Say it isn’t so! I’m officially 29 and seriously cannot believe it. I don’t feel 29. I don’t feel like I’m one short year away from the big 3-0 and I still don’t feel like an adult. With each passing birthday, I keep waiting on it to feel different. So much has happened in the past year: I left my corporate job to work for the family biz and blog more, Wes and I started building our new house and we are expecting our first child. I keep thinking back to my childhood and teenage years when my mom would tell me “you’re not old enough to date” or you’re not old enough to do ____”. Well, I definitely don’t feel old enough to be a parent or a homeowner – even though I’ve been doing that for five years now. Although each passing year brings more responsibility and new experiences, I welcome each one and praise the Lord for them all.

I can honestly say this year’s celebration wasn’t like any other year. Being 32 weeks pregnant changes your options for “partying” but I have to say my friends and family made it so special and I loved having my boy wiggling around with me. Since I was in Charleston for my actual birthday on a little birthday / baby moon trip, I decided to make the most of it and kind of went all out. My friend Hillary from Hillheady had her birthday a few days before mine so we decided to have a joint dinner with several of our girlfriends. Charleston has such an amazing restaurant scene and it was Charleston Restaurant Week so we knew we wanted to take advantage and go out.

After a lot of back and forth about brunch vs dinner, we landed on dinner at The Establishment – a newer seafood restaurant right on Broad St. They were so generous to host not only myself and Hillary but all of our guests for dinner. There were so many incredible options on the menu it was so hard to choose. I finally landed on the shrimp appetizer and the crab pasta entree. Shrimp and crab are two of my favorite foods and each dish was so incredible. I am almost ashamed to say I ate every bite on both plates, but then I remembered I was eating for two and all guilt went out the window. For dessert, I had the cinnamon ice cream which paired perfectly with the confetti cake we had from For Heaven Bakes. I’ve never had  cinnamon ice cream before and have to say it is one of my favorite flavors now. It is so light and refreshing.

As I mentioned earlier, we really went all out to make the table and the night fun for our guests. We couldn’t have done it without the help of a few more of our amazing friends at Charleston Flower Market providing the most gorgeous flowers for the table,  Holy City Cupcakes providing the tasty cupcake favors for everyone to take home and Cannonborough Collective providing the balloons. When everything was pulled together, it made for a really great party and an evening of fun and laughter for all. I can only imagine what 29 will bring, but I’m so happy to have great blogger babes and friends by my side to experience it all with me. Cheers!

all photos Kim Graham Photography