30!

We recently celebrated Joe's 2nd annual 29th birthday. Birthdays are usually my thing. As in, I love for my birthday to be done up in a big way, preferably over many different days. Joe has always downplayed his, not asking for much besides a meal at his favorite restaurant (Ray's the Steaks) and a new pair of running shoes or something. But I needed to show him that his birthday is special too- and I didn't want it to be combined with Father's Day (something I am well aware of because I have a birthday near Christmas!). So at the last minute, and by last minute I mean 3 days before, I decided to throw him a Birthday Happy Hour. Of course many of our friends were out of town (not to mention out of state and country), but I was DE-termined to show this kid a good time.

I'll start with the food. I've never mentioned this before, but I love all things Pioneer Woman. I love her blog, I love her photos, but most of all I love her COOKING.

I made her BBQ Jalapeno Poppers (which I tried to link and this is the closest to the recipe). I made mine from her cookbook:
I need everyone to know that I spent over 3 hours making these puppies and my hands were on FIRE for days, even though I did use plastic bags while handling the peppers. Abby also pitched in and helped when I was just about to give up.

They were awesome!!!...but they were also NUCLEAR. As in, even with all the seeds and membranes scraped out we were crying, drinking milk, and shoveling bread in our mouths. But we ate them anyway because they were worth it.

I also made her potato skins: (Although this is also a slightly different version from the link. What gives?)
This picture shows their popularity. They were double stacked and overflowing on this plate. Good thing I made about 50 of them.

The rest of the food was good, but not worth the hoopla of pictures and web links.

The drinks:

Yum.

And best of all, the company:

Grayson and Chris

Nick, Maren and a fuzzy baby Julia

(It's very clear in these pictures that we still have no clue how to use this camera)

What on earth?! And how is Chris oblivious to the shenanigans going on next to her?

We moved outside to play some Bocce Ball...but we only had 4 players.

Everyone else was busy doing this:

this:

and this:

This, by the way, is Aaron, our 6 month old neighbor. I have moved WAY up in the friend rankings of Christine (his mom) after she saw this picture and LOVED it.

So there you have it. Happy Birthday to my sweet Joe! But we're not finished...tomorrow we go out with friends for a birthday dinner and then we are going on a super special trip to really commemorate the 30th birthday. (And we all know that I am also expecting a super special getaway come January)

p.s. After all the fuss, Joe has now decided that he likes his birthday to be a big deal!

p.p.s. Abby- I couldn't have done it without you.