Sarah's Birthday Party

My lovely oldest sister just turned...well, it was her birthday on Sunday. In honor of this momentous event, Chris and I planned a surprise party for her! I had SO much fun planning it. I hope Chris has as much fun paying for it. :D

We kept it pretty simple - a few great couples from the ward and me. Paul had to work, but was awesome and a half and helped me set up/kept Sam out of my way while I baked. For two days. I saw this layout on a blog that I frequent and thought it would be perfect for Sarah. She loves fall and fall colors.

I was disappointed in my banner, only because I wanted to put string in between each section but ran out of time. Instead we had to tape it all together and it ended up looking a little funky. It was super cute in my head, though! :) Sorry you can't see it very well with the light behind it.


Here's the full effect of the spread
We had different kinds of milk in wine carafes

The best brownies EVER (seriously - you should ask me for the recipe sometime) and snickerdoodles

then the cascade of minis. Mini candy apples (side note: I was so bummed about these. They were supposed to be mini caramel apples and I had all sorts of candies on them. I dipped them all, went to bed, and woke up to a plate of bite-sized apples in a puddle of caramel and candies. LAME. I plan on writing a letter to Kraft), mini apple pies, mini cherry cheesecakes and mini pumpkin pies.

Then the tower-o-bread - pumpkin, blueberry, and banana nut on top.

Funny story about that banana bread: I was going to make this gorgeous cake for the party

But for the first time in my life I BURNED a cake made from a box. I know - how does that even happen?? But it did. And I didn't have time (or eggs) to make another one. Sarah HATES the word loaf, so I thought it was only appropriate that we give her a happy birthday loaf. I'm nice like that.


We all ate, mingled, and discussed important current events (read: New Moon) for a while, then rounded off the night with several games of Mafia. They kept killing me off - apparently I look dangerous. :) I'll spare you the pictures of this part, because they inevitably contain those stuffing-my-mouth moments of each of us, and some of these people actually read my blog sometimes. You're welcome. :)

Sarah is one of my favorite people alive, and I'm so extremely grateful that I get to live so close to her. She has really become my best friend in the past year and a half. She does so much for me, my family, and my sense of optimism and humor. She is so genuinely kind to the people around her, and I'm glad we could do a little something nice for her for once. It's funny how we take people like her for granted sometimes and assume that they're just strong enough and happy enough not to need other people doing stuff for them sometimes. In her honor, try to do something nice for someone who's always taking care of other people today. Oh, and laugh at someone who falls down/embarrasses themselves in some crazy way. :)

Love you, Ses!

love, mary