Lotsa Birthdays!

We're gonna come together, we're gonna celebrate, we're gonna have some fun like its your birthday!

This spring has been FULL of birthday parties! 

Starting in late February when I went to this flippin huge city....

 to surprise this sassy-pants for her birthday...

I loved hanging out with these beautiful ladies....

eating this incredible food.....

and celebrating with this delicious gluten free cake! 

I just love her. 

We made it into a whole birthday weekend together with 2 of my fave girls. 

 and of corse, with some Starbucks. 

FunFunFun. 

Then, a few weeks later we celebrated my sweet friend Hannah's 24th. 

Around here, we get a little bit creative with the birthdays since there isn't much to choose from. Hannah loveloveloves Elephants. So we went out on a crazy limb and had a jungle-themed party for her. 

There were 2 tourists, a lion, an elephant, a cheetah, a panther, 2 zebras, a dinosaur, and a potty-training 2 year old with no pants. 

Per usual, mexican dinner and a giant flaming candle cake.

And some ridic. pictures. 

Mad props to LeeAnn for the sweet decorations. 

And then like a week later.... Ryan also turned 24! 

Yessss. 

We all wore our fluffy PJs again. And then went and played Sardines in the dark scary park. 

The things we do for the people we love. 

Yay for fluffy pjs. 

THEN a few weeks later, our friend Joseph turned 25! 

and we had BBQ! Which was amazing. 

I was a slacker on pictures that night. 

But I did get this one- LeeAnn makes everyone these FUN birthday signs that are super cute. 

And finally, last weekend we celebrated Janessa's 26th! 

More crazy flaming, singing candles. 

And fun gifts

AND Hannah made her Scattergories! I will most definitely share soon. It's pretty sweet. 

This picture is starting to look familiar....

Grady looking a little like mommy. too cute! 

After dessert, we went to the park to dance! 

Its so much fun. Definitely one of my favorite things about the culture here that I will post on soon. Love it.  

We clearly had a great time. 

Then, on our way out of the park everyone decided they wanted to ride the swings. 

We know that this nauseous girl was not taking part. 

But it did give me a fun chance to practice taking pictures. 

They were definitely feeling a little woozy. 

Then we ended the night at our new favorite coffee shop- the snail. 

It just opened about a month ago, and is by far my new favorite. so good! 

We played some Scattergories and then called it a night. 

I looooooove birthdays. 

祝你生日快乐!

{Happy Birthday!}

Joyfully celebrated,

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {Nov.12}

Ok 3rd times a charm right? Here are my favorite things from our trip 3 weeks ago.

Like I said, we went to another city- a much bigger, much nicer city- to see some friends.... which was so wonderful. This city is so ridiculously large....

This is looking out over just one little part of the city.... it keeps going on and on and on for miles with large skyscrapers and 34 million people. large.  

Our city has almost NOTHING as far as western restaurants or stores go- only Papa Johns, Pizza Hut, KFC, DQ and WalMart.... not complaining- so grateful for those. BUT there are a lot of REALLY big cities in this large country with nice western amenities... which I had the joy of enjoying with fun friends.....

So a few of my favorite things this week are.....

Fave #1 AND #2 ...... Starbucks AND these WONDERFUL friends!

I love these ladies and so love any time that I get to spend with them....

Anna B, Kristy, andAnna Mo have become some of my favorite ladies ever. Never a dull moment. 

I also love carmel mochas and banana bread......

so yum. just like home. seriously. 

This is Anna Mo..... 

She's definitely one of my faves :) 

Fave #3......SEPHORA!

I love Sephora in America, so I was pretty pumped to find it in this city. Even the people who live there were really surprised when they recently got it. The downside was that the prices were SO high- some things were reasonable- mostly the things that were specifically made for Sephora; but for instance- Clinique foundation.... around $50! no thanks I'll have someone mail it to me from home. But I did buy a small bottle of nail polish and a small compact of eye shadow.......

......And just enjoyed being in the store.

So finally- those are my faves in that fun city. 

I'm coming out of my blog slump and have fun things to share.... and our internet has magically gotten significantly better in the last 3 days. ptbg.

Joyfully enjoying the "finer" things, 

A Few of my Favorite Things Friday {Nov.5}

It's Saturday morning and I'm laying in my bed where I've been for the last hour and a half... am I sick, nope.... I'm home alone with nothing else to do! {clearly, our internet is back up and running} Adam left me here by myself at 6 this morning to go to another city for a few days. So there is no one here to judge me for laying in (my warm) bed with the computer for a few hours after I wake up {I'm sure my sweet husband doesn't judge me since he just moves to the couch with the computer to watch TV on the sling box on Saturday mornings} I love morning like this. Nothing to do for a while, no one to see so no need to make myself look somewhat presentable. ahhhh.

It is Saturday morning, but there are 3 more hours of Friday left in America, so we'll pretend that it's still Friday. I said I'd share my fun things from the our trip to another city a few weekends ago- well when I went to go get the camera from the office to attempt to upload pictures again, I realized Adam took it with him. bummer. next week. for sure.

So today will just be one of my favorite things....

Local Coffee Shops...

There are a few really fun coffee shops around here, and while they aren't as "upscale" as most in the states (you might be sitting behind a table full of people smoking, and sometimes they smell funny)- they are still a nice treat, and fun place to go with friends.

I don't have a picture of my favorite place that is right around the corner from my apartment {and I have no desire to go take one} but they have the best mochas. I might venture to say better than starbucks- I find myself tempted to order another one when I've finished the first. The price is actually about the same as a coffee at starbucks, but for here it's really expensive so I've yet to buy more than one at a time.

This cute place just opened a month or so ago, so it still seems "clean" {nice and "clean" don't exactly go hand-in- hand here}. My friend Janessa LOVES their mochas and insisted we go with her one night to try one. It was okay....

It looks like a glorified hot-chocolate milkshake- and kind of tastes like one too. Nevertheless, its a fun place to go with friends.

I took this picture before writing my last post on Monday (with my old camera that is not with Adam in another city) . This coffee shop on campus can be like a "haven" compared to the world outside. It's funny- you have to walk through the crazy loud {not at all like an American} cafeteria, to go upstairs to walk through a really loud smokey cafeteria/restaurant and then you open the door to this place and it's like another world. Quiet, clean, good American music, full of ikea furniture and decor, free wireless, never crowded, a few western foods on their menu, so nice.

This is their latte -it's pretty before you stir things into it- but not so wonderful tasting- but its most definitely worth it for the atmosphere in contrast to everyday life here.

Thats all for today. Sorry... a little lame I know. I'm off to the city with the girls! Need a few things at Wal-Mart (wish me luck!) and back to the fabric market again to get fabric to recover a wonderful old chair Hannah found, and to find as many crafty supplies I can to being working on Christmas decorations! Don't judge...... I need a head start here.....

Joyfully caffeinated,