a weekend of celebrations

Goodness it's already Monday!  My school year is winding down...only two actual classes left to attend, and then only a few exams and papers are standing between me and graduation!  What a scary, scary thought. Even scarier though was that this weekend I sent in my bar application.  Lots of forms, signatures, and personal information later, I am one step closer to actually being a lawyer.  EEK!

and it's off!

Anyway, we had a weekend FULL of birthday celebrations.  April seems to be the month to be born in the Bryan family with Josh celebrating April 5, my brother-in-law Cotton on April 12, and my nephew Jake on April 14.  So, as you can imagine, we have been eating LOTS of birthday cake.

We started off on Thursday with an amazing adult dinner with Cotton and May to celebrate the two birthday boys. (More to come on that later this week.)

delicious

Friday we had a quick, early dinner with kids to celebrate Cotton.  This was a big year for him and all those candles may or may not have contributed to the icing literally melting right off the cake... Just kidding Cotton...so glad we got to celebrate with you!

lots of candles...

The real highlight of the birthday circuit was the celebration for Jake on Sunday night.  When asked what he would like to do for his "family birthday" celebration, he asked to go to "one of those places where you can get food, then go back and get more if you want it."  In other words...a buffet.  So, my amazing sister-in-law planned a celebration at the best buffet she could find...

so excited...

Imagine my surprise when I walked in the door and found that May was my twin for the night!  Great minds think alike.  May, I am really just channeling you and getting as much "May" in my life as I can for the next few weeks.

can't tell from this, but our earrings are identical and our shoes are nearly identical!

I was even more surprised once I had officially experienced a Golden Corral buffet.  Y'all, the salad bar is really good and the yeast rolls are not to be missed.  To top it all off, they even have soft-serve ice-cream...a little bit of heaven in a bowl.  While I likely won't be driving back to Raleigh to visit GC anytime soon, I know the birthday boy thoroughly enjoyed it and would love to go back again!

chocolate mouth, ice cream with candy, cotton candy- what's not to love?!

Finally, although I am five states away, another amazing celebration happened this weekend in Gainesville, Florida.  My Gators broke the million dollar mark at Dance Marathon at UF.  I was able to watch the closing ceremonies from a streaming webcam and the moment that they announced the total took me right back to the O'Connell Center six years ago.  I am so proud of the dancers, captains volunteers, patients, Shands staff, and overall team- you all have done what we only imagined was possible just six short years ago.  Congrats on a record-breaking year and sleep well knowing that you all have impacted the lives of hundreds of pediatric patients.  For more information about Dance Marathon and Children's Miracle Network, check out this webpage.

amazing

xo,