Never Ending Birthday Celebrations!

I'm so blessed to have the friends that I do, but why are all of them born in a two month span? I can't get away from birthdays!!! (Even though it gives me an excuse to get dressed up and head downtown, which is always fun.)

Friday, I got to leave work early and I went to surprise Lindsey and her kiddos at school. All the little kids think it's so cool that they know my name is Jill, so as I walked out to where they were reading, they all yelled at the same time "JIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" and all 30 of them ran up and gave me one big group hug. That made me realize that I could never be a teacher. I wouldn't be able to stop playing with the kids enough to teach them anything. But my sister, however, is a perfect teacher.

Anyway, back to the birthdays. Friday night, after spending some QT with my Mama, I headed over to Kristen's house to celebrate her birthday. Then we all headed out to Federal Hill where we continued the celebration. I don't get to see much of Kristen and Kate, but when I do, it's always an amazing time.

Jessica, Me, Kristen, Kate and Lauren.

Kate, Kris and Me. I call them my "High School Sweethearts".

Then Saturday night, it was Rachel and Katie's turn for birthday celebrations. You may remember Rachel (Shalom, from this post ). Her actual birthday was April 20th but she decided that she wanted to do bowling on Saturday to celebrate. I for whatever reason, didn't take any pictures at the bowling alley, but we did duckpin bowling and it was a great time.

Then, later on that night, Alyssa and I headed down to Bay Cafe in Canton to celebrate Katie Mo's birthday. It was a beautiful night out and we had such a great time. Here is Alyssa and I posing with Katie the birthday girl!

Group shot. Dunny, Kristie, Gert, Alyssa and Me.

Being silly.

Then I wound down my weekend with a nice long walk on Sunday followed by sushi with Andy. Needless to say, I need to catch up on some much needed sleep.

Surprising Hannah

Happy Birthday Hannah!

April 15th was not only my beautiful parents anniversary, but it was also Hannah's birthday! Unfortunately, because it was in the middle of the week, we couldn't celebrate on the actual day and hadn't had the time to make plans for the two of us to catch up. Well, the day after her big day, her boyfriend Chad sent me a message inviting me to dinner at Bone Fish Grille on Friday as a surprise for Hannah. Obviously I dropped all things and happily agreed. When Nan saw me there she started crying which made me realize how great of a friend she is. We ate, drank and were marry. Here are some pictures to remember our night.

This is Erinn, Nan and Myself. Erinn is a ZTA now!

Here is Me, Chad (Hannah's sneaky boyfriend) and the Birthday Girl.

A day in the train station

A group of foreign filmmakers have come up with this brilliant idea below. I could watch these clips over and over again. They make me happy.

Because of these two...

I believe in LOVE.

Happy 31st Anniversary Mom and Dad. I love you both so much and could only hope to have love like the two of you. I truly admire you.

Easter

Easter was another amazing holiday for the Bennett family. We all headed over to Ken and Jan's house per tradition and ate like Kings. I took no pictures of my family, however, I did take a few. You can clearly see what my focus of the day was.

This is the cutest baby on the whole planet.


No really.


Roxy the Dog felt left out that she didn't have a spot at the dinner table so she jumped right up there. Libby was terrified of her, which makes no sense because Libs lives with Gussell the Beast (he's a sheep dog). Anyway, Libby and Roxy were having a staring contest and of course the second I snapped the picture Liberty looked away. It's still cute though.

Here is Carly Jo with her Easter Egg mug. She was really proud and wanted someone to take her picture with it. So I obliged.

Happy Easter Everyone!

A Day with My Winsy

Good Friday, both my sister and I had off of work. Needless to say, we decided to spend it together. It was such a nice day and we didn't have much to actually get done so we decided to prance up and down Main Street in Ellicott City for a few hours. The day turned out to be quite an accomplishing one. Linz decided that location is where she wants to have her engagment pictures (finally) taken.


This is me trying to be "artsy" with my pictures.


The best store front possibly EVER! Look closely and you will see some of my favorite things: Natty Bo (I don't drink it, but it's so Baltimore I love it anyway), Terps, The RAVENS!!!!, and ELVIS! Really, does it get any better?


