We are fully in the midst of summer and I wanted to share some fun summer party ideas!  The theme for my party was actually a red, white, and blue Fourth of July party, but a lot of these ideas could be customized and used at any summer party.

At my family’s annual reunion, each year we have a wiffle ball tournament.  For those of you that don’t know what wiffle ball is, it is similar to baseball/softball except played with a plastic ball and bat.  You probably have seen them at the grocery store or Target/Wal-Mart during the summer.

My family is extremely competitive and the winners of the annual wiffle ball tournament get bragging rights all year.   A few years ago, we started hosting the wiffle ball tournament at my parent’s house because of their large back yard and proximity to where everyone is staying. After the wiffle ball game, we then have a lunch for everyone.

This year, my mom and I started thinking about summer party ideas weeks before the lunch.  We wanted dishes we could make ahead of time and pull together easily after the game.  Some of the desserts are repeats of recipes I have posted about, but the rest of the recipes are new and I will post more details about them through out the week.

Our Summer Party Menu:

Lunch
Mediterranean Dip with Pita Chips
Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip with Red, White and Blue Tortilla Chips
Mixed Greens Salad with Strawberries, Grilled Chicken and Poppy Seed Dressing
Sliders with Cheddar, Colby Cheese or Plain
Baked Beans
Kielbasa with Caraway-Root Beer Sauce
Kettle Chips
Lemonade, Ice Tea, and Water

Vanilla Cupcakes with Buttercream Frosting
Sea Salt Caramel Brownies
White Trash Party Mix
Party Favors:
Sugar Cookies

Summer Party Decorations

I was inspired by Pinterest to make decorations for the party with a Red, White, and Blue theme since it was Fourth of July weekend. Earlier this weekend, I posted about the Pennant Banner that I made for the party.  I hand-folded the stars in the background by following this post at The Gunny Sack.

For the flowers we bought red carnations and white filler flowers, and then cut lavender from my mom’s garden.  We placed them in mason jars and tied red, white, and blue ribbon around the jars.  Then we placed the jars in a red 2-tied basket.

For the napkins and silverware, I wrapped the plastic silverware in a white napkin and then wrapped a red or blue star napkin folded in half around the bundle and tied with the opposite color ribbon.  I found two small red and blue baskets at Jo Ann’s Fabrics that I placed all the bundled silverware in and topped off with flags in the sides of both displays.

Here is a close-up of the flowers:

Outside we had two tables, chairs and a tent.  I made confetti for the tables using a paper punch and some leftover red, white, and blue paper.  It was a very windy day so we used  tablecloth clips to hold down the tablecloth and taped down the confetti.

Simple, yet beautiful center pieces we made for the outside tables.  We had to wait to bring these out to the tables because of the wind.

We had mason jars with ribbon tied around the rims and colorful patriotic themed paper straws all ready for my family to use as their drink glasses.  The paper straws are from this cute store called Shop Sweet Lulu.  I made homemade labels for all the food and drinks, which I will be posting about later in the week to explain how to make your own.

Another view of the island being set up for the lunch.  I hung handmade paper garland from the lights by sewing together scalloped edged circles punched out with a paper punch (adapted from Nest Of Posies.)

The dessert table decorated with white tablecloth, red runner, and the handmade garland.

The drinks station set up on the counter.

The Mediterranean Dip with Toasted Pita Chips.  Recipe to come soon, this one is a keeper!

The Tex-Mex Pimiento Cheese Dip before it went into the oven.

After is came out of the oven, it was gone after a few minutes.  Please don’t worry though- I have made it twice since because I wanted to get good photos of it cooked.  The sacrifices that I make for our loyal 2S2C readers!  Kidding-  this dip is seriously amazing, I really have made it twice since, but it was by no means a sacrifice.  Yum!!
Delicious Baked Beans, and yes, that is bacon on the top.

Sliders with your choice of cheeses or no cheese.  I have decided that a slider is the perfect size burger for me.  I was so full after one (and all that pimiento cheese dip .)

We had these really cute squeeze bottles filled with ketchup, mustard and mayonnaise and a bowl of dill pickle chips for the sliders.

Mixed greens salad topped with Strawberries, candied almonds, grilled chicken and poppy-seed dressing.   This is one of my favorite summer salads.

A tower of my classic vanilla cupcakes and buttercream frosting.

The cupcake liners are also from Shop Sweet Lulu.  Love them!  They really inspired me to keep the cupcakes simple with white frosting and flag toppers.

These Sea Salt Caramel Brownies were heaven!  I am dreaming about them now.

The White Trash Party Mix placed in small polka dot red and blue paper cups, which we also bought at Shop Sweet Lulu.   I added patriotic sprinkles to this batch of white trash and I was so happy with the results.

Last, but not least, the sugar cookie party favors were given to everyone as they left.

This party was a lot of fun to pull together with my mom and sisters.   I know that Fourth of July has already passed, but many of these ideas can be translated into Summer cookouts or summer birthday parties.  I can’t wait to share more details about the recipes and craft ideas from this party with you for the next week or two.   Stay tuned!