Happy birthday to me!

I have really been neglecting my blog, but I’m hoping to change that. I want to document some of my recent adventures, especially in case I get scrapping again. These last few weeks have been pretty busy, but really awesomely fun. I had a week off for my birthday. I’ve started a little veggie garden in my yard. We’ve been grilling a lot. I’ve been hanging out with the kiddos, reading a ton, obsessing over Game of Thrones (the show and the books), watching summer movies and spending a lot of time in New York City. I’ve also taken a ton of photos. So here it goes. Here’s how I spent my birthday week.

THURSDAY, May 28:
Even though I still had work the next day, I declared Thursday the start of my vacation. We threw a bachelorette party for my friend Laila at karaoke ! We had crowns for the girls and sang lot so fun chick songs.

Me & the bride-to-be. Like our tiaras?

FRIDAY:
See work reference above.

SATURDAY:
We spent the afternoon at my brother’s having a little bbq. Then it was off to the Rover for my friend Adolfo’s karaoke birthday party. I made my awesome chocolate cake, which was a big hit.

Birthday boy and world champion

SUNDAY:
I hung out with Randi in the afternoon. We had lunch at Chee Burger Chee Burger. The burgers are ok, but we really like the shakes and the dipping sauces that came with the fries and onion rings. Then we laughed our asses off at Hangover 2.

I went to the city at night to a little going away party for my friend Karran at the Pony Bar. Karran is one of the reasons our karaoke nights are so much fun and it’s just not going to be the same without him. The city was filled with sailors for Fleet Week – I really laughed at the sailors outside the peep shows. Pony Bar has really good craft beers – I especially liked the Dogfish Head Black & Blue, which had a nice blueberry flavor. We had falafel and gyros around 3 a.m. and sang on the bus on the way home. The other passengers thought we were nuts, but we had so much fun.

Mmm, black and blue beer!

Here I am with the boys - Karran, John and Adolfo - my karaoke buddies.

MONDAY:
I don’t remember what I did Monday. I probably slept late! I know mom and I took Penny over to Bergenline to watch WNY’s very sad Memorial Day parade. My town has skimpy parades and horrible turnout for Memorial Day and Flag Day, but huge parades for cultural days. I boycott those!

TUESDAY:
This was probably the hottest day ever and I spent it walking all over New York City. I took the ferry into the city and had a lovely lunch at ‘Wichcraft (owned by Top Chef’s Tom Colicchio) in Bryant Park.

Outside the Met

Then I went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met and almost passed out! It was probably a combination of the weather, the crowd (it was packed!) and the creepy music and sets. The exhibit was pretty cool – the costumes were exhibited in different settings that reminded me of a haunted house, a pirate ship and a Tim Burton music box. I usually love the Met so much, but I didn’t stay long because almost passing out really freaked me out.

The rooftop exhibit was lame!

After leaving the museum, I decided to walk around Central Park and I surprisingly felt better even though it was so nasty outside. I found some the Alice in Wonderland statue, which I have always wanted to see!

Hello Alice!

And here's Hans Christian Anderson and the Ugly Duckling.

Once I got back to Jersey, I spent the rest of the day relaxing and busting my gut while reading Tina Fey’s Bossypants.

WEDNESDAY, June 1:
Well, I turned 35 but don’t feel any older. Mom and I did some shopping at Target and Home Depot and got more stuff for the yard. And I got myself a few presents. Then Randi, Brian and I went to Eataly in the city and had some amazing food.

THURSDAY:
I planted the cucumbers, peppers and eggplant that I had bought the day before. I’ve never been into gardening before, but my plants are looking good!

My first tomatoes!

I had a nice lunch with mom and Grandma at Sorrentino’s and then got a mani-pedi.

If you were thinking my actual birthday was uneventful, that’s because I was saving it up my karaoke party! It was really so much fun and lots of friends came out. I must have sang about 10 songs!

I got the whole birthday sign to myself!

Heather and me singing Total Eclipse.

With two of my best friends Amanda and Shannon - we're thinking of forming a Wilson Phillips Ccover band.

Lisa made me brownies. I look hilarious.

FRIDAY:
And even after my party, I got up early the next day and went to the city to get my hair cut. I’ll never get it to look as good as Stacy does!

Later that night, I met up with Randi and Brian at the Greek Festival in Tenafly, where we ran into some other friends and had some good Greek food and yummy pastries.

I think the rest of the weekend was uneventful. I made some cake balls that looked horrible, did some reading, made some salsa with fresh cilantro from my yard. Then it was one last hurrah at open mic night, where a really amazing guitarist from Canada stopped by and wowed us all.

They look gross, but tasted good!

So that's my big week off. I'll leave you with some of my birthday gifts - some books from Randi and a few I got myself. ...

And a sunflower pot from my friend Leticia. It's one of my favorite gifts ever.