Happy Birthday to Me!

Guys, there are no pretty DIY projects or apartment pictures in this post--so if hearing about how I celebrated my birthday (which was last Wednesday) doesn't float your boat, then don't read on! But if it does float your boat, then float on with me!

First, to kick off Birthday Week (as I like to call it) I received some awesome cards and gifts from friends and family back home, including this sweet one from my Aunt Shari and Grandma Brown. They know me so well--I definitely had birthday shopping on the brain!

Speaking of birthday shopping, I gifted myself with a little somethin' somethin': a photobook of our wedding from Snapfish! It arrived on Saturday, April 7, so I declared the start of Birthday Week so that I could open it early. Here are a few snaps of my favorite pages, along with the cover, spine, and first page (which looks all fancy behind a sheet of vellum):

I promise that I'll share all of the details of our big day this summer, once I have time to do them justice! (Perhaps in honor of our 6th month anniversary on July 13, which is another Friday the 13th....ooooh!)

As for my customary "fancy" birthday dinner, Ryan and I actually celebrated on Tuesday of last week because I have class from 3-9 on Wednesdays. We ate at our favorite Italian restaurant, Ciao Mambo! Mmmm. I used Instagram to snap a few pictures of our food. I forgot to get one of our actual dinner, so these make it look like we only ate bread and dessert, haha.

It was (as usual) delicious! We split a Caesar salad and Fettucine ala Lulabella--the portions are so big that splitting it always leaves us satisfied! We managed to save enough room for some cake, though--La Dolce Vita di Maria Patrizia, aka molten chocolate cake. It was GOOD. I joked with Ryan that I should take a picture of the plate once we'd demolished the cake and show you all a "Before and After," haha.

On my bday itself, Ryan had to work from 11-5 and I had a class starting at 3, so I dropped him off at campus and then treated myself to lunch at Cafe Dolce, a yummy cafe. I got a grilled cheese (which came with a complimentary salad) and I even bought chocolate mousse for dessert! (Notice a theme here?)

Then I headed off to my happy place: Goodwill. Birthday luck was on my side, and I snagged some fab finds, which I shared last Friday!

Then I had class from 3-9. This might sound like a drag to many people, but my 3-6 class is actually more like a writer's circle--we all bring in our laptops and work on our stories while munching on snacks--and my 6-9 class was a workshop at my professor's house, so we discussed each other's work while eating fine cheeses and drinking a little wine! (I'm not being sarcastic or stereotyping writers--we honestly did eat cheese and drink wine. Haha). So, they were exactly the sorts of classes you'd want to be in on your birthday.

After class, I wielded my Birthday Power and declared a night of fun for all! We ended up grabbing burgers and tater tots (SO GOOD!) at my favorite restaurant nestled in a dive bar, the Dinosaur Cafe, and then sang our hearts out at karaoke.

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And the fun didn't stop there. Remember, Birthday Week ran from Saturday to Saturday. This past weekend my 3-6 class went on a 2-day retreat to beautiful Flathead Lake! Technically this wasn't in honor of my birthday, but I pretended it was. Haha. We spent time writing, reading, playing Pictionary, and relaxing by the lake.

All in all, I had a great time celebrating with Ryan and my Missoula friends! Now I can't wait to see the rest of my family and many of my closet college friends/sorority sisters this weekend. I'm flying home for a dear friend's wedding and I couldn't be more excited!