As I enter into my 24th year, it seems appropriate to look back at my twenty-third.
And quite the year it was. In the same weekend as my birthday, I attended my bridal shower and bachelorette party.
On May 15, 2010, I finished my undergraduate degree (Biological Systems Engineering: Food & Bioprocessing) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
On May 30, I married the love of my life.
On May 31, we packed up two cars and I moved from Wisconsin to Ithaca, NY.
Last summer, I started a vegetable garden and ramped up my cycling workouts. Why?
So I would be ready for our honeymoon cycling in the Piedmont region of Italy in October!
New Year’s Eve was spent in New York City.
We thought 2010 would be our crazy year, but in January 2011, we adopted Max.
And then bought a house in March.
So much for the “2011 will be our laid-back year” plan. 
Celebrate with me today, won’t you? I’m giving away one batch of Savvy Scones in the winner’s choice of flavor. Your options are: Coconut Chai (the classic), Orange White Chocolate, or Apple Cinnamon Spice.
To enter, leave a comment below telling me how you celebrated your last birthday! Giveaway ends Thursday.
For another chance to win some Savvy Scones, enter the Facebook giveaway too!
*This giveaway is now closed. Please click here to see if you’re the winner!*
we rented a ran and went back to my college town for a bar crawl!
Happy birthday!
My last birthday (27), I actually didn’t really do anything…my husband is in law school which means he has no time and collectively we have no money. I’m SOOOO looking forward to school being done so I get my husband back!
Happy birthday, Julie! For my last birthday we went low-key: dinner, margaritas and a chick-flick with my husband — perfection! Hope your 24th year is a wonderful one!
Happy birthday! I celebrated my last birthday by conducting a meeting to go work associated with a big pilot project we are working on that I totally love. And then going to swim practice. For both, I brought a slew of mini cupcakes to share. Cake, swimming, and nuclear energy – awesome.
margarita of death.
(also know as best NY birthday, yet!)
my birthday was the last day of winter break, and my boyfriend had come home with me for break. so we all (him + my family) went out to dinner the night before, and i spent my birthday day mostly on a plane :p
mmm apple cinnamon spice sounds tasty!
My last birthday was really low-key, but so wonderful…just dinner with friends!
last birthday i studied, however for my birthday ( monday!) Im going to th e phillies game this thursday! wwoo!
Yay for May birthdays! Mine is at the end of the month. Happy Birthday!
I think my last few birthdays have been spent in Philly, but this year will be a NY birthday!
My last birthday (41!?!) was spent with three of my six kids and my mister! We celebrated with dinner, cupcakes, ice cream, and then he hung a beautiful new spice rack in my kitchen!! I am lucky to be so lucky……even at 41!
Happy birthday! I celebrated my last birthday with a dinner with family. It was absolutely lovely. Now I’m off to look at your beautiful wedding photos!
My last birthday was spent in a snow storm. Luckily, I was able to shovel myself out and meet up with some friends for crab legs and movie watching.
I love seeing The Titus show up on J’s blog
Happy Birthday! My last was my 21st (woo!). All my best girl friends and I went to a snooty bar in our college town and got way over priced martinis. Then we all changed out of our annoyingly fancy clothes, got in comfy jeans, and then when back out to our actual favorite (all locally sourced) restaurant and had drinks and appetizers all night! It was wonderful!
My last birthday I was traveling and had dinner in Disney World. Awesome.
happy happy birthday!!! what a year
last year, my birthday was super low key! I was working from that day, so I had leftovers for lunch. But Nick made me breakfast and we went to our favorite local restaurant for dinner
I celebrated my birthday week with my husband by going to 2 amazing restaurants that I’d been dying to try. Neither disappointed!
BTW, I’ve been reading your blog and haven’t commented yet. I’m a food scientist as well, so I’m def interested in all of your experimentation in the kitchen!
Happy Birthday! Sounds like you have a healthy full life! My last birthday was spent with family in California. I did not do anything extravagant but at least I was with family.
For my last birthday, I made two cakes to share with my coworkers, both chocolate! (one flourless chocolate cake and one dark chocolate bundt cake!)
Happy Birthday! I spent 30 in Phoenix with a blog friend, I needed to get away from the cold Minnesota winter.
I celebrated my last birthday with my family including my then 2 week old son – exhausted and loving my new role as a mom.
I spent my 25th birthday in NYC with the love of my life (who has the same birthday).
happy birthday, julie!
my last birthday was in january and i spent it in st. louis visiting my fiance! we just made dinner in (a mama pea recipe!) and had a wine + movie night!
