Surprise!

What a weekend y'all - what an absolutely surprising weekend! It was so nice to sleep in on Friday morning and my fiancé even brought me breakfast in bed... the birthday-related treats continued for days after my actual birthday! We had a really chill Friday morning and around lunchtime we went to look at a house - which was really cute but perhaps not in the best neighborhood... *shrugs*

After lunch I got a package in the mail and it was from my little sister - all the way over in Jolly ol' England! I opened it and she'd sent me a Body Shop Advent Calendar for my birthday, which absolutely cracks me up! I decided to do it as the Advent of Natalie and started opening them on Friday the 8th! So far I've gotten some Strawberry Hand Cream, English Rose Body Wash and a Grapefruit Bath Bubble! 

 

I met my friend Jen for some Starbucks coffee around 4 - I finally tried the Caramel Apple Macchiato and it was fine. It didn't just blow my mind... but the Fox Cake Pop was pretty tasty! After our coffee break, we scooted over to Party City to check out the costumes but we didn't have much luck finding a Wednesday Addams costume for Evie for Halloween. Looks like it will be a made at home costume - and those are usually the best, right?

 

The traffic was nuts on the way home and Ryan called me to tell me that I needed to let him know when I got to the neighborhood. I'd felt like he was being a bit sneaky for the last few weeks but I'd have never imagined what he had up his sleeve! When I arrived home, he met me outside and walked me into the house with my eyes closed... and when I opened my eyes - the house was filled with friends that all screamed "SURPRISE!" To say I was blown away would be an understatement.

There were so many wonderful people who had come to celebrate with me - it was just the most mind-blowing experience to have! There was food galore: burgers, hot dogs, macaroni & cheese, baked beans, quinoa, green beans, chips and of course - birthday cake! Ryan thanked everyone for putting the party together and I was almost in tears because I was overwhelmed in the best way possible. Our wonderful friend Doug snapped some pictures throughout the night and I have shared some of them here - what a gift Ryan is to me; I would have never imagined something like this. 

 

Saturday morning was another lazy morning - which is always nice; I haven't had a lot of lazy mornings in the last few months. We grabbed some coffees at Starbucks before heading to Old Town Winchester to the Walking Mall for Dogtoberfest - where we seriously had to avoid the charms of all the precious adoptable puppies! The teeny little black lab absolutely stole my heart, especially when he licked my nose! I did run into a former boss and we caught up and somehow we managed to leave without any new family members of the four legged variety! 

 

We also popped by Marker Miller Farm Orchard on the way home and perused the apple orchards and the farm market itself. I made Ryan snap some pictures amongst the apple orchards and around the landscape before we headed home to attempt to make a dent in some of the leftovers we had from the party. Y'all - there were so many leftovers! 

 

The final stop of the night was Middletown - they were doing a fireworks show to celebrate being a town for 225 years! It was completely free and so we took our chairs, our snacks and jackets and headed over to Middletown Park to watch the fireworks show! The show itself was pretty impressive - it lasted for almost 15 minutes and we enjoyed it so much - it was a neat way to spend a Saturday night!

 

Ryan got called in to work on Sunday, so I ended up staying at home for the day. I watched our church service online and managed to get the fridge cleaned out, did about eight loads of laundry, finished doing some tidying up around the house, took a nice bubble bath and was able to do my nails - all before 3:00! I ran to the store to grab some Keto-friendly groceries (y'all pray for me) and then grabbed Ryan from work before heading home.

The weather on Sunday was pretty gloomy and wet - so I chose to drive over to my Women's Bible Study, where we had a baked potato bar and some fellowship - it was a nice way to close out the weekend. Ryan and I watched some football - we've started making predictions for the games and we shall see who wins at the end of the season - and then we called it a night. It was such a great weekend and truly so very surprising!