A Citrus Themed Birthday Party Menu

July is birthday month around here, with four family members celebrating all month long!  Brad's birthday is up first and LB's ends it on the 29th.  I can't believe our baby is going to be one!  We decided to combine Brad's thirty-fifth with ER's six birthday party with the family.  Hers is not until the 21st but it's close enough to LB's that throwing two parties two weekends in a row would have been too much.  This way she got her own to do and won't feel over shadowed by LB's big first birthday bash.  Brad had to share but he was a good sport as usual!

The Menu

Dinner 

Grilled Chicken

Avocado Citrus Salad

Orzo Salad with Zucchini and Feta

Caprese Kabobs

Rolls with Butter

Watermelon

Cut up Veggies for the Kids

Drinks

Sangria

Orange Pop

Water with Optional Individual Instant Lemonade Packets

Dessert

Pink Lemonade Cupcakes for ER

Chocolate Cupcakes for Brad

Assorted Citrus Candies

With help from our family and friends we pulled together a light and delicious summery meal, with a touch of citrus flavors but so much as to be over powering. Here are some more pictures to tempt your tummy, with recipe links below.

  

Recipe from ValSoCal, with a minor substitution of regular orange for blood orange, which was unavailable in our area.

Recipe from Real Simple, one of my new favorite dishes and so easy to make!  I think I'll be eating this all summer long as I love feta and zucchini!  The red pepper flakes really give the dish a kick and keep it from getting boring.

These Caprese Kabobs are inspired by traditional caprese salad but with a fun twist for presentation.  I simply added grape tomatoes, fresh basil from my mother's garden, and the most delicious marinated fresh mozzarella balls onto wooden skewers.  The Formaggio cheese is the key ingredient.  You don't need to add any more oil or seasonings because there's plenty on the marinated cheese to make everything yummy! 

I can't believe I forgot to take a picture of the Sangria!  It was our first time making it, we used this recipe recommended by my friend Margaret and Chianti for our dry red wine.  It was a big hit and so festive with all the fruit.  I use paper scraps from the birthday banner, shown below, to make drink flags for the guests and to reinforce our citrus theme.  There were more before, this is just what was left over. 

No party is a party without a few decorations, right?  Here's the banner I created for over the mantle.  More photos and instructions on this and the rest of the decorations, in this post.

A summery citrus theme is definitely a bright and colorful, perfect for the season!  Even the guests were in theme!



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