26 on the 26th - my golden birthday!

This past week I celebrated my golden birthday, and I think it was the best one yet. This was my first birthday as a married woman, but I still enjoyed celebrating like a kid! :) Lots of cake, lots of bday dinners, and lots of fun. Last weekend, Craig took me to dinner at Craft, Tom Colicchio's new restaurant in Atlanta. I love watching Top Chef on Bravo, and Tom is the head judge on the show, so it was pretty cool to eat at his restaurant. The food was delicious, and I even got 2 happy birthday desserts! yum. Craig also gave me a dozen assorted cupcakes from my favorite place, Atlanta Cupcake Factory. They were so pretty, I almost didn't want to eat them. Red velvet, carrot cake, grasshopper, sugar cookie....

On Wednesday, my birthday was full of sweet cards and presents (including a new quesadilla maker), cheesecake, a giant cupcake, sticky bubbles, lunch at Piccadilly with my coworkers (awesome!), and then another great dinner. We went to FLIP, Richard Blaize's burger boutique, which is one of my new favorite places. Richard Blaize was the runner-up on Top Chef recently... I can see a theme in my birthday dinners this year. :) Favorite part of the meal... nutella milkshakes with burnt marshmallows on top!

It's such a wonderful feeling to be surrounded by so many of the people I love on my birthday. Thank you to my fabulous husband, family and friends for making this such a special week (or two) for me! You are all the best.


my delicious and oh-so-pretty cupcakes!


cupcake photo shoot!


dinner at Craft


free dessert!


prom photos!
Courtney, Melissa, me and Lauren


Craig and me at Whiskey Blue in Buckhead


family photo at the W


all the girls out for a fun night of celebrating


my funny pop-out card from my coworkers

water park birthday party!

I celebrated my 13th birthday party at Blizzard Beach in Orlando, FL (my most favorite water park). Last weekend, 20 of my favorite friends and I celebrated my 26th birthday (along with our friends Danielle and Big Mac's birthdays) at Lake Lanier Islands, which is a water park about an hour outside of Atlanta. It was by far the most fun birthday party I've had since my first water park party 13 years ago!! :)

We arrived at 10am when it opened and stayed until 5pm. We rode every slide multiple times, raced on slides, flew down the funnel, and played in the water fun house like a bunch of 10-year-olds. It was awesome. I cherish our group of friends so much and am so happy I got to spend the day with so many of them just having the best time acting like kids again. Birthdays are meant for celebrating life and how great it is -- and I am certainly celebrating just that! Here are some pictures from our fun day...


most of our water park group - 21 in all!


the birthday kids - me, big mac (adam) and danielle


my two favorite guys (craig's mustache is fake, by the way)


taking a break in the wave pool for a bit


love our boys


casey and drew were slide partners all day. i think this looks like a 1985 advertisement for the water park


andrew had a good slide technique


everyone is prepared for the fun dunker!


group dunking!


SPLASH!

Old is New Again

While we were in Nashville last weekend, we went to Craig's grandparents' house to pick up a piece of furniture to take back to Atlanta with us. It's a beautiful armoire that belonged to his great-great grandparents. We didn't have much room for it, but we found a good home for it in our office. It's so pretty! It will also give us a good bit more storage space, which is always needed in a 1950's house.

Here are a few pictures! It even came with the original, very ornate keys to lock the doors and drawers.






I love the detail at the top

Weddings, weddings everywhere!

I love weddings. I love everything leading up to the big event... planning is one of my strong points and I am just a tad of a perfectionist. On top of the idea of a fun, meaningful, special wedding day, it's the invitations, favors, food, music, flowers, decorations, and so many other little details that help make that day so unique to the couple who is joining their lives together in marriage. Many times, I think I have missed my calling. :) Maybe I'll look into wedding planning as a side business...

The past two weekends for us have been wedding-filled and have taken us to Dawsonville, GA and Nashville, TN. They've been our first weddings as newlyweds, and I now have a much higher appreciation for the many months of work and planning that go into them!

On August 1, we attended a wedding of one of Craig's coworkers at the Peach Brandy Cottage in Dawsonville. Zack and Christy had a really pretty outdoor wedding and Christy had so many fun details incorporated into their day. Everything was pink, navy and white - and from the personalized water bottles and fan programs given to guests as we arrived (it was REALLY hot!) to the twisted pink lemonade drinks that coordinated with the color theme, it was all tied together beautifully. And the wedding cake was as tasty as it was gorgeous! :)


Utilizing the fun fan programs in the hot hot heat


yum yum yum - I wanted to take the whole cake home!


The first dance!


The beautiful bride and me!


My two dates


We traveled to Nashville last weekend for Craig's cousin Torrie's wedding, which was held on the afternoon of August 8 at Charlotte Road Baptist Church. It was such a sweet, lovely ceremony. This was one of those weddings where the little attendants totally stole the show. Her nephew Jonah was pulled in in a wagon and as soon as the youngest flower girl reached her spot on the steps, she proceeded to roll all over them the entire ceremony! Gotta love kids in weddings! The food at the reception, which was homemade by Craig's grandmother and aunts, was really yummy. And the groom's cake was fun - a small replica of the Memphis football stadium, a team which both Chris and Torrie are huge fans of. Torrie and Chris were surrounded by tons of family and friends and it was a really nice afternoon.
Can't wait till the next one in October! Yay for weddings!


Torrie and Chris before the exchange of rings


Craig's mom made Cassie's dress for our wedding and i finally had an excuse to wear the bridesmaids dress from my wedding!


We had to get a picture with the bride and groom!


The groom's cake


Chris (Craig's 16-yr-old brother, me, Craig, and Cassie (his 9-yr-old sister) after the wedding

Destination: Des Moines, Iowa

We got some kind of big news last week regarding Craig's job! He was asked to participate in a three-month program that only 6-8 Chartis Insurance employees from around the country will be working on. It's a great honor that he was chosen and we both know it can only lead to good things for him career-wise. The only problem is that this program will take place in Des Moines, Iowa!

We don't have many details yet, but he will be leaving some time this September or October and will be working up there 5 days a week. We're really not sure what he's going to be doing yet, either, so we'll keep y'all posted as we learn more! :) He is supposed to get to fly home every weekend (so his poor new wife doesn't have to be all alone for three WHOLE months!!!). We don't know much about the city that Craig will be living in come this fall, but I'm sure it will be a good experience for him.

Because Iowa is a pretty unknown land to us, I decided to check it out online and see what that little pillow-shaped state has to offer Craig. I found out that Des Moines has been dubbed the 3rd largest insurance capital of the world, after London, England and Hartford, Connecticut, so maybe that's one reason it was chosen as the destination for their particular program. I also found out that the original name of Des Moines was Fort Raccoon, and was later changed to Fort Des Moines, then shortened to the current ‘Des Moines.’ (I think Craig would be much more excited about living in a place named Fort Raccoon!)

If any of you have been to Des Moines and have any fun tips or pointers for him, please let me know! He'll be working most of the time he's there, but I want to help him find some fun things to do and yummy places to eat so he doesn't miss me and our home in Atlanta too much while he's gone.