My good friend, Reese, celebrated a birthday this past weekend and her husband enlisted our help in plotting out a surprise party for her. We provided the place, decor, and some snacks, and the rest of our friends pitched in with more snacks and lots of cheer to pull off the surprise. I did a “gold and gemstone” theme because it’s sort of an inside joke. I picked up gold fringe garland from the party store and (30 minutes before the party started) I drew gemstones on bright colored poster board, cut those out, added some wooden skewers, and inserted them into the various snacks for the par-tay! I cut off a branch of bougainvillea from our yard, put out a couple little plates of tea light candles, and we were good to go. Then we just had to wait for the birthday girl to arrive!

The birthday girl isn’t much of a sweets person, so crackers, cheese (served on this bark cheese board), hummus, and chips were mostly what dominated. The snack winner of the night was brie with a little bit of the jalapeño raspberry jam on top of some crackers; that combo was so deliciously good!

Reese was definitely surprised and declared, “This is the best birthday ever!” Apparently, she always wanted a surprise party and this was her first! The evening continued on with everyone hanging out singing worship music together and giving Reese words of encouragement. It was just such a great night of celebrating what God’s been doing in her life thus far.

Sunday was spent at my mom and dad’s house celebrating their second engagement. Yes, you read that right, second engagement. My mom and dad got married quite young (20 & 21), and the first time around my mom kind of proposed to my dad. Since they were so young (and didn’t have money), my dad just got my mom the tiniest diamond ring he could afford. Fast forward 33 years later, he upgraded that rock and planned a romantic proposal (this time he did it, and one knee) for her when their wedding anniversary came around this past Valentine’s Day. Yup, my parents got married on Valentine’s day in 1981. My mom called me after it happened all giggly and saying it went too fast, and how she wished she could relive that moment again. I just laughed because they are already married! HA!

My parents are the sweetest. Sure! They have fights and can both get crazy on each other (I remember tons of times my dad got kicked out), but they are also very much crazy in love. It’s because they are passionate when they fight and they are passionate when they love. They set a good example of marriage for me (and my siblings) growing up, and it’s one of the reasons I was excited to get married myself. My parents didn’t make it look easy, but they would go through the good, bad, and ugliness of marriage trying to love each other and Christ through all the selfishness. Though I kinda laugh at the silliness of my parents wanting to have another wedding (we are really planning another wedding for them two years from now), I’m really so thankful that my parents are still are madly in love with each other and that they want to share that with all their family and friends. Thanks mom and dad for the good example you set for us! 

Obviously, our weekend was full and busy, but is was for sure good as there were a lot of good things to celebrate! But oh man, oh man, I’m so tired today. #draggingmyfeetmonday