Girls Night In

My friends and I started a new tradition last year; we now celebrate each other's birthday's at one of our homes. After all the time and effort we put into our combined 11 children's birthdays, we figured we needed some celebrating of our own! It works out well, we all bring an appetizer (or buy one at Trader Joe's) and one of us makes desert ( or buys it at Trader Joe's). There is lots of conversation, and none of it is interrupted by a child needing something, anything. That alone is worth gold! Rebekah was the latest to have a birthday, it was her big 30. We all gave her a hard time, as she is youngest of our group. Yours truely is the oldest at 41, the rest are all somewhere in between. We went to Paula's new home to celebrate, and had a great time.

Kathleen, Holly and Rebekah sample the cocktails. I had my first cosmopolitan at the party, but I pretty quickly switched back to red wine....it was delicious, but went down way too easily.

Kathleen "helping" Paula made the drinks. Using that shaker really made Paula look like a pro!

I took this picture of the pantry because I am so jealous of it!! Yes, I covet her walk in pantry. And it is organized to boot.

The birthday girl. Did you know that when you put candles into Lava Cakes, they melt?

I tried to find the link on the Trader Joe site to the Lava Cake to adequately describe it, but no luck. Suffice it to say, it is very rich, very chocolate-y, and probably 15 pts each!