3.18.11

Eleanore turned 30.  There was a surprise party for her.  I brought Lay's Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Kettle Cooked Potato Chips as my contribution and have been addicted to them ever since.

3.10.11

I went to see Lilly on a Friday afternoon.  Such a sweet little fighter baby, this little girl has turned out to be.

2.4.11

We were the obnoxious group that shows up to a Friday Fish Fry with 12 people...and Eleanore had her baby the next day!

12.31.10

It's the end of the year, so might as well do a photo dump post instead of just one picture.  This one deserves lots of images anyway.  So here goes...

Lindsey, Nancy and I hosted what we dubbed a "Fabulous New Year's Eve Baby Shower" for Tim and El.  (Here we are!)



And I must say, it was quite fab. Let me take you around for a tour of some of the highlights of what we had to offer. Most fab I think was the crostini bar. We got this idea from the gals over at Haute Apple Pie. What a fantastic idea it is - you can spend a lot or a little, takes very little preparation, and looks really impressive. I think the tags in front of each item adds to the fabulosity

and check out this tiny little play on grilled cheese and tomato soup!  They were as delicious as they are adorable too...courtesy of the always reliable, Ina Garten and Ree Drummond.  Here is the recipe for the roasted tomato soup (which I have always had available in the freezer since I made it first a couple months ago.  so good.), and here is the cheese puff recipe...but we (Nancy) sort of made them cheese toasts instead of puffs.



And then to not let the baby shower theme get lost among the new year's revelry, I froze some plastic babies in ice, which everyone had fun with once they thawed out.





We also had a baby pool.  Not a completely new idea, but I think it was a good one for a co-ed shower.  We split the days in 2 (am and pm) and sold each spot for $2.  And now we all just wait to collect our winnings!



Here are the guests of honor with some headwear we bought for them at the party store.  There was a plethora of tiny hats available at the party store. It was odd.



And I think this picture pretty much sums up the good times that were had this new year's eve!  On our end, this is the first year in many many years that we actually did something.  We have spent at least the last 3 years with each other, going to dinner and catching a movie.  We always had a great time doing that, but I think this was the most fun new year's eve I have had in a long time...possibly ever.

(as a side, this is the second year in a row that there has been a "fabulous" party thrown by members of our group. Last year, Nancy had a "Fabulous Holiday Party". We are hoping to make this a tradition and have different fabulous parties every year.)

9.6.10

Labor day afternoon/evening was spent at our pals' house for a bbq. There was bags and bocce ball and a dip contest. We made our own rules for bocce and had to throw it different in each round. I'm sure El will love this angle. And the dip contest? Well, everyone was instructed to bring a dip and we all sampled and picked a winner. Our artichoke dip tied for second place. First place went to Lindsey's pretzel mustard dip...which I didn't even try because mustard makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

6.18.10

Woops. I skipped a day. The Friday before the race/fancy beers, I had the day off work. It also happened to be that every one of my girl friends (except 1) also had the day off. A total coincidence that never happens, so we decided to take full advantage and planned a full day of activities. We started the day off having breakfast at Marigold Kitchen, then headed down to State Street Brats for the World Cup game (where this picture was taken), and finished the day off lounging at our pool. A fantastic summer day! It had that no worries, summer vacation from college type feel to it. Good to know that feeling can still exist being so far removed from that time in my life!

4.24.10

On Saturday, we ran the Crazylegs....

....then we went to celebrate Tim's 30th birthday and did some shotskis

12.12.09

This was taken at the fabulous holiday party that Nancy had (and that I helped make the invitations for way back when). It was so fun! Look at El in her sequined dress! Lookin pretty fab if I do say so myself. Nancy and Tyler put on a good party as well. They whipped up together some delicious apps and drinks and I gladly helped myself to a few champagne cocktails, thankyouverymuch. Yummm! The company wasn't too shabby either. It was so great having everyone (for the most part) in the same place at the same time. It seems that that doesn't happen very often...and taking into consideration the impromptu Charlie Brown Theme dance off at the end of the night, I think everyone had a fine time!

This is going to be the "Annual Fabulous Holiday Party", right Nanc? ;-)

4.25.09

shotski.

3.23.09

I went out with Shari, El and Nancy on Monday night...and dangit, it had been too long since we got together last. We went around the table and took turns telling about our latest life developments. And we LAUGHED! There is nothing like the kind of laughter you have with a group of friends. Am I right? Yes, I am right.

El and Shari posed for a couple shots for me, but this blooper style one was my favorite. The lighting and overall cheesiness did it for me. That and the fact that their ensembles were exactly the same colors.