Party People....

I love to celebrate birthdays! Any event involving cake, gifts, the gathering of family and friends and then leftover cake for breakfast is something I can get behind!

The old ball and chain turned 30 this weekend and I figured it was a milestone birthday we should commemorate. If we're being honest he was a bit pouty for a few hours about a week ago when he thought I had nothing planned and we were going to spend his birthday weekend grilling steaks and hanging out TOGETHER....just the 2 of us....since he's lucky enough to get to do that every day of his life I figured I would spice things up for his birthday. I rallied the troops, told a few good lies (forgive me Father, it was all in good fun), got Ryan to lie for me too, made a ridiculous amount of food, and then showed up with my camera to see it all go down.

Ryan told Dave that he won a raffle at church for a free round of golf at a local golf club. He invited Dave and said 2 other guys from his church would be playing. Of course, hook-line-and-sinker, Dave was in. I told Dave I was going to hang out with Lynch all day while he and Ryan played golf, so it was no big deal when I left 10 minutes before he did so I could be there to snap a few pictures. :) When he walked into the clubhouse he was greeted by Ryan, who he was expecting, and then his buddies rounded the corner one by one to surprise him! It was a lot of fun, and unfortunately I didn't get very good pictures. :( It was really dark in the clubhouse and I couldn't ever see Dave's face with him hugging everyone. They had a great round of golf and then came home for a cookout! I think Dave was nervous when I told him there would be 25 people at our house for a cookout...SURPRISE!! But I assured him everything was taken care of, he just needed to show up and have fun!

Dave's high school friends...I didn't get the other guys because they were busy taking down the breakfast buffet...

My mom had graciously given up her kitchen on Friday for me to make all of the food in advance! I had to hide everything there overnight and pick it up while he was playing golf. I was proud of my golf cupcakes. I thought they turned out cute!

Y'all truly can't even imagine how much food we had...We will be eating leftover hamburgers all week...And I gave a "to-go" bag to anyone who would take it

Meredith and The Loj (Liz)

Thank you, thank you, thank you, to all of our friends and family who came out to celebrate Dave! It was so fun to see all of you and I'm always so grateful and so amazed at what wonderful friends we have! And I will say that once again, I was TERRIBLE about taking pictures! I missed so many people because I was busy "hostessing". Next time I am assigning someone to photography. :)

Me, Dave and Alice (Alice is Dave's best girlfriend from high school and he is now great friends with her husband which is so fun. It's SO nice how I love all of the wives of Dave's friends and he truly enjoys hanging out with the husbands of my friends...)

Us with my parents who did SO much to help me! Thank you!! They wanted Dave to have a great day and they didn't want him to have to do the work so he could just enjoy it. It was such an amazing help to me!

My dad and my FIL manning the grill....

Angie, Meredith and Courtney

Dave and I with his mom and dad who also did a ton to make the day perfect! I wasn't very good about taking pictures because I was doing other things, so I failed to take a picture of the GORGEOUS and fabulous homemade cobbler Claudia made. There wasn't a bite leftover!

Me and my girls!

Again, thank you ALL for coming. Dave was so surprised and had so much fun, so thank you! I hope we can do it again soon!! XOXO