Our Birthdays Extravaganza

So, when I asked Dave about posting his skinny, he said he's still "getting to it." It'll be done probably this weekend -- don't worry, he didn't forget. Just has a lot of stuff going on last and this week! Busy busy boy!

This past weekend was SO much fun! Our Birthdays Extravaganza was a complete success! We rented the clubhouse at our apartment complex (which turned out to be completely free in the end!) and had 22 friends over for dinner, drinks and games.

We tried to have an all-natural and organic meal. We were successful except for the cakes! We wanted to do a pasta meal, so I made three different types for some variety. We had Vodka Sauce over whole wheat pasta, Bachamel Sauce with chicken and roasted bell peppers over whole wheat pasta, and Cheese Stuffed Jumbo Shells with a homemade spaghetti sauce over top. And a green salad and roasted garlic bread on the side. Jenna and Marcus were brought a fruit salad to round out the meal. It was all so good!! There were little leftovers.. And for the cakes, I made Dave a 5 layer Black Forest cake and just a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting for me. We just finised the last of the cakes last night. Yummo!

Thanks to Amanda for taking all of the pictures for us!! We forgot our camera in our apartment. Luckily Amanda came prepared and was so nice to post the pictures for us the next day! We appreciate it!!!

Nicole and Shane struggling to light the candles. :)

The rendition of "Happy Birthday" wasn't necessarily the best we've heard.. but it was thoughtful none the less!

Make a wish! Dave is 24 and Elise 22

We followed up dinner with a great game of Partini.
Who know it would be such a fun time! We'll definitely be playing it again in the future. For those who haven't tried it yet, we highly recommend! It's sort of like Cranium, only better! And it's made for play with large or small groups. There are various types of mini games to play, like in Cranium, but it's an all out contest between boys and girls as to who wins the overall game. And it's especially fun with wine and beer. :)

And we just want to say T H A N K Y O U to everyone who celebrated with us, who wished us a happy birthday and who were most generous with gifts this year. A special thanks must go out to Mom V, Mom & Dad S, Aunt Mary & Uncle Dave, Aunt Debi, Aunt Claudia, Aunt Rebekah, Joel, Allison and Vern, Nick E, Amanda and Loretta!!! To each of you: thank you so much for everything you did to make our birthdays so special! We loved everything!

So I must brag about the gifts we got eachother. Since we didn't get eachother Christmas gifts this year, we decided to get eachother small birthday gifts. Now I thought small meant $40 or less, so I spent a few months researching some really neat but affordable gifts. First, I got Dave a set of Dominos with the game Mexican Train -- because every year we spend Thanksgiving with Scott and Laura and Scott's grandma brings her Mexican Train game with her. LOVE it! Dave was surprised to get that gift. But, I also got him a mini speaker for his iPod: http://www.vat19.com/dvds/ipod-lego-dock-speakers.cfm?adid=gbase. Now, you can get these on just about any electronics site, but this one has the cheapest price I could find -- just $19.95!! That's right, super affordable!! And the quality is amazing for what you pay. It's basically the only thing of its kind out there right now, and yes it's in the shape of a Lego, but soon they'll probably be coming out with different models..? It's a cordless and battery-less speaker, about the size of AA battery or a standard Lego. The sound output is great! The speaker has its own adjustable volume besides the volume on your iPod, so you have lots of control. I wanted to share it with all of you because it's a great idea for anyone who owns an iPod!

And for my birthday gift from Dave..he apparently assumed small gift meant, more litterally, small...because he got me an iPod!! Joel went in on it with him, but holy crap I was so suprised! He took me out to dinner on my birthday and presented me with a gift card to the Apple store. I about cried from excitement. He knows how badely I have wanted one for, oh, years! We went to pick one out on his birthday (Saturday) and I chose the green iPod Nano. Loving it so far! It's nice to have it for when I'm cleaning houses or working out. Thank you so much Dave!

Hopefully Dave will be posting again this weekend. I'll get on his case. He's actually suffering from a 4-day weekend since it's his school's homecoming right now. So..we'll see. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!


- Elise