Equals 35.  Sigh!

Saturday was my birthday and I decided I wanted to go out and have fun.  Normally birthdays in our household are celebrated with gifts, cake (sometimes decent looking 😉 ), and a nice dinner out.  Matt and I have never done much in the way of parties for birthdays, aside from his 30th birthday.  I took him out and his friends got him WASTED!  And I got him to dance! 😮  I didn’t want a party for my bday but I thought having a few friends join us for dinner and dancing would be nice.  I asked my friend K and her husband M along with one of Matt’s friends and his new girlfriend.

After being unable to get reservations at a new restaurant called Stanbury in downtown, I decided on a new place called Mandolin for dinner. {Funny little side note but the space that Mandolin currently occupies was once a place called EVOO.  This was mine and Matt’s first official date spot. It’s since changed hands several times but I’m hoping Mandolin is here to stay for a while.}  I was able to get an 8:30 reservation for Saturday night.  I knew K&M would be waiting since she said they were going to go to the bar and get drinks first but I was surprised to see J&A sitting at their table when Matt and I walked in around 8:20.  About 10 mins later the host came and told us it would be a few more minutes as our table was eating dessert.  About 10 minutes after that, we were told they were paying the tab, and a little after 9 we were finally seated.  Matt bought me a birthday cake so I brought it with us to the restaurant to share.  I didn’t even think about the fact that they would charge a cake cutting fee.  Anyway, they politely waived our fee since we’d had to wait.  How sweet!  *insert slight eye roll here*  I must say though, Mandolin was great!  The atmosphere was really nice and the food was delicious.  Definitely a place Matt and I will go again.

Thankfully once we were seated, our orders were taken, and our food arrived pretty quickly.  I must say the food was DELICIOUS!  I had the Foie Gras appetizer and then the Chicken and Dumplings for dinner.  SO. YUMMY!  Everyone really enjoyed their food.  After we ate cake, we all headed downtown.  The suggested bar was a new spot called Coglins but the line out the door was a huge turn off.  I mean, come on, it was my birthday. Who wants to stand in line?  Not me!  We headed a block over to The Hive.  It was busy but not stand in line busy.  Drinks were consumed and some dancing was done.  In the end J&A and Matt and I stayed till almost 1 before heading home.  AHHH!  Overall, it was a great night and I had a lot of fun!  I’m so glad our friends joined us!

~k

PS. I bought a new outfit for my birthday.  I got a shirt, necklace and jacket (not pictured).  I’ve had the shoes for a while and they are still fantastic!