How Pinterest Lead to a Party

I was poking around my friend Natalie's Pinterest page a few days ago and I saw that she had a section on the 4th of July.  She has some cute food ideas on it.  It got me thinking, hmm...I didn't get invited to any 4th of July parties/cook-outs/gatherings this year.  Well, why not throw my own.   I love hosting parties, but it was so last minute people probably had plans, maybe I'd just have a couple of people over and grill and I could try to make some of her cute 4th of July themed dishes.  So I e-mailed a few of my friends to see if anyone was going to be around on the 4th, 5th, or 6th, and as it turned out most of the people I e-mailed were going to be around and did not have plans.  Let the planning begin.    I put my fiancé in charge of grilling the hamburgers, veggie burger (mine), and hotdogs.  A couple of people also brought sausage.  I made a peanut butter cream cheese dip and shaped it like a flag.  I served that with pretzels.  I also made fruit kebobs out of blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. One of my friends brought mango salsa and quesadillas and Tostitos.  For side dishes I made macaroni salad and a 4th of July salad (spinach, cheese, cucumbers, blueberries, strawberries, and poppyseed dressing).  Another one of my friends made her "famous" taco dip (salsa, cream cheese, cheese, and I don't remember what else but it is AMAZING).  For dessert, I made firecracker cookies (cookies made out of cake mix with red and blue sprinkles), Star-Spangled pie (graham cracker crumb crust with a cream cheese, cool whip, sugar, and red and blue M&Ms filling--okay there were a few more ingredients, but that's the gist of it), and a 4th of July trifle--it's 4th of July because it has blueberries and strawberries in it hence the red, white, and blue, hence 4th of July.  I also made sangria (first time ever making that).  The food was good, but I think the biggest hits were:  the taco dip, the flag dip, the quesadillas, and the cookies, and even though it's not a food, all 20 servings of the Sangria were consumed too.  It was a little too hot that day, but otherwise, people seemed to have a good time eating, drinking, hanging out, conversing, and playing with the two kids that were here.  I didn't post pics of a lot of the food because some of them will be featured in future blogs, but here are a few pics from the evening.  I also didn't take too many people pictures, but nonetheless, here are a few pics. 

 

Flag made out of fruit--patriotic and healthy

 

Festive Nails

 

 

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