Happy Birthday to Moi!

I just loved my 36th birthday!

The Day Of....
In May, we celebrated all day, starting with a lovely walk for bagels in the morning, an afternoon of flying kites in downtown Milwaukee's Kite Park, and finishing with a fabulous lobster dinner! I felt so loved!

  

 

The V.S.D.P. (Very Special Dinner Party)
We planned a very special dinner party with some of our dearest friends. Because their friendship is a gift to me, I wanted the party theme to be a celebration of them.

Rob delivered the invitations!

We found a date in mid-June when everyone could attend. And so our dear friends Michelle and John Buresh, Virginia and Cam Redden, Lucy and George Judy and Emily and Chris Byrnes, all marked the night on their calendar. My dad and Ning were so incredibly generous to not only offer us their elegant high rise apartment (overlooking Lake Michigan) for the dinner party, but to also sponsor two talented servers, Kim and her daughter Hannah, to manage every detail and create a gorgeous event. I never lifted a finger! What a gift!

The party absolutely sparkled. It was one of the most beautiful, magical, memorable nights of my entire life! I gave each of my girlfriends (and of course, Ning too!) a journal with a hand-written note inside telling them all the things I love and admire about them, as well as a J Crew necklace. An absolute highlight was when my friend, Michelle, shared her family's tradition of all saying something about the birthday girl or boy. And so in the warm glow of candlelight, I was moved to tears as each of my friends wrapped a verbal gift and passed it across the table. And I was completely taken by surprise when a gorgeous cake arrived from behind me, a gift from Rob! Right on cue, in walked my dad and Ning from the airport, straight from an international flight. It was perfect.

We finished the night with a silly game of charades -- everything we acted out was somehow relevant to a guest, either as a hobby, a shared memory, a place or an inside joke. We laughed. A lot. A real lot. I felt truly blessed!

Michelle, Meg ( and baby Elizabeth!), Lucy, Em and Virginia