Friday Love 10.19.18

Happy Friday! I can’t believe I missed the last week! I had every intention of getting on here to post but there is good reason I didn’t, I was exhausted. My older daughter had a late acting class Wednesday night then we had to be up early for her field trip to the Mission San Juan Bautista Thursday morning, which immediately after, she had rehearsal for her school play! It was a long couple of days. But I’m back with lots to share. I hope you enjoy today’s Friday Love!

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Mission San Juan Bautista

I was lucky enough to be able to chaperone my daughter’s field trip to the Mission San Juan Bautista last Thursday. We started with an early morning charter bus ride and the kids thought this was the coolest thing ever. We arrived at the mission almost two hours later but the long ride was worth it. The town itself was absolutely charming and I had the best time hanging with Lyla and her friends, and a couple of my mom friends. Neither Lyla or I had ever been to this mission and it was so fun to explore a town and place new to us. It was a great day with my big girl!

Art & Craft of Acting

For her birthday this year, my hubby and I gifted Lyla acting classes at our local theatre instead of a big gift. She has been wanting to take acting class for the longest time now but was not old enough to enroll (the age to start was nine). Well, since she turned nine this year we thought, why not? We love our local theatre and have taken a myriad of classes there since we moved to Tracy in 2014. I really cannot say enough wonderful things about the Grand or the classes/programs they offer. Lyla took the Art & Craft of Acting class for five weeks and her finale performance was on Wednesday. Now, these young kids didn’t learn a Disney play or anything like that. They tackled a murder mystery play, Blood on the Dining Room Floor, written by Gertrude Stein. This was tough stuff! The had to memorize some pretty long monologues but it was such a joy to watch them perform. The icing on the cake was that Lyla’s best friend also took the class. They had such a great time together.

Livermore Wine Trolley

Dates for my husband and I are very rare these days so I really cherish when we do get to have some one-on-one time. My in-laws gave us tickets to the Livermore Wine Trolley for Christmas last year and we finally got around to using them last weekend. We live about 20-30 minutes from Livermore and visit the wineries pretty often but we had never gone on the wine trolley. We booked ourselves on the 11:15 trolley this past Sunday and had a blast visiting three different wineries. I had never been to any of the three while my hubby had been to just one so it was nice to visit some new places.

Our day started early, dropping our kids off with their auntie then getting to downtown Livermore about 10:45. We were a bit early since we didn’t have to be there until 11am. Once we were settled in the trolley, we were off to our first winery, Wente Vineyards. Now, I have been to Wente’s smaller property many times but never to this one. It was breathtaking. I loved everything about the place and can’t wait to go back. From there we went to Tenuta Vineyards where our catered lunch was waiting. We enjoyed our lunch and tastings out on the beautiful patio. Our final stop was Tesla Vintners, which housed three separate wineries in the same outdoor location. We had a great day doing one of our favorite things, wine tasting!

 

Halloween Town

We took our girls to their first Halloween event this past weekend. We decided to check out the Halloween Town event that took place on Friday and Saturday at the old outlets in town. My kids love this time of year and love any excuse to dress up in their costumes. For me, it was really fun to see them in their costumes for the first time, and play with hair and makeup. They got some candy, some slime and got to ride the train. It was a great start to the big event!

 

Friday Love 10.5.18

Hey hey there! Yay for the first Friday of October! We were out of town all last weekend so I am looking forward to some much-needed relaxation this time around. The only items on our agenda so far are painting rocks and pottery (from Sophie’s pottery class), baking our delicious apple oatmeal bars and watching Halloween movies. There is a global food fair going on in the town next to us on Saturday that’s sounds interesting but, hanging at home and getting caught back up for the rest of this busy month may win out. We really have a lot going on but the weather has cooled slightly and I’m not mad about that at all, we even got rain this week! Let’s dive into some Friday Love!

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Jazzy’s Quinceneara

We attended our first quinceneara last weekend. It was a lot of fun! Our kids could not come due to the high number of guests so we got a date night of sorts. Lots of yummy food, photo booth fun and a night cap with friends, it was a great time. I forgot to mention the best part, we got to dress up! Since I tend to live in athleisure type outfits, this exciting, Nordstrom to the rescue 🙂

 

San Jose’s Little Italy Street Festival

We stayed at my sister-in-law’s house over the weekend so she could watch our girls while we attended the quinceneara. We decided it would be fun to check out the Little Italy Street Festival that was going on in San Jose on Sunday. We used to go before we moved to Tracy so it was fun to do it again. Lots of great Italian food and wine!

