weekend review - a blindfold, a birthday shower, and some flat cokes

We pulled off the surprise of a lifetime this weekend by surprising Sara with a party for her 27th birthday.  We invited all of her peoples from all of her different friend genres and it was a lovely turnout.  Because Sara is always busy throwing everybody else the most glorious wedding/baby showers, we thought it would be quite appropriate to throw her a shower-themed birthday party.

So, all day Friday was consumed with party prep.  I was in charge of invitations, gathering addresses, RSVPs, and drinks.  Reese was in charge of decorations and the menu (which is a beast of a job).  This party would've been extremely blah without Reese's creative touch!

(Our little helpers)

It's funny that we thought the two of us could really pull off such an event.  Luckily, three of our sweet friends came early to help out and ended up totally saving our butts.  We left to go get Sara while they finished all of the details.

After blindfolding Sara for the entire car ride, we walked her into my parents' home and instructed her to take it off.

She was completely surprised by the whole thing and Reese and I were absolutely thrilled.  For someone who always knows everybody's business (in a good way), she actually didn't find out about this.  So good job to everyone who had to lie to her for 4 weeks.  That's not an easy task!

All of the fancy dishes were used, shower-esque foods were devoured, and she opened each present as we all watched.

 

(My sweet mama)

 (Just a few of us girls that were left after the party)

After everything was cleaned and picked up, some of us reconvened for a little dinner later on that evening to continue the celebration.  Sara chose Yamato and nobody opposed.

We arrived and within minutes, our cook quickly realized this was not a table to entertain with knife tricks, fire volcanoes, and yelling "butter fly" as he tossed the butter onto the grill.  We had things to chat about.  He cut out the nonsense and just made our food.

My favorite moment of the night was when a few of us ordered cokes and were sad to find they were completely flat.  I'd say we're a pretty low-maintenance group, so the fact that we made a thing about this flat coke meant something.  It was gross, y'all.  Like water with a dash of carbonation and some drops of food coloring.  When I drink coke, I want it to burn my eyes.  (Which is probably a bad sign and would fall under the other 385 reasons not to drink coke next to "it can dissolve a t-bone steak."  But we don't care.  COKE 'TIL WE DIE!)  Our waiter was nice and kindly brought us back some fresh cokes.  Before the straws were even in our mouths, Sara said, "Ohh yeah.  I can see the carbonation."  We know our pop.
 
I went to bed on Saturday night so fulfilled.  I got to celebrate sweet Sara and see so many friends that I hardly ever get to see - and certainly not all in one place together!  It was such a wonderful day.

On Sunday, we did church, lunch, a 2 hour nap (that seemed like 4 minutes), and then went to the Myriad Gardens for the Twilight Concert Series.  Except that once the concert actually started, we all left.  Starting an event at 7:30 isn't exactly convenient for people with children.  But oh well.  We had a great time eating our picnic dinners and chasing our children around.

Have a happy Monday!