For those of you who have gotten married, you know how, in the weeks leading up to your wedding, you plan and anticipate and dream and it feels like the day takes on the gravity of a small sun because it’s imbued with all the thoughts you heap onto it in the weeks and months beforehand?

And then the big day is upon you, and you keep telling yourself to slow down and savor the moments but it’s nigh impossible and before you know it you’re getting dressed and kissing friends and family members and walking down the aisle and then it’s mazel tov and cake and riding away into the sunset?  And you’re so tired you can barely keep your eyes open?  And then you wake up the next morning feeling like a tidal wave deposited you in bed the night before?

That’s kind of how I feel about Wesley’s birthday party last weekend.  On a much smaller scale than a wedding, but it did take a lot of planning and scheming, and it feels like it was over so quickly!  For however quickly it felt like it was over, though, I know Wes had an excellent time.

There was beer (featuring custom beer labels printed by my awesome company, naturally).  All company pimp-age aside, the custom beer labels I had printed for Wes’ party were a lot of fun.  There were four labels, and each featured a Wes Fact, such as:

-Wes can kill a housefly using only a dishtowel…And his mind powers.
-Wes once faced off against Jimi Hendrix…Jimi Hendrix wept.
-Wes killed a dinosaur in hand-to-claw combat…And then carved it up for dinner.

I also had custom water bottle labels printed featuring Yoda and Malcolm Reynolds (from Firefly, for the uninitiated), and those were silly and fun.  At the very least, it gave unintroduced people at the party something to chat about!

I also made sure Wes got to pulverize a pinata with a samurai sword.  He’d heard about a party where this was done (albeit the adults were fully trashed when it happened, thereby making it awesome and life-threatening) and declared it a fantastic idea, so I knew I had to arrange for it to happen at his party.

Sure, a few people might think it’s ridiculous for a full-grown 30 year old man to beat the crap out of a pinata with a sword, but those people are obviously not the kind of people who would understand Yoda water bottles either.  Needless to say, the pinata was felled and Wes felt like quite the conquering hero.

My friend Nicole took a picture of Wes holding the decapitated head of the dragon pinata and looking completely insane, so that’ll be fun to use for blackmail later.

What was really incredible to me, though, was the way all our family and friends helped make the day happen for Wes.  Throughout the day, I looked around and constantly saw someone grilling or cleaning up or setting up, and it made me feel so humbled and grateful to have so many people in my life who are willing to work hard on a Sunday afternoon to make my husband’s birthday the best day possible.

So that’s that.  Wes is 30, he won four games of volleyball, vanquished a dragon, and ate the world’s biggest cupcake:

Game, set, match.  He’s officially been inducted into his 30’s, and who knows what could happen when the induction itself is so silly?  He met and married his wife, started and flourished at two careers, bought a home, bought three cars, and had his first child during his 20’s.  The bar’s been set pretty high, but as long as he doesn’t meet any other future wives in his 30’s I reckon they’ll be just as if not more awesome.