Friendsday Night Party In the Park and a New Yummy Mocktail Recipe

School is almost out for summer and that means it is time to break out the neighborhood parties!   I live in a neighborhood with TONS of kids.  And when I say tons, I mean like 65 under the age of 14 on our little cul-de-sac.  Needless to say, it is a party all the time…at least for the kids.  Sometimes us moms can get a little overwhelmed with the chaos!  The longer, warmer nights heading into summer sure make it hard to concentrate on things like homework and cooking dinner, so I’ve given up and decided that while the kids run wild at the park, the women can gather for some Friendsday Night fun.  It is so refreshing to be able to enjoy yummy drinks and treats, chat about life, and share some of the joys of motherhood with each other.  The best part is that every night is the perfect night for a Friendsday Night party in the park!

Since I’m always looking for any excuse to party, I can’t help but set up a little colorful table full of fruity drinks to celebrate the season.  These are family friendly nights with all the kids running around, so I keep the drinks family-friendly too.  I have an absolutely favorite new mocktail that I’ll share in a minute, it’s a huge hit.

I know you’ve seen me use IZZE® on just about every drink table I ever put together.  The colors are SO fun, they are perfect for every celebration, and I love color!  I love that I can match the cute colors to my events.  For last week’s Friendsday Night, I whipped up the EASIEST colorful banner…can you guess what it’s made of? Paper napkins!!!  Yes, you heard me correctly!  With all of the parties I throw I seem to have an endless supply of paper napkins in all kinds of colors and patterns, so, to go along with the bright and cheery theme, I strung some twine in-between trees and then hung a colorful assortment of napkins over the twine on their natural fold.  A little piece of tape in between napkin layers secures it on the twine.  A cute and custom garland in seconds!

Now for the good stuff!  The drinks!

I grabbed an assortment of flavors of IZZE® and whipped up a few different mocktails.  The Clementine Raspberry spritzer is a favorite.  Muddled raspberries, slices of clementine, 2 teaspoons of simple sugar (I like to add this if the raspberries are a little tart) ice and IZZE® Sparkling Clementine, combine for great flavor.  I always like to add a sprig of mint and a fun paper straw for color.

While the Clementine Raspberry spritzer is always a hit, the hands down favorite last week was the Pink Lemonade Blackberry Twister.  I found these amazing PINK lemons at the grocery store and knew I had to come up with a fun way to use them.

My fridge was already full of blackberries and they were a natural fit with the IZZE® Sparkling Blackberry, so a new mocktail was born.

Here’s what you’ll need for this Pink Lemonade Blackberry Twister:

1 Pink Lemon (you can use a regular lemon too if you don’t have a pink lemon)

1/2 pint of Blackberries

4 bottles of IZZE® Sparkling Blackberry

Mint sprigs

8 TBS of Simple Syrup

Directions:
Slice your lemon into 8 thin slices, then slice each of those slices in half for a total of 16 half lemon slices

Muddle about half of your blackberries (just mash them up a bit)

Divide up the muddled fruit equally into the bottom of four glasses.

Add four ice cubes to each glass, along with 4 half lemon slices, and two TBS of simple syrup (the lemons make this drink pretty tart)

Pour the IZZE® Sparkling Blackberry into each glass.

Garnish with mint and a straw.

A night of friends, laughter and good drinks makes the week a whole lot easier to face!  Create your own neighborhood Friendsday Night this summer with simple snacks and these yummy IZZE® mocktails.

Have a great day!

Tammy

Disclosure:  This post was sponsored by IZZE® through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select.  While I was compensated to write a post about IZZE®, all opinions are my own.