Wine Tasting on the French Riviera with Brad Pitt

I think of myself as a pretty low-maintenance girl. My idea of a perfect night is a back rub, a glass of red wine and a good movie...preferably starring Brad Pitt. Now, if I was requesting a back rub from Eduardo, would only drink imported wine from France and a wanted a foreign play to be performed in my living room, that would be high maintenance. I think being perfectly content with getting my wine from a box allows me to be included in the low-maintenance category!

I have a very short bucket-list. I like to think of myself as adventurous, but if I were being honest, my list looks sort of puny. Vacation to a tropical destination with my love, win a million dollars, and go wine tasting.

I was so close to crossing wine-tasting off my list, but it still remains...I am cheap. A wonderful night out with some great ladies landed us at a wine bar for a birthday celebration. A few of us have October birthdays and it was a great excuse for a girls' night out! With that said, I was too cheap to order the wine sampler; instead, when the waiter asked what I would like I said, "a glass of merlot that's around $8.00." Classy!

Now that wine tasting is being put back on my list, it will now read: Wine tasting on the French Riviera, hosted by Brad Pitt.

Do I have bucket-lists and dreams mixed up?

It was a very fun night with some awesome girlies! A lovely dinner, a very tasty $8.00 glass of wine followed by my absolute favorite; frozen yogurt!

What really made the night? Amazing friends that you can laugh and be silly with! Friends that will gladly take you up on your offer for a piece of gum that you found at the bottom of your purse. Friends that let you sing with them in the car despite your lack of vocal ability and, most important, friends that don't judge you for the massive amount of frozen yogurt that one might choose to consume!

Love you girls, it's so amazing doing life with you!

I missed the photo-op! I was busy trying to find great karaoke songs to accommodate my vocal ineptness. Karaoke girls-night is next week....hmmm, not sure if I'll post those highlights.

Okay girls, you and your tiny cups of frozen yogurt...we're going to need to work on that!

I didn't want to totally intimidate them, so I went light!

Girlfriends

When you get together with great girlfriends, you realize how important it is! No longer are you the only one on the planet who has been in sweatpants all day, or who only got out of those sweatpants because of this wonderful occasion, GIRLS NIGHT!!

Spilling a gallon of apple juice all over your kitchen floor, all of a sudden becomes a funny story, rather than just a melt down moment. You realize that your five year old that swallowed a penny, or your three year old that stuffs beads up his nose, is somewhat normal! The mounds of laundry by the washing machine is the same scenario, for many in the room. It doesn't matter that it was the third morning that week you missed the bus, because in the carpool lane, you see your girlfriend, still in her jammies like you, and you both are thinking the same thing, GIRLS NIGHT!

The reward for that days labor, is coming, in only a few short hours! GIRLS NIGHT!

You mean I am not alone, we all raised our voices today, when we didn't want to? You like me, ate high calorie foods you shouldn't have when the day got stressful, and you never got around to working out? Your dog peed on your rug today too?

The stresses of the day begin to fade away, why? Because it's girls night and we realize, we are all in this together!

We get together, encourage each other with nothing more, than sharing how similar all our lives our. After girls night, we are energized, refueled, and ready to carry on with the day to day!

Had to put this one in Heather, it's just too cute!!!

You will never see me missing a girls night, if I can help it, it's to important!

There is just nothing like GIRLFRIENDS!

Summer Swap Party Success

The very first ever swap party was a hit!!! I was so excited about putting this together, but really had no idea how much fun it was going to be!

I was totally unprepared, I didn't even start researching swap parties until a few days before. My mom had given me the gist on how they work, but I had not done anything. This is so unlike me, I usually have everything prepared and ready weeks before an event. I actually didn't even think along the lines of a theme, but then found this great video online about swap parties and it made me rethink my plan of attack. The lady on the video went all out, had a theme, decorations, shopping bags, the whole shebang!! I couldn't host a swap party that wasn't up to par, I had to get my thinking cap on and get busy!!! So after the theme of "Summer Swap" came to mind, it all just started to come together.

The party was on Thursday, so Tuesday morning I drove to Denver and did all the shopping!! While the three older kids enjoyed their morning at VBS, the little guy and I attacked our long shopping list. We went to five stores and got everything we needed and more. It's amazing how much you can get done when you only have to load and unload one kid!!

It really is the perfect time of year to put on a summer time themed party, everything is super cheap and on clearance!!

I got these bags at Target and made the little name tags that are attached. These were the bags that the ladies could attach their shopping clips too so they didn't have hold them.

These were the shopping clips! I got them five for $1.00, at the dollar store. I attached little tags that each lady could put their initials on. The little flip flops I found at Joann's, I just love them, they really made the clips cute. Yes I did tie each one of these clips. To make it easy I tied 10, 10 different times, to equal 100. But I should of done more, because we ran out!

I got the buckets and towels at target for $2.50, and the pairs of flip flops were a $1.00 each.

The table skirts were only $5.00, 75% off at Joann's, so cute!

These margarita glasses were from the dollar store, and of course you have to have little umbrellas at a summer swap party!! If you are wondering were to find drink umbrellas, they are next to the toothpicks down the paper goods isle at Target, it took me awhile to find them!!

Each lady brought a delicious dish to share. I just love when we girls get together, everyone knows how to cook and there is always so much yummy food!!! These were the little name tags that labeled each dish!! It was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed dinner on the deck!

So if you are confused, here is how the party went. Everyone brought their items, up to ten. The items had to be in great condition, and had to be good stuff, something you yourself would want to take home, but it could be anything. There were little post cards that you could use to describe your item and give it a selling point. The card sat in front of the bag that went to that item. As the night went on, you could shop and attach your clip to that bag that went with the item you wanted. If more than one lady wanted one item, then the names went in the bag and we did a drawing for the winner. Many items were fought over, that's what makes it fun!! Then if your name was in the drawing and you didn't win, you could shop again for something different!!

After seeing these cuties, don't you want to have your own swap party? Here are my new shoes, my favorite win of the night. I can't wait to wear them!!!

I really am upset that I didn't take more pictures, I was just having so much fun, I forgot!!

The only reason this party was such a success and so much fun was because of all these wonderful ladies, love them!!!!

I am already starting to plan and think of a theme for next years swap party, can't wait!!!