Then we went to lunch at this great place called the Trolley Stop which was so delicious both Lindsey and I ate everything that was on our plates. After lunch we decided to continue walking around to make room in our full bellies so that we could breathe. The pacing didn't last long due to a certain phone call that my sister received...

THEY GOT THE HOUSE! Patrick and Lindsey put an offer in on a house in Elkridge about 2 weeks ago. While we were walking around, she got the phone call from her real estate agent notifying her that their offer was accepted and the house was all theirs. I was lucky enough to have my camera ready. I'm so glad that I got the picture of her face as she found out. Then the day ended with me actually going to see the house. It is beautiful and I can't wait until they move in.

What makes this night different than all other nights?

Because it was my first Seder! As mentioned before, my friend Rachel, who I so affectionately call Shalom, is Jewish and invited me to her family's Seder dinner for Passover. Naturally I was excited to go because I love Rach and I knew that it would be an experience unlike all others. Cut to the day of the big event and I found out that I would have to read from the Haggaddah (the book read for Seder dinner). Needless to say, I had a small panic attack. But when it came down to my turn to read, Rachel helped me with a few names and I did just fine.

About halfway into the story of Passover, one of Rachel's Aunts told me to cover my wine. "Cover my wine?", I asked. Too late. There was already a plastic frog swimming around in there. Next thing I knew, I got knocked on the head with a ping-pong ball and small little plastic "beasts" were being thrown. These represented just 3 of the 10 Plagues. Once the "Leader" threw them at us, the whole gang (all 35 of us) picked up the access "Plagues" and began throwing them at each other. Once Rach got up to help serve the Matzo Ball Soup, David (her "man friend") and I decided to fill her wine glass with the plastic plagues. I forgot to snap a picture of that but it was quite funny.

This is Maddie. She was my dinner date and she's proudly displaying 2 of the Plagues found on her plate after the throwing.

This picture doesn't look too appettizing but I swear it was. The food to the left was a mixture of sweet potatoes, carrotts, wine and beef briscuit. YUMMY! To the right is some roasted veggies.

Then the night capped off with delicious desserts and some more wine. What a great experience! Thank you Denrich Family!

Happy Birthday, Becca!

Last Saturday we all headed down to Federal Hill to meet up with the Birthday Girl and her massive crowd of friends at our friend Katie's house. Then out we went to The Stalking Horse and had a great time.

This is Becca riding a horse. Don't ask questions... it was her birthday.

Me, Gert, Katie and Alyssa. I love these girls.

I had to post this picture because of Alyssa's face. It is one of those pictures where whenever I look at it, I will laugh until I cry. She labeled it, "Loner Lyssa" or "Left out Lyssa". Either way, it makes me laugh.

After Stalking Horse, we walked over to Grumpys and enjoyed standing out on the covered balcony. I mention that it was covered because when we left, we didn't realize that it was raining. Alyssa was smart enough to bring her jacket with her to cover her from the rain.

I was not.

Michelle Round 2

Back in January my friend Michelle came to visit me from Florida. A few weeks ago, she got to come visit me, just for the night, but it was still great to see her face. Even though she was only here for less then 24 hours we sure got a lot done.

Dinner at the rotating sushi bar - Check!
Stop by Crush to visit Julia - Check!
Go to Lucky's Tavern to visit with Ben and Justin - Check!
Go from Lucky's to Mex to Mosaic back to Lucky's - Check!
Federal Hill, Thirsty Dog's, Mad River, hmm? - Check!
Final destination, Corvina, "Chef's" new restaurant - Check!

Seriously, all in less then 24 hours. Needless to say, I slept until about 1 pm the next day.

Here is Michelle and Justin enjoying each others company.

Me, Michelle, Scottie and Jules at Corvinas in Federal Hill.

Michelle said right before she left that she's no longer coming to visit me until I come visit her. She lives in beautiful, sunny Florida! Why am I waiting???

I'm still here!!!

I'm sorry for the lack of posts. I literally haven't had a change to sit still in the past 2 weeks. I been keeping myself so busy between work and play, but finally a day of rest. In turn, a few posts to catch you up on my life. Sadly, my "attached at the wrist" camera didn't come to use that often over the past two weeks so, not too much to look at however plenty of stories to tell.