It's your birthday: part a bajillion

you didn't think that the only birthday surprise i planned for rogray was surprising him with a trip to chicago and then surprising him with his dad and stepmom and then surprising him with a trip to springfield did you?

oh no. . .30 is too big a deal to just let float by and i felt rogray deserved a surprise for each decade he's been alive.

so this past saturday rogray's sister and i got together to plan a wee brunch for rogray -- he knew that there was going to be brunch but he didn't know that his mom, stepdad, grandpa, grandpa's girlfriend (aw yeah) and his sister and her boyfriend from boston would all be there. surprise 2!

i really only took pictures of rogray's niece and nephew because they are so cute when chocolate cake is involved. this year they made the cake and did most of the decorating. look:



i think rogray's sister did the lettering but scooby-doo and the blanket of sprinkles are all p & g.

the whole morning while we were eating the delicious quiche that rogray's sister made that ended up being more like a cheese pie, p & g kept asking if it was time for cake.

when it finally was it was very hard to contain them:



he was so excited he had to be restrained! these two were uncontrollable:



after the addicts had their sweet, sweet chocolate hit:



p & g wanted to take some pictures. . .here is their work:

rogray:



me:



after all of the hub-bub at rogray's sister's we bid adieu to his family and went to go get rogray a suit because he's 30 and didn't have one and, well, it was time. you'll see pictures of rogray's suit when we get back from the wedding we are going to this weekend so i'll move on to the final surprise. . .what could it be?

he got to see lincoln, spend time with his family. . .what's left? oh! i know! his friends!!!!

i had told rogray on wednesday that i wanted to do a date night on saturday but really i had gotten 10 of his besties together for a surprise dinner. now for some reason this surprise is the one that made me the most nervous and anxious and it showed because rogray figured it out saturday afternoon because i got stressed about time!! arrrrrgh. . .

but he couldn't have guessed that everyone would be wearing bithday hats with the picture in the post below on the them:



pardon my photography -- a: it was dark and b: i got drunk immediately.

these two came down from connecticut for this shin-dig:



me and mr. mo:



he's sad because his wife is in vermont writing stuff -- we both miss her but i was too drunk to acknowledge my sorrow.

me and the lumberjack:



is every picture of me at my wedding going to be that face? i need to practice just smiling. . .seriously.

people got silly pretty quickly:



i was sitting across from the acupuncturist and spent the majority of the night trying to get a picture of her:



i took, like, 12. . .rogray spent some time at the other end of the table with the critic and the politician and their g-frys and was there when his gorgeous cake arrived:



that's india, the chef of paninoteca where we had the soiree -- she was amazing and so sweet and i can't say enough good things about her.

rogray took a second to think of a wish and admire the beautiful cake:



and BAM:



wish granted!

and that was it. . .we had some cake grabbed one last drink with the last guests and then went home and passed out.

it was amazing how willing everyone was to participate in all the surprises and that they were all able to keep everything a secret. i don't know how it happened but it did.

and now, rogray is officially 30. today is his first full day as a man in his 30s. how's it feel rogray?