mother's day barbeque

i had the brilliant idea this year to have a barbeque for mother's day. it was lots of fun, but next year i think when they ask me what i want for mother's day, i want something, anything, where SOMEONE ELSE does all the work! and i wished the weather yesterday was as nice as it was the day before or today! that's ok...we had a lot of fun anyway.
i bought this table cloth last year at jo-ann's fabric store, and then i found these cute plates that went with it, and since i like the whole cocktail thing (can you tell from the 'cocktail of the day' thing in the sidebar?) when i found some little light strings shaped like margarita glasses in the same colors as on the tablecloth, i had to have those too! they were strung up on around the deck where this table and the b.b.q. grill are set up.

so i decided the whole mother's day barbeque should go in a bit of a theme direction. still haven't decide what the theme was! we had one cocktail that we made that everyone seemed to like. we started trying out one new one every time we have a get together. this time we did cranberry mimosas, very simple. 3 cups cranberry juice, 1 cup orange juice and a bottle of sparkling white wine in a pitcher, and stir it up. me and my daughter went to do the shopping the day before together, and we bought everything in sight, i think! we went to the party store to get pretty napkins, and came out with all this stuff!

we bought the little drinkie parrot napkins, and the cocktail umbrellas, two kinds! and i got little tiki party picks for whatever, (o.k., i just thought they were too cute to pass up!) and then i had the bright idea to get leis for the mother's on mother's day. but we ended up getting some for all the girls...we figured that the boys wouldn't really 'play along'. so all the the girls got presented with a lei as they came in the door... now, you know that every time someone got one, there was 'the joke' that comes with the lei...how did i NOT see that one coming from a million miles away!?

anyway, we had tons of food. there was grilled chicken, and pasta salad, and a great fruit salad that a friend brought, and another warm pasta dish from my sister, and my daughter made cupcakes...a lot of them! i made a rummy watermelon... i had always wanted to try that! it came out pretty well, and pretty potent!

and i got to meet my newest 'granbaby' here...a little furry one! this is my son with his new puppy, her name is 'nirvana'. isn't she the cutest little thing! i think oscar kitties paws are still bigger! he never did come out of hiding so we could compare. unfortunately, b.b. kitty did meet her...i think he is very traumatized now! he came walking nonchalantly around the corner, and ran straight into the nose of a DOG! in his own house! he was not seen again last night, until many hours after!