a baby shower, a favorite things party, pizza with friends

happy monday! guess i will just jump right into my recap because i have lots to share...friday night thatcher and i had a $1 at-home date. we picked up thai from a place in linden hills using a gift card from christmas and then grabbed a redbox to watch after azalea went to sleep. it was a nice, relaxing night! my favorite kind of friday. 

saturday morning i attended a baby shower for my friend mollie who is having triplet boys in a few months! it was so fun to celebrate her and her babies and to catch up with some of my girlfriends from high school. yummy food, lots of laughs, and adorable gifts! i cannot wait to meet these little guys, they are so loved already! sorry for the crappy picture quality, I didn't bring my real camera. 

mama to be opening her gifts

me, mollie, emily, and marina (who is due with #2 in april)

when i came home, i whipped up my dish for the my mn blogger "favorite things" party later in the afternoon. i decided to make cookie dough dip. i've seen it on pinterest and blogs a million times and have always wanted to make it, so i thought this was the perfect opportunity! there are no eggs in it, and trust me when i say it is delicious! 

i served it with graham crackers, but you can use other things instead

the "favorite things" party was held in a rented room at powderhorn park. you're not alone if you don't know what a "favorite things" party is. i sure didn't until i got the invite. the idea is that each person invited thinks of one of their favorite things (preferably under $5) and brings 3 of that item to the party to contribute. i brought 3 caribou gift cards. there were about 15 girls at the party, so we had around 45 different items for the game.

everything from cosmetics, to gift cards, to chocolates, to t-shirts

 everyone shows what they brought to the group and then all of the girls' names go into a basket. the basket is passed around the room and when your name is picked, you can go up to the table and grab one of whatever you want! everyone goes up 3 separate times  and gets 3 fun things to take home in the end. it was so much fun to play while chatting away and stuffing our faces with delicious food :) a couple new blogger girls came too, which is always fun. 

 carolyn and bridget...the two mamas-to-be in the group! 

 me, jess, and brittany 

the whole group! this picture looks pretty good for all of the chaos that lead up to it. haha! 

after the official get together, about half of us decided to go to uptown to grab some drinks. we went to the republic (which was surprisingly quiet for the night before st. patty's day). we hung out for a few hours and a bunch of the girls' significant others showed up. it was fun to see them in the flesh ;) as always, i had a blast hanging out with these girls again. every time we get together, i feel like i am seeing old friends - yet we're always learning more about each other. there's also something fun about hanging out with people outside your normal circle. there was no shortage of things to talk about or laughs! thanks girls for a fun night! 

can't wait to see them again!

sunday morning i took azalea to lambs group at church. it was a huge group, which was awesome! i decided i didn't want to wrangle her for an hour during the service, so we headed home after lambs. while she napped in the afternoon, i headed out to buy her birthday gifts (eek, can't believe it's so soon!). in the evening, our friends sara and wes came over for dinner. we hadn't seen them in months, so it was fun to catch up over pizza. azalea was also pretty entertaining - haha! such a fun, busy weekend, but flew by way too fast!