MY BOHEMIAN BRIDAL SHOWER

When the invitation arrived....I knew my bridesmaids and bestie David were going to throw me a dream shower. Despite the uninvited torrential downpour they managed to scramble the day before the party, cancel rentals and food, change from an outdoor location to the beautiful Croce's Park West and still throw an amazing party. I walked in Saturday afternoon and I was blown way! I still can't believe how incredibly special it was. Every little detail was perfect. I feel so weird getting so spoiled. Juan and I have been getting wedding presents in the mail...so weird! For us? Really! We feel so very loved! David kicked off the shower afternoon with the sweetest speech (I'm gonna tear up just thinking about it) and he presented me with a gorgeous floral headpiece. What a day it was! Full of delicious food, drinks, beautiful decor, fun Raquel friendly games (which is impressive because we all know I am not a game person), the sweetest gifts, yummy cake and of course the best company!! I love my family and friends and it was so very special having so many of them (missing some special ones but they were there in spirit) there celebrating Juan and I's upcoming wedding. Thank you to everyone for making it such a special day. I don't think I will ever be able to thank my bridesmaids and David enough for throwing such a perfect shower. If I could have two weddings with Juan....one would be the wedding we are having and the other would be a beautiful bohemian wedding and that is exactly what I got for my shower! Thank you again to my beautiful bridesmaids and my bestie David....Juan and I love you guys so much!! 

^^^The Party Planners: Stephanie, Gigi, Charlotte, David, Linda (and baby Sloane due any day now!) 

^^^Such a special group of people!! Love you all tons!! 

^^^If you haven't had The French Gourmet strawberry bagatelle experience you really should! So delicious!!

^^^Impromptu post party photo shoot....so fun! 

Feeling so very blessed and loved. 

A special thank you to Clickkity for being my personal paparazzi and documenting my special day!

4 TODAY!

Gisele is officially 4 years old!! On Friday, July 19th we celebrated her 4th birthday. Juan and I took Friday off and started the morning with a little cafe breakfast at Claire de Lune and stroll around North Park. When we sat down for breakfast I asked Gisele how it feels to be four years old. Her response: "Umm I think my voice is different and I am taller!" Too cute! She is definitely getting taller by the minute! Her voice...that is up for debate but still an adorable thought. 

Gisele was already lucky enough to have an awesome bday party with us and with her mama so we tried to keep the presents to a minimum. She's definitely one lucky little girl, who some might argue is a little spoiled. We all just love her so much...we can't help it! Anyways my best friend Stephanie has a little girl who is 6 year old and loves My Little Pony. She sent Gisele an adorable card that she wrote herself and a little figurine of her favorite pony. We decided breakfast was a good time to open her present from her friend Brooke. It was so cute watching her slowly open the card on her own and pretend to read it. 

 

 ^^^Thanks Brookie!

Side note...if you are ever in North Park and feel like a little cafe treat and delicious coffee, I highly recommend Claire de Lune! Two of my favs are the Chai Tea Latte and Mexican Mocha.

 ^^^We love this little Birthday Girl!

Our next stop was Abuelito's house for a birthday hug and a special surprise. A couple month's ago we took Gisele to Skyzone, she LOVED it and whenever we visit the Rowland Ranch we have to drag her off the trampoline. So needless to say when Abuelito gave Gisele a trampoline for her birthday she was ecstatic! Juan posted a little video of her reaction: Trampoline Video (wish we had taken more video). Whenever Gisele is home she wants to spend some time on the trampoline and now instead of occasionally having to drag her off the Rowland Ranch trampoline, we have to regularly pull her off of her own trampoline. Good present...yes! Challenging for Juan and I to battle her when it is time to get off...a little bit.

 

Uncle Milton came over for bday hugs and to help set up the new trampoline :)

Since we only had Gisele for the day, Juan and I wanted to take Gisele to do something extra special, just the three of us. Juan came up with the awesome idea of taking Gisele to ride her favorite horse, Googie. On our way to visit Googie her owner (Juan's friend) called and said she was acting funny due to the stormy weather and wouldn't be in the best of spirits for riding that day. Well that changed things. Of course we totally understood but had to come up with a new plan right there in the car halfway to the horse ranch. We decided to head over to the Eastlake Tavern & Bowl,it ended up being a huge success and left us time to run over to Hans & Harry's so she could pick out a birthday treat and spend the end of the day with Abuelita, Juan and I singing Happy Birthday. 

