Happy Birthday to Me!

As of Sunday I am officially 26 years old, and my wonderful friends planned an incredible day to celebrate! I was told nothing ahead of time, they did the whole thing themselves, all I was told was to be in my church clothes at 12:45. The girls picked me up and took me to the Huntington Gardens, a beautiful place not far from here full of greenery, gardens, museums, and a tea room. We enjoyed a delicious afternoon tea for lunch, spent a couple hours wandering the gardens, taking random pictures and enjoying the beautiful weather. Then, they took me home to change and picked me up an hour later--we ended up at Ryan and Alethia's apartment where they had spent time preparing an incredible fondue dinner complete with a cheesecake factory cheesecake for dessert and mai tais for our beverage. Sophie had come up with a theme for the night of "Coffee and Books" so everyone gave me something that had to do with coffee or books--gift cards, favorite books etc. She also made up a quiz of random questions, like how old was I when I taught myself how to read, or what my favorite kid book and adult book are, or what do I always order at a coffee shop--people didn't do so well, but they tried :) Here are some photos from the day:

The gift basket they gave me, full of all of my favorite things :)

Tea and dessert at the Huntington Gardens (they also made me wear the tiara headband and carry a wand all day...)The four of usSophie taking pictures of the koi pondBecca and Sophie things were a little chaotic as they tried to decide how to pose!Check out the attitude!there was an incredible bonsai gardenImmitating the statue Posing for our engagement photo...The mai tais Sophie madeBecca, Christina, and PocketOur incredible kitchen crew--they did a WONDERFUL job making a delicious meal! Seriously, who doesn't love cheesecake?! The books I was given, I haven't read any of them so I am very excited to get started! Sad that I started classes yesterday!