Betcha Wish You Were Dude's Friend...

Good Morning, friends.  My buddy, Dude, has written a delightful post for you today. Enjoy.

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My Connecticut posse takes birthdays pretty seriously. But over the past 25 years we've cut back from:

A.) going out for a bday dinner and giving  gifts, 
B.) to home bday dinners with gifts,
C.) to home dinners without gifts,
D.) to home  birthday dinners with a card only, 
E.)to our current tradition of drinks and appetizers with a  bday card .....

Too  many birthdays come too quickly so we had to cut back somewhere.....BUT, we still celebrate the "big ones" in style, so the most recent occasion was a triple threat /3 birthdays at once.

What  to do for those who've done it all?!?

Well, Lib, Jo and moi, aka the "party planners extraordinaire" got our wheels in motion and came up with an idea ...

The evening of the birthday surprise started by blindfolding our celebrants so they would have no idea where we were going, it was important to keep them guessing. (And that we did) ....

The car ride looked  like a scene out of Homeland.

We headed out to our first venue, a paint studio (similar idea to the NYC paint night). The rest of the group was at the studio dressed as "French artistes" in colorful berets and mustache...Surprise!!!

The birthday trio....Patty, MJ and  Bethe.

We proceeded to paint while listening to the French tunes of Edith Piaf.

Mon Francais amies!!

Taking a break while the paint dries.

Voila! Our  masterpieces!!

Painting, done...now off to dinner at Lib's barn (again, our guests are blindfolded  for the car ride). 

We transformed the barn from this...

To this!

Christmas tree lights were wrapped around the whole space.

The feast!

Babs, our go to "baker extraordinaire"... Forget The Barefoot Contessa, we have Babs!!

We closed the evening with some karaoke!! 

A lot of talent in this group!?!

So ends a day of celebration for our 3 special buddies! Every time they look at their paintings hanging in their room  of choice, they'll remember their special celebration!

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Thanks Dude, for another fun-filled post.  Never realized how lucky I am to have you as my buddy.  Counting the minutes 'til April 26th.  Don't worry - I come equipped with my own blindfold and paintbrush.

 

Hope this Monday feels like a Friday!