A sweet party

This weekend I celebrated my 35th birthday in style. Well, maybe I should say that I celebrated in sugar . . .

For the past three months, I have been in a contest with some girls at work to see who can give up processed foods for the longest period of time. So I have not had any processed food since the beginning of July. But the most beautiful thing is that the other girls in the contest and I have decided that we get to cheat for our birthdays.

And I've been jonesin' for some sugar, people - wonderful, glorious sugar. Sugar that's processed, refined, and then processed and refined again.

So I decided that, for my birthday, I would invite some friends over and ask them to bring a dessert instead of a gift so that we could have one huge dessert party. At first, I planned to invite a TON of people. But then we decided to have it over at my mom's house and make it a pool party, which meant that I'd have to be in a bathing suit at some point. Sooooooooo I had to pare down the list considerably and invite only those people who are either blind or bound by the ties of unconditional love. And, honestly, the unconditional love part still had me a little insecure.

Can I just tell you that a dessert party is the BEST idea I've EVER had?? It was awesome. And everyone came bearing major YUMMIES. Emma and Ben made me some cupcakes:

Avery and Savannah made me some cookies [see them in the back there?]:

And my friend Diana brought me Heaven on a plate:

But that wasn't it! My roommate brought sopapilla cheesecake, Jill brought banana pudding, my friend Tracy brought a fresh strawberry cake, Tammy brought fruit pies, Erin brought cookies, my friend Amy brought cupcakes from Frost, my friend Vicki brought a ton of fruit, and my other friend Tracy brought a cookie cake. It was the most amazing display of sugar you've ever seen. And I did NOT have trouble digging in.

Because there was a Swiss Cake Roll with my name on it . . .

And then, of course, I had to try a little bit of what everyone made for me - you know, because I didn't want to be rude or anything. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I got a little carried away . . .

But at least my family and friends were there to help me so that I didn't embarrass myself . . .

It was awesome. I got chocolate on my shirt, frosting in my hair, and I fell JUST short of my goal of going into a sugar coma by 2 am . . . but it sure wasn't for lack of trying!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone!!