California cont...

So, I stink for not getting back to write more about CA. So I'm coming back now (a month later) to post some random pictures of the trip and pictures of the BIG party. It was a combined party for Sofia who turned 1 and my grandma, Tissie aka GG who turned 90!

We got back from Napa on Friday. Both girls had so much fun with their grandparents but were excited to see mommy and daddy.

We spent the next couple of days just hanging out and getting ready for the big party on Sunday.

We hung out with Uncle Will

We played with the dollhouse that Gaga painstakingly sanded and painted. This dollhouse was built for me by my Papa when I was 5 years old. I loved this dollhouse and played with it for many many years. It was never painted, so Gaga took the time to furnish it and sand and paint it. Ella loved it and Sofia liked pulling off the spindles from the deck :(

The birthday party was on Sunday, August 31st.

We had a great time with all our friends and family. We rented out a clubhouse in my mom's community and decorated with purple and green, ate lots of food and played. What could be better?

Of course we took no pictures together as a family, with GG, with Gaga, or with Abuela and Papa. I also didn't take any pictures of the decorations. I know...I'm horrible. I'm hoping Uncle Michael did and I can pilfer them from him. But these pictures will do for now.

The Birthday Girl and daddy
The other birthday girl, Tissie and Uncle Michael (her son/my mom's brother)
My mom hired these dancers from her community and well lets just say it was interesting. The kids loved it though!
Yes, these are old ladies in spandex and tassles..

Sofia couldn't get enough of it though
Ella and Madeleine loved them too

The Slovers-Pete, Stacey and Nick
Cousins Garrett, Anne and Kianna

Good friends Jack and Christina Cuddy
Cake Time

Checking out the cake

Daddy pushed her hand in so she looked at him like, What did you do that for?
Finally enjoying her cake

The other birthday girl enjoying her cake
The end result

The next day was Memorial Day and we went over to Cousin Garrett, Anne and Baby Kianna's house for lunch and the park. They have a beautiful home and the girls had a great time (as did Ricardo and I).

Helping Kianna open her birthday gift

Cuz Love!
Feeding the ducks across the street from their house (which coincidentally is the apartment complex Ricardo lived in when we first started dating 9 years ago!)

The day before we left we went to Children's Fairy Land at Lake Merritt. My mom has a lot of pictures of my brother and I there when we were children. Ella loved it, but all I can say is, well...it hasn't changed a bit. It's fun but just a little tired. But like I said, Ella had a blast and that's all that matters.

The Ferris Wheel-Luckily it was empty there so Ella got to just ride and ride and ride and ride...and ride...
Going down the slide for kids 5 and up!
Sofia enjoying the train ride

Later that evening we went to see Tissie one last time before we had to fly out. We enjoyed a nice dinner with her.

The girls just adore her and that just means the world to me. I'm so happy that they get to know their GG (Great Grandma) and she's not just going to be some "old lady" that the we talk about fondly. When we see her Ella climbs right into her lap and pushes her wheelchair down the hall. Sofia crawls all over her and they both just light up and smile and chatter with her. Tissie might be 90 but she really doesn't seem a day over 60 and I'm not just saying that. I know she's going to be with us for a long time to come and that makes me so happy.

No offense mom and Maggie, I mean you all are great Grandmas to my girls, but hands down, Tissie is the BEST Grandma in the world (and I'm not biased).

We tried (in vein) to get a picture with Tissie on our last night and this is how it turned out...

Don't we all look so classy?

We had a long flight home the next day. It was good to be home and sleep in our own beds but we sure did miss being with all our family.

But there was one member of the family who was glad to have us home!

Our Trip to California

I'm feeling quite guilty that I haven't posted pics from our trip to CA but honestly, blogger is a pain to upload pictures to so I've been avoiding it, but I really should start to recap our trip.

We had a really wonderful time. We flew in on Tuesday the 26th of August. We had a 7am flight out of JFK so we had to be up and out of our house 4:30am. At the time, it was very painful getting the girls up and in the car but looking back, it wasn't so bad and it was nice arriving in CA at 10:30 am local time and having the whole day to do things.

Wednesday the 27th was Tissie's 90th birthday, so we headed over with the girl and chinese food for a little dinner celebration.

Tissie, a slippery Sofia, and Alexis

Our fancy dining arrangements in Tissie's room-hey, it worked and the girls were in heaven being with their GG and Gaga so that's all that mattered!

Singing Happy Birthday to Tissie

On Thursday Ricardo and I left Ella with Gaga (my mom) and Sofia with Abuela and Papa (his parents) and headed up to Napa for the night in my mom's Prius. Driving in the Prius was fun/funny. It's really cool since it doesn't have an ignition or an actual stick shift plus the steering wheel is so small if felt like we were driving go-cart. But it was certainly nice getting 45 mpg!

It was especially nice having two full days and one night as just a couple. We haven't had a night without a kid since before Ella was born (almost 3 years for those who are counting). Of course we feel fast asleep by 10:30 pm and at 7:30 am the next day we couldn't sleep any longer. I was really looking forward to sleeping in but not being woken up throughout the night really makes for restful sleep so 7:30 am it was.

Our first stop was Frog's Leap Winery . Love, love, love Frog's Leap. Not just because the wine is amazing but so is the tour, the people and their principles. We could have spent all day there and in fact we spent 3+ hours there.





We then went to Rutherford Hill (great wine, boring winery) and another favorite, Cakebread. That night we went to Go Fish in St. Helena for dinner. Yummy sushi!

The next day we went to PlumpJack Winery which is co-owned by Gavin Newsom (mayor of SF) and Artesa (awesome winery not so awesome wine) and then headed home.

PlumpJack

Artesa Winery

to be continued...