the best weekend

{photo credit: dan}

here i am posting about last weekend when it's almost time for this weekend. i can't keep up! this past weekend hit the spot. like really and truly. it was just so wonderful. when you cram family, friends, birthday gifts, and bacon wrapped dates into the span of four days, only good things can happen.

{photo credit: me}

on thursday, my birthday evening, i invited my family over for dinner. i was inspired to host a dinner after reading bread and wine, and my birthday seemed as good a time as any. for pre-dinner snack i made bacon wrapped dates stuffed with goat cheese. THESE. these were everything. i think we could have dined on these alone all night and been happy. i served white chix chili for main meal and for dessert, vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries drizzled with dark chocolate balsamic vinegar. hey, tastebuds. you've never had it so good.

{photo credit: dan}

on friday evening, my two best college girlfriends, sarah and chelsea, came into town. sarah is married with two sweet kids, and it had been over two years since she had visited me in raleigh/durham. it was surreal that we were all three hanging out together in my apartment. i kept grabbing them both and pulling them in for group hugs. they tolerated it. we spent the majority of the evening eating food, drinking wine, and gabbing like schoolgirls. i also introduced them to the hilarity that is impractical jokers. we laughed until our bellies hurt.

{photo credit: me}

the rest of the weekend was filled with coffee and pastries at guglhupf, shopping, wine and snacks by the pool, nana taco for birthday party dinner, fullsteam brewery with great friends for celebratory birthday beers, and beasley's chicken and honey for sunday morning brunch. after my besties left, i went for a run to fend off the inevitable wave of sadness that was to soon wash over me. and also to burn off the thousands upon thousands of calories we consumed over the course of three days.

{photo credit: me}

basically, all i want to do is rewind time and go back to last friday so we can do it all over again. thank you to everyone who made my birthday weekend so special! (you guys are definitely on the list.)