Erin's Birthday

Erin's birthday was yesterday but she had school so we are having her birthday dinner tonight. Erin is my youngest son't fiancee and they will be married July s11, 2009. It is tradition around here that we all get together and the birthday boy or girl gets to pick the menu for the night. So, she picked and we are having chicken manicotti and twice backed potatoes. Now I would never have put two starches together like that, but they are two of her favorites and SHE gets to pick, so manicotti and potatoes it is! I have them all ready and they go into the oven in about an hour and then we will eat at 5:00.

Another tradition that may seem a little strange to other people is that we have birthday brownies rather than birthday cake. This started way back when my kids were little and the whole extended family would get together for their birthdays on the Sunday closest to it. This resulted in cake on Sunday AND cake on their actual birthday, so we went to having brownies on their birthday just to mix it up a little. When we stopped with the bigger gathering they wanted to keep the brownies. The only difference between birthday brownies and regular brownies is that I frost them and put candies on them. ::laughing::

Here is an engagement picture of Ryan and Erin which I took about a year ago.....

I am a little nervous about the wedding coming up, not about the marriage or actually the wedding, but the reception. Some things did not turn out as planned and now I am making the food for 200 people for the reception. The wedding will be at the beach so we are going to go with picnic food, 3 or 4 pasta salads, buns with deli meats, potato salad, veggie trays, fruit trays, baked beans, anybody have any other suggestions??