What a weekend!!

Phew I had one of the best weekends ever. Seems hard to top the wedding, and it didn't quite make that but it was a close second. I went to my hometown this weekend to attend the annual Halloween party I talked about in my previous post. I had no idea I was in for so much more. Friday night the hubby and I packed up and headed north. My hometown is about an hour north of where I live. We had plans made with my family to go out for a Friday night dinner. This is sort of a tradition in my family and a means for all of us to get together without much work. As we got into town, we took our dog to my parent's house to drop him off on our way to go eat. My younger brother called Jared and asks if we can stop off where he works on his way to dinner. He says he got called in to fix a problem and he can't do it alone. Naturally, we say no problem and head to the place he works, which is a city park. When we get there he meets us at the door and tells us to follow him that the heater broke and he needs both of us to help fix it. Okay, no problem. As he leads us through the botanical garden and into a hallway I see these large neon pink footprints on the floor. My brother tells me there is going to be a party in this great room later on and he needs to get the heater fixed before it begins. Once again, I say sure no biggie. As we follow the neon pink foot prints I see this 7 foot tall replica of The Pink Panther, which just happened to be my all time favorite childhood toy and cartoon. I say, "wow a pink panther party! I want to stay here!". My brother and Jared just sorta laugh at me. I round the corner into this great room and hear, "SURPRISE!!!!!" All of my family is standing there. Little did I know I got to stay for the Pink Panther party after all. It was a surprise 30th birthday party for me!

In years past I have had some not so great birthdays where I always feel sort of forgotten. Last year was no exception. My younger brother has a birthday 5 days after mine and growing up we always had a 'combined' party cause it was easier on my parents and family. Well, I always hated that, it made my day feel less special! So over the last several years, my special day has felt anything but special and I started to complain that I wanted my own special day. They listened! My younger brother's wife put this party in the works almost a year ago. Everyone knew about it and kept it quiet the whole time. I knew absolutely NOTHING about it. It was fantastic. My dad made this 7 foot tall pink panther and everything in the room was done in pink...my signature color. I guess a key piece of why I didn't ever suspect anything was because my birthday was awhile ago, Oct. 20th to be exact. 3 days after the wedding. I celebrated with Jared but nobody else. Per the usual routine, my family called that day and though I knew I would be getting birthday gifts and celebrating the birthdays this weekend; I never suspected I'd get my OWN party!

I guess 30 is a milestone age. I feel older, more adult-like now. I always thought of people in their 30's as being adult. I guess in my head I knew when I reached it I would be seen in a different light. Anyway, I had the time of my life! I can't say thanks enough for all the hard work everyone did to put on such a great event for me. Here are some pictures to show off the evening.

Now, the fun didn't end there. Saturday night was the annual Halloween party. What a blast. The only down side is that we do this outside and it was FREEZING! My costume was the board game Operation.



I thought it was pretty creative! Other costumes included an Oktoberfest girl (Goose), Hans and Frans (E and Jared) from SNL, Mr. T, Zombies, Bees, Cowboys, Cowgirls, and a Hippie among others. I love getting to see what creative ideas people come up with. Jared and I have already picked out our costumes for next years festivities. Here are some pictures from the party including our dog as Dudley Vader. Enjoy!