only comes once a year...

For all of the drama, 30 has been nothing short of awesome so far. This will be a little recap of the birthday funness I've had so far. I will be my traditional birthday year in review post at another time.

I started the celebrations the weekend before my birthday with a nice family dinner at the Hibachi. I wanted to do it on a weekend when Isaac would be with me. Our chef wasn't quite an animated as some I've seen, but it was delicious and yummy. They brought me out a little dish of icecream with a candle in it and everyone sang. We all started cracking up because as soon as we finished the last night Isaac promptly yanked the dish over to himself and started eating. In true Stephenson tradition, we didn't take any pictures. Afterwards we came back to my place for cheesecake and Dad helped me fix my vacuum cleaner.

I had a long day/night of parent-teacher conferences on my actual birthday. I did have a nice birthday dinner at Applebees with a group of my coworkers. My fabulous classroom assistant Sheree bought this cake (which was delicious!):

When I got home my mom surprised me with super cute placemats. They match the kooky chefs in frames on my wall.

This weekend I had the best birthday ever with my girlfriends. We went to Becca's in Fishtown and had a Stampin' Up rep come and help us make this adorable card:

The party decor was so fun. Becca made me this great banner:

The plates somehow managed to combine my favorite things, pink and animal print:

One of my favorite parts of the party was when Becca's husband Steve brought over a homemade Nutella panini. I order one of these at this great place in the city Tria every year for my birthday. We didn't go there this year, but they still brought me one, complete with a tea light on top.

They gave me some really thoughtful presents, including an awesome Wii game, one of those karaoke ones with the microphone.

(It should also be noted, that I received some *ahem* less thoughtful presents... anyone who knows me knows how I feel about bananas...) The evening ended with a trip to the piano bar where I sang "Part of Your World" from the Little Mermaid. =) So, so far 30 has been pretty great.