{Parties} My 30th Birthday

I have been holding onto these photos since June (apparently this is a new trend I'm starting), but I wanted to share them tonight since it's Friday and hopefully just a few people will read about my real age. Ha. {Prepare for my personal rant}...Maybe it's because turning 30 was a BIG deal to me....I mean, I was scared. Really scared. I seriously felt like the morning of my 30th birthday, I woke up feeling older. I had genuine anxiety about turning 30 since my 29th birthday last year....it's true. I am willing to admit that I am nuts. So now I am over 2 months past the big day...and I still stress about it. But I have learned that it is more that 30 to me sounds "grown up." I don't feel like a grown up, despite the fact that I have a family, a career (well, I guess two careers going on now), and a grown up life full of loads of responsibilities and bills (graduate school doesn't come cheap, people!) And even at 30, I don't feel old enough for all of that. I still want to be the over-emotional, passionate, short-tempered 20-something year old...when you don't have your Mom looking at you and saying, "seriously. you're 30 years old, stop acting like that." You know you've heard that :) Here's hoping you all dealt/will deal with your 30th birthdays a little better than I.

Anyway, I'm going to share a couple of pictures from my party and a few from my birthday dinner at Lidia's Italy in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, just because the food was SO good. My Mom insisted on the setup and decorations at their house, but you'll be able to see some of my touches :)

First of all, the margarita machine. A MUST for dealing with the emotional whirlwind of your 30th. The flamingos--that was my mom. For those of you that know ME, that's not surprising.

I didn't make all of the dessert for my party, but I did make the mini pies, some sugar cookie, and of course the fondant cupcake decorations. The rest of the desserts were from Oakmont Bakery, one of my favorites in Pittsburgh.

A closer view of the cupcakes. Lemon and lime slices, as well as stand up "30"s. My mom added the little sunglasses because they were some sort of key lime/Jimmy Buffett cupcakes. She drives me crazy :)

Kelly from WHHostess designed a "Kate Spade" invite for my official birthday night dinner.

A few of the things the table ordered for dinner. Lidia's is one of my favorite restaurants (the same woman also has a restaurant called Felidia's in NYC, as well as a couple of others).

Lidia's makes their own pasta trio. SO good.

The Tiramisu cake. I ordered it from the restaurant, thinking it would be an 8" cake or something for the table. When this  12-14" giant was set down in front of me, I about died of happiness. lol!

A close up of a slice of the cake. YUMMMM.