Birthday Weekend

Last Friday was my birthday & the Bup & I took off work to celebrate with a 3-day weekend. We met my grandparents at Shady Maple to take advantage of my free birthday breakfast. Whew they have a lot of food there. I'm overwhelmed everytime we go. The main reason I like to go is for the fresh pancakes. This time, I got 2 small pumpkin pancakes - one with coconut & apples, the other with pb & choc chips. So good!

After breakfast, we went to the market next door. Look at these crazy huge, "overly obese" pumpkins!

Such abundance! We bought some produce off of the $1/bag rack, plus a few other things. They had avocados for 77 cents each!

I was drooling over their almond & coconut milk selection. None of the stores around us sell So Delicious brand. Plus, they also had rice milk & flax milk. I didn't get any, but now I know where to go if I want to.

We spent the afternoon around the house. I finished my book (Let's Pretend This Never Happened: (A Mostly True Memoir) - for a snippet, go here & prepare to laugh!). Tink curled up with me & was being so sweet.

My parents had us up for my birthday dinner. Mom & I split a Blue Moon Caramel Apple Spiced Ale. It was really good, although not as caramely or appley as I expected.

I requested pizzas, & Mom came up with some tasty topping. The one on the left has a pumpin parmesan sauce topped with bell peppers & artichoke hearts. The right pizza is fresh smoked mozerella with thinly sliced lemons & fresh basil.

The third flavor was basil-lemon balm pesto topped with broccoli, jalapeno slices & mushrooms.

I couldn't decide which one I liked best. I kept alternating bites, trying to decide. So delicous! We also had a big green salad with dinner - yum!

Before we had cake, we played a game of Farkle. We played another game afterwards. I didn't win either, but it was still fun.

My cake was Happy Day cake with chocolate icing - my favorite!

Mom swapped a few ingredients & made the cake with whole wheat flour & coconut oil - just how I love it. It was fantastic.

We tried for some nice family photos afterwards, but everyone was being a ham. Here we are, all in red.

My family. <3

When we got home, the Bup hung my final b-day present. He made me a rack to hang my necklaces! The free necklaces I got from my jewelry party this summer didn't fit in my little box. I think I tripled my necklace collection at that party! Tink kept trying to play with them, so this was the perfect solution.

On Saturday, we went for an hour long bike ride & then worked a little around the house. We stopped to play a round of mini golf (I had free coupons - can't let them go to waste!) on the way to my friend's birthday party. This pic makes me laugh - he looks sorta short. We were a little dressed up for mini golf.

Celebrating with the birthday girl!

The Bup bought his own bottle of wine because the wines offered were sweet. They made sure that they knew it was his! I was surprised by how much I liked the dry wines offered. My tastes are changing!

Sunday was pretty quiet. We went to church, had lunch, took a walk, worked in the garden, did some cooking for the week, cleaned out part of the basement, & watched a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix. It was a relaxing final day of a great weekend!

Thanks to everyone for all of the birthday wishes!

The Gorgeous Sky

Only God can create beauty like this!

Happy Marriage!

Introducing La & Andy, the bride & groom!

I was honored to be part of their wedding. Everything was very laid-back & organized, in typical La fashion. All of the girls in the wedding party felt like we weren't doing our part because everything was already taken care of!

We had a fun time decorating the church with these tissue paper puffs.

The flowers were gorgeous! I have my bouquet sitting at home on the counter & they're still alive almost a week later.

 

One of the other bridesmaids made La this personalized hanger. Apparently you can buy them on Etsy, but she took some wire & twisted it herself. She was also the one to do most of our hair. I did a little curling & pinning along the way, but she did the bulk of it.

We caught a peek of the groomsmen & groom (note: he's the one in shorts!) as they arrived at the church. They looked very official.

What bride doesn't want to do her wedding day prep in the men's bathroom right next to a urinal? She wasn't fazed at all!

It was super hot on Saturday, so after the ceremony, the men were given permission to change into cooler clothes. Luckily, the Bup brought a polo that matched my dress!

Andy brewed the beer for the wedding. This was the Honeymoooon Brew, a honey & basil beer. Sounds a little strange, but it's amazing! He also made a "Love is in the ale" wheat beer. We got to take some of the leftovers home. :-D

The favors were the tin pictured. Inside were dice & instruction for one of their favorite games, Farkle. They taught us to play on one of our weekend cabin trips & it's really fun.

Fans for the crowd to stay cool!

Mom & Dad celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary on 7/1. I'm so proud to be their daughter! Here's to 35 more years for them!

Dad & daughter: matching cheesy grins.

Father daughter dance to Frank Sinatra. Who else? As kids, our dads always listened to Frank & we'd complain.

Congrats! I'm so happy for the two of you!