perfect size and shade of yellow for summer coming up! I used them Saturday at dinner to serve lemons in for water.

Everyone got there Saturday afternoon and we all sat around talking and the boys played frisbee out back. I asked Rachel to make her delicious strawberry pies for us since the last time I tried to make it was such a huge fail. Matthew started the grill up and got started on the burgers and hot dogs and I got everything else ready to eat. I didn't get a picture of our dinner but just know there was a ton of food! With Rachel's pies and Sarah's cookies we were all stuffed. After dinner we got our jackets and headed to the game.

The weather was very chilly, like I was afraid of, but we bundled up and survived. ;) I think at one point it was around 45 degrees at the game...brrr!

After the game was over we came back to the house and played some games and then called it a night! Rachel and Trisha took our guest room that has our old bed in it and all the guys got blow up mattresses. We had blow up mattresses in our other guest bedroom, dining room, and study. I should have taken a picture to look back on in the future when we have furniture in there lol.

We decided to go to late service at church on Sunday since there were so many of us that needed to get ready that morning. Here is our breakfast spread on Sunday morning, I did remember to take a picture of that!

Matthew and I haven't been to late service since we first got married so it was really weird going to church later than normal lol but it was good to see that group of people again.

After church was over we went to lunch at one of Matthew's favorite places...Wasabi. They have lunch prices on the weekends too, thank goodness! I made a panorama picture and they were moving so that's why a couple of them look a little funny lol. Matthew's arm is looking extra funny ;)

After lunch everyone headed home, and Matthew and I took a nap! We had such a good time with everyone and can't wait to have everyone over again!! I am already planning out our next weekend together. :)

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

WEEKEND RECAP: FRIEND EDITION

Friendsgiving

Last Friday we had our first annual Friendsgiving! It was a lot of fun and we had plenty of food (and still do, eating leftovers for days). I got off of work Friday and rushed back to the apartment to start setting everything up and to warm up the dishes I had made the night before. I decided to make my nanny's red cinnamon apples and dumplings.   Here are some pictures from the night!

 

 

 

 The fold up table I borrowed from my parents was just big enough to fit in our living room.

 

This wasn't even all the food, there was more on the stove. Like I said leftovers for days y'all.

 

Closer look at some of the details

 

Remember this chalkboard tray I made? Comes in handy for every event!!

 



 

 

 

 I put this adorable banner together right before everyone got there and loved it.

you can find that here.

 

 

  Mason jars are hands down my favorite. I bought those straws at Target last time I was home and loved them as well! I think they add the right amount of color to everything!

  I wanted to make little name cards for everyone but when I was in Target I found these and knew they would definitely work! 

  After dinner I wanted to get a group picture so we made a few...

 

and then someone decided to make an "awkward family" picture so here they are...enjoy

 The guys weren't really for the awkward family photo so they did their own thing, as you can see.

I never thought I would see those boys do the duck face.

 

The girls!

  I am happy to say our first Friendsgiving was a success and I am already excited to have it again next year!! Are you having a Friendsgiving? If you aren't yet plan one, they are so fun!!   

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Friendsgiving

Friendsgiving

A week from today we are having our 1st annual Friendsgiving and I am SO pumped!! I thought of this idea LAST year while I was still living at home, not even sure if I would be able to move up to Cookeville, while I was watching How I Met Your Mother with Matthew of course. Well a year later and here I am up in Cookeville planning Friendsgiving!!!! I am so excited I just can't even deal y'all.   I sent out a mass text last week to give everyone a heads up and with our schedule and the holiday coming up soon and everyone going home Matthew and I decided next Friday will have to do. So this weekend I am going to get all the last minute things and I have found some very cute pins one Pinterest that I am going to try and make/print off this weekend while I am home!   I probably won't make this but OH. MY. GOODNESS. y'all this is perfect and I love the way she has everything set up!! I mean look at those adorable mason jars for the cider and that silverware jar. Definitely will have to do this someday! 

{Source}   How cute is this?! Definitely a cheap but cute project to make and I'm sure my mom has some of these laying around the house I might have to take haha.

{Source}

  Still have a huge Pumpkin I could write this on!

{Source}

  I have about 2 yards of burlap left over from a previous project so I am thinking about making a banner like this but maybe have it say "Friendsgiving"

{Source}

    I have some left over small pumpkins that I could paint white and use as the centerpiece. Definitely loving this idea!

{Source}

     Those are just a few ideas I found on Pinterest recently and I will be stalking Pinterest this weekend per usual to find a few more idea!! Have you ever had Friendsgiving? If you have I would love to hear about how yours went! :) HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Share:facebook - twitter - pinterest

Friendsgiving