Pineapple Pool Party!

What a summer this has been! My (not quite) mother-in-law was determined to get as much use out of the pool this summer as possible. Our usual birthdays in July and September, and the kids and I hanging out during the weekdays just doesn't make Granny and Pa feel like their money was and is well spent on the pool each year. So Granny decided she wanted to have a Pineapple Party.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I loooovve a theme, so to Pinterest I ran. If you don't know what Pinterest is, you should know it's not Facebook, Instagram or any type of social site. Pinterest is the 'greatest site on Earth'! because there is no end to the amount of ideas you can find that you never knew you needed an idea for.

Anyhow, I had recently been experimenting with Chinese foods and have gotten pretty good at some Cabbage Fried Rice (post recipe), I found a way to alter it a little- no cabbage, add pineapple- for our purposes. The Pineapple Shrimp kabobs on the grill were a big hit, which I really appreciated after I got stuck turning and basting, turning and basting.

Since baking was also something I had been

working on lately, I decided on these adorable mini Pineapple-upside down cakes, which were perfect for the occassion. I've never made something like this before, truth be told, I have never really like Pineapple Upside down cake, but these were an exception to that preference. (post recipe) These mini cakes were better than I could've hoped, they had just the perfect amount of tenderness (I'm always nervous fruits and juices will leave too much moisture in anything bready or cakey), but no worries these juices turned into a sweet glaze and the cupcakes were awesome.

My unfortunate first attempt at a fruit bouquet was atleast happily devoured. The appearance was not up to my usual expectations, but the

kiddos were excited about a different presentation than the usual fruit salad thrown in a bowl (you know what I mean, right?). I will try this again in the future, but for your own future reference, fruit is rather expensive, pineapple slices like to split and fall apart, and you need a lot of time and space to cut and assemble it all.

Did I mention my love of themes? Ohhhhh, well, nail art is yet ANOTHER area I've been fooling around with. I saw these pineapple nails, yep you guessed it, on Pinterest. In my exceptional way, using only what I had available to me, I created my own and they turned out fantastic compared to this real life pineapple. The whole thing was a big hit, it'll definitely be worth a

repeat in the future, especially if it gives me the opportunity to find or develop some new pineapple ideas.

#pineappleparty