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11 Days, 2 Parties, 6 Cakes, and 600 Miles...

Phew!  The past two weeks have been pretty hectic and LP and I are just starting to recover! 

We started last weekend with a big bbq bash at our house.  We had about 30 people over (about half were under the age of 3- yikes!) and made a ton of food.  Grillmaster Paul smoked 3 racks of ribs, made pulled pork (which he started smoking at 7 a.m.!), grilled chicken wings, and made all of the various rubs and sauces to go with each.  DELICIOUS. 

Unfortunately, I only got one photo of the whole thing:

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A few days later it was Paul's birthday so his parents came over to celebrate over a big meal of Paul's favorite pasta dish.  It's a dish he ate while we were on our honeymoon- the restaurant chef was nice enough to send me the recipe so I could recreate the meal for our first anniversary and it has since become the go-to dish for Paul's birthday every year.  Yummy smoked gouda, pancetta, and artichokes tossed with pasta- delicious!

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He blew out 9 candles on his cake (I didn't have 30 more to add!) and then we all enjoyed the S'mores Cheesecake LP and I made...

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The next day LP and I hopped in the car and drove 6 hours (plus a good half hour pitstop to clean up after some carsickness) to Pennsylvania to help Mom/Nana host a dual wedding shower for my future sisters-in-law!

We picked up Aunt Cindi along the way and spent the next day baking, cooking, and baking some more!  Aunt Cindi had the task of decorating 5 mini wedding cakes!  Yikes!  We were storing the cakes in the next-door neighbor's extra fridge and it was so hot out (100 degrees!) that we had to drive each cake in the car with the air-conditioning blasting the 300 feet to the neighbor's house so that the frosting wouldn't melt.  Hot hot hot!

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The house all decorated:

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The table settings (Aunt Cindi did the cakes, Mom did all the tables, I did the menus)

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The first course (of a menu of duos since it was a double shower) was endive with goat cheese, candied pecans and dried cranberries (YUM) and caprese bites.

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We had some hired help to assist with serving the food (aka as my brother Nel, one of the grooms):

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And here are my two gorgeous future sisters-in-law!  We're so excited that they're joining our family!

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The party gets started!

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The other hired waiter (aka Dad) serving the gazpacho and salad course:

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Time for presents!

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And dessert! (chocolate pudding cups and lemon sorbet with prosecco)

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LP particularly enjoyed the chocolate pudding and was even more excited when we let him eat the top off one of the mini wedding cakes:

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Once the party was over we all hit the pool for some much needed relaxation.  Some of us might have relaxed more than others!

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LP practiced his kicking:

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And spent so much time in the pool that his toes were like shriveled little raisins by the time he was willing to get out.

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We all missed Uncle Spence (the other groom) who couldn't make it up from DC at the last minute due to work.  The weekend was great though.  The shower went very smoothly without any incidents, and LP behaved well the entire time.  We even made it home to MA without any more carsick incidents!

Now we're home recovering and looking forward to a VERY quiet weekend with no parties to host!  And in just 5 short weeks we'll be heading to wedding number 1!



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