They say it's your birthday..

Dique and I are big fans of the forever inappropriate comedian, Patton Oswalt.

In one of Patton's more mild monologues he discusses the Birthday Rule. You can listen to the whole (explicit) thing here, but this is a quick recap.

Birthdays you can and cannot celebrate.

1 thru 9 — YES. You’re a little kid, and kids should get to celebrate birthdays.

10 — YES. You’ve entered the double digits. Something different has happened, you get a birthday.

11-12 — NO. Nothing special about those years.

13 — YES. Now you’re a teenager, and that’s worth celebrating.

14-15 — NO. Again, nothing special here. I can make a learner's permit. Big deal.

16 — YES. The laws have changed. Now you can drive, that’s worth celebrating.

17 — NO. What’s special about being 17? Exactly.

18 — YES. Awesome birthday. You can vote and own a gun. You can shoot a bullet through your ballot sheet. Now that is worth a party.

19 — YES. It’s your last year as a teenager. A little whistful, but true.

20 — YES. You’ve entered your twenties. Congratulations.

21 — YES. Awesome birthday, you’re as adult as you can get. Hit the bars, hard.

And then…only one birthday every 10 years (30, 40, 50, 60 and so on) until you hit 90. All those years in-between? Who cares. Big deal, 47. However, after 90, the rules change again and you can start to party more frequently - mostly because you could drop dead at any given time.

I am a believer of celebrating EVERY birthday, but do feel the decades should get special treatment. Dique and I struggled to think of what to do for my thirtieth coming up in May. I'm too much of a Charlotte to have a Dirty Thirty. Not enough of a Samantha to have a Flirty Thirty. And too much of a spelling snob to have a Purdy Thirty.

I was inspired when I recently saw this blog post about a Beatles-themed party for one-year-old babies. I know, I know - it's amazing! And so adorable!It looks like a LOT of fun and something that would be easy to put together. I instantly thought we could "grow it up" a bit and put an adult twist on it.

So, today I'm sending out these Save The Dates, which I slapped together last night.



Next week I'll send out the hard (Day's Night) invites.

I love it when a party Come(s) Together!

The Niece, She Likes To Accessorize (aka) A Birthday Shout-Out To LKG!

The Grierson contingent celebrated my sister-in-law's birthday this weekend. We had a grand time of yummy Mexican food, fun family times and as per usual: more cake and ice cream than anyone should have eaten. It was a great day. The most fun, however, was when our niece, Miss AKG played dress up with the leis my mom had brought. Miss AKG is really into accessories. She enjoys "helping me" take my bracelets off, and putting them on herself. She's happy to hold my necklace for me. She likes purses, hats - anything, really, that she can wear is good in her book! I had to post a couple pictures from the day - Lei Baby aka Miss AKG in her Sunday Best.

And a very Happy Birthday to LKG! May this year bring you many more fun days of dress up with your darling girl (and fun days in general with your soon to be son)!

Happy Birthday Shout-Out to Mama J!

Mama J is my mom, and she is the Queen of Birthdays. She believes in having a birth-season, not just a birthday, and as her kid I can admit I've grown accustomed to my birthday being A To Do, all because she made it one when I was a kid. We didn't have special parties at McDonalds or Chuck-E-Cheese, those weren't necessary when you like to entertain, and have craft paper and tape. Us Grierson kids, we always had home birthday parties with DIY crafts, decorations and games - and this was the 1980s, people, DIY hadn't even become trendy yet.

My grandmother, her mother, would make a cake that matched the theme of my birthday - favorites were my "teddy bear's picnic" birthday when I was five, my "disco inferno" birthday when I was sixteen and many more in-between. My mom would help me with the invitations, which - as she taught me - set the tone of the party. We'd make a guest list and spend the Friday night before the party getting ready, setting up, planning, talking, laughing and bonding. To this day being in the kitchen with my mom is one of my favorite places to be. We're normally in the kitchen cooking a gourmet dinner or working on a project or discussing the latest gossip, or running late to something. But it's always fun. With Mama J, you see, it's always a party.

