Birthday Extravaganza!

Last night I hosted a party for my birthday here at the apartment. I really enjoyed the evening with my friends and family. Josh and Dad came down from Spokane, and John came from Maple Valley for the fun.

Josh and Dad arrived at about noon and I dragged them with me to SE Portland to get my cake for the party. I was really pleased with how beautiful the cake turned out. A woman named Laura Widener made it for me. You can contact her here: pastrygirl@netzero.com. Here is her most up-to-date contact information.  The cake was chocolate with strawberry, as strawberry was the theme for the party invites and favors. Josh said, "This is better than wedding cake!" and had two pieces.

Here I am getting the cheese puffs out of the oven. Yes, that is a lemon drop in the fancy "Birthday Girl" glass on the counter. Kim C. stopped by with the glass for the occasion and I loved drinking out of it all night!


Here are the favors that I put together for my friends. I made strawberry shaped sugar cookies and the little boxes had a strawberry stamped on the front. The cookies were frosted in red and green to look like little berries... A bit over the edge by Bree's reaction!


Here is part of the table. Isn't the cake pretty? You can also see the little signs I had made labeling all of the dishes.


The cake top.


In this one you can see how pretty the marzipan strawberries are! It's hard to believe they were not real berries.


Artsy shot of the table:


Because I did not want to play bartender all night, I made a little instruction card for the lemon drops. I got a mix because it made the self-serve bar that much easier and I thought it was user friendly. Next time I need to get a bucket for ice. All of the serving vessels that would have been big enough for ice were filled with food this time.


Artsy shot of the glasses:



Here are some shots of the happy crowd.





As of right now, sans the teasing I'm getting from Adam, being 30 is not too bad. Thanks to everyone who made the day special for me by calling, sending e-mails, or being here in person for me. I'm really lucky to have so many good friends.