Bumped Up Birthday Dinner

Though my 25th birthday is actually on Tuesday, we bumped up my family birthday dinner to tonight!

Presents and cake a few days early? Sounds good to me!

Birthday Girl

My mom still busts out a birthday crown, birthday pins and decorations every time my sister and I come home to celebrate our big day.

We also get to pick a special homemade dinner and cake of our choice.

This year I said I wanted a “seafood feast” followed by red velvet cake.

Ask and you shall receive…

Jumbo Shrimp

Corn on the Cob

Along with jumbo shrimp, my mom also bought crab legs, clams and mussels, but we’re saving those for tomorrow… Birthday Dinner Part II! 😀 

I filled up my plate with jumbo shrimp, corn on the cob and roasted brussels sprouts.

All Done

After dinner it was time for cake and presents!

I couldn’t wait to dig into the homemade red velvet cake with homemade icing.

My mom knows me so well and actually had two little bowls of icing waiting for me when I arrived home so I didn’t have to wait until after dinner to enjoy a little taste. 🙂

Icing Samples

Luckily, I got to enjoy the real deal in all its glory!

My Fabulous Mama, the Cake Baker

The candles on my cake were really neat! The flame from the candles matched the color of the candles, so the blue candles had blue flames, the red candles had red flames, etc. Fun, huh?

My mom managed to cram 25 candles on my cake and I somehow blew them all out on my first try!

Make a Wish!

Red Velvet Cake

I had three slices of the cake. Hooray for birthdays!

Slice Numero Uno

While we were eating cake, I opened my wonderful gifts.

Among the goodies were clothes from Banana Republic and J.Crew, glass Tupperware (I got it! 😉 ), new placemats and napkins from Pier 1, a necklace, food and… the big ticket item…

Garmin Forerunner

I am so excited about this gift! It will be perfect as I start my half marathon training in June. Thank you to my wonderful parents!

I’m off to spend more time with the fam, Ryan and Sadie before hittin’ the hay.

See ya in the mornin’!

31 Responses

  1. happy birthday!!!! (a few days early)

  2. i love red velvet cake! looks like you had a fun early celebration. have a fabulous weekend! i finally got that package mailed~ had some tech difficulties at the post office.. um.. i will have to tell you AFTER you get it though!

  3. Wow, what fabulous gifts! Enjoy your Garmin.

    …and btw, I love your adorable little figure – you are too cute.

  4. Aww what an amazing night!! Enjoy your new toy 😀

  5. Yay for birthdays! I got a garmin on my bday too! I love how you go all out on your bday…3 pieces of cake? yes please! Good for you…celebrate all week!

    • you will love this too, then, keri: i just polished off a fourth piece for breakfast. 😉 i only get to enjoy this homemade icing once a year! i gotta make the most of it! 😀

  6. happy birthday girl!!!! 😀 What a great celebration! 😉

  7. Yay!!!! You will LOVE your Garmin!! What a wonderful birthday celebration…and I love it that you have a tiara to wear…priceless 🙂

  8. Happy early birthday!! Enjoy Garmy- he is the best!

  9. Happy Birthday! Looks like you had a fantastic night – so sweet of your mom to make such a special dinner and evening!

    One idea – I know you said you eat unpictured snacks throughout the day. I know I’d be interested in seeing what a full day in your life looks like. Would you ever want (just for one day), to share all of your delicious eats? Totally understand if that’s too much trouble, but I think your readers would be interested!

    • i really should do this! not today though b/c i’ve already had cake + ice cream & it’s not even 10 a.m. 😉 yay for birthdays!

  10. happy early birthday! you’re gonna love the garmin. and man, i love cake.

  11. Your cake looks so good!! Happy early Birthday weekend. Hope you enjoy your day on the boat 🙂
    & I can’t wait to hear what you think of your new Garmin– how EXCITING!!!

  12. HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY! What a fantastic way to start off the celebrations! You family is amazing!
    XOXO

  13. Happy Birthday Julie! That cakes looks AMAZING! Look like you got some awesome gifts too! Banana Republic, JCrew AND a Garmin….how fabulous!

    P.s. Cake for breakfast is a must 😉

  14. Happy Early Birthday!

  15. Happy Early Birthday!! What a beautiful cake!! My mom and sister always do extra icing shooters when they make cakes too, haha! Best part!!

  16. Fun fun!! Happy early brithday! I love that you still wear the birthday crown…adorable!

  17. What an amazing birthday celebration!! So cute of your mom to save you some icing to eat before, icing is one of my favorite foods as well. Hooray for the Garmin! I LOVE mine, my BF just borrowed it though and I don’t think I’ll ever get it back!!

    Hope you have a great birthday weekend!

  18. Awwwwwwwwwww Happy Soon To Be Birthday love!!!!

    Your mom is so sweet!! Love the cake she made you, loks delish!! I LOVE BIRTHDAY CAKE!! Its the best cake of all!! I would of ate the whole cake!! lol!!!

    Love the gifts you got too!!!!!!! xoxo

  19. Happy early birthday!!! Isn’t going home the greatest???

  20. What a wonderful birthday Julie! No one did anything for mine! Maybe your mum would adopt me? ; )

  21. Yayyy for your mama’s red velvet cake!! It looks scrumptious! Now, if only you had some red velvet fro-yo to go along with it! 😉

    Your presents looks fabulous, by the way!

    Happy (early) Birthday, Jules!!!!!!

  22. presents look** (typo!) 🙂

  23. Happy early birthday!! You are a year and a day older than me – I’ll be 24 on April 28 🙂 Aren’t week-long celebrations the best?? Enjoy!!

  24. That looks like you’re having a PHENOMENAL birthday! Such great gifts…especially the Garmin! I’ve been looking into getting one of those myself (too bad the birthday isn’t until January!) 😉
    That cake looked SOO YUMMY! ENJOY!

  25. What a wonderful time for celebrating!!! And great gifts. And cake. It’s all so good. 😀

  26. Happy Birthday to you!

  27. Looks soo yummy! I’m so sad I missed your home celebration! We will do another in Jax :). That cake is making me drool (sorry…tmi?). Dinner looks fabulous! LOVE YOU Birthday GIRL!!

  28. […] Sadie was a pee machine! I think we stopped at least five times during our 5.14 mile run. (Do you like how I now know the exact distance of my runs? Yay, Garmin!) […]

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