Birthday Bash!!

This almost concludes the vacation fun... thanks for hanging in there with me while I told you about my trip!!

After Lynnette and I went on our Blue Ridge Parkway drive, we spent the afternoon shopping in Biltmore Village and then...time for the birthday fun!!

I had this in the weekly recap a couple of weeks ago as my Pinterest inspiration, but here's more elaboration. I'd seen this idea to wrap up a bunch of gifts and have the recipient open one every hour. That was my plan, but since we were out and about all day, that was harder to do than I anticipated, so instead, I had her open them all at one time. Each gift was marked with a number so she could open them in a specific order.

As she unwrapped...she found everything she needed for a luau party!

Ta daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!! Balloons, candles, decorations, outfits, and party supplies!!

We waited to have the actual party, because....look what we went to see!

She found (in her handy dandy research) that the Montford Park Players were doing a play in an outdoor amphitheater in Asheville! Shakespeare, no less. She loves Shakespeare, so she asked if that would be okay for us to do, and I said sure! (I always need some culture in my life.)

The amphitheater was REALLY cool. It was built into the side of a hill like this:

We could bring lawn chairs or blankets or whatever...and picnics, even!!! We brought a blanket and a picnic, which was SUPER exciting to me because you know...picnics were on my summer livin' list! CHECK!!!!

The people in front of us were hard core. They brought a table and everything!!  Here is Lynnette with the stage behind her.

Our picnic!! We just went to a grocery store and got little sammiches and took chips and no-bake cookies we brought with us from home. :)

The play??? Well it was none other than the story of my life: Much Ado About Nothing!

The play lasted about 3 hours and was REALLY well done. The actors were funny and engaging. (They even mingled in the audience some.) Here was the final bow....

Our fuzzy self-photogrpahy during intermission. (No flash allowed, so we couldn't do better.)

By the time we got back to our hotel, it was almost 11:00. We still had to pack so we could leave early Sunday morning. But no time for that....we had a party to attend!! I'd brought sparkling grape juice (which had been attempting to chill in the ice bucket) and I went out to buy iced brownies for our snack. We donned our matching flip flops and leis and grass skirts and decorated the room...minus lighting the candles because I LOST THE MATCHES I BROUGHT FROM 500 MILES AWAY - which we found about 10 minutes AFTER the party. Good grief.

She said it was an amazing birthday...and I'm so glad! I had so much fun with her and hope we can road trip again! FUN!!!!!!!