Well, as many of you know, I have finally hit the big 3-0! Now, for quite a few years, I've been a little too old for a birthday party of my own. Normally, my mother will get an ice cream cake which my sister and I hack to pieces in order to get all chocolate ice cream (for me) and all vanilla ice cream (for her). We have a quick little rendition of Happy Birthday and we all dig in. This year, I decided I wanted a fancy ice cream cake from Cold Stone, all chocolate cake, ice cream, and ganache...sorry Sis. Of course, they all pretended like they forgot and that I was going to have to settle for the old standard carvel...
My niece Maddison was born on the 28th, the day before my birthday. As usual, I made the cake and cupcakes for the party, which I enjoy doing especially for my three nieces. After the little birthday girl opened her presents it was time for my surprise. Of course I had no idea what was going on. My family members were acting a little strange that weekend, but I couldn't figure out just exactly what they were up to. So as I sat there, my three cousins (Karen, Melissa, and Kelly) came out wearing pirate hats, singing Happy Birthday, with TWO PIRATE CAKES for ME! The Pirate thing is an inside joke from our trip to Vegas and is probably only funny to those who expeienced it so I will spare you. However, imagine my surprise...Homemade birthday cakes for me after all these years. They figured that since I spend so much time making cakes for others, that they would do the same for me. It was such a great surprise, and pretty darn funny. They spent a lot time working on them and I'm sure it took quite a bit of coordinating. In addition to making the cakes, they made a photo collage of pictures to PROVE that they did in fact do all the work themselves. Too funny! So, I have to say, I think that their effort was the best part of my 30th birthday, and definitely made hitting 30 a lot easier to take!
I didn't get their permission yet to post their photos, so for now I will post the pictures of the finished Pirates.
As for my actual birthday, it was a nice quiet day. I went out for breakfast and spent the rest of the day hanging out with my nieces. Oh, and I did get that fancy ice cream cake that I wanted 
