8.31.2015

Lowcountry Boil Birthday Party

Hope everyone had a great weekend! As you may have seen on Instagram, last Wedensday was Robbie's 30th birthday and we celebrated this weekend with a Lowcountry boil. It was the perfect chance to have some of our friends and family over to see our new house, now that we've had some time to get unpacked and decorate a little bit. Since we moved into our house in July, we knew that Robbie's birthday would be the perfect time to host everyone!

Since we had plenty of time to plan the party, I started collecting ideas on my secret Pinterest board from the get go. I first thought it would be fun to have a burger bar with all different toppings but then we decided a Lowcountry boil would be perfect for our crowd! I knew I wanted to make some apps to enjoy while the food was cooking so I was found a few of my favorite easy recipes to so the inspiration board was born!


I'm all about a good theme so since Robbie loves to fish and we were doing a shrimp boil, I figured a fishing/nautical theme was perfect- plus we already had a lot around our house that would fit the theme perfectly! 

The night before I started my favorite sangria (similar recipe here) and soaked the frozen peaches and mango and fresh strawberries in white wine. The next day I added ginger ale and more white wine to fill up our drink dispenser. This sangria is always a hit and so easy to make for parties! 

We cut celery, carrots, peppers, and cucumbers into sticks and placed them into cups of ranch for easy veggie cups like these.

I cheated a little for the pimento cheese and used mostly our favorite Palmetto cheese but added in some freshly grated cheddar cheese and our (not so) secret ingredient, pickled okra!

One of the most popular recipes was a taco dip that I made based verrrry loosely on this recipe. Mexican dip is something I'm pretty sure you can't mess up so it was fun to get a little creative with this one. Instead of ground beef, I cooked ground turkey with my own taco seasoning mix. I'm not sure where I found the recipe for the seasoning but it was essentially a mix of salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cumin, and paprika. The meat was the bottom layer and then next I added a can of refried beans and then plain Greek yogurt instead of sour cream that was mixed it with a can of diced tomatoes and more seasoning. Next, some delicious fresh guacamole and some extra lime juice (because I'm convinced lime juice makes everything better) then some fresh cut cherry tomatoes and last but not least a layer of Mexican shredded cheese.

For dessert, we served ice cream cake and these mini key lime pies- that are definitely a new favorite recipe in our house. I found Keebler mini graham cracker crusts at the grocery which made this so easy to make and the perfect little size for dessert!

I found these DIY fishing bobbers on Pinterest, which was a perfect cheap and easy craft to make. 

Another thing I knew I wanted to make was this 30 in pictures. I had seen this on Pinterest and decided it couldn't be too hard and would be a fun and personalized thing for the party and the "milestone" birthday.  Cutting the cardboard numbers was a little more difficult that I had expected but in the end, I think it turned out great! I printed out a ton of black and white photos of Robbie from all stages of life and it was so hard to choose which ones to use. I tried to include all of his friends that I knew would be at the party but also had to figure out which pictures would fit the best! I had gotten a gold pen for his friends to sign but didn't remember to get it out until towards the end of the night so we just had a few signatures but it's still a fun way for him to remember his 30th!

All of the snacks and apps set up on our porch. We had the drink table out here too with the sangria and peach iced tea. 

Robbie and his friends cooked 40 pounds delicious fresh caught Georgia shrimp, corn, sausage and potatoes! We were excited to have some leftovers after the party and feel like we spent all day Sunday eating them up!

Overall, I think our first party was a success and we can't wait to host the next one!

STAY IN TOUCH!

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