Let's Talk...Moms

Linking up again for Let's Talk this month.  Last month we talked about the guys in our lives and this month it is all about moms.  My mom is awesome and hands down the best mom ever! I might be biased but I really don't think so.

As is probably evident from the abundance of Disneyland pictures over the years my mom helped (along with my dad) helped grow my love of Disney and Disneyland.

My mom grew up in the town my parents raised my sisters and I in so she knows so much about the town, its history and the people who live there.

I can attribute any cooking skills I possess to what my mom taught me,  Whenever I have any cooking questions I almost always call her before I even call on my friend Google.  My mom has more appliances and tool in her kitchen than anyone I know.  She also has almost been banned (by my dad) from buying any more cookbooks because she has so many.

The closer I get to deciding it is time for me (and my husband) to start trying to have kids the more I realize that I have some large shoes to fill in being a mom.  If I call my mom for advice now I can't even imagine how often I will be calling her for advice once I have kids.  I wouldn't be surprised if she started screening my calls.  Ok probably not but she might be tempted!

My mom is a wonderful role model of how to be a mom but also how to have a good, long lasting and happy marriage.  She has been married to my dad for almost 40 years and it is obvious how much they still love each other.  I aspire to be the kind of person she has succeeded in being.

Bachelorette Party Part 2-Wedding Wednesday

New we pick up where we left off last week with my fabulous bachelorette party.

Friday after we finished our wine tasting we headed back to our house to get all dressed up to go out in San Luis Obispo. It is about a 20-30 minute drive to San Luis Obispo from Paso Robles but the nightlife is better there so we made the drive. 

I brought a couple of dresses with me to choose between but ended up wearing this really pretty green racer back dress and a pair of sparkly flats.  I considered wearing heels but decided to go for comfort instead.  My feet thanked me later.

My sister ordered some fun gold tattoos that said "Bride Tribe" for everyone to wear out that night. It is hard to tell from the pictures but mine just said "Bride" These tattoos actually stated on pretty much intact until I scrubbed it off then next week.   

Once we were all dress up we headed to dinner Novo and it did not disappoint.  Granted it is California but it was still winter so it was a bit chilly.  They sat our big group out on their gorgeous patio with heat lamps and they have us fluffy blankets to put in our laps.  I was a bit worried at the beginning but it ended up being fine.  I can imagine the patio being fabulous in the summer too.

Everything we ate was delicious and my cucumber mojito was nice and refreshing.  I am always a fan of a place that serves a cheese plate.  I can't remember what my main dish was but I remember the cheese. Priorities!

After we finished dinner we headed to Luna Red for some fancy cocktails.  I had what they called a Fizzy Lifting Drink and while sadly it didn't have the same effects that it did in the movie it was delicious.  After the fancy cocktails we went to a place popular with the college population for Cal Poly but we only lasted about 30 minutes there before we felt old and moved onto another place that had a bit more diverse crowd with music we could dance to. In addition to fun tattoos my sister also found bachelorette party scratchers that had dares/tasks for the bride to do. Everyone scratched one and then they had to help me accomplish the task.  Some tasks were easier than others.

One of the cards had me take a picture with a random person hence this picture. Another one of the cards was Maid of Honor's choice so my sister told me to get someone to put one of our extra Bride Tribe tattoos on.  I found a guy in line for the restroom and asked him if I could put the tattoo on his hand.  This guy didn't want it on his hand; he wanted it on his face!  I asked him multiple times if he wanted it on his hand but no he really wanted it on his cheek. I wonder what he though the next morning when he woke up with a gold Bride Tribe tattoo on his face.

Saturday morning we headed out wine tasting again.  Our first stop was Still Waters Vineyards.  This place was gorgeous and the wine was delicious. 

The view from this winery out over the vineyards was beautiful and there were picnic tables and lawn games to enjoy.  They have many weddings there and I can see why someone would choose this space. We knew about the picnic space in advance so we brought a picnic of cheese, crackers and fruit to enjoy before we headed out to our second winery.

The second winery was called Peachy Canyon and unfortunately it was by far our least favorite winery of the weekend. The wine was nothing special so I don't think anyone ended up buying anything there.  They did have a really cool enormous wooden adirondack chair that we took full advantage of for pictures.

The other fun thing we found at this winery was a sign with my husband's name on it.  He doesn't really drink much wine but apparently he has a vineyard named after him anyway.

The third (and last) winery of the day we went to was much more successful than our second one.  Dark Star Cellars had delicious wines and the staff there was really knowledgable and fun to talk to which is always a bonus.

