Lori's Birthday Extravaganza Continues... Day 3

When celebrating your birthday once just won't cut it, there is the Lori Brown Birthday Extravaganza! Before the bullriding occassion ever came up, we planned to throw Lori a wonderful all-day Lori-themed birthday event. It was to go something like Lunch, Manicure/Pedicure, Dinner, Slumber Party for the girls.

We had lunch at Gringos, which was really yummy. 21 people showed up, which is a pretty good turn out for Saturday morning. Most of the people there were either in the church choir, or were already awesome singers. When it was time to sing Happy Birthday to Lori, we automatically broke into 4-part harmony. It sounded great and the entire restaurant stopped to clap. It sounded really cool.

Me & Elayne Doug & Lori

Jeff & Me Jeff being Jeff

Lori & Elayne

After lunch, Lori, Maddie, Candy, and I went over to the nail salon for a little pampering. Even little Maddie got her nails painted. It was wonderfully relaxing.

Once we finished with the nails, Lori, Maddie, and I went back to their house to rest and wait for the other girls to show up for the pajama party. Once Amy and Elayne showed up, it was time to put Maddie to bed. We all helped her say her prayers and tucked her into bed.

Once Maddie was asleep, it was time to break out the Rock Band!

A great time was had by all.

Semi-Annual Girls' Slumber Party & Jean's Baby Shower

August 30, 2008

Twice a year, the aunts and cousins in my family get together for a Girls' Slumber Party extravaganza. This year, we included an intimate baby shower for my cousin, Jean, who is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her first child, Miss Eva Kelly Hays. Eva will be blessing us with her presence just in time for Christmas. Since Jean and her husband Wendell are currently living in Orlando, we wanted to make sure we could throw her a shower before the baby came.

We started out the party in the afternoon with mimosas (sorry Jean!) and some light conversation before heading to the nail salon for manicures and pedicures. Since the majority of the family has fall birthdays, this was Aunt Linda's gift to everyone. It was wonderful to have a day of pampering!!

After the nail salon, Baby Eva decided that she was hungry for cake. We couldn't turn the growing baby down, so we bucked tradition and ate our cake before dinner. Jean says that Eva feels if she has dessert first, she will always have room for it. We actually had two cakes. One for Baby Eva (chocolate with a chocolate mousse filling and a super sugary icing) and one for all the birthday girls (yellow cake with cream cheese filling, cream cheese icing, and chocolate covered strawberries). Sorry chocolate cake - the yellow cake was DIVINE!

Once we had our fill of cake, it was time for dinner. We had a yummy firehouse spaghetti (compliments of Aunt Mary) and my famous Mexican Cornbread Casserole. There were also many delicious appetizers, a great salad, and Aunt Linda's famous crockpot tortilla soup. My cousin Doug made his appearance, as he is often a staple at the parties.

After dinner, we finally let Jean open presents. She was really excited and thrilled at all the great loot! My sister showed up with Madison and she helped with the present opening. She really is a great little helper! I can believe how big she is getting!!

After all the presents were opened and we had ooohed and aaahed all we could, it was time for the slumber party. This basically consisted of laying around talking and laughing until we couldn't keep our eyes open. It was a ball spending time with family. Thanks to Aunt Linda for hosting the event, as usual. I can't wait for the next one!