I celebrated my last birthday skiing in Vermont with some of my favorite bloggers!
Happy birthday Julie! You had quite the year- 24 looks like it will be awesome too! I celebrated my last birthday with a girls weekend with my college roommates at the beach on Long Island. It was great!
Happy birthday to you!!!
My last birthday was celebrated by going out to eat for a simple dinner at a mexican restaurant. You can’t beat salsa and margaritas!
Hey girl! Happy birthday to you!!!! I loved seeing what last year held for you. Here’s to another great year. My last birthday was mellow–celebrated with a dinner out with friends and that’s it. I have another one coming up in less than a month.. I am sure it will be even more boring
I celebrated by last birthday (the big 2-4 back in March!) by baking myself a coconut cake and blowing all 24 candles out at midnight!
Happy birthday, Julie!! Last year, my birthday was really low-key because I had class all day. I went out to dinner with my friends, drank a few margs and called it a night! I hope you have a wonderful day!
My last birthday… oh so long ago (hehe – all of 7 days). I had a great lunch with coworkers, met up with my mom in the evening to pick out a new bike (yay!!) and enjoy smoothies for dinner. We followed that up with a cabaret show. I will admit – I’m looking forward to next year quite a bit – the first year in quite awhile that my birthday won’t fall smack in the middle of my husband’s final exam studying.
Have a wonderful birthday… week… and month
That’s an exciting year! I didn’t realize you were so young! I still think I’m young (at 27). Happy birthday! I want to read more about Camp Blogaway!
My last birthday I had a horrible cold/flu thing so I didn’t celebrate :-S
And happy birthday!
My last birthday I had to work but then Hunni took me out to a fantastic dinner at a local restaurant I’d been meaning to try. We both got food poisoning and spent the next two days in bed. But I did make some fantastic muffins gluten free muffins with cinnamon and chocolate chips. Those tasted good once I could eat again.
Happy birthday! I celebrated last year with a low key get together with friends.
Surprise!!
Happy birthday, Julie!
I celebrated my last birthday at Disney on a super rainy day with my husband. It wasn’t the most comfortable at times but the lines were shorter and it’ll definitely be one I remember for a long time!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Your 23rd year looked like it was an amazing one. I can only hope that my own (beginning a little less than a month from today) is as full of love and laughter. Last year, to ring in my 22nd birthday, a big group of friends and I went out to dinner. Dinner then turned into drinks which led to dancing. I was exhausted at brunch the next morning but the much-needed carefree night of fun was beyond worth it. Hope we both have some fabulous celebrations to look forward to this year!
Happy Birthday!!!!
For my 29th birthday, I celebrated with a massage, lunch with my mom, an 8-mile run, and Paranormal Activity 2 with a friend.
i spent my last birthday with my family and friends! but it was my 21st birthday so it basically ended with a bang!
Happy Birthday, Julie! I hope you are having a lovely day, and doing something fun to celebrate! I was in Madrid on the end of our honeymoon on my last birthday. I’d be happy spending every birthday there!
I went out to dinner with my family, and ordered my first drink!
My last birthday (my 24th) was actually a low-key, kind of sad affair. A good friend had to fly home unexpectedly the day before my birthday because her father, who was in hospice at the time, had taken a turn for the worse. He wound up passing away the morning of my birthday and her boyfriend (another good friend) got on a plane to be with her. My other close friends and I were too worried about her to do much celebrating so I decided to scrap the plans I had made in favor of eating some cheesecake with my boyfriend and going to bed early that night.
THIS year though…I am planning a joint celebration with a friend who has a birthday just a few days after mine. It will be huge, loud, fun and EPIC!! I think that it will more than make up for a skipped year!
I celebrated with a surprise bday cake and a trip to the county fair with a bunch of friends. A great celebration!
Happy Birthday Julie!
I spent my last birthday at an all day yoga teacher training, then out to dinner and to a Timberwovles game!
Mine was kind of laid back. I just did dinner with my husband and took plenty of naps (I’m in grad school, it’s a BIG LUXURY).
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday!
I went to my favourite seaside (Broadstairs) with my mum and some girlfriends and then went to the pub for the evening…it was fairly low key.
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Julie!!!
I celebrated my last birthday back in January with a Luau party with all of my best friends the night before. It was great…and a good excuse to feel tropical in the dead of winter!
