Shhh...

This past weekend. I threw a 30th Surprise Birthday Party for my hubs.  It was a smashing success and everyone had a Marvelous time!!  We took a few photos, but I just took them with my point and shoot, so I have nothing fancy to show you.  I really wanted to take some marvelous photos, but it was hard enough for me to fanagle a surprise birthday party for my very intuitive, investigative husband and have it be a complete surprise to him (which it was) to handle the details, and to keep a very tired, very fussy 11 month old up way past her bedtime content through the end of the party.  I was exhausted by the time the party rolled around!!

We had it at a local eatery, and they did a fantastic job!  The food and the service was absolutely fabulous!  Good wine, salad, bread, pasta, italian beef sandwhiches, gelato ice cream, desserts, lemon chello, and espresso.  I made a three layer Italian Creme Cake that everyone said turned out fabulous, (although I was so full, I didn't eat any!)

I was dying to tell you all about it, but in case my hubs read my blog, I had to keep it a secret down to the very last minute!  I literally picked my hubby up at his office minutes before the party (with the ruse that I had arranged an intimate dinner for the three of us)...I had to...otherwise he would have suspected! 

Afterwards, we had a party bus us for our ride downtown for cocktails afterwards at two fabulous local establishments.  Although my camera battery died right after dinner (of all the times not to document an occasion...)!  I will try and upload a couple pics tonight or tomorrow.  I have never thrown a surprise party for anyone, and my husband always told me that I would never be able to throw a surprise party for him bc he's too clever (Ha! Gotcha pooks!)

30 is considered one of those "Over the Hill" marks (along with 40, 50, and 60) and so I got him an huge infaltable walker, a cane with all these little old folk gadgets, huge reading glasses that look like Harry Carry glasses, a Birthday hat, and a Hearing cone.  Along with Big balloons, confetti, and 30th Birthday signs.  Mimi and Papa (my parents) watched the pumpkin for us for the rest of the evening, and we had a wonderful night of cocktails, good conversation, and fun, all to ourselves and family!

My mother-in-law made us a huge breakfast the next morning, and then we all attended my niece's play at her school, and she was absolutely, hands down the best one in the play, the most animated, the only one we could actually hear on the stage, and the most beautiful!!  I was floored at how magnificent she was.  I always think that child (young woman) can never surprise me anymore with how truly amazing she is, and yet, she always does!

The pumpkin was thoroughly exhausted after a long weekend, and a time change, and went to bed a little early. My hubs and I watched a movie together last night and shared some yummy buttery popcorn, a snuggle, and some yummy chocolate eggs.

Tomorrow is my hubs actual 30th Birthday, and I am making what is supposed to be "The Best Chocolate Cake" ever.  We'll see...

And Wednesday is St. Patty's Day!!  And then the Pumpkin's 1st Birthday is next!  Can't wait!

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye. Au Vietizane.Au Revoir. Wordless Wednesday??!!

(Yep, that's snow falling.)

(Good Bye Winter, Hello Spring!!)

I love you pumpkin.

Today was a beautiful, beautiful day, I wish it could be like this everyday till Summer.  But we have more cold and rain headed our way I think...But today, today was beautiful.  A little taste of Spring and I LOVED it!!  As excited as I am for Spring and Summer.  I must say I'm a little nostalgic for winter to come to an end.  This was my pumpkin's first winter, first fall, first Halloween, first Thanksgiving, first Christmas, first snowfall, first New Year, first Valentines Day.  So many firsts, and they will only ever be firsts once...I don't want to let them go, let them pass by...

I know there are many more firsts ahead, and we can't wait for those too...but I am going to treasure this fist year with our pumpkin.  And miss it.  She's getting so big so fast, and time is just flying by.  She'll be one in a couple weeks, and while she'll always be my baby, she won't be a baby for much longer.

I am nearing the end of my Family Leave Bonding as the pumpkin is almost one, and I think it is starting to hit me that my Wednesdays with my pumpkin are coming to an end, and I am just getting sappy.  Maybe there's another alternative to staying home a day a week with my pumpkin in the future, but for now, I am feeling a tid bit sad for our special days that are coming to an end.

Love you pumpkin. 
Love your chubby yummy soft cheeks and little feet:) 
You'll always be my little pumpkin. 
Even when you're a big pumpkin:)

Oscar Night.

(Yes).

Wordless Wednesday.

(Mmmm....)

Ha!

On Mommy's Role as the Housewife
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Top Two Favorite Stores!!

Top Two Tuesdays hosted by Taylor at Undomestic Mama.  You can see Taylor's Top Two Picks for this week and many other Mama's here: http://benandtay.blogspot.com/

1.

 

Umm...Duh.  As you all can read in my profile on the right Vickie's is my absolute favorite store!!  Before hubs started limiting my shopping expenditures, I used be in this store a couple times a week!!  I would always get a little kick when I went to get the mail and there was a glorious new flyer in the mail or coupon for free undies!!  It's like Heaven walking in there and I feel like Rebecca Bloomwood in Shopoholic when the mannequins bekon her in to the store and start talking to her.  That's how I feel when I walk in here!!  And it is always flooded with beautiful, bubbly, sparkly associates (with great hair) at your wimb, aching to assist you in your every need.  

Our town recived an upgrade to our store a couple of years ago, and I almost died waiting for them to re-open.  It was a nightmare.  They temporarily opened this little take out Vickie shop down the way from the site whiel it was under reapir but it wasn't nearly the same.  They did away with our make-up section wit the remodel which made about made me cry, I literally nearly begged them in the store to not do away with it, but we have a store less than an hour away that carries the line. 

But the upgrade is AWESOME!! and they now carry swimsuits and a more lucrative product line.  It's by far my favorite store for many years now.  And any indulgence is a gift for everyone.  But, I must say when hubs brings home a pink box or a little pink bag, my little eyes light up like it's aTiffany's Blue Box (which by the way elicits almost, not quite, the same reaction as Vickie's for me!)

2.

In our little po-dunk town here, we don't have nearly the retail that is readily available in larger, more metropolitan cities, so this is just about as good as it gets here...Really what I would love to see more of here are the little quaint independent ritzy shops that you find in other areas, but sadly, there's not really an audience for them here in our town, no longevity, but that is the kind of shop I would open here if I could. 

 So this, to me, is the best place we have to shop here in town for a kind of one-stop shop.  They have complimentary shipping and wrapping, and no interest on their store cards!  There's always good service as they receive commission on sales!  They tend to carry some brands that you don't find at our other retail stores available here.  And best of all, our Mimi works there, so we always like to visit her (and it's an excuse to window shop), and all the girls love when I bring Nik in, always all dolled up!

11 Months.

Nikolina's birthday is March 29, my little pumpkin is almost a YEAR OLD!!!   I can't believe it!  Time has gone by so fast!  I am excited and nostalgic at the same time.  I am way behind in party planning, I just can't seem to find the time, the energy, or the funds to put this together. 

But, our little angel's 11 Month Anniversary is not existent the month of February because there are only 28 DAYS in the month of February!!  So, I guess today is her 11 Month Anniversary.

I have to ge to work, but I just wanted to wish her a happy 11 Month, and say that I wish that I was with her right now...

Love you pumpkin!!  Miss you. I will write more about what you've been up to later...