My First 29th Birthday

I keep saying I am planning a post about my recent birthday, but I haven't actually done it til now ... 3 weeks later, lol. Can't rush. Just to warn you, this is pretty much just a bragging post, lol.

I had to work on my actual birthday, so my husband and I spent the day before together to celebrate. I decided to go to the temple :) We hadn't been through it in a while together, and it was a really nice day. But before we did that, I went by Moe's to get my FREE BIRTHDAY BURRITO! lol Seriously, sign up for their emails now because you will get a free entrée coupon. And we finished off the day with even more food - dinner at Cypriana, my favorite mom and pop Greek restaurant. We had saganaki, avgolemono, gyros, and galaktomboureko (pictured in the bottom right). So delicious!

The next day was my actual birthday, so after work my whole family went to Orlando to have dinner at 4 Rivers Barbecue. I had never eaten there before and I've always heard good things - let me just affirm ... it was fantastic! You order and sit cafeteria style, and we had 13 people so we took up quite a bit of room, lol. We all ate our fill of delicious food and we all still had enough to take home for lunch the next day - that's how much food you get! We even bought a full almond cake from their "Sweet Shop" and had that at our little party on Sunday. It was so awesome! As you can see, I had many celebrations, lol.

My parents gave me my gifts that they picked up for me on their recent trip to visit my sister in Japan. It's the Paddington Bear bag set from Shinzi Katoh! I've wanted these since the last time we went to Epcot (about a year and a half ago). I fell in love with pretty much everything Shinzi Katoh made - cute doodles, fairy tales, some in French translations, all with slightly off translations into English - what's not to love?! I warn you, if you Google their designs, you will be come addicted to. I didn't buy any at Epcot since they were all crazy expensive there - turned out they were about half that price in Japan (go figure). So my mom got me the large tote bag and an insulated lunch bag :) They are so adorable! Check out that explanation of the Paddington stories - that's printed on the bottom of the bag. So cute! I just love it, lol.

My gifts from my husband came a little late, so he let me go on a mini shopping spree before our 4 Rivers dinner at the Anthropologie sale. Anthropologie is honestly one of my favorite stores ever, but I rarely am willing to pay their prices. Thank heavens for the sale! I got an adorable apron (husband says I look like a Disney character in it, lol), I also snagged some really pretty book plate stickers and an amazing mustard yellow sweater. I've never spent so much on a sweater before, but now that I am a knitter I can really appreciate a well made one! This one is put together exactly like a handmade one and it has a fancy slip stitch on the yoke with a star stitch everywhere else. Even cooler is that the areas were it is seamed together are all about an inch or so wide of stockinette - what a cool idea! I'm hoping to find a pattern like this so I can make more in every color :) My parents gave me the cute stickers and stuff when they gave me the bags. It's all Shinzi Katoh and there are 2 packs of stickers, a pretty pocket mirror and a magnetic bookmark. So cute! A few days later my gifts from my husband arrived. He got me a yarn swift!!! It is seriously so much fun. He also got me the awesome hand mixer I wanted (a Cuisinart) and a 14" stainless stir-fry pan (as seen with my reflection when it was all new and shiny).

Also on my mini Anthropologie spree I got this amazingly gorgeous cookbook - À La Mère De Famille. It's a beautiful book full of age-old recipes from the famous confectioner in Montmartre (Paris). It's been open since the 1700s and some of these recipes are just as old. It's full of chocolate, candy, cake, and cookie recipes and I basically can't wait to make the whole book. I highly recommend taking a gander at this book (I attached the amazon link so you can "look inside"). I think my husband was most happy with this gift since it will benefit him as well, lol.

I even had another celebration with my husband's family the next weekend :) This year's birthday was really my most fun in many years. We've had a few unfortunate occurrences on my birthday since we've been married (including a few funerals and a major surgery), so it was nice to have a fuss-free good time. Thanks everyone so much for all the awesome gifts and parties!