My 23rd Birthday

Another birthday has come and gone, but this year's was truly great. I had been feeling a bit down this year that I was spending yet another year of holidays & my birthday as a single girl, but after chatting with my mom when I got home last Friday, I decided to focus on everyone who is in my life right now than who isn't. I may not have had a boyfriend to celebrate my birthday with this year, but I did have my amazing brother, Michael, to help me have a great day.

Michael & me on Christmas

He's moving to New Mexico in two weeks for a great internship, so he drove me back to Chicago to spend my birthday with me. It was so great to spend some time with him before he moves and it reminded me of how thoughtful & nice of a brother I have.

We started with dinner at Goose Island on the 27th to watch the Illini basketball game (they won in double overtime!) I got delicious veggie chili & Michael got the peanut butter burger. Yes, the peanut butter burger complete with a patty, bacon, fried bananas & peanut butter sauce. We also got free tastes of their Double B beer from on of the brewers & Michael got a flight of beer. Pere Jacques was definitely my favorite! It's ironic because Pere Jacques means Father Jack which is our dad's name...

My taste of Double B.

In the morning, I went on a run then came back and ran some errands to grab some last minute items for the dinner brunch I was hosting. We were planning on going to the movies, but I was also freaking out about the completely bare wall in our dining room. I had been thinking a long time about what to do with the wall & I wanted to have it decorated before my birthday dinner. Thanks to a sudden burst of decorating creativity, I put together an idea and made my brother help me hang everything just 10 minutes before we were supposed to leave for the movie.

My wall "masterpiece".

After our quick decorating adventure, we left for the Music Box to see Strangers on a Train as part of their Alfred Hitchcock festival. I love the suspense of Hitchcock movies & this one did not disappoint! 

Since we were making waffles for my dinner brunch (brinner?), we originally planned on putting candles in a waffle for me to blow out. After a little more thought, however, we decided 23 candles in a waffles probably wasn't going to work out so well, so we headed to Sensational Bites to grab a cake. We ended up with a delicious 3-tiered chocolate cake with buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache. This cake truly was sensational & I would recommend the bakery to anyone in the Northern Lakeview area!

The delicious cake Michael bought me.

The waffles weren't the prettiest I've ever made, but they ended up being delicious & everyone seemed to enjoy them. Sadly I didn't grab a picture of everyone, but some of my closest friends from my sorority & Natalie P came over to help me celebrate. I'm so thankful to have so many friends already in a city I moved to just 6 months ago!

After dinner, my brother prepared my cake & I thought hard about what my wish would be. I was so determined to blow all my candles out, I actually almost lit my hair on fire...in the end, I didn't get them all, but I sure did try :)

Thank you to everyone who helped me celebrate my birthday, but a special thanks goes out to my amazing brother for making sure my birthday was truly a great one!