So you say it's your birthday...

I had a great 26th birthday celebration yesterday! Thank you to everyone who was so generous and made it special.

The festivities actually kicked off Friday night when Brad treated me and two of our good friends, Laura and her boyfriend Saiful, to dinner at The Majestic, a restaurant I've been dying to try since they reopened a few months ago.

Brad was very brave and ordered a whole Branzino (a European seabass), which came with the head and tail still attached (eye ball included!) and all the bones still inside. I'm very proud of him - he ate the whole thing!

Laura and Saiful enjoying their yummy dessert

I waited all of Lent to have some chocolate on my birthday and it was well worth the wait!

Festivities last night kicked off at dinner at my favorite neighborhood Italian place, Monroe's. Nicely located right across the street from our apartment, we frequent the place about once a week, so it's nice that the waitstaff and hosts kind of know who we are. I had a great meal of scallops and pesto pasta and Brad had their amazing porkchop. I was surprised with a big hunk of chocolate cake with a candle in it. We we got home it was time for more cake and presents...

the candles were like mini 4th of July type sparklers - they were sparking all over the place!

chatting with Dad to thank him for the awesome travel books and photography class

thanks for the fun springtime stuff Noni and Papa!
being so happy that I'm finally not the only person in the entire world without an iPod. Thanks to EB (my boss) and Senger (a coworker) for helping Brad navigate the iPod world :)
loving my new camera bag from Brad
Brad made it a very techie birthday with an iPod AND an external hard drive that can store up to 145,000 photos!!
Gena and Sophie made me some very yummy birthday cookies - thanks ladies!