Birthdays are for grown-ups, too!

Jake had a milestone birthday last year.  We had only been here a few months and I felt like we were still settling in, making friends, etc.  So I wasn't quite up for helping Jake appropriately welcome his next decade in and I tried to make it up to him this year with a surprise party!  I did a Southern theme with the food to celebrate his (and my!) heritage.  The "new" Southern food (shrimp & grits, cornbread and black-eyed pea bruschetta, deviled eggs, mint juleps and more) was a big hit (I made some and outsourced some to a friend's catering company (Parti Perfect) and they did a great job executing my ideas).  And we managed to surprise Jake.  The kids stayed up to help with the surprise and sang to the whole group of 20+ "Happy Birthday" in Arabic.  And thanks to my friend, Sara, who did a better job of taking pictures than I did - a lot of the party pictures are hers).

Surprise!  We greeted him in the the foyer as he came in
the front door.  He was definitely surprised.

Our girls sang - even Jane! (in front of a group - impressive!)

Staying up a little late to help celebrate (they weren't big fans of the
Southern food - except the chips that went with the pimento cheese dip)

The spicy black-eyed pea and cornbread bruchetta - yummy!

Shrimp and grits

Fried green tomato skewers (and deviled eggs to the left)

Zucchini fritters, ham and cheese biscuits & Southern fried chicken skewers

Our family-only celebration with an ice cream cake

Birthday dad and his girls