We had a good breakfast. Pancakes, strawberry smoothies, whipped cream, eggs and heart shaped bacon.
Tiny presents were exchanged and everyone kissed.
The pinkeyed toddler and the sugargiggy toddler had a day filled with love.
And their parents did too.
Hope your Valentine’s Day was filled with love. Actively taking the time to LOVE some people is good for all of us.
Every year, our bocce team gathers at the local pizza place to eat, drink and reminisce about the previous season. This year was no different.
Every year, I make an award for each member of our team. For a few years, it was framed certificates, then medallions to hang about the neck.
This year, we went for a more musical attribution.
Each Joanie Loves Bocce teammate received an award and a matching song. I burned the songs on a mix cd. Eleven songs, eleven cds, one for each of member of my favorite bocce team in the whole world.
I put the individual cd covers together on my ferry ride. I may have confused the other commuters with my arts and crafts but I had a lot of fun in the meantime.
Each award mapped nicely to these Mexican loteria cards that I picked up at a local grocery store. (Napa Valley visitor pro tip! For a cheap wine country lunch, stop for tasty tacos at the La Azteca grocery store.)
Lasts night we distributed the awards over pizza and wine with lots of love.
We can’t wait for next year.
I think we’ll make it to playoffs, don’t you?
Last Saturday, our friends organized a group trip to see the Muppets at our beloved Cameo Cinema.
First, however, there was brunch.
(There is always brunch.)
La Condesa is the latest hangout from a gaggle of hang out spaces in our little town. Locations for other times of the day include Farmstead and Bar Terra.
The good La Condesa folks put together our very own brunch menu, and timed it so everyone would have time to get to the movie theater. Better yet, they planned it so everyone who participated just paid a flat fee. Mmm. Brunchease.
There was thumb wrestling, children wrestling and lots of unbelievable tacos.
Even better?
After the movie, all the merriment was wrapped up by one.
So Sunday was ours.
Brunch it.
We attended a party this weekend thrown by one of the most stylish people I know. A designer and creative style maven, Elyse is director of marketing at a super-posh winery. She knows events, she knows food and gosh darn, she knows lovely.
See she and her boyfriend have had a rough few months. Not like that, they’re fine, it’s that they’ve had some trials this year, trials they’ve faced together. The scariest ones. The toughest ones.
So when the man you love turns thirty,
and you’re Elyse,
you blow it out.
What made this party run so smoothly was the judicious use of party rentals. From the chairs to the tables to the linens to the glassware (gorgeous!) there’s no way Elyse could have made dinner for 18(!) work by depending on her own resources.
Actually, don’t let me speak for Elyse, there’s no way I could have made it work depending on my own resources.
The menu started with butternut squash soup served with mushrooms.
On to the main osso buco. I mean, just look at it.
Polenta and marrow and gremolata oh my!
Crowd favorites were roast brussel sprouts and perfectly steamed broccolini.
To play along, make your way to the Napa Valley and eat at our favorite local’s restaurant Cook St. Helena. There you’ll order their brussels sprouts and they make you swoon.
Naturally she wrapped the whole elegant deal up with a hot diggity chocolate torte.
Elyse, I have no idea how you did it.
But you can color me impressed.
I think you can color the kitty impressed too.
We believe strongly in letting our kids decide what parties they’re throwing (I mean, how else would we have ended up with Nora Lea’s last birthday theme?)
Asking Dottie, “What kind of birthday party do you want to have?” returned the answer, “COOKIE PARTY!” so James and I shrugged and went to work.
Guests
We kept the invite list low, only one kiddo, heavy on the grown-ups.
Decorating
I decided against gift bags, after the amazing bags the girls have come home with from parties past. Sometimes, when faced with something that I should be into (see: My Wedding) I get so overwhelmed with possibilities, I just shut down. So when it came to gift bags for my two year old’s birthday party, I just… just… didn’t have space in my brain (or wallet) to put something charming and whimsical and damn it, USEFUL, together.
Instead of spending tons of cash on flowers and signage and things, I picked up some helium-filled balloons at the grocery store and sent them home with our toddler guest. For decorating, I found two disposable tablecloths in the garage and that was good enough for me.
We moved the coffee table over by our dining area and put the little chairs around it so the girls would have their own space. They loved it.
Digression: I know that decorating parties is the biggest part of all the party pr0n all over the internet, but when you actually have people coming to your home to eat food, perfect printables stuck on a dessert table are quite literally my last priority.
Is the food delicious?
Will my friends be comfortable?
Better yet, will they have fun?
These are the questions I worry about, not the perfect tablescape.
(But you already knew that.)
Cookies!
We set out all kinds of sprinkles in those aforementioned vintage lunch trays from Alison from Petit Elefant. I gave the girls baked cookies in various circle sizes and let them have at it. It took all of my self-control not to intervene, and not-intervene I did.
Guests took their cookies home in a box lined with tissue paper.
A super sugar-filled dance party helped get the sillies out before bedtime.
(As super sugar-filled dance parties tend to do.)
Happy second birthday Dottie.
You make us laugh every day.
©helenjane.com, St. Helena, CA | Cheesewhizzes | Joanie Loves Bocce | Maplevine
