Burned a Hole in my Shirt

This past Saturday we hosted about 30 people from the group we lead at church each Sunday for a bbq, hayride and bonfire. We’re known as the “Movers and Shakers” – we’re the first to arrive and last to leave because we’re responsible for unloading all the sound, stage, lighting, etc. that we need each week, moving it into the theater, setting it up, running wire and then tearing it all down and packing it away in the trailer at the end of the service. We figured our group was in need of some fun.

I received many compliments on the invitations I designed so that’s always encouraging. I tried to keep with the color scheme of teal, olive, orange and pinkish-red. It was hard in some spots, but overall it worked.

I made a banner to hang outside using scrapbook paper and ribbon. I cut 4 sheets of 12x12 paper in half and then cut each half into 3 triangles. I then used my sewing machine to attach the triangles to a long piece of ribbon, leaving extra at the beginning and end to hang. So easy and affordable. I’ll definitely be using this method for many banners in the future.

So guests knew where to park, I made a painted “PARKING” onto poster board using black acrylic paint. To jazz it up a little, I used teal and green glitter to outline every other letter. I then attached a bunch of balloons to make it more noticeable from the road.

To make it easy for everyone to grab everything they’d need to enjoy the delicious food everyone contributed, I wrapped up plastic forks, knives and spoons with a napkin in individual bundles. I then secured each bundle with a strip of paper (that matched the paper I used in the banner) and a piece of tape. This way people didn’t have to worry about forgetting to grab a spoon or knife.

To hid the mismatched labels on the condiment jars, I wrapped more scrapbook paper around them and then handwrote the contents on the paper. I continued with the color theme outside by placing teal and olive “mason” jars designed to hold tea lights on a orange with white polka dot plastic runner on top of a white plastic table cloth. To keep the bugs at bay, we placed tiki torches filled with citronella around the patio.

I was expecting people to bring drinks to share (I mentioned on the invite that we’d provide hamburgers, hotdogs, buns, condiments and utensils and asked everyone to bring something to share), but just in case I picked up a pack of bottled water and made up a batch of punch. Good thing I did because while we had many delicious side dishes and desserts, no one brought a single drink to share. The punch recipe was a huge success, though, and I must have given out the recipe to every woman in attendance!

COLADA COOLER
(recipe courtesy of my mom)

2 cans frozen white grape juice, thawed
3 cans of frozen pina colada mix
6 cups cold water
3 liters 7-up
lemon and lime slices for garnish

Mix first three ingredients together. Add soda right before serving. Garnish with lemon and lime slices. Be ready to make more in less than 10 minutes!

It was a very fun party. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures once everyone arrived, so I’ll have to wait to get copies of those. The only casualty of the night was a small hole I burned in the back of one of my $2 Old Navy tank tops when I got too close to the fire and an ash flew onto my back.

Looking forward to our next hayride and bonfire with the youth leadership from our church on July 9th. Don’t have to do anything for that one besides have a clean house and stuff to make s’mores.