Party Time!

I decided to throw a dinner party for Jeff, since his last day of work at his old job was on Friday the 17th. I was really excited to throw my first dinner party, and I planned for about 3 or 4 days before it, all of the yummy food we were going to have! I researched a whole bunch of different recipes online, and also took some from the recipe books I had checked out from the library. I decided to go with a "summer" or possibly "hawaiian"-ish theme. And after about 5 hours of narrowing everything down, I picked the menu, bought all the food, and planned out a rough schedule of the day.
Everything went smoothly! I had my family over, as well as my grandma and her new puppy, Chester. I started cooking at around 1:30 and spent about 4 hours cooking. Here is a pic of the finished product(s):

(In order from L-R)

~Sparkling Raspberry Lemonade

~Fruit salad: pineapple, strawberries, blueberries, bananas, mango

~Awesome plastic margarita glasses from Wal-Mart

~Black bean and red pepper couscous salad

~Chinese noodles, pineapple, olives, green onions, coconut for the Hawaiian Haystacks

~Cocktail sauce and red chili sauce for the shrimp

~Baked coconut shrimp

~Chicken sauce for the Hawaiian Haystacks

~Thai coconut rice (not in the pic)

And here is a picture of the desserts (I forgot to take one before everyone started eating)

(I have to give credit to my 9-yr-old brother Lucas for frosting the cupcakes :)

~Banana Cream Pie

~Mango Margarita Cupcakes (very delicious, very virgin....;)

~Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting

This is the adorable pie server my sister Abby got me for my birthday! 

It's a high heel, and the heel is magnetic so you can take it off and throw the server in the dishwasher!!

The food turned out sooooo yummy! I was pretty proud of myself! For those of you who know me, know I am not terribly fond of cooking, so this was kind of a big deal for me :)
The rest of the night we just talked and played with my grandma's new puppy, Chester. He is so much fun and has the biggest, funniest personality! We all love him!

Yes, my grandma is sitting in a camping chair... 

We only have 3 real chairs :)

I was very pleased with how everything turned out. I didn't let my expectations get too high, just in case it all fell apart and we were left eating grilled cheese or PB&J! 

If anyone wants any of the recipes of the delicious cuisine shown above, just email/txt/facebook me and I'll get it to ya! :)