One Lucky Birthday Girl

Yesterday was my birthday. I can't believe how fast time is flying by. The day started by opening birthday cards from my hubby and kids. They gave me gift cards to Barnes and Noble, Panera Bread (Yum!), and Bath & Body Works.
My husband took me out to eat at The Cheesecake Factory...speaking of which, I always order the same things:
the Avocado Rolls (appetizer), Shrimp Scampi and Steak Diane with mashed potatoes ( so good!!). By the time I'm done eating, I don't have room for their delicious cheesecakes.
Afterwards, we went to Barnes and Noble ( I left the gift card at home), however, I did buy three magazines. Then we proceeded to Target (love that place!).
Vince had secretly called a few of my closest friends and relatives to come over later in the evening for cake and coffee. I had a wonderful time with all of them.

In my Birthday Finest

The Birthday Cake

                                  

 

My sister and her boyfriend

Having Fun

Nice Tatoos

My beautiful Family

It was overall, a very happy day!

Thanks to all of you who visit my blog, and have a wonderful day, wherever you may be!

Hugs,


Rosa

Everything's Coming Up: Red,White and Blue

I hope that if you live in the USA, you had a wonderful, fun, and safe 4th of July!. We celebrated the holiday with a BBQ and pool party, with family and friends. Everybody seemed to have a great time.

This post won't be too long, I just wanted to say hello and leave you with a few pictures of our day. Enjoy!!

I was so inspired by the Summer issue of Martha Stewart (ticket wedding cake), I just had to create my own! I LOVE IT!!

It was really easy to make, Yay!!


I bought different props to take pictures of all our guests as they arrived, I'll be printing and giving a copy to each family so they can have it as a favor from the day:

This is  my family and I

We also had confetti poppers for the kids

The chocolate fountain was a big hit with the kids ( and the grownups, too!)

And we ended our festivities with sparklers, I ordered them from Sparklers Online . We had sparklers galore!

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, until next time, stay happy and healthy!

Hugs,

Rosa

A Sweet Celebration...Times Two

On Saturday, March 27th, we celebrated our daughter's 13th, and our son's 10th birthdays; yes, my two older kids share the same birthday...long story, I won't go into details!. But celebrating their birthdays always poses a challenge for me, due to the fact that they're three years apart, and different genders. Most years we've celebrated their birthdays on the same day, other times, we've celebrated one's birthday first, the other one's the next day...very tiring, but fun!
This year we celebrated the two birthdays on the same day...all I'll say it turned out to be a very interesting experience!
I thought the uber popular CANDY theme fit the bill perfectly, and it did.
I made the invitations in the shape of a giant lollipop:

They turned out so cute, everybody thought the same. I printed the party info on the back, needless to say, there was a great deal of cutting and gluing involved!



I also made party hats for them:

The lollipop is a stamp (once I find where I bought it from, I'll list the source); so perfectly cute!


I decorated with balloons, I made a happy birthday garland with their names, a paper chain,etc.

As you may notice, we had  a candy buffet set up, I created the candy labels using the party colors. It looked very beautiful in real life. Here are a couple of more pictures of the cancy buffet:

Since it's close to Easter, it was easy to find candy in the chosen colors.

I bought the pink photo frame at TJMaxx

I even decorated the chandelier with sleeves and keychain mini gumballs machines, I found them in Party City:

And the cake was beautifully decorated, and so delicious!

The birthday girl:

And the birthday boy:

Overall, it turned out to be a fun party, the kids got to play outside, they sprayed each other with fun string, some of the girls made a craft.


Good food, great friends, loads of fun, lots of candy, many presents... what more can two birthday kids wish for?


I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and thanks for stopping by!

Hugs,


Rosa

Happy St. Valentine's Day

Some of the greater things

in life are unseen
that's why you close your eyes

when you kiss, cry, or dream...~Unknown

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love the colors associated with it, the decorations, the cards! Love it all!!

I wish all of you a very happy Valentine's Day, shared with those you love!

I'll leave you with some images of my Valentine's decor...enjoy!!

Valentine's treat bags for my son's Jeremy's class.

Thanks for stopping by, enjoy a fabulous day!

XOXO

Rosa

"Mommy, I don't Wanna Be A Cowboy!"

Our little guy turned 5, on January 13th. Where does the time go?. Every birthday, I try to come up with a theme appropriate to the age, and design the invites, decor, and favor around the chosen theme. I told Jason that the theme for his birthday this year was going to be "a cowboy". As soon as the words left my mouth, he told me: " I don't wanna be a cowboy!"..".but look, I have this adorable cowboy stamp" from http://www.pinkcatstudio.com/. " And...it's only a theme, you're not a real cowboy...." . Needless to say, I had some convincing to do, I didn't think a 5 y/o was so opinionated, was I wrong!

The cowboy theme it was!. Here's a sample of the invitation I made:

The "Wanted" and the star are stamps from http://www.purpleoniondesigns.com. I am really happy with how it turned out.





On the day of the party, my little "cowboy" didn't want to dress the part. I bought him the gingham shirt from Target, got him a red bandanna, a sheriff's badge...no cowboy hat!







He's lost that baby face! Sniff, sniff!!!



We had a few friends over for pizza, cupcakes, ice cream cake. We had a pinata from http://www.birthdayexpress.com, the kids had a blast pulling the strings.

The birthday boy pulling the first string:

For the favors, I used a stamp from http://www.thegreetingfarm.com, and made tags and attached them to a "Reward" goodie bag:

After the party, he opened the gifts he received, and the cowboy issue was forgotten. I asked Jason if he had a good time, he said "Yes, I don't have to be a cowboy anymore, right mom?".

Kids are so funny!

Hugs,

Rosa

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to pop in and wish everyone a very happy , healthy and prosperous 2010!

May peace prevail on Earth.

Road Trip Part 2

It's been a while since my last post, but you know how it is, sometimes you have to take care of people and stuff in our lives. I miss blogging, so here I am.

Continuing with our Summer vacation....

We went to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. I love this area, so rich in history, so beautifully

preserved!

It's also part of the Appalachian Trail

The Shenandoah River runs on one side:

And the Potomac River meets the Shenandoah on another side:

We ate at the Secret Six Tavern on High Street, the food was delicious and reasonably priced.

Vince and I, had the Southwestern Shrimp Salad:

YUMMY!

It we ever go back, we'll definitely eat there again!

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We were also in Leesburg, Virginia. I remembered from reading The Cottage G als' blog about the store they run in Leesburg. Vince took me there so I could check out the store in person. If you love the cottage style, this store will make you love it even more.









I adore the aqua color of the entrance door:









They were so gracious in allowing me to take pictures inside, thank you so much ladies!











I loved so many things in that store, now as I look at other pictures I took, I wonder why I didn't buy certain things in those pictures. Quite simple, we didn't have room in the van for more things. However, I did buy a big tin star, which I love!. And believe me, it was quite the adventure driving around with it!!



This store is on the top of my list for when we go back to this area again.



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We also took the kids to Dinosaur Land in Winchester, VA. They have these concrete replicas of different dinosaurs, along with some information pertainig to them. My kids had a lot of fun there!
















There are many other dinosaur sculptures, you'd think that you have stepped back in time!. Great place for kids and dinosaur lovers.


I have one more post about our vacation, and then I'll post about stuff I've made and apple picking, Halloween around the house etc.
Check back for those, and I'll try not to be away too long!

A big Hello to Grace, and to Sarah.

Take care of yourselves and hold your loved ones near!


Hugs,


Rosa