This is how olive helps clean up.
Category Archives: Parties
The single photo I took.
I just didn’t take any pics during the party this year!
Oops! And forgot a took a selfie with my frozen margarita!
But that’s it!
As it turned out, it was our least-attended party ever. Disappointing to say the least after all the work and money we put into it.
Everyone was cleared out by 8 and we had soooo much food and drink left over it was exhausting putting it all away at the end of the night.
We’re definitely rethinking the idea of the whole party—but we know for sure if we continue, the waterslide isn’t coming back since barely anyone used it and that’s a huge chunk of money.
That’s a lotta butt!
Prepping 35# of pork butts
Our annual Hudson House Party is this weekend so they’ll be going on the smoker about 4am and we’ll be eating about 5pm.
The frozen rum punch was delish!
We made it the night before just to make sure it turned out okay. And boy did it! Tom kept sneaking back to take little tastes of it all night.
Exploding watermelon!
Well this is a new one. I had the watermelon sitting on the dining room table for a few days in preparation for the party. I went to get it today to cut it and saw the entire table was soaked. And then I heard bubbling and gurgling…and I went to roll it over and it exploded and gushed all over. Dripping through the table, puddles on the floor!
Turns out it’s a real thing. Lots of people have been posting videos of this craziness.
The rind was paper thin and was just so bizarre.
Outside party prep!
Thank heavens it finally cooled off today after two long days of 100°+ temps where you couldn’t work outside for more than five minutes.
2022 annual party!
This is the extent of the photos I took all day! We were busy!!
The waterslide has arrived!
Owen invited some friends over to use the waterslide—and we looked out and saw this. This is apparently how teens use a waterslide. If they don’t use it more tomorrow this might be the last year!
Annual party party prep
2022 dual birthday pool party!
For as much as I take pictures of everything we do, I seemingly always let it slip on pool party day. At least I got one of both kids.
This one was from a friend.
And this was as we were packing up—Anna found a little grasshopper and put it on Katie.
The party was a big success again! All the kids love it! And it’s easy since we don’t have to clean the house.
Prepping for summer parties!
Anna and I had gone to the store for ice cream last night after the band concert and saw they had some liquor on clearance. I bought three bottles—two of which were just to try (because they were so cheap) but one vodka that we were sure we’d like. Well…after trying it…we decided we needed to go back for more. Or, rather, the rest. So this was our cart tonight.
So what vodka is it? Smirnoff Red, White & Berry! It mixes great with pop and it will be amazing in Jello shots!
Sunday morning slide!
Epic Paloozafest Blowout
Y’ALL, IT’S TIME TO PARTY!
We’ve all been cooped up with Covid and missed ALLLLLLLLLL the excuses to party…and you know we like to throw a house party…so we’re doing them all at once!
- Post-Covid Celebration
- Cascade Housewarming (7/2020)
- Tom’s USMC retirement (6/2021)
- BFF Anna-versary (8/2021)
- Our 20th Anniversary (8/2021)
- End-of-Summer/Back-to-School
Saturday morning and the Jello shots are here and ready thanks to Angela (she took the assignment when I ran out of time). But look at how well they fit in our garage fridge? It’s like it was meant to be.
About an hour before the party and I wasn’t even dressed yet. You think “Oh there’s only a little bit to do” but all the little things add up! Angela came over to help with a bunch of it and I’m eternally grateful. (Anna was picking up my kids from a class and getting the cupcakes.) It takes a village to throw a big party!!
Getting closer—getting the mixed drink dispensers ready! Peach Bellini, Rum Punch (empty), Vodka and lemonade, Beergarita, Bahama Mama.
David making his famous Trinidad rum punch! Yes that’s two full bottles of rum going in.
I forgot to take a pic of the food table but the dessert table was insane so I did takes a pic of that! We wouldn’t have needed to buy cupcakes at all! We had a few different kinds of cookies, two smoked cheesecakes, a German chocolate cake, a white cake, mini cupcakes, and Sam’s Club cupcakes!
Local-ish TiVo peeps!
We had to do at least one LipSense selfie!
The ribs were a hit. The pulled pork was amazing. And we have a ton of leftovers!
The only pics I snapped outside during the party!
The slide was a huge hit as expected. A few adults did go down towards the end of the night—butb it was actually cold by then so it didn’t last long.
David ended up making drinks for people at the bar…
And as we were saying goodbye to people, I discovered someone left a fern in our empty pot! (I had wanted to get succulents planted in it but never got to it with all the house stuff.) Turns out it was Ava, one of my gardener friends!
We just have great friends—from everyone who offered to help to the ones who loaned us things to the ones that jumped in to help before, during (putting away leftovers and doing the first round of kitchen clean up, and after (cleaning up the yard and house)… Thank you. We had a great time and I think everyone else did, too! Now to clean up some more and relax…
Prepping the butts!
Tom already had multiple racks of ribs smoked and in the sous vide for a day, but the butts are more last minute! This means we’re getting close to party day!
Phew, the slide fits!
This yard is much smaller than the one we had at the rental so we were worried the waterslide wouldn’t fit…but it did!
We invited some kids over to use it and they had a blast!
2nd Annual Back-to-school BBQ waterslide party!
We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again!!
The kids were very intrigued when Tom started using the blow torch on the ribs.
It took awhile but by the end of the night, some dads (and one mom—not me!) went down the slide. Which led us to wonder how on Earth these kids could do this non-stop… The adults got tired after just a few times. 😄
And then it was over…the cleanup aftermath. And we can’t wait until next year!!
Back-to-school BBQ
It was our first major shindig at our new place…and we didn’t even think about turning it into a housewarming. Oh well.
We did 9 racks of ribs in the sous vide. Our sous vide container isn’t big enough so we had to jerry rig a Rubbermaid bin.
We rented a waterslide and invited about 60 people. We had a great turnout of about half…and the kids had an amazing time on the slide. I don’t think Owen got off for more than a minute to use the bathroom and five minutes to eat dinner—he started about noon and we pulled the plug about 9.
We were so busy with party prep and visiting with guests that I didn’t even take many pictures. I can’t believe I didn’t even take a pic of the food spread—I always take pics of the food!!
We set up a tent and picnic tables.
Tom had put up posts to hang our sunshades and lights from.
Tom prepped the ribs in the driveway.
The kids still sliding at 8:15!
A good time was had by all…and we decided to keep the slide another day because it was supposed to be another hot day and we only splurge like this every few years.