Happy Vampire Birthday Fun Times!
Wow. My birthday was kind of a blast.
It started Tuesday of last week, with lab meeting cupcake owls. They turned out unbelievably cute, with big oreo-cookie eyes and banana-runt beaks. An ornitologist complained about ear tufts and stuff, but they were cute, and the whole lab just kind of stared for a whole five beats when Bev and I opened the box.
Wednesday night, Juan and Ana invited me over "for dinner and so you can listen to Juan's presentation"...turns out they baited me with food, kept me there till midnight with Buddhist movies, and then threw me a surprise party at midnight! One minute we were just chatting infront of the TV, and the next Emie and Nurani were there with "H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y", panda and mouse cupcakes, and 1-8 candles. There were awesome presents, including Hello, Cupcake, a Team Jacob jigsaw puzzle, and a puzzle stower. And Ana, out of nowhere, pulls out red bean ice cream, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and brigadeiros! Happy birthday indeed! Eric (with great embarrassment) even gifted me a Twilight/Cullens family crest keyholder.
Then, on Thursday, Matt and Juan were presenting in Molecular Mechanisms. By the end of their talk, I was kind of zoned out, drawing pandas to stay awake (since I stayed up past my bedtime that night). I hear Matt, out by the corner of my consciousness, say, "And to end, I just had this one slide"...and the room goes quiet. And then Samantha pokes me and says, "look at the screen, Mars". Turns out they had put up a slide saying, "Happy 18th Birthday, Mariela (again)!" and I was too busy with my pandas to register it. Oops!
That night, about 14 of us went to the Cheesecake Factory and a great time was had by all. It was definitely the largest HG gathering since exams, and there was lively conversations and lots of good food. I also got a bunch of nice emails (with some of the nicest compliments I've heard), some from people I didn't even know. I got home to find I had four packages--a box of operas from my brother (Werther and Orphee & Eurydice), a beer bottle jigsaw puzzle and Partini set from Deetz, and a werewolf pinata from Target. Pretty freakin' awesome.
Yesterday was my official birthday party. My friend Minnie drove down from NYC Friday, so we went shopping when she came, and Saturday morning Emie, Nurani, Minnie, Ana, Loretta and I made vampire and victim cupcakes. This deserves its own paragraph.
Vampire cupcakes: chocolate cupcakes (bc Emie gave up chocolate for Lent, but she exchanged St Patrick's day for my birthday party to cheat), with blue-white frosting, red (or yellow, for the "vegetarian" vampires) M&M eyes with a drop of icing for reflections, with either piped chocolate, piped icing, M&M or cheerio hair, yogurt-dipped raisin nose, and a cute mouth with blood-tipped fangs.
Victims: chocolate cupcake (but a different kind) with strawberry glaze "blood" filling, with flesh-colored icing, M&M eyes, yogurt raisin nose, icing mouth, and all sorts of crazy chocolate, icing, M&M or cereal hair. We made one that looked like me, one that looked like Elvis, and one that looked like Carrot top. So, when you bit into them, they bled.
We decorated with red streamers, and Nara made strawberry vodka daquiri refreshments, and I put out cranberry juice for the rest of the vodka. The Three Musketeers and Tara brought beer, Renita brought soda, and I made peach tea. Matt set up a grill and made burgers and hotdoggies, and I made popcorn chicken. Samantha and Eric dressed up as vampires (AWESOME makeup!!) brought carrot and cold pasta sides, I put out chips with salsa and guac, and Emie and Nurani brought the burgers, delicious samosas and helped with all the details of the kitchen. Molly brought veggies, and that kind of filled my entire food table with offerings.
It was so much fun to have so many of my friends in one room. After a few hours, we went outside to play with the pinata. After Eitan and I failed at hanging it, Eric climbed up into the gazebo roof and tied it up. I did a pretty decent job of missing it completely, which provided great entertainment to people until i accidentally hit Nara. (oops!!) Eventually, after the rope broke four times, Brian mananged to destroy the back of the werewolf pinata and candies were distributed. By this time, most people headed out, but Eitan, Minnie, Emie, Nurani, Brian and I stayed to play Partini (woot!). That was a lot of fun, and we of course beat the other team's sorry butt. Brian and Nurani then had to leave, and we watched Hitchhiker's Guide and chatted for a while. Then I opened presents. Loretta gave me The Wisdom of Yoga, and a lovely candle. Brian gave me a cupcake icing knife (AWESOME!!!!), which will come in really handy next weekend for Easter bunny butt cupcakes.
Today, Minnie and I woke up early to check out Inner Harbor, and then we went to church, and afterward had lunch with Brian and Emie. Movie night ensued, with half of Fiddler on the Roof, since I had to get back into the unbirthday mood and actually, you know, fulfill grandmotherly responsibilities.
But I have to say, this was one of the world's most awesome birthdays. Pictures will surely be up on Facebook at some point once people who have cameras get around to it. I think this will have to be repeated next year, since pinata was declared a rotund success, and since SOME people decided to absent themselves (and they know who they are!)
