Brad's birthday/neighborhood cookout/family party... basically, people came over, gave Brad a hug, and ate.

(This was supposed to publish on Wednesday... not sure what happened?)

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Brad isn't really one for parties. He enjoys them, sure. But to throw himself a party? Eh. He'd rather order a pizza and just hang out with Noah and me. However, since this was one of those milestone birthdays, I decided we ought to do something. Being that it was the week of July 4th, we decided to have a little family/neighborhood cookout. Brad was in charge of who he wanted to invite, so it was mostly my family (since his had been there the night before), some of the neighbors, a couple of his coworkers, and a few friends. Our neighbor owns a BBQ catering business and offered to cook the meat for us. It was amazing (if you're local and in need of somebody, check out madaboutque.com). Brad and my dad went in together and did a seafood boil. It was ridiculously good.

Thankfully the rain held off (finally), and we were able to just relax, eat, play, and have a good time.

 

In case you weren't aware, the proper way to do a seafood boil is to just throw it out on a paper covered table and let people fill up their plates there. Traditionally, I think you're supposed to use newspaper, but the thought of eating ink grossed me out. So I went with paper bags instead.

My mom is a super OCD-clean-freak. I was waiting for her to have a panic attack, but she did really well. :)

The whole thing ended up being a huge hit. Brad went back to work with his coworkers begging him to throw another one soon.

After it was over, he thanked me for forcing him to do something fun for his birthday. He's such a special guy and totally deserved to have a night to just relax and have a good time with family and friends.