Another Year older

November 18th was my 34th birthday. Almost every year for my birthday Gabe takes me wine tasting out in the country which is one of my favorite things to do of all time. I love it cause I have beautiful scenery around me, the air smells fresh with woods and flowers, I get to check out lovely wine tasting rooms, taste great wine, meet new people, and have a nice dinner. I just love it.
However plans changed this year. Gabe asked me if I wanted to do wine tasting for my birthday this year..or. for my birthday he would renew our Disneyland annual passports. I opted for the annual Passports for Disneyland! That is another one of my favorite things to do plus I can take the kids and go more often then wine tasting...besides..I think later we are going to do wine tasting anyway.
So since we were going to go to Disneyland over the weekend for my bday I just worked and figured it to be just any regular day at the office but I got surprises all day! This is my desk. Holly came in the morning with a big red velvet cupcake with candles and some balloons and sung Happy Birthday to me!

My Bosses wife dropped by and brought me these beautiful Gladiolas

We had some guests from our factory in Italy in town and they left me a bottle of wine ( which I think they got for free from their hotel) but a very nice gesture!

My boss got me my favorite Italian Rum butter Cake. They called me into the kitchen and all the staff plus the students that were here for training and one of our dealers were all there too to sing and enjoy the cake. This cake lasted 1 day in my house!

Ally dropped by my office and she knows I have a thing for OWLS...I LOVE owls as well as Long Neck vintage cats. She made these amazing Owl cupcakes which My kids went crazy over...the last one I had in a box Gabe and I walked into my kitchen and Ava was sitting on the floor COVERED with chocolate...I guess she inhaled it before we caught her and took it away. They were very tasty!

Along with the cupcakes Ally brought me this awesome Audrey Hepburn Breakfast at Tiffany's poster.

Work turned out to be a pretty good day. I had a nice lunch, surprised with random goodies here and there and it was not too busy so my day was very nice...Plus I had the following day off so it was a start to my bday weekend!

When I came home the house was all cleaned up and on the table in the living room was this very special birthday cake that Gabe baked at home. He and Ava walked over to the cake shop and he picked out these little decorations, home made frosting and filling for the cake. He said to me he didn't realize how hard it is to make a cake.

It was a tasty cake and I thought it came out pretty darn cute too!

Shortly my mom showed up to watch the kids while Gabe and I dashed out to dinner. He was going to take me to Park Ave which is like one of my favorite restaurants but I really did not want to travel too far from home.

You know it was crazy cause I just had this feeling to not go far and I was telling Gabe that and he said he had the same feeling too!

Do you ever get that?

So we ended up going to Outback Steakhouse by the Lakewood Center mall right by us and had a cocktail then ate dinner ( steak and king Crab for me and Steak and lobster for Gabe). We got home early and just spent the rest of the evening lounging around the house.

I have to say it was really super mellow and I loved it!

Bath Time Fun!

My brother had his twins for a few hours last week and we all hung around my house to watch them play. Logan ended up having a REALLY bad poopy diaper and so my brother was carrying him like a torpedo through the hallway Yelling OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR and washed him up in the bath. After he was rinse we decided to just fill up the tub for him to have a regular bath anyway. My brother proceeds in the living room for a moment and then goes back to the bathroom where Alexis had jumped in the tub too with Logan in all her clothes...I just hear my brother from the bathroom going NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
Then Ava was sitting at the edge of the tub watching the twins in the tub and started following my brother trying to lift up her shirt bascially saying she wanted to go in the tub too So we decided to add a bunch of toys and bubbles and just let them all have fun in the bath together. It made for Fun pictures!
I could never get a photo of all 3 of them looking at the camera though

They did not want to get out!

Then they had fun playing in Parkers Loft bed.

They were all laughing have a good time.

It is fun when they are together. They get along pretty well.

Dress Time..Can I buy them all..

Oh My which to choose!! My friend emailed me a link to some MUST have dresses for Ava and Oh boy are they adorable...I do need to get her a holiday dress...but what do I choose...
I love this little red coat and dress set..it's like a little Jackie-O

This is just precious but I got to be realistic here...a 2 year old and white..hmm..PASS but it is stunning!

I love this simple and practical..Looks like I could just slide it over her head..that makes things easy for a 2 year old that does not want to sit still

Anything with emboridery has my vote!

Yes and I will take one in my siz as well please...seriously..i want this set for MYSELF!!

I love this coat...just hadto add it.

Coat and Jacket..c'mon...anything with Polka dots is great on a small child!

This almost looks like a adult dress..I would totally wear it...I don't know but now I take a editing eye on this...It may be a little mature for a toddler..you think??

Now to just decide which one to get....

Lost another great one....

I know when I get text messages or calls after midnight that it usually is not good news and today I did receive some bad news.

A friend of mine I found out was killed on his scooter last night driving home.

He was hit by a driver making a left hand turn and he was from what I heard instantly taken.

I known Vic back in my early Mod clubbing days. He was always this very nice fun loving guy who just had the passion and soul for dancing. I remember the first time I saw him he was on stage cutting a rug to some 60's music and I was just like WOW that guy is a fantastic dancer. He was very popular and well liked by many. I used to have the biggest crush on him. I am so sad to hear this unfortunate news about him. He was married...no kids I believe...a newlywed really.
I remember him taking about his still they had once and the homemade Vodka he would make. I used to run into him all the time almost every time I was in Hollywood at a restaurant,exhibit,concerts,clubs, scooter rallies. I will miss seeing him around.
Vic and I at the Las Vegas Scooter rally 2010

Vic, Myself and Gabe.

