This year we had a Party Bling station, because that's how we roll. I asked Lance to come up with something to hang the necklaces on, and this is the pvc awesomeness he created. I feel like I can start a booth at the farmer's market now. :)
And yes, that does say "Tattoo Station" on the left-side sign. Those turned out to be a HUGE hit with the girls at the party, which was a little surprising to me. In fact, I only got the tattoos so I could get free shipping from the site where I ordered the necklaces. Guess they'll be a permanent part of the party now!
In years' past we've run out of room on the table for all of the food our guests brought, so this year I created a little riser to help get some of the big platters out of the way. Unfortunately, we didn't have an over-abundance of food this year. Maybe people figured everyone else would bring a lot of food? Maybe everyone was too busy to make much? I don't know, but there was a definite lack in that department this year. Bummer. (Note: No one went hungry by any means; it just wasn't as prolific as other BYOF's.)
And of course we had our usual pennants and lights. See the sky? It was a perfect, beautiful day! Temps were in the mid-70's and there was a light breeze and no humidity. Gorgeous and very unusual for Indiana!
The day before I had gotten into a baking mood and in a fit of trying to be creative I made a bunch of cupcakes without really using a recipe. The cake layer was blueberry (made with homemade blueberry butter) and the frosting was cherry Jell-o buttercream. The cake was sooo yummy, if I do say so myself. The frosting was a little... pink. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of a ton of frosting, but that didn't seem to deter anyone else!
I also made a bunch of s'mores pops because those are always a hit with the kids. (And I love s'mores.)
This year everyone in our family got an Old Navy Flag Shirt - not that we have any photographic evidence of this. Dang. But Tess and I sure were cute in our matching shirts and necklaces!
Did you know we had to buy a new grill for the party? Yep. Last week I had Lance clean out the old one and we discovered the bottom was all rusted out and dangerous looking. So off to Lowe's Lance went, where he bought a shiny new grill. It could only be delivered on 4th of July morning, which was a little nerve-wracking, but it made it in time! I had to take a picture because this is the cleanest this grill will ever be. So shiny and pretty! (And now it looks all black and greasy... as it should, I guess.)
Once again I had every intention of taking lots of good pictures of everyone. But I didn't. I wandered and chatted and chased kids out of the house, that sort of thing.
We had a TON of people come this year! Unfortunately, lots of them didn't RSVP until the last minute, which normally would have been fine, but I was bound and determined not to have a ton of leftover hamburgers and hot dogs this year, so I didn't buy as many as I have before. (Last year we had scads.) Oops. I think everyone got at least a hamburger or hot dog, but we still ran out earlier than I would have liked. There's nothing worse than that feeling of running out of food, so next year we will have plenty, I promise! (And I bet next year we will have lots of leftovers! Such is life.)
So our friends the Harringtons brought this GINORMOUS firecracker. Well, I should say Jared brought it - I don't know that Sarah (his wife) will claim anything to do with it. It was this giant thing that had - literally - 16,000 firecrackers inside. They unrolled it down our sidewalk on the east side of the house and it started going... and going... and going. IT. WAS. LOUD. It lasted, and I am not exaggerating, a good five minutes. And it would have lasted longer, but more than one fuse caught and so instead of just one line going at a time all three went. I think everyone (especially the neighborhood dogs) was okay with this.
The kids (on the whole) were thrilled with the whole thing, as were all the men. Not quite sure how the neighbors felt about it, but we haven't received any threats or anything so I guess we're good.
Here's a little video of it, just to give you an idea of what it was like. Sorry about the shakiness - I was trying to plug my ear with my shoulder.
And just look at the mess it left! Fortunately, Jared's a great guy and was very willing to help clean it all up. (Although I suspect we will find bits of red paper and such around there for months to come...)
We did have one injury of the night: poor Bergen had a front baby tooth knocked out by a rogue frisbee thrown by (of all people!) a missionary! It was bloody and it hurt a lot, but she came through like a champ. (After she calmed down!) Now her smile matches Josh's!
