Birthday Celebration

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."
~Abraham Lincoln

Last Thursday, I celebrated my 35th birthday. I had a really great birthday. P. and I started off the day (after dropping off the kids at their respective schools) by going to an auction. A few weeks ago we were at the very cool house of some friends for a party. P. complimented our hosts on the great furniture they had. They smiled smugly and said "we get everything at this amazing estate auction. Do you see this couch? We got it for $25. See that table... $15." And on it went. They said that they go every Thursday morning and there are definite deals to be found. I've been eyeing my increasingly shabby living room furniture and dreaming of a room makeover for quite a while now, so the lure of this amazing auction was just too great. I asked Peter if we could go on my birthday. And we went.

It was quite an experience. The auction starts at 9 a.m. with box lots. We arrived about 20 minutes earlier so that we could inspect the items and figure out what we wanted. I immediately saw a gorgeous arm chair that I loved and a really cool side table. We also had our eye on a Louis XVI-style love seat and a kitchen table. We registered with the auction, received a paddle, and then found our friends. The auction started promptly at 9 and the auctioneer flew through the items. If you were distracted in the slightest, you could easily miss an item. At one point I looked down at my phone to respond to an e-mail and I missed three items. Anyway, my favorite chair sold for far more than I was willing to pay ($175), but we got the cool mid-century modern side table for only $10. We stayed until 11:30, but had to leave before they got to our kitchen table and other interesting items. We're DEFINITELY going back though. That was fun!

Later, my buddy Steve took me out for a lovely lunch at Gulf Stream. I had a delicious seared scallop salad and then we shared an ice cream sunday. The server brought it out with a candle on the top. I blew out the candle and wished for more yummy meals like that one. Delish!

That night I had a low-key dinner with the family. I was suffering from a pretty bad cold and decided that I would try to rest up for my fabulous M Party.

I told P. that I wanted a party to celebrate my special birthday. I thought that a Martini party would be fun. I also had seen packs of moustaches at a party store in the "Fiesta" section, and thought it would be really fun to have a Mexican Fiesta party. P. combined the ideas and threw me an M Party- replete with Moustaches, Martinis, Mojitos, Mediterranean food, Mexican Music, M&Ms, Merlot, etc. Anyway, we threw the party and it was a blast. It's rather impossible to not have fun when you're wearing a fake moustache... and when you're drinking a mojito... and when you're eating my husband's amazing Moroccan Tagine. So all in all the party was a rousing success. If these birthday celebrations are any indication of the year to come, there's going to be a lot of "life" in this year. :)