The Big Three-Oh

This past Saturday, Lady turned 30!  Woot-Woot!  In honor of the occasion, a party was a must.  Turned into an 11 hour party with multiple parts and an itinerary.  We started the day with giant cinnamon rolls, a couple presents and cards, and the unveiling of the itinerary.  I had decided to let Lady know about her present then so that she could think about which Cricut she wanted to get!  For some reason, she got super-excited when she read that that was going to be her present :-).  In the down time between breakfast and the party, Lady had to sort/organize her art stuff due to her new acquisitions and upcoming ones.  She had gotten a ring mandrel (sizer) and a thing-a-ma-jig from her parents.

The party kicked off at 1pm, by meeting up with a bunch of our friends at the dog park.  There were 8 humans and 7 dogs.  We all wandered the dog park and watched the kids play while we chatted.  It was a bit windy, but otherwise a gorgeous day of weather for some time in the park.  Then, we broke out the picnic spread for a late lunch; sandwich fixin's, cheese log/ball, veggies, dips, fruit.

Next on the itinerary was to go shopping!  Our friend Melissa joined us for the expedition to JoAnn's for the Cricut shopping extravaganza.  We all had a blast as we chatted with Lady's co-workers, and she even took time out to help some shoppers figure out what they needed for the Yudu.  Eventually, we got everything we needed, and for a bargain!  While the girls waited to pay for the merchandise, I made a quick run over to pick up Lady's cake.  We finally made it back home for the last part of the party with quite the haul.

Lastly on the birthday itinerary was letting Lady play with her presents and show them off to everyone during the crafty portion of the evening!  We had 10 humans and 5 dogs for the evening.  I grilled up some steak/zucchini/squash kabobs for dinner, there was ice cream cake, and plenty of chatting and relaxing.

Lady said "fantastic" was an understatement for how awesome her birthday was.  So, thank you to all for making her day so special!

 (The ring mandrel. Custom sized rings here they come!)

 (The Thing-A-Ma-Jig. More easily reproduced wire artwork incoming!)

 (Dog-gone fun. A good time at the dog park with our group and random strangers.)

 (The big present! Yeah, Lady was just a little excited about her new toy :-) )

 (The big unveil. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy.)

 (Then, we all got the demo on the wonders of the Cricut!)

 (Yay for ice cream cake! And yes, the DQ workers gave me the same look you are giving me now when I asked them to put "Birnatherday" on the cake. DQ still felt the need to write "Sold" on the cake package, because I'm sure someone else out there would want a cake that says that :-) )

(The evening gang! Good, goofy fun was had by all...as far as we know.)

 (Ahhhhhh :-) )

 (Lady and her full Cricut spread.  Thanks again to everyone for making her birthday extraordinary, and sending her into another creative frenzy!)

(Wait, what's this!?! Yep, even I have started using the Cricut. This was taken during my first Cricut lesson. I think I have found some ways I can apply it to my woodworking.)