luke is 30

luke's 30th birthday turned out to be one of our favorite days of the summer.

mateo, unica and i woke up early to set up breakfast and a secret rainbow umbrella i'd been hiding for our picnic table. we remembered to put up the birthday banner i made for mateo's birthday just in time.

we had an easy (but luxurious by our standards) spread of our favorite pastries: the classic butter croissant, a lemon poppyseed muffin, a blueberry muffin, a raspberry and cheese filled croissant and a chocolate chip scone. plus fresh cherries to remind him of his hikes in spain, iced coffee and orange juice.

some more little details that i don't want to forget: our neighbor brought us over beautiful wildflowers from her garden. i had made a giant neon sign announcing luke's birthday to the whole neighborhood, and stuck it in our front yard in the middle of the night to surprise luke in the morning. 2 days later that same neighbor borrowed the sign and changed the name for her husband's 30th birthday. we're hoping the advertise-your-person's-birthday-trend continues on our street. did i mention my grandma gave me this idea?

after breakfast we biked to the library for our favorite baby storytime. and then to the giant playmakers sale. luke found the greatest birthday deal on some chacos (his walking/everyday shoes were falling apart) and he shared the birthday goodness with me when i found a mega deal on some danskos i've been eyeing since the great smartwool surprise of 2010 (they would look so good together was my excuse). thanks, luke!!!

after the whirwind shoe buying extravaganza (that is what you call it when you haven't bought shoes in years, i guess), we headed west to the beach in saugatauk. our new umbrella came along too which i am happy to report was just as nice at the beach as it is over our picnic table. especially for the two red-haired, fair-skinned men in my life who need shade. and especially for $13.

we lunched and lazed and played and swam in warm lake michigan water. luke opened a few more gifts. and we played our classic birthday/holiday game where we try to remember how we spent all of his birthdays since we met 8 years ago.

i forgot to mention that luke remembered to wear his "me? 30!" shirt. he has worn this shirt since we met in his early 20s, so we found it hilariously funny (and surreal) all day long that he now actually is 30.

after a few failed attempts at dinner in town (frozen mixed veggies in a tortilla, anyone?) we decided to head home. on the way mateo fell asleep so i tried to pull off one last birthday surprise by taking luke to dinner for tapas in grand rapids. it maybe wasn't the most authentic, but sangria plus queso manchego plus jamon, etc made us giddy. just as the tapas were being delivered to our table and we thought we could actually look into each other's eyes for a minute, our little sleeper woke up and wanted (demanded) to be out and about, but we managed.

while we drove the hour back home, i asked him all sorts of "you're 30!" questions. we talked about what he'd accomplished in his twenties, what he hopes to accomplish by 40, what he wants more of in life, and less of. it was nice to be reflective for once (why don't we do that more often?) and it was a nice ending to the evening. later he opened cards and gifts from family, and then, finally, we said goodnight to the first day of his 30s.