I share a birthday with my nephew. So last year, when he was turning 6 and I was turning 25, we had a joint celebration at McDonald’s. Then I did a photoshoot! (I wasn’t the subject; I was the photographer.) And then I had some fairtrade chocolate brownies with my friends. And it was LOVELY!!
What a great giveaway for your birthday Julie! For my last birthday, I had a joint party with my best friend Lianne who has a birthday 3 days later. We had drinks at her house and then went out to a bar with a big group of friends. I also had an incredible sushi dinner on the day of my birthday with my boyfriend, but I ended up getting sick and not being able to eat very much, which is SO unlike me!
Well first off, happy birthday! I spent my last birthday dressed up at a parade & party (my birthday is on Halloween!)
Happy Birthday! And yay for scone giveaway! My last birthday was spent amongst friends. There were several of us who had May birthday and we all celebrated together. It was tons of fun! And I loved reading about your last year, sounds like it was more than a great one!
Happy birthday!
Last year I spent my birthday with my boyfriend, who took me out to one of my favorite restaurants – a Tibetan place – and then out for frozen yogurt. It was laid back, but fun.
Happy Birthday!! What a fun last year! I celebrated my 25th birthday at the pool during the day and bowling during the night. My sister and one of my husbands best friends was in town. For the rest of the weekend we went down to my in laws farm for a big bon fire. The whole weekend was so fun!
Happy Birthday!! Last year I celebrated my birthday twice! The first celelbration was dinner with my parents at Tutto’s and the second was watching the Badgers beat Ohio State with friends. 25 was a good birthday!
Happy Birthday! I spent my last birthday running a 5K race with my husband. What made this race so special was a. it was on MY birthday and b. It was my husband’s first ever 5K and the first race we had ever run together. He had just taken up running a little less than a year before and I was so proud of him for sticking with it. Now we’re training for a 10K!
Wow, so many exciting changes in the past year! I celebrated my last birthday with my whole family (because it’s right around Thanksgiving) and we went out to my favorite Italian restaurant. Simple, just the way I like it! Can’t wait to see what this next year brings for you, Julie! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Just saw your blog on Then Heather Said; Happy Birthday!! I didn’t do too much for my last birthday, just dinner and drinks with friends! Those orange white chocolate scones sounds delicious
I think you should check out this post… http://www.savvyeat.com/birthday-giveaway-winners/
My last birthday I turned 28. Actually, it was quite depressing to be honest. My husband is super busy with grad school and at the time was also being contracted out working about 20 hours a week so he kinda forgot my birthday. Well, he didn’t forgot it, he just didn’t realize it was that actual day when I saw him. Needless to say, he felt terrible and then tried to make it up to me by getting me a frosty from Wendy’s. I mean, I love me a frosty but he wasn’t winning any awards with this gift. He made it up to me during the holidays though and got me a really fancy at home spin bike that I had been subtly dropping hints about. You win some, you lose some.
These are all great photos, Julie. You have another stellar year ahead. This year my birthday was celebrated with a cold 10 mile run, relaxed dinner made at home and watching a movie with my boyfriend. Happy happy bday!
Happy Birthday!
My last birthday was a big one… 30!
I had a party at my favorite winery in there barrell tasting room. It was one of the best parties I have ever had.
Happy birthday, Julie! Have a great year!
Happy Birthday! On my last birthday I had celebrated by getting together with friends. I had planned the get-together to be at a swanky wine bar here in Chicago, but that didn’t turn out so well, so we ended up at a dive bar nearby. Wasn’t quite what I had envisioned, but so much more fun in the end with my friends!
We’re like the same age! I turned 24 a month ago. I live away from my family, and they came for a weekend visit to celebrate. We woke up early on Saturday and spent the morning at the farmer’s market and co-op. They got me a food processor for my birthday, which I have been wanting for ages. I’ve been dying to make your chocolate hazelnut spread, and soon I shall. It was a very low key and fun day of celebrating. We went out for dinner and just spent time together. My kind of birthday.
Happy birthday Julie! I hope this year is just as fantastic as the last. It was fun to read about your year in review.
I am about to turn 23 in June…for my 22nd birthday, I spent a relaxing day with family and friends.
I cooked dinner for my family and a home cooked specialty for our beloved dogs. Spent the day enjoying each other’s company. The little things are what make our lives meaningful.
Happy birthday!!!
My last birthday was fun! We celebrated with a surprise tea party thrown by my husband with everyone donating to heifer international instead of gifts