One Sweet World: October 2012

Since you only turn 30 once, my birthday weekend in August turned into quite the celebration!

It began Thursday with girls night dinner. It's a tradition that we go out for each girl's birthday in our group, and it's one of my favorite things to do. For mine this year, we went to Evo Bistro, one of my favorite restaurants in McLean. The menu is full of small plates, inspired by France, Morocco, Spain and Italy with a great wine list.

We had just learned the night before that one of our close friends was pregnant, so the awesome manager gave us both a bottle of Prosecco and a bottle of sparkling juice for her!

What a great way to start the celebration weekend.

Friday was my actual birthday, and it was a great day. First, I received this adorable picture message from the 2 cutest kids in Florida. They are my bff's little ones, and they had a special message for me :)

I spent the afternoon going to Dogfish Ale House for lunch and to see Ted with one of my close friends in town. We'd been trying to go see the movie for months - what a great time to go!

Once M got home from work, we headed over to Columbia Pike to check out one of the hottest new bars in town, TNT. It was opened earlier in the summer by the EatGoodFood group, which is the same people who own Eamonns, speakeasy @PX and Virtue Feed & Grain in Alexandria.

Owner Todd Thrasher has a very cool cocktail list, full of both his creations and some favorites of his from mixologist friends around the country. I love watching good bartenders, and this is a great place for that. Their specially designed work station centered in an open square bar provided fantastic entertainment. And the drinks were quite tasty too!

After trying a few cocktails, we headed downtown to the Dupont area and Boqueria. Inspired by tapas bars and markets in Barcelona, I knew we were going to love this place. It's named after the big market in Barcelona that we visited last fall. We ordered lots of tapas and enjoyed every bite - it was a fun little getaway back to Spain for dinner - I can't wait to go back.

Saturday morning I was told to be dressed by 10:15am. I had a bit of an idea of what we were doing that day, but had left the planning up to MB...and he blew me away!

At 10:15, I heard a cork pop on the back deck, and 2 of our close friends arrived...and a few minutes later, so did our neighbors. At 10:30 after a glass of bubbly on the deck, I was told it was time to go...and walked outside to find a stretch limo in front of our house, and another close friend waiting with it! The girls had balloons lining the sidewalk and had decorated the inside of the limo, complete with a photo banner of me growing up and a great music mix.

We were off for a day of Virginia wine tasting! Our first stop was La Grange. We had never been there, but had talked about it for years, so I was excited to check it out!

We did the tasting outside under a tent, and luckily the rain held off for us. The we grabbed a couple of bottles and a picnic table to enjoy some meats and cheeses that M had brought with us!