It started Tuesday of last week, with lab meeting cupcake owls. They turned out unbelievably cute, with big oreo-cookie eyes and banana-runt beaks. An ornitologist complained about ear tufts and stuff, but they were cute, and the whole lab just kind of stared for a whole five beats when Bev and I opened the box.
Wednesday night, Juan and Ana invited me over "for dinner and so you can listen to Juan's presentation"...turns out they baited me with food, kept me there till midnight with Buddhist movies, and then threw me a surprise party at midnight! One minute we were just chatting infront of the TV, and the next Emie and Nurani were there with "H-A-P-P-Y-B-I-R-T-H-D-A-Y", panda and mouse cupcakes, and 1-8 candles. There were awesome presents, including Hello, Cupcake, a Team Jacob jigsaw puzzle, and a puzzle stower. And Ana, out of nowhere, pulls out red bean ice cream, chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, and brigadeiros! Happy birthday indeed! Eric (with great embarrassment) even gifted me a Twilight/Cullens family crest keyholder.
Then, on Thursday, Matt and Juan were presenting in Molecular Mechanisms. By the end of their talk, I was kind of zoned out, drawing pandas to stay awake (since I stayed up past my bedtime that night). I hear Matt, out by the corner of my consciousness, say, "And to end, I just had this one slide"...and the room goes quiet. And then Samantha pokes me and says, "look at the screen, Mars". Turns out they had put up a slide saying, "Happy 18th Birthday, Mariela (again)!" and I was too busy with my pandas to register it. Oops!
That night, about 14 of us went to the Cheesecake Factory and a great time was had by all. It was definitely the largest HG gathering since exams, and there was lively conversations and lots of good food. I also got a bunch of nice emails (with some of the nicest compliments I've heard), some from people I didn't even know. I got home to find I had four packages--a box of operas from my brother (Werther and Orphee & Eurydice), a beer bottle jigsaw puzzle and Partini set from Deetz, and a werewolf pinata from Target. Pretty freakin' awesome.
Yesterday was my official birthday party. My friend Minnie drove down from NYC Friday, so we went shopping when she came, and Saturday morning Emie, Nurani, Minnie, Ana, Loretta and I made vampire and victim cupcakes. This deserves its own paragraph.
Vampire cupcakes: chocolate cupcakes (bc Emie gave up chocolate for Lent, but she exchanged St Patrick's day for my birthday party to cheat), with blue-white frosting, red (or yellow, for the "vegetarian" vampires) M&M eyes with a drop of icing for reflections, with either piped chocolate, piped icing, M&M or cheerio hair, yogurt-dipped raisin nose, and a cute mouth with blood-tipped fangs.
Victims: chocolate cupcake (but a different kind) with strawberry glaze "blood" filling, with flesh-colored icing, M&M eyes, yogurt raisin nose, icing mouth, and all sorts of crazy chocolate, icing, M&M or cereal hair. We made one that looked like me, one that looked like Elvis, and one that looked like Carrot top. So, when you bit into them, they bled.
We decorated with red streamers, and Nara made strawberry vodka daquiri refreshments, and I put out cranberry juice for the rest of the vodka. The Three Musketeers and Tara brought beer, Renita brought soda, and I made peach tea. Matt set up a grill and made burgers and hotdoggies, and I made popcorn chicken. Samantha and Eric dressed up as vampires (AWESOME makeup!!) brought carrot and cold pasta sides, I put out chips with salsa and guac, and Emie and Nurani brought the burgers, delicious samosas and helped with all the details of the kitchen. Molly brought veggies, and that kind of filled my entire food table with offerings.
It was so much fun to have so many of my friends in one room. After a few hours, we went outside to play with the pinata. After Eitan and I failed at hanging it, Eric climbed up into the gazebo roof and tied it up. I did a pretty decent job of missing it completely, which provided great entertainment to people until i accidentally hit Nara. (oops!!) Eventually, after the rope broke four times, Brian mananged to destroy the back of the werewolf pinata and candies were distributed. By this time, most people headed out, but Eitan, Minnie, Emie, Nurani, Brian and I stayed to play Partini (woot!). That was a lot of fun, and we of course beat the other team's sorry butt. Brian and Nurani then had to leave, and we watched Hitchhiker's Guide and chatted for a while. Then I opened presents. Loretta gave me The Wisdom of Yoga, and a lovely candle. Brian gave me a cupcake icing knife (AWESOME!!!!), which will come in really handy next weekend for Easter bunny butt cupcakes.
Today, Minnie and I woke up early to check out Inner Harbor, and then we went to church, and afterward had lunch with Brian and Emie. Movie night ensued, with half of Fiddler on the Roof, since I had to get back into the unbirthday mood and actually, you know, fulfill grandmotherly responsibilities.
But I have to say, this was one of the world's most awesome birthdays. Pictures will surely be up on Facebook at some point once people who have cameras get around to it. I think this will have to be repeated next year, since pinata was declared a rotund success, and since SOME people decided to absent themselves (and they know who they are!)