29

I turned 29 on July 2nd and even though I'm a bit sad to be nearly 30 - life has been great and it was an awesome birthday! I started celebrating the Sunday before with a big group of friends coming to the Maxwell Street Market for delicious quesadillas and tacos and sunshine. It was so nice to spend the afternoon with so many buds! That night we got to go to Cody's bluegrass show and have dinner with the Jensens. They got me a air popper and popcorn accessories and a book to read on vaca! I also received a book and some pretty paper from the Liebls! On Monday everyone sang happy birthday to me at bingo and Joe and Lee got me birthday cards. On my actual birthday, a bunch of my girlfriends helped me celebrate at LUSH Wine & Spirits. We all got bottles of wine and ate some awesome food and caught up. It was such an easy, low stress celebration. It meant a lot to me! My DePaul girls all donated somewhere on my behalf - Shalva picked Cardz for Kidz - brilliant! Tara picked Breakthrough Urban Ministries - my favorite place to volunteer! Cait adopted a freaking polar bear for me! And Ry and Mar donated to DePaul on my behalf. I have the most generous and awesome girlfriends! I also received some lovely gifts from the other ladies - Meg got me a paper cutter and some other crafting goodies - so awesome! And Darc got me a super cute Betsy Johnson wristlet. Cait brought delicious cupcakes, Mary brought an awesome balloon, Ry brought pretty flowers and Tara got me a gorgeous succulent. I got sweet cards from Leah and Mary plus a pretty mug from Mar. They are THE BEST! I'm totally the luckiest! I celebrated with my family on the 4th of July. It was such a nice day! My bro got a pinata and he also got me 2 different types of Jenga! My parents got me this grownup coloring book that I'm obsessed with - it's all paisley designs and it really relaxes me at the end of the day. They also got me a veggie noodle maker that we've been using non stop. I also got a banana republic gift card from them, a Michaels one and nice plant from my aunt anne, winning lotto tix from my cousin Carrie and tea towels and accessories from my cousin Kate. Honestly - I was so spoiled! The next day Rob and I went on our amazing trip to Brown County! Such a generous gift from my babe. I hope the rest of the year is as fabulous as my birthday celebration was!