Hello and welcome to another Project Design, where Cindy Hattersley and I invite other bloggers to share their ideas and tips.  And today it's all about Simple Summer Entertaining!We recently had a little birthday party for my husband, Howard, in my sister, Teresa's backyard in San Diego.
We stay with Teresa and my mom a lot...and I usually try to think of something nice to do for them.In this case, I knew Teresa had a black and white umbrella on her patio so I picked up some pillows from Target for a little refresh... While shopping for menu ingredients, the mangos were on sale so I bought several along with limes to send home as party favors.  I put them in these $2 baskets from Michael's.

PARTY TIPS 
  1.    Create a simple theme  I thought "birthday" and mangos were on the menu...so I used them to decorate, too, like in this centerpiece and for the party favors.
2.  Plan the menu and shop ahead (duh...you knew that right").

3.  VERY important...delegate.  People like to be involved.

4.  Make it self service.  We served the salad but set up a food table for the rest.

5.  Take shortcuts where you can with store bought items, like dessert.
In delegating, our son Tommy did all the grilling and daughter, Alie made the drinks.
 Backyard Birthday Party MenuSlightly Mexican Influenced, 
As hey, It's San Deeahgo
Ruffles and French Onion Dip 
B...