A last minute Derby Party!

Saturday was the Kentucky Derby, and well on Friday night we were out with friends (as seen in the previous post) and were discussing that a Derby party would be particularly fun. I started thinking about it and the fact that Lee is from Louisville, and I think I've spent enough time there at this point to pull something decent off... so we got more and more into the idea and made it happen. We did sleep in on Saturday, but then ended up throwing together a particularly wonderful Derby Party.

I pulled out anything we had relating to Kentucky and here is the starting center piece. (I didn't have time to iron my tablecloth, so don't look too close).


And here are our appetizers. The key Kentucky ingredients were the Mint Juleps and we even made Benedictine.

Lee was our house bookie and we did our own version of betting on the races, he even kept us up on the current odds. Our game was complete with prizes (a girl prize AND a boy prize since the genders had very different methods of bet placing). I picked "Mr. Hot Stuff" and "Chocolate Candy" based purely on the names. My favorites. And they let me down. I should have known. Here's the cutest bookie in Smyrna:

Here's some more pictures, Stephanie getting really into the horse racing with her horse whip, and Jen and Jaime in their fabulous hats:

And then dinner of course. Lee grilled out. We got so into our classiness that we pulled out the fine china and silverware and monogrammed linen napkins for the occasion:

And of course Derby Pie for dessert, that Jaime did an excellent job on. And also in this picture (for Lee's Mom!) is our inaugural use of the utter creamer that I am in love with:

And in conclusion, we all decided that this will be an annual event. It was too much fun to not do again. We thought of so many ideas for next year. But of course we have to actually go to Kentucky one year soon for the ultimate experience. I'll close with the picture we made the boys take with their Derby Hats. Left to right, Scott (Jaime's friend from NC), Matt (Lee's friend) and little Lee.