For my man’s 40th birthday, I gave him a lobster clambake and a party. He loves lobster but didn’t want to go out, so I thought we would have a lobster party with our close friends and family! In order to keep the event manageable and affordable, I sent out two invitations: the clambake was for 30 people, and the party after was for as many people he wanted. Now that we have kids, it’s nice to have parties at home and our guests can bring the kids if they want. Or not!
I set up our small backyard with tables covered with lobster plates, butter dishes, buckets for shells, lobster crackers, lobster bibs, decorative shells and citronella candles. I used white plastic tablecloths with brown shipping paper over them for easy clean up.
With the party being evening, and there being a lot of fishy smells, I was really worried about flies and mosquitoes invading our dinner. I had the tiki torches all around the yard, and lit them about an hour before the party. I also put citronella tea lights inside of big shells my son and I brought home from the beach and put them on the tables. Around the food, I put lemon quarters with cloves stuck in them. I figured at least one of these things would keep the bugs away. In the back of the yard, I lit the fire pit with a bug-repelling log my neighbor gave me. No one complained about bugs all night!
My dad, who is a retired caterer, steamed lobster, mussels, shrimp, corn and potatoes outside in big stock pots:
I asked everyone to bring something to drink, but I did buy a few bottles of liquor, a couple bottles of wine, sodas and juices, and of course a big container of my famous mojitos!
To keep the kids busy while we set up, I made a couple of ice blocks filled with fun toys. It took them about an hour to get at all the toys using toy hammers and screwdrivers!
The party was buffet style, so my dad and I set all the food up on a couple of long tables:
I have to admit that I’m pretty proud of my fruit and vegetable carving skills:
Everyone really enjoyed the feast!
Here’s a picture of the birthday boy, me and our kids:
After dinner, we opened the party up to about 50 more people.
With late-night drinking and partying, comes hungriness! I didn’t expect people to be so hungry, so late! My man and a couple of his friends got on the grill around midnight…
For party favors, I made Skittles rum! I found the idea and instructions here. People really got a kick out of them. The only thing is that I should have warned them that it’s pretty much straight alcohol. Many thought it was mixed with juice or something and were surprised how strong it was when they took a sip, hahaha!We partied in the backyard until about 4pm. It really was a night to remember!