The Party of All Parties

So, we've lived here for about nine months and have been itchin' to have a party. But, we haven't known anybody to invite. Now that we've been here a bit, M knows a lot of people in our neighborhood. He's like that...you know, Mr. Friendly. I like that about him. So, M designed an invitation for our shindig and I invited a few people from work and he invited, well...the whole neighborhood! Luckily not all could come and we had about 35 people at our house. About ten of them were kids.

We had the menu discussion about two weeks ago and wanted something barbeque-ish, but didn't want to be chained to the grill the whole time. We threw around things like pulled pork sandwiches, brats, hot dogs, Italian beef sandwiches, and even sloppy Joes (which got ruled out because of the non-griling aspect of them and the fact that I don't think that they are really "summer food" to begin with. We/M kept changing the menu. He was going to bring back the Italian beef from Chicago (but he brought back a sailboat instead, but I digress). Instead of actually deciding anything, we decided to have pulled pork sandwiches AND brats AND hot dogs! M bbq'd two pork butt roasts on Friday afternoon/evening/night and we pulled pork from 9:30-11:00 on Friday night. A lot of work, but it sure was good. He also bbq'd the brats on Friday and we simmered them in beer all afternoon on Saturday. I just had one for dinner tonight too and they sure are tasty -- the taste very beer-y and delicious. Strange that I like them to taste like beer since I don't like beer. Hmmm...

Anyway, when folks asked if they could bring something, we told them to bring an appetizer. I made a big pasta salad, chocolate-dipped strawberries and brownies for dessert, and apples with caramel sauce (like I made last week. They were such a hit then, why not?) I also put out chips and salsa, chips and onion dip, veggies and dip, and I made tortilla-roll pinwheel sandwiches (like last week) but never put them out because we had SO MUCH FOOD. Our friends brought bruchetta (two different kinds from two different people, more veggies and dip (from a nutritionist), spinach casserole, and a blue cheese ball and crackers. Good thing that M convinced me that we didn't need the artichoke and spinach dip that I was going to make.

M had hooked up our deck speakers which are in the shape of terra cota planters, and are actually terra cota planters on top. Totally cool. He made a "party mix" of songs that played throughout the party (it had four hours worth of music on it and we used it all and then restarted it for another hour or so.) We had three coolers filled with drinks, one with cokes and juices, one with wine and vodka coolers, and one with beer. An interesting note, we had two pastors and thier families in the crowd -- I've never seen a party where the coke drinkers outnumber the beer drinkers. We had to keep refilling the coke cooler. Funny.

We had the "jumpy" blown up and going so that the kids could jump to their hearts' content. It was on the other side of the yard from the play-fort, so we had kids all over the place. We had enough chairs for 24 people because we borrowed 6 chairs from our neighbors. People kept complimenting us on such a fun party. It was fun! The kids got to stay up for the whole thing and were thrilled that they got to run and catch fireflies. Again, very cool. R asked if he could stay up that late every night because he loves fireflies....ummm, no. Fraid not. The boy doesn't sleep in. No matter what time he goes to bed, he gets up at 6:45 or so. So, no can do with the fireflies every night.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun.

I promise to write about the boat, but right now I gotta make sure that two boys are washed up in the tub. They've been in there for twenty minutes, but I don't know if they've used soap yet.