We're All Getting Older, And The Parties Are More Fun

Adam's 25th birthday was upon us about a week ago, September 19th to be exact. We've adopted the O'Connell tradition of a "friends" party the weekend of your birthday followed by a family party on your actual birthday. Growing up, family dinner was always so special because for me it meant an abundance of cheesy spaghetti and plenty of double chocolate cheesecake, as the rule was you got your favorite food. We started our weekend off Friday night with dinner with our partners in crime-Cydney & Brandon. Recently, Adam and Brandon have joined a Men's Group that meets for 4 hours on Wednesday nights, and they had all planned to meet out Friday night at our local wine bar with their wives. So, after dinner---which was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G, and I have to slide in the detail that Adam told Cydney (who was trying to help by making reservations) "just pick something yummy", we headed out to meet everyone at Crush.

The first of Adam's birthday surprises was that his best friend Mitchell met us at Crush, having just driven all the way in from College Station for the celebration.

It was fun to get to meet most of the guys Adam spends so much time with, and their wives especially!

After hours of talking and laughing, we headed to Mitchell's to swim and hangout in the hot tub, a very lucky thing to have a friend with such fun things at his disposal! Saturday brought us out to Greenbelt lake where we camped, cooked HoBo pizzas, played games and Adam opened presents. His first, from Cydney & Brandon was a beautiful pipe that is so very much Adam, and fitting too since Adam gave Brandon his first pipe last year.

I swear they're both really 65, trapped in 25yr old's bodies! The best surprise of all, although I am quite biased, was getting to give Adam his violin he's wanted for 4 years. He was so excited, and a day later already had a song down!

Sunday, his actual birthday brought us family day, and Adam's choice was to watch Mythbusters re-runs and eat grilled cheese with tomato soup, a very, very easy request to fulfill. I love that our way to celebrate is to spend as much time with our friends as possible, and then to relax and cut away the world on our family day, even if it's just for some grilled cheese. Happy Birthday Adam! I love you very much, and can't wait to celebrate the next!