Haunted Pub Crawl Happy Birthday

What better way to celebrate my 26th birthday than with a friends on a Downtown Raleigh Haunted Pub Crawl? It is becoming a birthday tradition...

Happy Birthday Skwisgaar!

We are back from our weekend Couples Wedding Shower/Passover/Spring Break trip to Ohio! We were busy the entire time with visiting family, friends, our favorite spots in Akron, and celebrating! Even though I wasn't looking forward to the 18 hour round trip drive, I remembered how much I love road tripping with Aaron. I will post a few pictures from the shower next week for Wedding Wednesday.

More importantly - today is Skwisgaar's birthday!!! He has made it to the first year mark in his life. We are so happy that he is part of our family! For his birthday we bought him a new feather toy and a bag of cat treats.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures of Skwis over the last year. 

'Twas the Night Before Christmas Shuffle!

Most people call it a bar crawl or a pub crawl, but if you went to OU, you know it's really called a shuffle. This weekend we celebrated our dear friend Cassie's birthday on a DTR shuffle and everyone wore pajamas! 

Aaron and I decided to be awesome/cute so we bought matching Adventure Time footie pajamas from Spencers. Aaron wore the Finn set and I wore the Jake set. They were so cozy! Most comfortable night out attire! 

We started at our friend Summer's house for pizza and pregaming then caught a free ride on the Trivia Taxi (we answered all of the questions right!) to our downtown destination. We started our shuffle at Woody’s, and then continued on to Tir Na Nog, Landmark Tavern, London Bridge Pub, The Architect, The Raleigh Times, and finally The Busy Bee Cafe.

Since we had such a large group we got some really strange looks from the non-pajama wearing regular Saturday night bar crowd, but as the night went on most people laughed and were giving us high fives.

Even though Aaron and I got split up from the rest of the group by the end of the night, we had so much fun celebrating Cassie's birthday and discovering bars that we hadn't been to yet. 

Hope you had a fun weekend too!

My Weekend, in Snapshots

To see my weekend, on instagram (follow me @eeelishalynn)

Left to right, top to bottom:

1) Catching up with friends over a free birthday Boh at the Second Chance Saloon in Columbia, MD on Friday night.

2) Visit with my grandparents on Saturday afternoon in Bowie, MD. What a good picture!

3) Crab feast!!! My aunt and uncle hosted a crab feast at their beautiful home in Annapolis, MD for my 25th birthday. We picked and ate our way through 2 bushels of steaming hot, fresh Maryland blue crabs. Yum!

4) While we were being goofy and taking photos out on the dock, Aaron popped the question! I will write a longer post about this, but it was a HUGE part of our weekend. I was so surprised and overjoyed!

5) Birthday cake! I am so lucky that I had so many things to celebrate this weekend with my family and friends.

6) After the crab feast and celebration, Aaron, Dana, and I went on a ghost tour pub crawl in downtown Annapolis. It was the perfect night for it, cool and warm. We loved it! It was a guided walking tour to a few of the most haunted pubs in Annapolis. At each pub the group would order a drink and gather to listen to ghost stories and learn about the rich history of Annapolis.

7) Our first stop was the Maryland Inn, which houses a ghost in almost every room!

8) Our last stop was at an Irish Pub called Galloway Bay, where we ordered a pint of Guinness to share. It was magical.


So, this weekend was so amazing and I had a really hard time picking only 8 photos, but it just had to be done. I will write another post this week with the story of our engagement and more photos.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

The Taste Test: A 21st Birthday Celebration

I can't believe it has taken me this long to put this post together. My sister, Dana, was in Raleigh two weekends ago and we celebrated her 21st birthday. She is a fan of beer and sometimes wine, but has not had time to try that many different types of liquor. I decided to remedy that and throw her a taste testing party! 

We went to our local ABC liquor parlor and bought 18 airplane bottles covering most of the liquor categories (rum, vodka, whiskey, gin, tequila, etc.). Apparently they don't sell these little gems in every state, so I guess we are lucky that we were able to find a wide selection. 

Okay, so maybe it got a little silly. There was a lot of photo posing after each pour, hesitation before taking each mini shot, and giggling at the resulting faces. We made it through most of the bottles, but gave up after tasting the Malibu Rum. Dana sorted the bottles into like and dislike piles. We realized that she doesn't like most clear liquors and she really likes Bailey's and Kahlua. She is planning on using the empty bottles to make a recycled Menorah this year for Hanukkah.

A liquor taste testing is a great idea for a 21st birthday celebration. It was inexpensive, laid back, and fun! You could even jazz this party up with custom printables, a scorecard and some decorations. We decided to keep it a simple celebration. Happy Birthday, Dana!

What is your favorite liquor?