Happy 30th Birthday M!

Turning 30 never looked so fun!

I have been planning a birthday surprise for Matthew's 30th for MONTHS!  Literally months. Our good friend Adam and I have been sharing top secret texts over this particular event since May. When I got to thinking about what I wanted to do for the big 3-0, I considered a myriad of options: surprise trip, surprise party, just an awesome big gift, etc... But if you really know my husband, there is little more that he loves to do other than spending time with our little family than hanging with his life-long friends.  You see, my husband and I are a lot a like in numerous ways, but when it comes to the extrovert scale, he blows me out of the water.  M becomes energized from being around people, and he loves entertaining.

So, I decided there would be nothing better for M's birthday than to have his best friends from Nashville come down and surprise him for the weekend!  I had been telling M all week that on Friday night I wanted to host a nice dinner for his birthday and that Jonathan and Kristen, Benjamin and Morgan, and Geoff and Mollie were coming.  It gave me a good reason to keep him motivated to finish up a few house projects that I wanted to have done before we hosted 6 extra people for a night :)  Long story short, it was a CRAZY week.  I had a schedule listed out day by day of everything I needed to get done each day so I could have everything done in time.  This plan was quickly derailed by a few issues last week: painters didn't finish when they were supposed to, they left a stain on our brand new installed carpet, said carpet got flooded from water coming out of our fireplace, den had to be put back together from previous painters lateness, we lost water pressure in the kitchen, our air conditioning needed to be fixed, and we had a power surge and we lost a cable box and a TV.... My earlier prayer in the beginning of the week for patience was definitely being tested!  Long story short, I scurried around all day Friday making last minute preparations, cleaning, cooking, etc... and finished it all just about in time :)

Friday night around 7:45, Adam and Katie Beth, Steve and Jill, and Blake and Julie arrived and surprised (even though he was suspecting it) M for his birthday!  Geoff and Mollie were also here for dinner and we had a GREAT evening together celebrating Matthew.  It was seriously a blast.  I don't think I have laughed that much in a long time.  For dinner we had stuffed pork tenderloin, firecracker shrimp, rosemary rolls, gourmet mac n cheese, and a red grape salad with raspberry vinaigrette.  And M's favorite, carrot cake for dessert.  Fun night, great company, I'm so very thankful to our friends for coming down and making it happen.

Even though M might not have been entirely surprised by their visit, I at least had 1 trick up my sleeve.  I had secured a tee time at a Robert Trent Jones golf course the next morning for the guys... already paid in full (thanks to my parents and M's parents for chipping in for Matthew's present to make this happen). The girls spent the day going to brunch and a little light shopping, then followed by a late lunch with the boys, and our friends left to go back home.

It was a fantastic birthday weekend for my sweet husband.  Thank you to our awesome friends for taking time out of their busy schedules to travel to the Magic City!  Only downside to the weekend was that Aves came down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus when she got home.  We spent all day Sunday (M's actual birthday) caring for our sick baby.  We are still on the mend.  Fever this morning :(  

Anyway, Happy Birthday M!  I love you so very much!  Cannot believe this is the 7th birthday of yours we have celebrated together.  I hope that this one was the best one yet!

The only picture I took of the whole weekend was of Blake singing/screaming Happy Birthday to M :)  Whoops.  Can't believe I didn't even get a picture of the 2 of us.