Big 3 - 0 in Bridgeport

Sunday saw us driving down to Bridgeport to celebrate another 30th birthday, this time for one of my "old" college roommates, Liz. It feels like only yesterday that we were celebrating our 21st birthdays. Since Liz's birthday was much earlier in the year, she actually turned 21 our Junior year, while the five of us remaining (in our six woman suite) all had birthdays clustered with a three week period at the beginning of our Senior year. Geez, how quickly time flies! And I can't forget the fact that I'm turning 30 myself, since I've got all my friends' 30th birthdays to remind me of the fact! :)

Anyway, back to Bridgeport. After stuffing ourselves on good food and tons of birthday cake and ice cream, it was time for the gifts.

Since it was a joint birthday celebration for Liz and her dad, they each sat surrounded by their own pile of gifts. I also have to give a shout-out to Liz's dad, mom and sister Sara for losing an astonishing 100 pounds combined in two months!
Liz's dad cracked me up because he kept holding his gifts up to his forehead a la Johnny Carson to guess what was inside. The problem was that two of his gifts (seriously) were an axe and a hatchet - luckily, he got warned about that those in advance!

Here's Liz holding a gift from one of her brothers, a wine appropriately called "Mommy's Time Out."  That big Crate and Barrel held our gift - a cupcake carrier that I own and love (a birthday gift a few years back from my sister Amy) and the Barefoot Contessa's chocolate cupcake and frosting mix. I figured it a was a good gift for a baker to give to another baker, especially one with a two-year-old!

Although Liz's daughter Isabel was down for a nap, I was still able to play with her adorable nephew Tommy who looks unbeliavably clean in this picture, from having his face covered with cake and ice cream just minutes before:

Right before we left, Liz was able to wake Isabel up to say hello - needless to say, she was a bit sleepy and shy, and clung to Liz's side:

This is one of my favorites pictures of her - Liz had just pulled her pacificer seconds before I took the picture and Isabel was not pleased! I still can't get over how adorable she is and how much she takes after her blonde and blue-eyed father Adam:

We were finally able to make Isabel smile (my favorite trick is get kids to do a high five and to clap for them afterwards, they love it):

It was definitely worth the drive down to Bridgeport to surprise Liz and spend the afternoon reminiscing about our college days. But I'm still going to enjoy being 29 as long as I can!