I can't believe its already been two weeks since we celebrated my mom's birthday! We love to surprise her and do something special every year. This year we decided to have a birthday picnic downtown near the Riverwalk. We picked up some food from Trader Joe's and I made tassel streamers. Here are a few pictures from our evening.
^^^^ Two straws are the new thing! :) ^^^^ Ok, they were so cute we had to use both of them. We got a bunch of fun summer drinks: Sparkling Fruit Water, White Grape Chardonnay (grape juice), Virgil's Root Bear and Blood Orange Soda. My mom got to drink out of the crystal wine glass/goblet.
Claire recreated our favorite salad from this Italian restaurant in Chicago. Even if you don't like dates, they add a perfect sweetness, just shop them up small. Seriously, it's so good! We also had a bunch of different cheeses, prosciutto, sour dough baguettes and lots of fruit. Goat cheese is my favorite! You can get a great trio of goat cheeses (pepper, original, and garlic herb) from Trader Joe's. Here's the salad recipe:
Ingredients: arugula bacon parmesan medjool dates
Dressing: olive oil + balsamic vinegar
^^^^^My tassel streamers^^^^ Party decor is the best. Usually at home we do tons of balloons for birthdays. This year I tried out these tassel streamers. They were easy to make and fun to keep out all the time. I'll post a short tutorial on how I made them later this week or next. They're now hanging above my desk area.
It was a perfect day! We all agreed that we should have picnics more often.