Cafe Blue reunion. This is where you would usually find Vic...dancing on stage

Great guy...I am so saddened and in shock. His family is in my prayers.

REST IN PEACE VIC.

On the Menu

Well Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I think this year now that we have a bigger place it will be a really great one.

My plan is to have a old fashion harvest style Thanksgiving. I am going to lay out long banquet tables in the backyard with white table cloths, Long pillar candles, and some harvest style table decorations ( hand made by the kids and I). I also thought I would string some White twinkling lights across the yard and everyone can enjoy the feast outdoors.

This year so far on the menu will be a Maple Roasted turkey with a Riesling gravy, Herb and garlic roasted potatoes, green bean casserole, green salad, apricot and raisin stuffing, my famous cream cheese corn dish, candied yams, fresh cranberry sauce...with maybe small chunks of canned mixed in for texture and croissants and biscuits!!

I am sure my great uncle Jr will probably bring over a honey baked Ham which he usually does.

The usual suspects that have dinner with us each year is my parents of course, my dads uncle, my brother and his girlfriend. Sometimes the twins get to come over too but that hasn't happened lately on a Thanksgiving. ally usually comes and spends Thanksgiving with us as well.

The day usually starts off with Wine tasting that I like to let Gabe give a little seminar of for everyone and that usually comes with some appetizers to match.
The day then consists of lots of chatting away, maybe a TV marathon of some sort, music and video game playing like guitar hero or rock band, then after eating , resting a little before heading out into the cold streets for some sort of mini camp out for the Toys r Us black Friday sale!

I can't wait!

Little Frogs

About a week ago...maybe longer I caught this little guy at work. I come in very early in the morning and as i was walking towards the kitchen I saw him scamper away from under my foot and I jumped cause I frighten me...I thought it was a cricket at first but then I notice it was a tiny little toad.
Anyway general con census at home (husband and Son) said they wanted to keep him.
Well I still have him and he is very active. We been feeding him flies and crickets and moths and other little bugs found in my backyard. We have him in a 5 gallon tank at home under some bushes and he has a nice little habitat in there with some dry and wet areas and plenty of dirt, gravel, vines, plants and tons of other stuff.
One of my co worker said he has been finding all kinds of little frogs in the back shop area and been releasing them back outside. I told him to keep one for me if he finds another and today he has.
I am so excited to take the new frog over to live with my other frog. They are about the same size....same family maybe.
I think they are toads cause they are all really bumpy. I hope they grow big!!

Haunted Homecoming 1985

This past Saturday Greg and Maria had a Haunted Homecoming 1985 Halloween Party. It was originally just going to be a 80's prom theme but then was turned into everyone dress as some sort of icon or pop culture item from the 80's.
Gabe was crocodile Dundee for the first part of the night but later changed into his DEVO costume, Holly was Julie Brown's The homecoming Queens got a Gun, Chris was Vivian from the Young Ones and I was a Robert Palmer addicted to Love girl. We carpooled with Chris and Holly up to the party and Gabe's mom took this of us before we left.

There was a room set up with big projection screens of 80's horror movies and videos, a table of food, a fridge full of dry ice so when you open it for a beer a big fog would come pouring out, Bunch of decorations, they had a seance room with crystal ball set up in one of the rooms at their house, a full bar outside, pac-man in the kitchen..it was a nice set up.

Greg and Maria...Greg's WHAM outfit cracked me up!

Dave was Spicoli! It was very fitting

Viki was Toni Basil!

Dan was Robert Palmer and his friend April was also a Palmer girl.

Gabe! He changed pretty quickly.

Erik and Holly were Mario and princess Peach. They were really cute and I was very excited to hear that they have another baby on the way..Sofia will have a little sister in May!

Josh was Teen Wolf

GiGi came as a Black Panther..there were so many great costumes. The majority were dressed in 80's Garb but a few party hoppers were in other costumes.

They had Sing star 80's set up in the party room so everyone was singing 80's songs...Michael Burns was having way to much fun!

Holly and Michael doing a 80's song

Then MICKEY song came on and Vicki wa out on the floor doing her Mickey Cheer!

The night just flew by and next thing I know it is almost 3am. What a great party!

Pa's Pumpkin Patch 2010

We have lagged a lot this year in regards to taking the kids to the Pumpkin patch. We finally did this past Saturday. Before we left we were hanging at home getting Parker's costume all picked out for Halloween and in this huge box of costumes we have there was this witches' hat...Ava LOVED it and just could not go without it on. I gave her one of my cinnamon brooms to hold cause it was rather witchy looking....

We finally got to the pumpkin Patch. Both kids were really excited to be there.

I caught Ava with this look on her face several times in WOW over all the pumpkins.

They had this little pumpkin pit that all the kiddies were sitting in. Parker wanted to take a picture in it.

Ava did too.

She really had fun sitting on the pumpkins and falling off them.

They had fun in the pumpkin wagon ride too!

Time for some carnival rides...Parker had to go in the Bounce house first.

While Ava rode on the flying pink elephants.

Then Parker headed over to the viking swing

And Ava into the 4 and under pumpkin bounce house

Where she laughed and laughed

and jumped and jumped

One last ride...Big Slide time...boy Parker was really flying down that slide!

Ava and I sitting down while Parker was sliding

Having fun watching Big Brother play

Time to torture the animals in the petting zoo really quick before we leave!

Gabe kept a close eye on her so she would not pull any tails...she has been really rough with the animals lately. She is learning though.