The weather was great for a barbecue, not so much for playing in the water. But most of the kids were bound and determined to play in the kid wash sprinkler we had set up. Cole did for a bit and then decided to get dressed into drier clothes. He refused to believe his shirt was on backwards.
Bottle rockets and other small things were shot off most of the evening. We even had a few sparklers, which I am not a fan of because someone always gets burned and no one pays enough attention to the kids while they're using them. (Case in point: for whatever reason Cole dragged a rather large quilt up the hill. I caught his JUST before another kid caught it on fire with his sparkler. Yikes.)
By the time we started to get ready for the big show it was... chilly! Can you believe it?! I went through the house and pulled out all the extra blankets I could find for our chilly guests. I never thought that would happen for our party! Tess and I snuggled under a blankie for the show.
So did Gigi and Craig. That's a good look, Craig.
Mr. Cole after his close brush with death via flaming quilt. I practically had to drag him kicking and screaming down the hill.
Notice anything about the lights? I totally did that ping-pong ball on the Christmas lights project I found on Pinterest. It turned out so well!
The fireworks were extra big and loud this year. Seriously, we were all quite impressed with how big they were. (I'm wondering if Lance got them in a shady alley off the back of a truck or something...) It was cool to be right underneath them. That's the power of pooling your money together to have a private fireworks show! (Now we just need to work on timing the fireworks better...)
My friend Deidra had to leave before the fireworks. So sad. But never fear - I took a little video just for her, because nothing's as cool to watch as a fireworks show that you weren't at...
It was pretty late by the time the show was done. Gigi found Tess all snuggled up in blankets on a chair and snapped a few cute pictures.
Tess was so excited to get to be up so late!
And then, just a minute later, she was sound asleep.
And yes, that does say "Tattoo Station" on the left-side sign. Those turned out to be a HUGE hit with the girls at the party, which was a little surprising to me. In fact, I only got the tattoos so I could get free shipping from the site where I ordered the necklaces. Guess they'll be a permanent part of the party now!
In years' past we've run out of room on the table for all of the food our guests brought, so this year I created a little riser to help get some of the big platters out of the way. Unfortunately, we didn't have an over-abundance of food this year. Maybe people figured everyone else would bring a lot of food? Maybe everyone was too busy to make much? I don't know, but there was a definite lack in that department this year. Bummer. (Note: No one went hungry by any means; it just wasn't as prolific as other BYOF's.)
And of course we had our usual pennants and lights. See the sky? It was a perfect, beautiful day! Temps were in the mid-70's and there was a light breeze and no humidity. Gorgeous and very unusual for Indiana!
The day before I had gotten into a baking mood and in a fit of trying to be creative I made a bunch of cupcakes without really using a recipe. The cake layer was blueberry (made with homemade blueberry butter) and the frosting was cherry Jell-o buttercream. The cake was sooo yummy, if I do say so myself. The frosting was a little... pink. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of a ton of frosting, but that didn't seem to deter anyone else!
I also made a bunch of s'mores pops because those are always a hit with the kids. (And I love s'mores.)
This year everyone in our family got an Old Navy Flag Shirt - not that we have any photographic evidence of this. Dang. But Tess and I sure were cute in our matching shirts and necklaces!
Did you know we had to buy a new grill for the party? Yep. Last week I had Lance clean out the old one and we discovered the bottom was all rusted out and dangerous looking. So off to Lowe's Lance went, where he bought a shiny new grill. It could only be delivered on 4th of July morning, which was a little nerve-wracking, but it made it in time! I had to take a picture because this is the cleanest this grill will ever be. So shiny and pretty! (And now it looks all black and greasy... as it should, I guess.)
Once again I had every intention of taking lots of good pictures of everyone. But I didn't. I wandered and chatted and chased kids out of the house, that sort of thing.