Downtown Decorations

Our little downtown has been fully decorated for Fall and it is so cute! I take a picture of the girls every October 1st and we decided to have them pose amongst the big pumpkins out on display. The shop windows are painted as well, it just looks so nice! Good job Tracy!

Pumpkin Flavored Cookies 

Sophie and I baked pumpkin spice cookies last Friday and OMG were they good. We added a simple glaze and we literally almost finished them that day. A friend brought over a ginormous box of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies on Tuesday and I’ve had two to three a day ever since. I am the biggest fan of pumpkin.

 

umpkin Buns

Yesterday was a spirit day at Lyla’s school and the theme was buns vs. mohawks. We chose to do a pumpkin bun of course!! I had so much fun doing this style to the girls hair, it came out really good. Of course little sister wanted one too. We volunteer in Lyla’s class every Thursday so it worked out great for Sophie to match her sister. Perfect hair for pumpkin season.

Our Sunday.

I know today is Tuesday and by now Sunday is becoming but a distant memory BUT I started this post and I’m going to finish it! I really want to get into a more regular blogging schedule when I find the time, here’s hoping! Anyways, back to Sunday…

All I was thinking about before bed on Saturday was my run on Sunday morning. I.love.to.run. It is my therapy and my favorite form of exercise. I’m going to devote an entire post to my love running one of these days. That is just how much I love it. And Sunday runs are that much sweeter since I get to do them ALONE. I love my babies through and through but there is nothing like running alone to get me centered and ready for a busy week. Needless to say, I was anxious to get to bed on Saturday night so I could enjoy my very rare “me” time on Sunday morning.

As I was getting ready, my hubby informed me there was an earthquake that morning! Around 3am, there was a 6.0 quake in South Napa. We did not feel a thing and we are just under two hours from Napa. We were texting with my brother who lives in L.A. asking if we were okay and watching the devastation on the news. There hasn’t been a quake that big since the Loma Prieta quake in 89. An interesting fact, the home my parents live in now was flattened in that quake (they were not living there at the time, we were still in Florida). Not sure if that is interesting or scary but when it was rebuilt they put in major earthquake protection and that fact always makes me feel better. As a native Floridian, earthquakes scare me big time. Just the thought of the earth moving and shaking is unreal to me. I have felt about five or six quakes since I have lived here and they still scare me. The worst was when I was working for Acer. Their offices were on the 15th floor in downtown San Jose and the quake made the building sway. My hubby always says they are fun, must be a California thing.

My heart goes out to Napa. It is a region that we absolutely LOVE. We got there once or more a year to wine taste and enjoy the beautiful scenery and it makes me so sad they have to go through this. We even have a little “Black Friday” wine tasting tradition we do every year and have celebrated countless birthdays, anniversaries and just amazing times there. Seeing the pictures of all the lost wine is heartbreaking. Not because we can’t drink it, although that is a bummer, but because I’m sure the winemakers who poured their heart and soul into the wine are devastated. Winemaking is such an art and I hope and pray all the people affected by this tragedy recover well.

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So with a heavy heart, I got moving. This is me all sweaty and happy after a glorious three-mile run. Some runs are better than others but this one was great. Pandora played all my favorite songs to keep me moving and the weather was warm but not stifling. And my headphones were charged, yay! Most of the time, I usually forget to charge them and don’t realize it until its too late. These headphones are the jam by the way. I have tiny ears and have had an issue with getting headphones to fit my entire life but my hubby changed all that when he got me these headphones for Christmas one year. They are Bluetooth and they stay in my ear for my entire run. It is a huge pet peeve of mine to have to mess with my headphones during my run, it takes me out of the zone.

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After showers and breakfast, Toys R Us was next on the agenda. Lyla received a gift card from her Uncle Jon and was desperate to use it. This little girl loves to shop (she is my mini-me after all) and this card was burning a hole in her pocket. We decided to head to the Toys R Us in Dublin since there are none in Tracy, much to my daughter’s dismay. Lyla likes to take her time and look at everything before making a decision. In the end, she ended up with a Frozen light-up castle, Frozen dress-up shoes and a Frozen charm bracelet. She was a happy girl!!

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By this time, my hubby was ready to get back home, back to the Niner game and back to relaxing. We’ve been busier than ever this summer and this was one of our first weekends where we had nothing specifically planned, that is pretty rare for us. We got home, ate lunch, watched the game and relaxed, it was perfect. Soph went down for a nap so I decided to go to the grocery store. Lyla came along with me and we got some rare, mommy and Lyla quality time. It was so nice. Even though it was just a trip to the grocery store, it was still so special. I love this girl so much.

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I hoped you enjoyed this look at our Sunday!!