31st Birthday Celebration

This year I turned 31! I always love to do something fun and special on my birthday, but I hate being center of attention, so I'm not a fan of birthday parties. I rather find a fun event or place to eat, and go out with a few of my closest friends and have a fun night everyone can enjoy.

Beth is the best at planning fun days, and she had a full day of awesome activities planned to help me ring in my 31st year. We began with a breakfast of zombie frappuccinos and festive, halloween donuts which are one of my top three favorite sweet treats. The zombie frappuccinos were a limited holiday drink created by Starbucks. It was caramel apple flavored and topped with brain whipped cream. 

Sidenote: As you can tell by the above picture, I have purple hair! It's not a wig, I temporarily dyed my hair purple! I thought it would be fun for my birthday and halloween. I didn't use any permanent kind of dye, I just washed my hair with purple shampoo, and I got a beautiful purply, pink ombre vibe since I have dark hair with blond highlights. This color naturally fades as I wash my hair, it was such a fun way to spice things up, without having to do anything permanent.

Before

During

I loved the sparkles, it looked like some magical potion or something.

(It didn't stain my hands or my sink)

After!

After breakfast, Beth and I went to a blow bar to get our hair and make up done. While we loved the way our hair turned out. The make up artist had no idea what she was doing, so we ended up going back home and doing our own make up. But it was still fun to be pampered and have gorgeous hair!

After we were all glammed up, we met up with Jenny, Angie and Laura and went to a matinee showing of Thriller! I love this production so much, but haven't been in years! Jenny, Angie, and Laura hadn't ever seen it, so it was so awesome to be able to introduce them to something I love so much and is such a fun way to celebrate halloween. It is the perfect combination of true, amazing talent and comedy.

Next up was dinner at Takashi. This is a sushi place right next door to Beth and Reece's apartment, so I pass by it all the time and for years I have heard people rave about how amazing it is, but I hadn't ever been! So, it was the perfect place to have a birthday dinner.

Bethy had made me this amazing halloween birthday crown to wear on my special day.  I love how elegantly spooky it is and it matched my hair so perfectly. we all ordered different mocktails to sip while we awaited our sushi rolls. I got the jasmine spritzer which was so delicious.

This was my first experience with riceless sushi rolls and I loved it! 

After dinner, we went back to Beth's apartment for birthday cake and presents. Beth surprised me with an amazing dinosaur banner and birthday cake. It is a little known fact that I am obsessed with dinosaurs, I find them endlessly fascinating. Dino exhibits are always my favorite in any natural history museum and I love all of the Jurassic Park movies. There is just something so magically mysterious about these giant reptiles and I love learning about them.

Part of Angie and Laura's gift to me was the ultimate cat sweatshirt. There are adorable little cat ears on the hood, a pouch for your cat, and cat toys on the drawstrings. I tested it out on Mitsy, she kinda liked it...

Back to this intricate cake! My favorite color is green, so she added in lots of fun, green details. It was such a perfect birthday cake for me!

V couldn't get enough of how amazing this cake was. She looks lots of "pictures" of it with her "phone"

A few days later, the birthday festivities continued when I got to celebrate at a combined family dinner celebration for me and my dad, our birthdays are only three days apart.

Laura and Angie, had also given me a cat bingo game. The pictures on the boards and cards are water colors of different cat breeds and are absolutely stunning. It's an entertaining game, and a work of art all in one!

Jenny and Mike had recently gone on a trip to Japan, and I had requested they bring me back a shirt with some crazy english phrases on it. This is the gem they brought back for me as a birthday present:

Frown Basically 

Coalesce 

Crumb

The Rush of Time Slows

Rustic /Bitterly

Rest 1980

Bethy gave me this amazing art history birthday card, it is so perfect in so many ways. I hung it up on my fridge and it still continues to make me happy every time I see it.

It was such an amazing birthday! I am so lucky to have so many dear friends and family that make my special day so magical. I always feel so loved on my birthday. Many thanks to all those who contributed!