Liz and Scott made/brought (Liz sent me recipes for all of these that I'll share and post soon):
- Deviled Potatoes (like deviled eggs but the vegan version - and OMG they were amazing, all our friends loved them, vegan or not). These were devoured with no possibility of left overs.
- Cucumber bites (really pretty, stacked, with deliciousness)
- (all vegan): Eggsalad, Tuna Salad, Spicy Tuna Salad, and Chicken Salad sandwiches. Thank you guys!! <3
Chenoh made/brought:
- Pesto pasta salad with sun-dried tomatoes and zucchini. So scrumptious, after the party ended Jason finished all of what was left in a big bowl to himself. Haha. Thank you God Mama!
Jody & Eli made/brought:
- Summer fruit salad with peaches, strawberries, blueberries and fresh sweet deliciousness. This was also a real hit with all of the kiddos that were there.
- and Guac!! (and maybe something else, but there was so much food I was distracted) Thank you Jody & Eli!
Jason made:
- Two of his salsas. A red "mild" (or rather medium), and a green, super spicy one that he had me label, "Really F-ing Hot!". He sent the jar (that wasn't poured into the bowl) home with Scott who also enjoys super spicy food. Yay new hot-hot-spicy buddies!
I bought (haha I was lazy and didn't make anything)
- Veggie Platter, with Hummus. Peas, cherry tomatoes, carrots, broccoli (and Liz also brought extra veggies just in case, such a sweetheart!)
I think that's all of the food, aside from the Cheesecake! (I hope I'm not forgetting anyone), there was so much food, and it was all so incredibly delicious. Our next door neighbors, Rima and Ajit also joined us, and since they are leaving for Indonesia tomorrow brought us a bunch of hot peppers from their garden and greens that we will not let go to waste! I also learned that Rima's husband Ajit is vegan, I knew that they were both vegetarian, but I hadn't really talked to him before, aside from the neighborly wave, and it was really great to have them both over and get to know him better too. He said he just finally decided to make the transition to vegan after watching a documentary on the East side a few months back, and its been a really easy transition for him. They are great neighbors, and I'm so happy they joined us, and stayed until the end! Rima said she will bring us back something from Indonesia for the baby, she's so thoughtful, and really such sweet people. Yay vegan block party! :)
Also not pictured, Jason and Pam took on the role of bartenders and made everyone fresh lime margaritas, and they also took over my iced tea duty, and made iced teas too to let me socialize. It was a lot of fun, and I'm so happy and grateful to have such awesome family, friends, and community here in Austin to celebrate with.
Also we had lots of prizes we gave away to our game winners. Each winner got to pick two items from our goodies basket
Star Sticker Plate - Before the party I put a few star stickers on the bottom of a few random plates. After everyone was finished eating, we asked them to check and see who had stars. Here were our winners:
- Jane, Amanda, Heather (and maybe there was one more winner for this one? I'm forgetting)
Name Match - I took all our guests names and looked up their meanings online. We asked everyone to match as many names to their meanings as they could. Here were the winners:
- Mike & Jane with a combined entry, matched 11 correct
Baby Animals - I took a bunch of animals and looked online to find their baby names (Cat/Kitten, Dog/Puppy etc). We asked everyone to match as many animals with their babies, and some of them were definitely difficult (Platypus/Puggle, Hawk/Eyas, etc.). Three-Way Tie:
- April, Sara P., and Scott all matched 15 correctly
Belly Measurement - We asked everyone to guess in cm or inches how big they thought my belly was. Again we had a three way tie:
- Dave, April, and Scott all guessed correctly - 40"! (a couple folks were super lucky and won twice!)
Beans in a bottle - I filled a pretty glass vintage bottle with blackeyed peas and we had people guess how many.
- Pete was the closest guess at 1200, there were 1139 (and yes, I actually counted them all haha, it was actually a nice after work meditation I did before the party).
Congrats to all our winners! We also had a middle name suggestion bucket, which had some really great ones, and one suggestion that was interestingly enough entered twice by two different folks, that I think Jason and I might choose for her middle name... Definitely some magic happening there! There were also some sweet and funny ones, we enjoyed reading through them together.
We also had some white onesies with fabric pens to decorate. A lot of our guests were a little bit shy about it, but the artsy folks who went for it gave us some really great designs! (baby poop monster butt was a crowd pleaser haha)! The moons on the left onesie, we noticed resembles, "JOC" for Jocelyn... pretty groovy, loving on that.
We also had a bucket for guessing baby's height, weight, and time of day she will be born... Upon her birthday the closest guess will get an amazon gift card! We'll see who wins that prize in a few more months...
Okay, onto the party pics!
Amanda Sydney, and Poppy Olive
Heather, Colleen and Jamie
Mike, Jane and Sara
Ajit, and Rima
Mike, Jane, and Sara
Sara P!
Erica and Matt
Erin, April and Dave
Eli Jody and Jason
Pete and Sydney
Pete, Sydney and Amanda
Miss Jody Lee
Liz and Scott! <3
Heather, Jamie and Colleen
Party Favors up top- Jason was able to track down our mis-delivered Marini's candies at our postoffice, and we were able to include all these beautiful tasty vegan treats with our succulents and tea bag sachets! Success! And so much love and spoiling going on for Jocelyn on the bottom shelves.
Party Decorations - Clothesline full of baby gifts, sent from our family and friends all across the country. Thank you so much for all the love! No matter how far away we are, we feel so loved and connected to all our friends and family, thank you for helping us start our new family
Monica and Poppy!
Rob, Sarah and me
Can't handle it!
First lessons for my lil animal girl
Some magical treasures from the lovely miss Sara P, out here all the way from the bay area. LOVE!!!
Zombie's the best! So chill, and great with all the kiddos! Holden was really great too, though got put into puppy prison (gated off area of our kitchen) a couple times for stealing food off the kids plates. Our dogs are going to be awesome with our new little one.
Beautiful mama Kristin got in this one (hot mama with the floral skirt), just realized we didn't have another pic of her, she was running around being an awesome mama and spoiled us with so many goodies (Like 5 large yard-waste bags FILLED with clothes and baby goodies) brought back from Dallas. I can't wait to go through everything, thank you Kristin! You and miss Jody Lee are two bright shining stars, so happy you are just a drive away... looking forward to getting together more after Jocelyn arrives!
Words cannot express how much I love Monica at this moment
Baby Gorilla Suit!!! Gearing up for our January Gorilla run, Jocelyn will join us this year!
Necessity! SUESS!
Diaper LOVE!!
Apparently this much excitement for diapers dwindles over time...
OMG, yes.
There are no favorites, but this one is definitely up there.
Roxy was hanging out the whole party, loving the kids, and being in the center of everything. Molly on the other hand, hid from everyone the entire party. Typical haha
Book love! Never enough!
Apparently this is the face I make when I can't handle how cute baby clothes are
Apparently I make this face too, haha OMG that outfit is so freaking cute.
Handsom papa J, Holden, Zombie, and Jody
Zombie regulating Holden to calm down around the baby. <3
Grammy!
Clothesline decorations (Shark Robe!!!)
We are spoiled, thank you so much for all the Jocelyn love, she is already so stylin!
Vegan CHEESECAKE!!!!!
Thanks again for everyone who came over and filled our house with such great energy and joy for our baby! We love you, and Jocelyn can't wait to meet you all! xoxoxo
WOW...such a fun day filled with pure joy...and lots of goodies for little Jocelyn! what a festive occasion with plenty of love and smiles.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoxoxo GREAT pictures! xoxoxox and delish food as well..yum. My mouth is watering over the cheesecake.