Mem Day Party

We hosted a Mem Day party at our house yesterday. SO much fun. Our original plan was to spend the day at the pool and then just grill out down there, but Mother Nature had a different plan in store for us. She decided to rain down on us for about 90% of the day, so that was neat. We moved the party to our house, which you know I never complain about. I LOVE to host!

the boys played Bocce Ball outside

while the girls gossiped inside

Adam & B

B & me

Greyson & me

Mem Day pup

Hi, I'm a Cougar

So Brian likes to fondly refer to me as "his cougar" because I am 3.5 months his senior. He's such a child. Well the little guy turned the big 2-6 recently and per usual we dragged out the celebrations from the typical 2 hours of a party to about 3 days of fun. Again, we like to party.
First night of celebrations at Tarahumata - one of our fave Mexican restaurants (within walking distance of our house!)

with my family

back home for chocolate chip cake made by yours truly :)

Night #2 of celebrations - hanging with friends

and dinner at Relish - one of our favorite Southern restaurants in Roswell

this is a pic of what Relish is most famous for-->Pimento Cheese Fritters... a ball of cheese, deep fried, with sweet pepper jelly = DELISH!

And then after dinner was over, I served everyone a piece of chocolate cake with buttercream frosting. Sadly, I cannot take credit for this deliciousness. This cake is from Kelly's Kakes - another Roswell fave.

25 was a BIG deal at our house!

We both loooooove to celebrate birthdays. We both threw surprise parties for each other for our 25th birthdays. Neither of us saw it coming! First came my birthday weekend...

We went out for a family birthday dinner at Seasons 52. After we (mom, dad, sister, Brian, and me) sat down at our table, my cousin Anna (white wrap sweater) walked up to our table to surprise me! She drove in from Augusta just for my birthday weekend to surprise me. Little did I know it was for Friday AND Saturday...

Brian had been planning a surprise party for me (for Jan 31st, my actual bday) since early December. To throw me off track, he had my friend Chelsea plan me a non-surprise party for February 7th. So for those two months, I was thinking that my bday party was going to be on Feb 7th. Brian told me that HE was going to take me out, just the 2 of us, for my bday, on Jan 31st. On the way to dinner, Brian told me that it was a surprise where we going to eat. So the whole drive there, I was asking questions, trying to figure out which restaurant we were going to. We arrived at Portofino and walked inside... and about 25-30 of my best friends were there snapping pictures and yelling "SURPRISE!" I was confused and shocked and very surprised. Most of you know that it is near impossible to surprise me.

college friends who drove in from out of town for the party

friends from our couples small group

best friends :)

girls pic outside the restaurant after dinner

my sweet hubby who planned all of this for me :) Brian even got up in the middle of dinner and gave me a toast!

Next came Brian's birthday weekend extravaganza. First, we had our typical family birthday celebration...

We ate dinner at Relish in Roswell with the fam

and then came back to our house for chocolate chip cake (YUM!) and presents

(this is Brian writing) May 1, 2009... a day/weekend that I will not soon forget! A little background first... Ellen, my amazingly sneaky and sweet wife invited a couple of my closest friends to celebrate my birthday a little early. So she had the whole weekend planned out for us and even gave us boys the house while she stayed at her parents house! It was such an amazing surprise!

The big surprise! I was in complete shock mode, I couldn't believe it!

The surprises kept coming. Ellen bought us all Braves tickets for the next day and even got me a cake from my favorite place, Kelly's Kakes. She had them create a tennis cake for me.

amazing friends

We all grilled out on Friday night and then went out on the town. Saturday we went to the Braves game and sat third row behind the dugout. Awesome seats. All in all, this was a great birthday weekend and I love all my friends and my beautiful wife!

Party, Party, Party

We are VERY into parties. Especially me (Ellen). And especially when we get to host these parties. So any holiday or random reason I can think of to throw a party, I do...

We threw a neighborhood block party and invited everyone who lived in our "part" of the neighborhood. We are so lucky to be surrounded by wonderful neighbors who are about our same age (late 20s-early 30s) and in the same stage of life. About 35 people showed up, so it was definitely a huge success!

Brian thought it was super cheesy that I made everyone wear nametags.

We hosted New Years Eve at our house... this is our group of besties... Adam and Greyson (left couple) are great friends of ours and live about 8 minutes away. Greyson and Ellen have been friends since 7th grade. Stacy and Travis (middle couple) are also great friends of ours but live about 45 minutes away. Stacy and Ellen have been friends since age 2.

Once we were completely settled in our new home, we threw ourselves a Housewarming Party. It was fabulous. Friends and family attended and we were able to "show off" our house and give tours and tell what we had redone or changed.

Ellen's parents (and sister, not pictured) came to the party too

YUM

and YUM

The hostess and host :)