Birthday Pary Success

Ryan's birthday party was so much fun to prepare for and even more fun once all of the people showed up! We had a full house and a beautiful night for it. We watched the games and were entertained by the kids and Sammy. We got to catch up with friends and family who traveled from Richmond and to see friends we haven't seen in a while. We never did pull out the games but there were so many people to catch up with we didn't even think of it.

I tried some new food for this party. I am known for having a narrow perspective on food but I am trying to branch out. My mom and I tried out my Grandma's kifles recipe and it was a huge success. We had way too many desserts but for once I actually made about the right amount of food so that was nice.

For those who were interested, the kifles recipe is:
Mix 4 cups flour, 1 lb butter, 4 egg yolks, 12 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
Make little balls and put in the fridge overnight to chill (small than the size of a donut hole)
After rolling out (the thinner the better) and adding less than a teaspoon of the desired filling, roll into the shape of a crescent roll and slitting three holes on the top with a knife, bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until only lightly golden on the bottom.

Here are some pictures of the decorations, the first picture is of some of the old pictures of Ryan and his family that I put up around the house:

This second one is of the timeline I put up as a conversation starter:


Since I had to pan out to get it all here are the milestones:
1985: Shocked his mom when he turned out to be a boy
1987: Met his future sister-in-law for the first time and threw grapes at her
1988: Built a "super car" at his Grandma's out of special materials(You'll have to ask him about that)
1990: Made multiple attempts to count to 400 on a 4.5 hour trip to Grandma's
1995: Became an Uncle for the first time
1997: Moved to a new house (His Grandparent's were the original owners); Started Civil Air Patrol
1998: Started working for his Dad's HVAC company
1999: Started JROTC; Bought and started fixing up his 1969 Mustang
2001: Started playing football for Hayfield High School; Started dating his lovely high school sweetheart
2002: Joined the Army Reserve
2003: Graduated Hayfield Secondary School; Graduated Bootcamp and AIT at Ft. Leonard Wood, MO
2005: Graduated Airborne School, Got Engaged
2006: Got Married, Started Interning for Army Test and Evaluation Command
2008: Became Samson's Dad; Graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University; Got his dream job at Army Evaluation Command
2009: Got commissioned in the Army Reserve
2010: Gearing up for his first deployment

Here are some good shots of Ry and I and the nieces and nephews. For other pics you'll have to look at my facebook album or our picture webpage since there are a lot of good shots of our guests.
Ry opening his gift from his older brother. This was payback for the Ensure that Ry got him for his 40th birthday. Baby food that we will be donating somewhere because we won't have need for it anytime soon (sorry Mom).
We were so thankful we got to see our nieces since we missed them at Christmas. They are growing up so fast. They even watched some of the kids in the basement for a bit to give the adults a break. We are looking forward to seeing them again soon for snow tubing adventures.
Love the faces this child makes. Carter was a great sport even past his bedtime. Sammy is in love with him and he'll be even more fun now that he took his first steps yesterday. He is growing up way too fast! I can't believe he'll be one in just two and a half months.
Our other nephew jumping on the bed with one of Ry's co-workers kids. They were having way too much fun! Can you tell that we love having kids around?! They bring so much joy to our lives.
Sammy and I were exhausted by the time the last guests cleared out around 1. It was so much fun preparing everything but it had been a long week with my internship and finishing up my winter break to-do list.

Fantastic Weekend...Happy Birthday Ry!

First off, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband. I'll try to remember to take a birthday picture at some point today. I am so happy he could be home to celebrate his 25th birthday. We are taking today to celebrate together, church, walk with the pup, games, dinner and movie date. I tried to convince him to go see ICE at the National Harbor but I guess that was a little much given all the excitement of our weekend so far. I know we are both really excited about his birthday party this Saturday and all of the people who are going to be coming.

Since he is still asleep I have time to blog about our fun weekend. We ended up having a lot of things to do on Friday since I had so much unexpected work last week so we didn't leave until 1 for the city but it was probably too cold for us to enjoy much anyway. We got there and had some time to relax at the bar before Tom and Colleen got there for dinner. It was nice and probably a first for us. Dinner was great at Monk's Cafe in Philly and then we rushed over to the theater for Wicked. We forgot to take a picture because we were so excited. The show was incredible. It is so well written and performed and I can't wait to take the rest of the family to it (not sure when but I'll get them there).

We got to see the baby room when we headed to their home for the night and it looks so cute. Colleen has such good taste and I love the pink and grey combo. After sleeping in (the country just does that to us) we headed to the other part of PA for her shower. It was so much fun seeing the family again, playing weird games, and seeing all the creative and cute gifts. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the shower:


With my lovely cousin three weeks before she becomes a Mommy.
Shot of the cake, the invitation and all of the prizes for the fun games.
My first girl/eco friendlier diaper cake. So fun and easy to make these.
Caught two of my younger cousins being funny and they didn't even notice.
Cute Colleen. It might look cuter on baby Lucky though:)

Fun weekend ahead/Week of thanks

After putting some last minute things together for my cousins baby shower this weekend, Ry and I are headed to Philly to see Wicked with my cousin and her husband. She and I were so close growing up and then the boys entered the pictures and our schedules got all wacky and it seemed like when she was with the family I wasn't and vice versa. We are working towards fixing that and I feel so blessed that we had extra days at the holiday together for scrapbooking at Grandmas and now we have this date set up. I am really excited about the shower on Saturday and all the details I can't share yet since she might read this. After that Ry and I will come home and spend Sunday however he wants since it is his 25th birthday. I imagine we will be completely lazy and just play games all day and maybe go for a long walk with the pup, but the only thing on the schedule is church. We got a lot of restaurant gift cards for Christmas so maybe we'll take advantage of those but Ryan's lazy days are so rare I think he will enjoy the birthday excuse:)

I also wanted to list the things I was thankful for this week since it was FULL of blessings:
1. Lots of extra time with the Barker family before they left for Korea this week. They have been fantastic to me the past 3.5 years and they were a blessing to the end. I will miss them and their kids and am praying for safe travels and a smooth transition. We are also thankful for all of the good food and alcohol they gave me since they can't take it with them. We are well stocked!
2. Time with Hilly and her help putting away the Christmas decorations Sunday (always so sad but better with good company to distract me).
3. A good first day back at the internship.
4. My holiday party dress arriving. It's better than I could have imagined and it was on a fantastic sale that I used a gift card for. It is going to look great with Ry's dress blues.
5. The light snow that has blanketed the ground outside.
6. Getting to see Christen and the boys midweek.
7. Some financial things coming together and seeing once again how the Lord provides in His perfect timing.

I also have a recommendation to make: I played Perfection with my second graders at the school yesterday and they loved it. I hadn't played it in years and I would highly recommend it for the kids in your life since it is great for teaching them to focus and think strategically. My two kids worked together really nicely and were so proud of themselves.