Good bye 20's, Hello 30's!

Yes I bid (a not so sad) farwell to my 20's this weekend. I wasn't too upset about it though since I really feel I am in a great place going into my 30th year. I have an amazing and loving husband. Two beautiful and healthy children who continue to amaze and delight me everyday. What is there to complain about?!

div>Speaking of that wonderful husband, he threw me a wonderful party! Now I haven't had an official party since I was about 13 years old so this was very special. He was a little nervous about throwing the 'party planner' a party, but he did an amazing job. He was helped out by our friend Brett who catered the party and did an amazing job!! Check out his website here!

I really do want to thank all my wonderful friends (and cousin Sarah!) who came out to celebrate my birthday with me. It meant a lot of bring in my 30th year surrounded by loved ones. And of course a big thank you to my Mom, without you I wouldn't be here!!!

Here is a photo of me and my wonderful hubby!

The 3 liter bottle of wine we had for everyone to sign.

Some of the wonderful friends who came out to celebrate....




Some of the amazing food! It was all so delicious!!!

My hubby also let me go a little crazy with flower arrangements since I love flowers so much. I LOVE these pumpkin branches I found at Trader Joe's!! Yes, they are real and so cute!!


Thanks again everyone for a memorable birthday!!

Soccer time!

With school in full swing now it is time for some fall activities!! Alex wanted to play soccer again this year so we signed him up for his school's soccer team. This year though he has a very special coach.....his daddy! Paul was really excited to be a coach and Alex was excited to have his daddy out there at practice and all the games leading his team to....well the field. I mean come on, they are all only 6 years old and aren't doing too many goals out there. They are all quite darling though and I love getting to know all the parents!

I am happy to report that Alex is adjusting really well to school. He has made lots of new friends and his current new 'best friend' Dylan is a very nice boy that Alex has a lot of fun with.

Although mother nature has not been cooperating with the temperature, the kids have been happy with the weather and loving our new house. My cousin Sarah took this amazing photo of the kids that I just love! It just looks like a great fall photo, such a great photo of the kids - it looks like it could be on the front of a card!

Happy fall everyone!

A big 40th celebration!!

This weekend one of my great friends Debbie turned 40! Her husband planned an amazing weekend getaway with about 30 of her closest friends & family at the Central Coast. It was an amazing weekend of wine, food and great memories had by all. The birthday girl had lots of surprises all weekend long and really enjoyed herself.

We started off the weekend with a little bit if wine tasting and then dinner at our favorite sea side restaurant, The Sea Chest. Dave presented Debbie with a very special gift of a strand of pearls that were his late mother's. It was a touching moment that was special to be a part of.

We stayed the weekend in our favorite rental home right on Moonstone Beach drive and soaked in the sea air. The next morning we got up and Dave had arranged for a limo to pick up 17 of us to go wine tasting for several hours. Debbie had no idea and was so surprised when the limo pulled up to the house!




We tasted some great wines at Eberle, Castoro (and we joined yet another wine club, eek!), 4 Vines and Eagle Crest. The wine was great and the scenery was beautiful!

After wine tasting we got ready for Debbie's big dinner celebration at The Hamlet. It was a great dinner, with an awesome cake drove over from Eddie's Bakery! Dave also put together an amazing slide show of photos for Debbie and we did a mini roast. More food, more great wine and lots of laughter.

What a great weekend! Happy 40th Birthday Debbie!!!

SpongeBob Birthday

The big day has finally arrived and my big boy celebrated his 5th birthday in style this weekend. His choice of a theme this year - SpongeBob. I decided to take it up a notch though and not just do the same old SpongeBob ideas....I got creative!

I took the main colors of yellow and blue and carried them throughout the party with the labels, tissue poms and table cloths. A huge thank you to Channone Smith for taking such wonderful photos, my hubby for helping with all the food and decorating, Debbie who made the SpongeBob sugar cookies with me and my mom for the place mats. The kids all had a wonderful time (and went home on quite the sugar high) and I was very happy with the way it turned out!!





This was the dessert bar I set up. Had to set it up inside due to the 100 degree heat! Didn't want his cake to melt or all the beautiful cookies I had help making.











Even with the heat outside, everything still turned out wonderful! The kids loved the bounce house and pool and worked up quite an appetite.

Poor Alex has been having to contain himself these past weeks and not eat any of the candy and cookies that have been around. He was so happy to finally have a cookie and so was Sissy!

Finally he got to blow out the candles on his cake and open presents. Such an exciting day and now....kindergarten!

SpongeBob Party Madness (sneak peek #2)

I have been MIA in the blog world but I have a good reason! I've been swamped in the world of SpongeBob and party preparation. My friend Carin actually had the great idea to blog about my latest party decoration but first..............I have to wish my darling boy Happy Birthday!!!! He is 5 years old today! I love you Alex!


Alex's party is a few days away and I have been burning the midnight oil getting everything ready for his party. As I said, my latest adventure was learning to make tissue poms for decorations. They are actually pretty easy and they are so beautiful. I read a lot of other party blogs and they are very popular at many parties, weddings, and showers. You just buy tissue paper of whatever color or colors you want and go nuts with it! I am sticking to yellow, blues and greens for Alex's party so here are a few I did:



I have the yellow ones in a bunch of three and they are hanging from one of our ceiling fans. I am going to make about a dozen more in various colors to hang over the dessert table and also throughout the backyard. I better get busy!

For full instructions on how to make these tissue poms click here compliments of Martha Stewart, the queen of party planning.

For Alex's birthday today I made him some 'Krabby Patty' cupcakes to take to his daycare. They turned out really cute and were very easy.

Well I must get busy with decorating chocolate dipped oreos and making more tissue poms, more to come soon!