The modern day dinner party

I'll admit, I'm one of those women who love Jane Austen. I love the original version of Pride & Prejudice, and I did have a rather extravagant china tea set when I was little. And every once and awhile, I ponder if anyone would show up if I had a "real" dinner party. Ms. Bingley style. :) Well, I'm not complaining; modern day dinner parties definitely hold their own. On the not so "Elizabethan era" side, I do have great memories growing up of dinner parties and all the fellowship. laughing and enjoyment I heard my parents have as (Alison) and I would fall asleep upstairs. And I have come to see why they loved it. Dinner parties rock. No, there isn't tea and scones, but I guess in our own way, we love it just as much as the Darcy's did!

It felt a bit more welcoming outside when we had a dinner party with our awesome friends Matt & Amanda Kramer and Nick last night! In my mind, grilling beautiful kabobs loaded with colorful veggies just screams for warmer weather to come. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
And although the table wasn't straight out of Sense & Sensibility, and we didn't drink tea... and we lounged for games, it was a a truly GREAT dinner party. The men talked about investments, interst rates, financial planning, and other manly things, while Amanda and I shared such quality time in the kitchen just swapping "life as a wife" stories. So wonderful!

And I'll take daffodils over a doily any day, thank you very much. :)

SO thankful to have these guys around. We look forward to much more time on that deck this summer... ;)

So, dinner party #2 - yes, we're on a roll! It was another international extravaganza night! This time we toured Germany courtesty of Kelly & Brad. We indulged on "real" pretzels, Weiner Schnitzel, German potato salad, and (my personal fave): authentic apple streudel for dessert!

If you've never had (real) apple streudel - I'd highly recommend it! Apparantly it wasn't TOO hard, I'd like to give it a try here soon! And the weiner schnitzel was new for me as well! It's a pork dish, and that breading was something else... props to the chef!

We are never short of laughs with this group...

It was a loud night, indeed, and nothing that Jane Austen would have ever documented, but it was us. It was our enjoyment. And I think I have decided that I can keep this "idea" in my head of jumping into Jane Austen's world. I'd rather my friends be themselves. :) It's fun to dream about, I guess, but after dinner parties like these, I'm reminded of just how perfect our "spin" on the classic dinner party is.