happy birthday, reed!

last night we surprised our friend reed for his 30th birthday! reed is truly one of the most genuinely nice people i know. we have been friends for a long time and he was actually a big part of tony and i getting together. reed always comes around when we have family get togethers, he was a groomsman in our wedding and my cousins wedding (he actually married them too!). i feel so lucky to have him as a friend. so when his girlfriend, melissa, told me about his surprise birthday party, i couldn't wait to drive up and celebrate!

i think that we really got him!

reed and i have a ton of friends in common, so it was awesome to catch up with them.  living in NC makes it hard to see everyone.  and since reed is such a good family friend as well, the party was at my aunts house so i got to spend some time with family too. double win!

getting my grandpa (or pops, as we call him) to take a picture is not easy!

that is the best i could do. my cousin, kyle and his little guy. also stopped by.

my other cousin tyler and our friend jonny "boston" came by. tyler, kyle and boston are all fire fighters here in VA. kyle was in the airforce and boston was in the marines as well. they say you're welcome :).

and of course the guest of honor and i had to snap a picture.

these two ladies are my cousins' wifeys. yvi is tylers wife (on the left) and ruth is kyles wife (on the right).

i love them both a ton! xo. yvi and tyler are the ones that i talked about here.
i also got to see my friend brianne who is about to have her little peanut any day!

reed's girlfriend made the cutest cake (she is awesome at this stuff. i think she needs to open a bakery!).

i had a great time chatting with everyone and celebrating one of the best people i know! happy birthday, reed! thanks for being a great friend. and as you would say, "nothin' but love for ya!"

now for the food part of the ol blog. i made a couple desserts and an app to bring. for the desserts i made rice krispy treats with sprinkles.

i also made cake balls that were very popular. i got the idea for this flavor combo from here. they were a little harder to make than i thought. but i am not a great baker! dessert just isn't my thing :). to make them i took a boxed strawberry cake and baked it according to the directions on the box (that part was easy).
i then let it cool and put it in a mixer (my mom has an electric one) with one can of cream cheese frosting.



once it was all mixed together i stuck it in the fridge over night. the next day i made the balls and stuck them in the freezer for a couple of hours.

 right before i took them out of the freezer i melted white and dark chocolate in the microwave, then started dippin' (that was the hard part). the dipping didn't work out for me so i ended up keeping the ball on the spoon and using a spatula to smear the chocolate on. since it was a two handed operation i couldn't snap a pic of it. however, i did get some of the sprinkles. i LOVE sprinkles. i wish i could put them on everything. cookies, ice cream, cake, mac and cheese... 

i digress, back to the balls

with some help from my mom they ended up looking pretty good.

 i also made caprese 'sliders'. i kind of just made this one up. i took a baguette, had it sliced thin

 stuck it under the broiler for about 2 minutes to toast them up

topped each piece with sliced tomatoes, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, dried basil and then finally mozzarella.

i put it under the broiler again to melt the cheese.

they were quite delicious. i will make them again!

it was a great night and a great weekend. i'll be back tomorrow with a post on the rest of the weekend! i'm tired from my drive and ready to veg out on the couch!

nighty night bloggy friends! xo