We interrupt Birthday Week to bring you: Houseparties!

This weekend is the end-of-year blowout bash that is Princeton Houseparties: Friday night formals, Saturday night semiformals, and Sunday afternoon Lawnparties, hosted by the eating clubs. And to join in the festivities going on at the Street, PEF does its own "Real Houseparty" -- it used to be held in the Porrs' home, which was a real house, as opposed to the eating clubs, which are just mansion-type buildings converted into the meal and social centers for most of the upperclassmen...

You know, it's really hard to explain this whole set of traditions to non-Princetonians. Every time I've tried to explain "eating clubs" and "Houseparties" to the non-Princetonians in our small groups, for instance, I've just gotten blank stares...

So let's go through it in pictures! Here are just a few of the photos I took last night at PEF's Real Houseparty -- enjoy!


Beautiful decorations all around Murray-Dodge


Some of the amazing spread, homemade with love by PEF staff!


Aww, freshmen!


Senior girl roommates, plus Molly -- so cute!


This is actually a pretty perfect picture of this couple... :)


A group girls' photo!


Kenneth and Karen, both looking very sharp!


The freshmen ended up taking over the music station...


Dan (Dartmouth '07) teaching Ryan (Princeton '09) a Dartmouth dance


The beginnings of a massive conga line started by the frosh.


Line dancing. Check out injured-knee Anthony gamely joining in...


Aww, Jon and Katie...

More photos to be posted on Facebook and Smugmug sometime this weekend -- after we're done with David's big birthday bash!

Feeling the birthday love!

Yesterday was a wonderful 27th birthday -- thanks to everyone who made it so special!

David sent these beautiful tulips and irises to my office:

(Apologies for the photo quality; this was taken by my cell phone.)

And then when I got home for dinner, he surprised me with this absolutely scrumptious cake from Chez Alice, the bakery that did our wedding cake!

Chocolate cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate curls -- yum!

And I had so many Facebook birthday wishes -- I really was touched. It's striking to see how Facebook really can work to reconnect you to old friends. I was actually surprised at how many of my old friends from middle school, the ones I had added as Facebook friends just to see what they're up to these days (yup, that's me, Facebook stalker extraordinaire), actually took the time to send me a birthday message. Not to mention the outpouring of love from the community we currently live in... Seriously, guys, I love Facebook. And I love you!

I was also informed by not one, but two of my grad student friends that this year is my last n^n birthday until I turn 64. That's right -- I'm now 3^3 years old. How exciting! I love how nerdy our friends are. :)

And I was brought to tears more than once by the expressions of love in simple birthday cards from family. My kid brother Eric (who, incidentally, is graduating from college in less than two weeks!) sent me the absolute sweetest card from a brother you could ever get. And David's grandparents have included me in their tradition of sending a birthday greeting to each grandchild -- it's such a welcoming, enfolding gesture, and I appreciate it more than I can express!

So here's my long-winded way of thanking all of you for loving me -- not just on my birthday, but every day. I have been so richly blessed with family and friends, and yesterday was a beautiful reminder of that. Thank you all so much!

Birthday Week!

It's the end of April, which means we're coming up on the biggest celebratory period of the year here at Keddiebears central! :) My birthday is on the 28th, David's is on May 3rd, and then our three-year wedding anniversary is on May 13th. I like to think of it as Birthday Week, followed shortly thereafter by Anniversary Week... Good times!

This year is especially a big deal, because David is turning THIRTY on Sunday. So I'm throwing him a big birthday bash this weekend. And because he's turning thirty, and because he never really had a themed birthday party as a little kid, I've decided to go all out and throw him a Star Wars party!

I'm really excited about this party! I'm not going to reveal all the details here and now, because hey, a girl's got to have something with which to surprise and delight her guests... :) But I will say that I have super high ambitions for the birthday cake I'm planning on making. We'll see if I'm able to pull it off... It involves this:

And this:

And a few of these:

We'll see how it all turns out...

In the meantime, start thinking of brilliant and witty things to say to David on his birthday -- I know he'd appreciate the blog and Facebook comment love!