I'm 30!

And it doesn't feel any different.  ;-)

What a wonderful day of surprises I had thanks to my wonderful husband and fantabulous family! The ladies started the day off with a little shopping, which is what I thought we had set out to do for the day. Little did I know that when we stopped for lunch...

everyone was at the restaurant waiting for us. I wondered why Victoria never called to meet up with us. LOL! She was a little preoccupied with helping Joe prepare for the day's festivities.

After a fantastic lunch, we headed to the house where yet another surprise awaited me. They had decorated the house and rented a margarita machine and THE PARTY WAS ON!

I was having so much fun, I forgot to take many pictures. The margarita machine might have had something to do with my forgetfulness. Anyhow, after the last person left I looked at Joe and said, "I didn't even take pictures of these beautiful decorations or the cake!" And Hana said to me, "Don't worry, Momma. Heart took lots of pictures of your party and she'll share them with you." We then proceeded to look at imaginary pictures and Hana told me which ones were silly enough to laugh at. After that, I ended up taking pictures of what was left. Joe designed my cupcake cake all by himself. It was perfectly me! It was cupcakes in the shape of 30, the 3 was made of vanilla cupcakes and the 0 was made of chocolate cupcakes. All of them were topped with delicious butter cream frosting and decorated with pink, yellow and purple Gerber daisies (my favorite).

Jennifer made some of the decorations and supplied the rest. They were beautiful! From what I hear, Victoria worked her tail off hanging them up and perfecting it all. Nana apparently had the best time helping her decide where everything should go. Well, great job, Victoria and Nana! It looked so good, I seriously wanted to leave it all up! I waited until late the following afternoon to take the decorations down and that was only because Hana kept asking why they were still up. "But it's not your birthday anymore, Momma!"

Jennifer made the favor bags which were filled with pop rocks and a ring pop, because "30 rocks." The pink piece of paper rolled up inside them was a list of all the awesome (and not-so-awesome) things that happened the year I was born. I must admit, 1981 was a darn good year!

Balloons.

Beautiful roses.

Beautiful ivy.

Everyone was very generous with their gifts. What a lucky girl I am to have such a wonderful family. (I'm just tying you in with the family, Dawn. After 10+ years of friendship, you've earned it!)

Joe did such a fantastic job surprising me with the lunch and party, I was certain the surprises were done. But then it was time to open presents.

Do you hear angels singing, or is it just me?

Oh, and I forgot to mention that my day actually started with the most delicious breakfast in the world.

Joe made me (and only me) eggs Benedict with asparagus. It was the BEST EVER! And he cannot stand hollandaise sauce. Mmmm...Thanks Joe, Dad, Josh, Victoria, Mom, Jennifer, Angela, Nana, Dawn, Azaria and anyone else who made this possible, including you DINGUS THE CLOWN! Yes, Dingus the Clown made an appearance at Uncle Julio's while we were enjoying our lunch. It was humiliating, hilarious and Hana still cannot believe her daddy misses it every time Dingus appears. "Daddy, while you were pottying, Dingus the Clown was here! He was so funny!" Gotta love it!