This past weekend we celebrated Nicole’s completion of her phd program with two parties. The first party was here at our place on friday night where we invited all of our local friends to come out and help celebrate with us. We were surprised that even though it was the fourth of july most people were gonna be in town and were able to come out to the party. This was the first time we’d tried to have so many people over to our place at once and it worked out pretty well. It never got too crowded but we defiantly had a very full house at one point. It’s a shame we never tried throwing a big party at our place until the month before we’re moving out. People seemed to have a good time and our various circles of friends didn’t seem to awkward together. Most importantly though Nicole had a great time and really enjoyed her party.

Since nicole was the guest of honor I was left in charge of all the food and drinks. As I was doing most of the cooking I went with Hawaiian BBQ as the theme which meant our menu consisted of kalua pig and cabbage and some kalbi. Those two main dishes are easy enough for me to make and I know nicole likes them. I thought I had prepared enough food for the night but by the end of the night there was barely anything left. I had prepared 12 lbs of kalbi ribs and two batches of kalua pig and cabbage. This is on top of other people bringing food too. Based on people’s comments though everyone really liked the meat. Guess you can always count on my local food to come through as a food favorite.

Cooking the Kalbi downstairs so i didn’t smoke out our apartment.

Nicole and her cousin Jessica

Nicole with Jill and Esto

Us with Brad and Courtney

On Sunday we went to our second party at Mark’s (boss’s) house to celebrate as a lab the completion of nicole’s phd. It was great to see everyone from her lab since not all of them were able to make it to our party on friday. The weather that evening was so nice we ended up moving the tables outside to their deck and having the party on the deck. After dinner nicole was presented with gifts from the lab. The crazy picture they took for nicole was of her ‘lab manager’ role and was very funny and appropriate. They also got her a beautiful necklace that I think she’ll be wearing frequently. Also they got her a pearl bracelet that was also very nice. Mark gave Nicole his traditional gift of a leather briefcase. It was a very simple and elegant dark red briefcase and matches nicole’s style very well. Initially she wasn’t sure about the dark red color as her first inclination was for a black but after thinking about it over night she decided to keep the deep red color. After gifts Mark broke out some sparklers he bought for the kids and everyone ended up playing with them. It was a great party but coming home from it Nicole was a little sad since her lab has been such a big part of her life for so long and will soon be leaving it.

Sheryl playing with Mercedes

The lab and their significant others

Other side of the table

Nicole with her crazy picture clipboard.

Mark’s gift

Lab picture

Sheyenne and Jill playing with fireworks.

Ross’s turn to play with fire