titlehere; Turning 30.

Byline: William Norwich

Thirtieth-birthday parties are a kind of phenomenon these days. For baby boomers, turning 30 meant maybe a small dinner; otherwise it was an occasion to avoid. After all, wasn't that the generation told in their youth to trust no one over 30? But these days the baby boomers' children are pulling out all the stops.

"Thirty is the new 21," Lauren Davis said the day of her recent thirtieth-birthday party, a dinner held at restaurateur Stephen Starr's delicious and then-as-yet-unopened Buddakan, on lower Ninth Avenue in New York.

"People see 30 as the last chance to have a real blowout before they settle down, or at least perhaps should settle down," she laughed, shopping that morning for peonies and sweet peas with party designer Raul Avila at Gary Paige in the flower market on West Twenty-eighth Street. "For many people, their 20s are a decade of exploration and continued education, but come 30 you want to commit both career-wise and on a personal level."

To give a memorable thirtieth-birthday party, you really don't have to spend a fortune. Attach an iPod to some speakers, move the furniture aside, and have a little dance-and-dessert party. (Domestic champagne is fine.) Maybe friends will give a spaghetti supper at their house before your dance.

On a grander scale, theme parties, like the fine-feathered aforementioned fetes, are always popular. A theme party automatically suggests how to decorate, prepare a menu, and dress-salvation for a nervous hostess. Another category for

thirtieth-birthday entertaining is something akin to a "destination" party. For instance, Celerie Kemble's thirtieth was roller-skating at the Roxy.