Josh and Korey

Hi, Mr. Turtle

At Santiago Oaks there is a historic dam in a dry creek bed. It’s really beautiful. There is a small amount of water on one side of it that must have been left over from rainy season and appears to be stagnant. I walked down there with my friend Samantha the other day and we were quite grossed out by the state of the water. It seemed to be covered in pollen and thick like sludge. We were throwing rocks in to watch them break up the pollen on the surface just to have it merge back together when she spotted a turtle. I didn’t believe her at first. I thought it was a leaf. It was very still, but eventually he/she came swimming toward us, seemingly to check us out. I don’t know if he got stuck there after the last rains or was somehow born into this little watering hole, but he was quite a sight.

Knott’s Berry Farm

Last week we went to Knott’s with Mimé and cousin Charlotte. Jacob had a BLAST. I think Charlotte is his favorite person on earth and I love how he says her name (Chaah-lut!)

Nerdy Thirty Party: The details

Turning 30 was not difficult for me. Maybe the shock will set in down the road, but for now, I’m quite content to be in my thirties.

Actually, I don’t feel remotely like a thirtysomething. I feel the same…I might as well be 19. Or 29. 🙂

Most people go the “Dirty Thirty” route, but that is just not for me, so I forged ahead with a nerd theme, and I loved it. I didn’t find much on Pinterest for nerds like me (mainly it was science/math-nerdy or video game-nerdy), so I’ll be pinning a lot of these photos for the use of future nerds!

Here are closeups of the photos used in this collage. It’s made on a piece of white fiberboard.

Josh and my dad hung these beautiful lanterns (thanks, Lisa!)

I made these “30 Facts for 30 Years” books…the books themselves were found on Oriental Trading Company.

Balloons, and notice in the background that I added nerd glasses to some of our existing pictures…

Thanks to my wonderful friend Lisa (get used to my thanking her), I was able to borrow her apothecary jars yet again. You have smarties, nerds (in boxes) and loose nerds.

It’s hard to tell, but the clothespins on the photos on the table have felt eyeglasses on them.

I borrowed the disco balls from my mom. They went well with the multi-color theme.

My nerdy jewelry, from Etsy.

“Winter is Coming” necklace by BeneathGlass.

Eyeglass necklace by DebraMarieDesigns.

“Expectro Patronum” ring by FamilyHouseStampin.

Hermione’s time-turner necklace from SurpriseCollection.

I made these book earrings…I found the adorable book charms at Hobby Lobby, and used jump rings to attach them to silver earring hooks.

Hanging inflatable globes are from Oriental Trading.

The cupcake stand has been “in the family” — my mom’s friend Trasie made it years ago, and it has been several different colors!

I made this Nerd garland using hastag ribbon (that’s pretty dorky).

Here is the “30” collage in action.

Large movie theatre-style Nerds boxes and eyeglass pencils, along with “book worms.”

The cupcake toppers were from Michael’s.

The cupcakes are from the fabulous Susie Cakes, and were a gift from my friend Lisa and her husband Jeff. They are amazingly delicious and frosting filled.

She got chocolate/vanilla, peanut butter/chocolate, red velvet, solid chocolate and solid vanilla.

The photo booth!

What a fun addition. I wish I had a picture of the walls my crafty husband set up…how did I miss that?!?! 😦 In any case, it was really a booth. The props were on loan to me from my mom’s friend Robin and they were AMAZING. So many hats, pairs of funny glasses, necklaces…

The signs scattered about are funny slogans I saw on shirts or the like.

Close-up of the 30 facts books.

A box of miscellaneous old photos, just for fun.

I ordered these adorable pins from Etsy. I originally got them in case anyone showed up without a costume, but NO ONE DID!

These utensil-holding jars were actually re-purposed from my friend Ashley’s bowtie-themed baby shower. They fit the bill!

And I had to use the darling display box that the smarties came in…

It may look staged, but these books are actually always here. 🙂

The book garland was also repurposed, this time from my own baby shower! My mom actually cut some old textbook of mine (oh the horror!) to make real book pages, and I changed the “baby boy” stickers out for birthday ones.

Grammar posters from Oriental Trading.

Yes, I laminated these myself…it was great because they were easy to hang with blue painter’s tape, and painless to remove.

These were my test shots at the photobooth, but you can tell that once you took a picture, it was displayed, along with your name, in a popup screen saver immediately.