Sometimes You Need a Whole Birthday Week

Birthdays are truly my favorite. My family always made a big deal out of our birthdays. Every year I had a gaggle of giggling girls over for some sort of themed party: Age 5- Dress as your Favorite Disney Character, Age 8- Wild and Crazy Kids, Age 9- 1950s Dance Party. Every year in Austin I would throw a party. The minimum requirements included homemade salsa, guacamole, jalapeno poppers and… jello shots. What can I say, that’s just how I like it! This year I didn’t feel like I knew enough people for a party which could have been a bummer, but instead there was birthday week.

Birthday week started with book club! I’m a big fan of book club as you know and really didn’t want to leave my Austin group. Luckily everyone I have met in Wilmington so far is a book enthusiast (to say the least). I hosted the first meeting and fixed crock pot roast chicken, cucumber salad and beet arugula quinoa salad. We discussed The Paying Guests which I chose almost solely because I heard it receive positive feedback on NPR (clearly I wanted to appear book savvy to my new friends). It received mixed reviews. Overall we were impressed by Sarah Waters’ ability to immerse us in a time period but felt the ending was overly long and unnecessary. Main thing I took from the book: Sarah Waters writes some very sultry scenes..

Tuesday was another great day- I got a drastic hair cut! My last cut was in December (I’m a three haircuts a year kind of girl) as I had been growing my hair out pretty much since we got engaged last year. Since Castle Street is my new favorite area in town I wanted to check out Elsewhere Salon (“For Maidens and Misfits”). I’m a fan. For one there was wine, two the place has crazy artwork everywhere and most importantly, I like my haircut. I think this is the shortest I’ve had it since the first grade.

Please ignore the sunburn.

I had really been looking forward to Wednesday for several weeks. The husband and I went to Ziggy’s for Lake Street Dive. I first heard about Lake Street Dive when my friends, Loves It, talked about opening for them. After getting to see a free show during SXSW last year, I was hooked! It was an incredible treat to get to see a full show in such a small venue.

I have a very big crush on all of these people.

Thursday was yet another adventure! We hoofed it a whole five blocks to the Cape Fear Museum to check out the History and Science of Alcohol 2.0. The museum was covered with booths where we tried to answer questions about prohibition, matched beers to their primary ingredients and tried George Washington’s recipe for beer! Best of all was the raffle where Tyler won the grand prize: two tickets to a concert at Greenfield Lake Ampitheater.

Winning!

On my actual birthday I didn’t get to see my fella much. He had to work. After work and a couple hours in the garden, I met pretty much everyone I know in Wilmington (please keep in mind I’m very new) at Husk for drinks (and maybe shots…), dinner at Yosake and dancing at Lula’s. Lula’s is actually a dive bar and not a dance bar, but we didn’t let that stop us.

Photocred: Christine Hennessy

Saturday started a little slow, as all post-birthday mornings should, but the afternoon involved picking strawberries at Lewis Farms. I’m in love with berry picking now. I brought home a bucket of the juiciest, most flavorful strawberries I have ever tasted. Apparently blackberries will be ready soon so I expect to return there shortly!

I forgot to take pictures on Sunday but I visited the Raleigh Flea Market with my fabulous mama. The best part was when we discovered that Tupelo Honey had opened up a restaurant there. Be still my heart!

I can’t say I remember ever having my birthday on Memorial Day weekend but if the powers that be want that to happen again I would really embrace it. Three day weekends are the best kind of birthday present, especially when they involve breakfast taco parties. Have you ever been to one? I’m talking migas, bacon, veggie chorizo, salsas and guacamole galore, and cinnamon rolls (gotta have the sweet stuff too!). The highlight of breakfast taco party was surprisingly not the tacos though. It was a paint can filled with bourbon, mint, lime, orange and lemon juice! It was enthusiastically shared with all party goers.

Babies love taco party.

Also you receive fortunes at taco party..

After all of this excitement, you would think it would time to calm down but instead we headed to Austin! I have so much more to say but this post is getting a little long…

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