So for her birthday I took the day off and we went up to Napa Valley for a ladies day of outlet shopping and yummy food. And man, did we have yummy food.

The day started with hot warm and fresh doughnuts from Dynamo Donut. I thought the "maple bacon doughnut" would be disgusting, she disagreed. She was right. It is like eating french toast without a fork and spoon using only one hand. A yeast doughnut with flecks of crispy bacon inside, a drizzle of maple icing on top, and bacon "sprinkles" to finish it off. The only thing wrong with it is that it goes away too soon. And it's embarrassing to want to eat five of them. Which is why - good news! - they have other delicious flavors to try. Like the chocolate spice which is literally spicy (like cayenne spicy) and sweet in a chocolate cake doughnut. Totally different and tasty.

After making that quick stop we headed over the Golden Gate to find ridiculously warm weather in Napa and many fun things awaiting us at the outlets. Make-up, clothes for Dique, it took all my restraint not to go to the many shoe stores!

Luckily, we ran out of time for shopping so we could get to our lunch date at Mustard's Grill. We pinky swore we wouldn't gloat in our gluttonous lunch, but it was so delicious I have to share. Mustard's is famous for their onion rings - they come piled high on a plate and are so thin and crispy you kind of forget they are fried and therefore bad for you. Then, she got a cheeseburger and I got a pulled pork sandwich. The truth is we should have ordered one and split it, but instead we did what we could do, while saving room for dessert, and put the rest in a box to take home to Dique. The lucky duck has a hollow-leg and a speedy metabolism so I know he'd enjoy it.

Now. Both sandwiches were fantastic. Mama J said her burger was probably the best she'd had in years. My pulled-pork sandwich was also incredible - sweet and tangy, messy - just everything you want. But the dessert. Oh man. The dessert was really the reason to go. In all honestly one should really go there for a full-on Fat Man Feast and order a plate of onion rings and a piece of their "Famous Lemon Lime Tart... and that ridiculously tall brown sugar meringue" because it's heaven in your mouth. The brown sugar in the meringue makes it dense and warmly sweet. The curd on the tart is the perfect citrus balance: very lemony and very limey without too much acid, nor too much sugar. And the crust. I could write a whole post about the crust, but that's because I'm a crust kind of girl. I'll just say - go check it out. You will not be disappointed. You will be full and maybe feel a little gross, but skip dinner and go for a run the next day. Promise. It's worth it.

The next day we celebrated Mama J's birthday again (see what I mean about birthday seasons?) with my brother and his family. You'd think we were done with all the cake and whatnot. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Thank goodness for all the running I'm doing these days....

Happy Birthday Mama J - may we continue to have many happy, busy and crazy nights in the kitchen and may we always celebrate with yummy food because it's what we do.

I love you.

Twenty-Great Years Old

Just wanted to share some pictures from my very happy 28th birthday. I love being Twenty-GREAT so far!

Flowers and yummy Ethiopian dinner on Friday night, a great barbecue with friends and family in our backyard on Sunday. My mother-in-law (MamaB) even made me a SuperGirl Runs birthday cake! How cool is that? My parents came by right in time to help with things so I could put my party face and dress on - and the weather was gorgeous.

We had a wonderful time, and I feel so celebrated - thank you!!

Hmm. I wonder what my twenty-greatest year will bring??

Yummy food at New Eritrea complete with a glass of honey wine!

A Saturday night cooking fest in preparation for a Sunday afternoon barbecue!

Three big jugs of delicious sangria made by Dique.

Apple and peach pie, oh my!

Friends and family in a hot backyard!

More family and friends!

Even more family and friends!

Between MamaB's cake and MamaJ bringing ice cream, I think I gained 15 pounds at this bbq.

What a fun time - thank you everyone again for making it so!