In The Twenty-Sixth Year Of My Life..

...I had a birthday party. With lotsa friends, lotsa food, some mafia, and a dash of a spontaneous girl-only dance party. The menu included (all homemade...) cream puffs, cinnamon fudge, iced sugar cookies, white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies (a personal fav...), best ever cheesecake (quickly becoming a staple of mine, thanks to my friend Rachel's recipe...), a seven layer chocolate torte, cold mocha java punch, sweet pumpkin dip with gingersnaps, and white chocolate popcorn with cashews, peanuts, and cranberries. Ruth and Adam Young, along with their three, crazy cute kidlets, generously opened up their home for 8+ hours of good times. Here are the photos to prove it...


So, I wasn't hungry by the time 7PM rolled around...too much sampling...but that's one of the best parts of cooking!


Ruth made the sugar cookies. They tasted even better than they looked!

Anna came over before hand to hang and help make food. And then Mark came over to help make sure all the food was fine for everyone else to eat. ;)


And then Laura showed up...it was a Shelby Park bash even before nightfall...


So, Ruth and I made WAY too much food...


...but all that meant was more leftovers for us!






















Ah! Abbey and Danielle are missing from this shot! Where were you girls?


Mark was Mafia moderator..."...spelled Chris with a K...c-h-r-i-s-k..." Hilarious.








Attempting to do the man's part in swing...wasn't working so hot. Now, Jai Ho dancing was a different story. We decided not to document those moves...no matter how crazy good they were... ;)


And of course, the eve was not complete until I spilled something. All over myself in fact. :)