Best. Weekend. Ever.

There are no words to describe how much fun I had this weekend so I’m just gonna jump right in.
(PS-I apologize in advance for my tiny pictures. I used Windows LiveWriter for the first time.)

Every fall, our friend’s Kenny and Jennifer throw a Halloween party and this year definitely didn’t disappoint! It seems to get better and better each year. The costumes were great and the kids were all adorable. 

Lilly was a fairy but I’m not sure where her wings got to.

A pirate with my niece Abby, a “skeleton sweetie”

Natalie as a diner waitress.
Look at that pose, such sass!

This little cutie won best child’s costume.
He’s a heartbreaker for sure!

 

We had a pretty good spread of food too! 

Question, have you heard of black vodka? My sister in law made a Black Widow Martini with black vodka (smelled like nail polish remover) Chambord and grape juice. I had never heard of black vodka before Friday.

The kids weren’t the only ones dressed to kill, Kev and I came to win but the competition was strong! We will have to put on our thinking caps next year.

Batman and one of our hosts, Jennifer, as Batwoman.

A pimp and his two…um…lady friends.
Your eyes do not deceive you. They are all men.

One of the winners, Little Red Riding Hood and his wolf.
Yeah, another dude wearing a skirt. 

My sister in law, Chasity, went as a cherry pie.
Her husband, Gary, was the competitive eater.

Another winner was Dog the Bounty Hunter and his wife.


And finally, Kevin and I…

     

The cop and the inmate.

Our idea came together last minute but you better believe we will step it up next year.

Saturday morning, my sister and my friends kidnapped me. Turns out, my surprise weekend destination was the Shops at Short Pump in Richmond! I was very excited. I have wanted to go back since Kevin took me there several months ago.

We arrived around lunchtime and decided to slip into the Cheesecake Factory for a bite…a first for me. I don’t know how I’ve never been inside this restaurant because it was amazing.

My sister, Heather, our friend Kristin
and my former roommate, Lindsey 

Myself in between my other former roommates,
Michelle and Angela.

I got  the Caesar salad, turkey sandwich and artichoke soup.
It was so good but I wasn’t warned about portion size! Holy moly!

Of course, the coveted cheesecake. I wanted to get the Snckers but got outvoted.
Chocolate and pumpkin it was.

After lunch, we proceeded to attack the stores.

   

It’s safe to say Michelle did the most damage!

Once we officially shopped til we dropped, we headed back to the hotel to get pretty for dinner.

We had reservations at Maggiano’s, which was UGH MAYZING.
I say UGH because we all ate way too much.

The food is served family style so we got two different salads, two appetizers, four different entrees, and two desserts to top it all off. I give this place ten million starts because the wait staff was superb and the food was some of the best Italian I’ve had. We chose spinach dip (pictured above) and bruschetta (not pictured) as our apps. After we worked through those, we weren’t quite sure how we’d eat our meals but we picked out the gnocchi with tomato sauce, linguine alfredo, chicken marsala and four cheese ravioli. They are pretty standard so we knew everyone would like what we got and let me tell you, that was some of the best pasta I’ve ever had. The gnocchi was perfectly cook. The linguine was al dente. Man oh man, did we eat our faces off.

For dessert, our two favorites were the apple-turnover-thingy (what? I can't remember what it was called besides delicious...) and creme brulee which was out of this world.

My ass probably grew three sizes this weekend but it was all so worth it.

My girls always know how to have a good time and we such a blast. It seems like we laugh at everything and nothing all at the same time. This weekend was spent quoting The Jersey Shore, making jokes about the horrible concierge, and being hit on my creepsters. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate y birthday!

Now, not that I’m greedy, but I’m excited to see what Kevin has planned for my real birth DAY which is Monday the 25th. (Both my grandmother and father wished me happy birthday on Saturday... hmm, me thinks they are confused.) 

Hope you all had a great weekend! Cross your fingers hubs cooks me my birthday dinner!