My 30th birthday celebration!

I had such a wonderful birthday celebration last night.  We sent the boys to the Buteau's to play with a babysitter while we had dinner.  Neil orchestrated the whole thing and I felt so special.  He is such a sweet husband!  He enlisted the help of Leslie, Amy, Casey, and Erinn with the details.  It was not a surprise or "purprise" as Bennett calls it.  I told him that I did NOT want any form a surprise party.  I would have been too embarrassed.  Anyway, he had Charles Ashley cater the dinner.  I had close friends and family over for a fun evening of food, drinks, and games!  Everyone that came was exactly who I wanted here.
And this party just shows how much Neil really knows me.  He took pictures of every detail before the party...something I always do.  He helped plan the menu and knowing my love of sour cream...he had sour cream au gratin potatoes.  He had Caesar salad because it's my favorite and several other things.  I just loved it!

Neil and me (still 29 in this picture)

The decorations were so cute as well!  Leslie HAND-MADE the cutest "Lindsey is 30" banner.  I just love all of the cute fabrics and ribbon she chose.  Amy planted cute cyclamen in pots for each table.  Leslie also added paper "place-mats" for each guest and markers on the table for them to leave a message for me.  So thoughtful!  There were pictures of me EVERYWHERE.  They had them clipped to the stairs, bookcase, and on the tables.  Some really old ones, college pictures, wedding pictures, family pictures, TONS of pictures.  I loved the invitation, too.  I never thought I would get to have a fabulous invitation made by Caroline at the Paper Tulip, but I did!  It's adorable with a green chevron pattern in the shape of a big square...add a vellum envelope and you have a recipe for a fab invitation.  She is supposed to be sending me a PDF so I can post it here.

The menu was fabulous.  Charles made "soup shooters" for the appetizers.  They were wonderful!  I love foods that are in a mini form.  He made crab and corn bisque, tomato basil, and loaded baked potato for the passed app.  It was so cute!

Amy posing with the soup shooters.

The cake was so great!  Bennett watched the Elf on the Shelf movie about 98,264 times in December and a little bit of January.  So, we watched it that many times.  Chippy the elf sang a song called "Extravaganzalorious" that would get stuck in my head for days.  So, this is where Neil got the writing for my cake!

Look at the detail on this!

Matthew and Casey

Me=the product of these 2

Carol, Leslie, and Dad serving their plates

me and Leslie

Rebecca, Richard, and Carolyn

Beau and Tim drawing their pictures.

Amy is practically an artist!

 

Here I am waiting on my cake to arrive while everyone was singing  "Happy Birthday!"

NEW TO POST!!!! I found some software online that allowed me to recover old files!!!  It found lots of files that I had lost spontaneously.  So, without further ado...the rest of my birthday celebration!

Janine, Mom, and Neil sang our family birthday song to me...How sweet!!

Erin and me with the scarf she gave me

Thanks to Leslie for the Twilight game!

Love these Lewis family notepads from Erinn

The Smiths looked so cute all cuddled up!

group shot!

My SIL and me

It was a fabulous birthday celebration.  I was so glad that Neil's parents spent the night with us and Mom decided to keep Bennett over night at her house.  It was a great night!