Thankful Thursday #2 – Home, Food, and Fun!

September 18, 2014 by Jennifer Leave a comment

Today’s thankful Thursday is about home, food, and fun!

I’m thankful our home has lots of outdoor space where I can enjoy breathing fresh air every day.

I’m thankful I felt good enough in the beginning of summer to host a fun event! I’ve been wanting to share pictures from this event all summer and I think this fits well as a thankful Thursday post!

Since moving into our home two years ago we decided it’d be fun to host a party for my husband’s co-worker’s, and thankfully we were able to host the second one this summer. I love this party because I’m able to meet all the great people he works with, plus their significant others, and adorable kids!

I have to admit another reason this “wanna be” foodie is thankful for this party, is the food! My husband works with a diverse group, and the food they bring to share is awesome! The first time we hosted I didn’t take pictures, so this time I decided it’d be fun to take pictures of each guest with their food, and share them with you. Enjoy, and try not to drool 🙂

Charming Ku’ulei made a Paleo friendly veggie salad. I always love it when people bring fresh veggies!

Sassy and sweet Roopiga made a fresh fruit and custard dessert. It was refreshing!

Delightful Aruna brought yummy samosas! Her cute daughter was being camera-shy for this photo!

The awesome DePreist family made gluten-free cookies, and a fantastic spinach dip! The cookies were homemade by their daughter.

The wonderful Bui family brought a fresh, crisp salad with veggies from their garden, I was so happy to have another salad to enjoy! Their son helped pick the veggies, so cool!

Malcolm, and his fabulous wife brought home-made sweet and savory, baked beans. She spent several hours cooking them to perfection!

These lovely ladies, Sindhoora, Namitha, and Rachita brought amazing, indian sweet treats called Dhokla and Jalebi. I hope they bring them to next year’s party!

Always snazzy Gagan brought one of my husband’s favorites, Macallan 15!

Elegant Kamille made these delicate and delicious fruit tarts! Yes, she made them! They looked to perfect to eat!

This fun trio, Mikko, Claire, and Brian brought a super sweet Oreo cookie ice cream cake, and mini ice cream cones. Those melted to fast for me to get a picture 🙂

Sweet Uj brought a delicious strawberry cheesecake, one of my favorites!

Cool Chris made these gigantic “pop tarts” that got eaten so fast I didn’t even get to taste one!

Creative Jeffery brought elaborate confections! That is candied bacon nearest to him, so, so good! He made the cupcakes from scratch.

Check out Jeffery’s descriptions of the flavor, he might need to open his own cupcake shop!

Peanut Butter Cream – Chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache, filled with peanut butter cream, and topped with chopped peanuts.

Salted Chocolate Chip – Chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache, sprinkled with Fleur de Sel, and topped with a chocolate cover potato chip.

Classic Marshmallow. – Chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache, filled with marshmallow cream, and topped with a marshmallow cap.

Here’s one of my favorite photos of the day,

The precious Mahajan family, also brought samosas. Instead of a picture with their food, I took this one with their sweet baby girl!

On top of eating and enjoying all the great food, there was lots of fun mixed in. We played guys vs. girls ladder ball, and I asked the kids to use their painting skills to decorate one of my hive boxes with finger paint.