It's my party...

Lucky for me, I got to stretch out my birthday to about 3 weeks instead of just one day this year! The festivities started with a lunch outing the day before my birthday. A couple of the girls from work (Katy and Margo) planned to take me to the Upstream for lunch to celebrate. When we arrived at the restaurant, I was surprised to find that Ryan was there waiting for us! Lunch was wonderful and so was the enormous cake that Ryan had arranged for the waitress to bring out after our meal. It even had 23 candles on it! I wonder if my birthday wish is going to come true...

On Thursday, my actual birthday, I was greeted at work with two of the sweetest birthday cards ever- one from Margo and one from Katy (plus Katy gave me an adorable picture frame to put on my frig). Then, that evening, Ryan arranged for us to have dinner with the med school crew at Hiro Sushi. Dinner was soooo yummy, but the company was even better!

Me showing off my birthday cards & Me and Margo

Bob, Ashley, Alena, Nick, Chris, Angela, Ryan and me at Hiro Sushi

It was birthday present enough that my family drove all that way to NE to see me, but they topped it off with two of my favorite things: a shopping spree w/ my mom (probably the best gift ever!) and dinner with my family at my favorite restaurant, the Cheesecake Factory.

Finally, Saturday was my last birthday hurrah. Margo and Katy wanted to celebrate with me further by taking me out for a girl's night. Because our schedules were all so crazy, this past Saturday was the soonest that we could all get together. To start, we had dinner at the Melting Pot. I had never been there before and was SO excited to try it out. Dinner was amazing. We had a four course meal consisting of a starter salad; cheese fondue served with an assortment of breads, apples, and veggies; a tasty broth fondue served with filet Mignon, salmon, shrimp, chicken, pot stickers, sirloin steak, and veggies; and, lastly, a milk chocolate and peanut butter fondue served with cheesecake, rice crispy treats, pound cake, marshmallows, brownies, strawberries, and bananas. After stuffing ourselves to the brim, we walked around Village Pointe shopping center for a while and then went back to Margo's place to hang out. Margo had to get up early the next day so Katy and I bailed so that she could get to sleep. We decided to stop at Sonic for some late night drinks and then go back to Katy's apartment. We watched a little Trading Spaces and chatted until about 2 in the morning and then decided that we were both too tired to function so I went home. I can't even remember the last time I stayed up so late! The evening was definitely a nice ending to my birthday celebrations!

Katy, Me and Margo at the Melting Pot

I have to say I'm a little sad that my month of birthday fun is over, but it's definitely better that it's over for the girlish figure that I'm trying to maintain. I think I have eaten 50 times my weight in food this past month!! Anyway, I want to thank everyone for making my birthday so special. Thanks to my babe for arranging my lunch and dinner, thanks to my family for making the trip up here to see me, thanks to Margo and Katy for helping with the lunch and planning our girls' night, thanks to the med school crew for getting together with me at the last minute and for treating me to a wonderful dinner, and, finally, thanks to all the other family members and friends who sent gifts, made phone calls, and wrote Facebook shout-outs and emails! I feel so loved. I am very blessed to have all of you in my life :)