Pre-Birthday Festivities

I tend to spread my birthday festivities over a few days, because let's be honest, one day is just not enough time to celebrate turning a whole year older. And this year especially! This is my last year in my 20's. (Dum-dum-duuuum)

So since we are spending the entire day in New York City tomorrow, we started the celebration today, making cupcakes and opening presents! (Actually, I started a week ago when my mom sent me the kick-assest Wii game ever (called Just Dance) and I 'accidentally' opened it and have been playing it all week! It's SO much fun and a great workout. Thanks Mom!!)

I found this awesome recipe for champagne cupcakes from Betty Crocker. Yes, champagne was one of the main ingredients in both the cake and the frosting. Seriously, you can't go wrong with that!





And they turned out so pretty! We let them cool while we moved on to presents!


I opened my gift from Joe's sister and her family. A new Starbucks tumbler, chocolates, and a gift certificate to Starbucks! Do they know me or what??

I opened cards from family far and near and felt so very loved. (My parents also both sent me cash for my trip into the city. Whoo-hoo!)


Next I opened my gift from Joe's parents - a super cute personalized frame for the doggies' pictures, a gift certificate to Target (love Target!), and this adorable outfit for Ava!

Yes, Ava is officially a Red Sox fan!!

Next was the gift from my cousin (and beautiful bridesmaid) Christi.

omgomgomg! My own Dooney & Bourke purse!!!

(Seriously, I needed this, not only because it is SUPER awesome and I've never owned a real designer bag before, but the strap on the purse I was using just broke the other day. Perfect!)

I saved the gift from my favorite person for last. And I was not disappointed. When we went to pick out Joe's wedding ring a few months ago, I was browsing the necklaces and kept coming back to these super cool key necklaces. He obviously paid attention to that, because I opened this beauty:

Isn't it beautiful? I absolutely adore it. Did I find a good man, or what?

After presents, I dragged Joe to a chick flick (The Back-Up Plan) that didn't end up being that good, and then we came home for cupcakes. And the cupcakes turned out really good!

Now we're just hanging out waiting for Chinese take-out to arrive. We are going to eat high-calorie Chinese take-out while we watch the 'makeover' episode of The Biggest Loser. I love birthdays!


We're headed to bed early tonight because we have a train to catch at 6:55 a.m. tomorrow. There isn't much that gets me up that early, but New York City on my birthday is definitely one of them!