We had a TON of people come this year! Unfortunately, lots of them didn't RSVP until the last minute, which normally would have been fine, but I was bound and determined not to have a ton of leftover hamburgers and hot dogs this year, so I didn't buy as many as I have before. (Last year we had scads.) Oops. I think everyone got at least a hamburger or hot dog, but we still ran out earlier than I would have liked. There's nothing worse than that feeling of running out of food, so next year we will have plenty, I promise! (And I bet next year we will have lots of leftovers! Such is life.)
So our friends the Harringtons brought this GINORMOUS firecracker. Well, I should say Jared brought it - I don't know that Sarah (his wife) will claim anything to do with it. It was this giant thing that had - literally - 16,000 firecrackers inside. They unrolled it down our sidewalk on the east side of the house and it started going... and going... and going. IT. WAS. LOUD. It lasted, and I am not exaggerating, a good five minutes. And it would have lasted longer, but more than one fuse caught and so instead of just one line going at a time all three went. I think everyone (especially the neighborhood dogs) was okay with this.
The kids (on the whole) were thrilled with the whole thing, as were all the men. Not quite sure how the neighbors felt about it, but we haven't received any threats or anything so I guess we're good.
Here's a little video of it, just to give you an idea of what it was like. Sorry about the shakiness - I was trying to plug my ear with my shoulder.
And just look at the mess it left! Fortunately, Jared's a great guy and was very willing to help clean it all up. (Although I suspect we will find bits of red paper and such around there for months to come...)
We did have one injury of the night: poor Bergen had a front baby tooth knocked out by a rogue frisbee thrown by (of all people!) a missionary! It was bloody and it hurt a lot, but she came through like a champ. (After she calmed down!) Now her smile matches Josh's!
The weather was great for a barbecue, not so much for playing in the water. But most of the kids were bound and determined to play in the kid wash sprinkler we had set up. Cole did for a bit and then decided to get dressed into drier clothes. He refused to believe his shirt was on backwards.
Bottle rockets and other small things were shot off most of the evening. We even had a few sparklers, which I am not a fan of because someone always gets burned and no one pays enough attention to the kids while they're using them. (Case in point: for whatever reason Cole dragged a rather large quilt up the hill. I caught his JUST before another kid caught it on fire with his sparkler. Yikes.)
By the time we started to get ready for the big show it was... chilly! Can you believe it?! I went through the house and pulled out all the extra blankets I could find for our chilly guests. I never thought that would happen for our party! Tess and I snuggled under a blankie for the show.
So did Gigi and Craig. That's a good look, Craig.
Notice anything about the lights? I totally did that ping-pong ball on the Christmas lights project I found on Pinterest. It turned out so well!
The fireworks were extra big and loud this year. Seriously, we were all quite impressed with how big they were. (I'm wondering if Lance got them in a shady alley off the back of a truck or something...) It was cool to be right underneath them. That's the power of pooling your money together to have a private fireworks show! (Now we just need to work on timing the fireworks better...)
My friend Deidra had to leave before the fireworks. So sad. But never fear - I took a little video just for her, because nothing's as cool to watch as a fireworks show that you weren't at...
It was pretty late by the time the show was done. Gigi found Tess all snuggled up in blankets on a chair and snapped a few cute pictures.
Tess was so excited to get to be up so late!
And then, just a minute later, she was sound asleep.
A big thank you to all of our friends who joined us for another successful Back Yard of Fire!
1 comment:
I donated to the food fund and you still ran out... tsk, tsk. :) People not RSVPing in a timely manner (or not at all) is one of my great pet peeves in life).
I LOLed (yep, LOLed) when I read you filmed the fireworks for me. Millie asked what was so funny, so I told her you had filmed the fireworks for us. She was more interested in Tess's giggling than the fireworks. So I supposed it worked out that the stinker ruined our lives and skipped her nap that day.
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