Surprise!

Auntie Seen turned the big 3-0 in the beginning of June, wrapping up the family birthday cluster I mentioned in the last post. To honor the milestone, Matt decided to throw Serene a surprise thirtieth birthday party, and conspired with the women of the family to pull it off. Serene loves surprises, and no one deserved a party more than Serene did after this past year, so it was a fitting way to turn the page on the last year and begin the next chapter of life.

Matt had suspected that Serene had uncovered our covert operation in the works - I had been asking Serene about birthday plans and pestering her about a celebratory girl's night and so had another girlfriend, so we had played it real cool (CIA tradecraft, basically), and Serene hadn't given me any sly smiles or pointed eye contact, but Matt wasn't sure.  But when Serene left their house for their "dinner date" with her hair still wet, he realized that this surprise party was indeed going to live up to it's name. Instead of driving to the restaurant, Matt pulled into a nearby parking lot where Serene was surprised with this:

Balloons and banners and signs and smiling friends and family!

SURPRIIIIIIIIISE!

Happy 30th Birthday Serene!

After the surprise, we all headed up the hill to Matt and Serene's for pizza, pool time, and party.

The kiddos love swimming

And we all love Serene!

The best surprisers, by far, were Matt and Serene's friends J and S, who came down from Phoenix for the party, and brought the colorful and shiny Dia de los Muertos banner (very Tucson), lots and lots of sangria, and this crazy horse head mask, which J wore when Serene pulled up. Tragically, I don't have any pictures of the horse head mask, but us girls had fun playing with the banner.

The birthday girl

This is 30.

And this is where I should try and explain how I broke S's sangria drink dispenser trying to clean up after the party and how Serene and I almost peed our pants writing a sangria-fueled apology note filled with flowery language and illustrations, because it's my favorite memory of the entire party, but you probably had to be there. Because wine.

Happy 30th Birthday Serene - I am seriously so blessed to call one of my best friends and favorite people ever family. Celebrating your 30th was a blast. Maybe now that we're both in our 30s, we'll start acting like mature, rational grown-ups when we're together...? 

From 22 Signs You've Found Your Best Friend Forever:

18. Despite being intelligent as individuals, you’re truly harebrained collectively.

I can think of no truer way to describe our friendship. So I guess that grown-up thing is unlikely.

Maybe 40.

Luh ooooooooo.