The logo of this winery totally reminds me of some kind of super hero logo.  I like to think if super heros had a winery this is what their logo would look like. By the time we finished at Dark Star we were ready to head back to the house and get in comfy clothes.

Back at the house we made pizzas and salad for dinner and then played some games before falling asleep fairly early.  We had a long fun weekend and none of us are as young as we once were. We ate so much food at dinner Saturday night that we didn't save room for desert.  We ended up having to eat ice cream pie for breakfast Sunday morning before we all hit the road to go come.

Sunday morning we all headed out back to our homes after a very fun girls weekend.  My sister did a fabulous job with all her planning and my cousins and friends made it even more fun. My other sister wasn't able to come to this party because of school but she threw me a fabulous bridal shower a few weeks later so come back to hear all about that.

Easter Decorations

With Easter being so early this year there was only about a week between St. Patrick's Day and Easter.  I thought about not decorating since they would only be up for a week but many of my Easter decorations at least partially turn into part of my Spring decorations so I decided to just go for it.

As usual I filled my favorite wooden bowl with festive decorations.  As much as it makes a mess when setting it up I love my natural grass mix much better than neon stuff that many easter baskets are filled with. Good thing I don't have to remove the grass from the bowl for at least a few months.

A little bunny, some flowers and a few eggs in a glass bowl decorate the ledge right inside my front door.  It looks so springy and fun when I come home from work.  We have been having some nice spring weather for the last week or so but today it rained again.  I won't complain too much since we really need the rain here in California.

I bought this wreath in the Target Dollar Spot last year for $3 and it has paid for itself about 10 times over.  I used it with various decorations last Summer and last Fall and then put it away during the winter but it was time break it out again. I added some little clip on flowers and it is ready to go for Spring

This year I even added a few festive eggs in our bedroom for a little Easter touch.

I am going to enjoy my Easter decorations for their short little season and then switch out a few things and enjoy Sprig.

Bachelorette Party Part 1-Wedding Wednesday

This post is going to be long and full of pictures but just imagine how long it would be if I didn't split this weekend up into multiple posts!

In February I headed to San Luis Obispo County for my fabulous bachelorette weekend.  My sister, one of my best friends and I were the first ones to get there (people came and went throughout the weekend) so we put up a few decorations before relaxing for a bit.

We rented a fabulous house in Paso Robles to use as our home base for the weekend and throughly enjoyed it.  Look at this bathroom!

The master bedroom was nice and spacious.  I managed to not get any pictures but there were white barn doors separating the rooms throughout the house that just gave the house a cool rustic vibe.

 There were two living rooms though we spent most of our lounging time in the one on the first floor. We had so many Frozen balloons (from the dollar store) all over the living room to add a little sophisticated flair. Ha! Ok maybe fun and tacky was the vibe we were going for.

After relaxing for a bit at the house the three of us that were there headed to downtown Paso Robles for dinner.  Thanks to our friend Yelp we found a cute little South American tapas place called La Cosecha. So glad we found this place.  The food and cocktails were awesome! We had a ceviche with plantain chips and an amazing flat bread among other dishes.

All three of us are not fans of super sweet drinks and these cocktails did not disappoint. I had a pineapple version of a Moscow Mule, my sister had a lemon lavender drink and my friend had a version of a pisco sour. 

If there wasn't wine waiting for us at home there were many other delicious cocktails we could have had.

After we got home from dinner we settled in for the evening in our pajamas to wait for my sister in law to arrive.  While we were waiting there was no reason not to have some wine! My sister in law was hungry by the time she got there so there also may have been some late night fast food eating.  Calories don't count at your bachelorette party right?!?

The next morning after some grocery shopping for some weekend necessities we all got ready to head to our first winery. By this time two of my cousins had joined the party. We headed to Le Vigne Winery for a tour and some tasting. 

After a tasting of some sparkling wine we headed to the back to see how the winery operated.  We did a couple of fun barrel tastings during the tour before heading back to the tasting room.

Back in the tasting room we not only got to taste some delicious wine but every wine was paired with cheese.  Wine and cheese! I was one very happy girl at this point.

I don't think there was a single wine or cheese that we didn't enjoy and many bottles (and some cheese) ended up coming home with us that day.  This was the only winery we went to this day and it was a great way to start off our wine tasting weekend. After we finished our tasting we headed back to the house to get dressed for a night out on the town.

That night on the town and the rest of the weekend will have to wait for another day so this doesn't turn into a novel.  Oh the suspense!