Cute little birthday note for this year: Gisele loves singing happy birthday. This year she sang along singing all the lyrics including "Happy birthday dear Gisele" haha so precious!

 ^^^Our 2nd time bowling with G and I still can't get over how cute those little bowling shoes are! Halfway through bowling Gisele spent a good amount of time trying to make her fingers go in the holes...it was adorable!

 ^^^She kept saying "I'm going to do it all by myself!" Such a big girl!!

 ^^^Impromptu dance party!!

 ^^^Grubbin' on some bday cookies from NatSweets. I just LOVE these two!

^^^ Driving home with her Hans & Harry's treat :)

^^^Abuelita and Cupcake time!

Carpinteria

Love. Family. 36 - Grandparents. Aunts. Uncles. Cousins. Brothers. Sisters. Moms. Dads.

A couple months ago the topic of smores came up. Gisele was puzzled. "Smores? What are smores?" Oh my goodness...I was so excited that I got to be the one to teach her about smores. To this day they are one of my favorite treats. Beach camping smores, bonfire smores, at home smores, pit fire smores on my parents property...no matter where you make them...they are delish!! Gisele listened to my smores description, immediately told Papa about them and obviously asked if she can have one. I wanted her first smore experience to be an exciting event so we said she would have to wait until our  big camping trip in Carpinteria. At first she was only excited about the ooey gooey smores but then she started asking about the camping. After talking about camping Gisele was fixated on the fact that the three of us would all be sleeping together in the tent "all night!" So cute!

When the time finally came...Gisele was beyond excited to hit the road (Juan and I were too). I didn't make it up to Carpinteria last summer for our family's annual camping trip. I was definitely excited to see everyone and my family was excited to finally meet Gisele. They all met Juan last summer at my Grandparent's 50th Anniversary trip but they hadn't met the infamous Gisele :) Boy oh boy was Gisele a hit. Raquel and Juan who? 

Grubbin'

When we first got there we made our introductions and then we hit the beach. After playing hard we got back to the campsite just in time to enjoy some Rowland Spaghetti aka Horton Spaghetti (from my Grandma Shirley's family). There were three huge batches of sauce. One from my Aunt Kendra (more Rowland like), one from my Great Aunt Mary (Grandma's Sister) and one from her daughter Renee. I managed to sample all three, all of which were delicious!!

I love bread. So kissable.

After spaghetti, Gisele really had to practice patience waiting for the camp fire smore session to begin. I think she asked my grandma and aunts numerous times if it was smore time yet. So cute! Finally the time came, little G got her smore and she LOVED it. Sharing big bites with Papa and I...we let her have two smores. She was in ooey  gooey mashmallow, melted chocolate and graham cracker heaven.

Smore time!!

Carpinteria Skies.

After loading up with sugar (not the best pre-bedtime snack). We brushed our teeth and snuggled up in our tent. To our surprise / excitement Gisele did a great job. We read a couple stories, kissed her goodnight and to dreamland she went. She slept the entire night! She even managed to take a nap in the tent the following day! The next morning I took Juan and G to my favorite breakfast spot, Reynaldo's Bakery for breakfast burritos and coffee.

Lil G loves her Chocolate Milk. So full just looking at this.

On our way back to the campsite we stopped at a new park and spent the better part of the morning playing three little pigs, the big bad wolf and making new friends.

Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin!

Hiding from the Big Bad Wolf!

Only Papa can make her smile like that!

Campfire Lounging.

More Grubbin'. Walking around the Campsite.

Arts & Crafts.

Impromptu Photo Shoot.

Surprise Bday Cake for My Love. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Rowland for yet another awesome weekend in Carpinteria.

Overall we had an awesome weekend. I really enjoyed our little day trip to Ventura (see trip inside our trip) and visiting with Rejina. As always, I loved seeing my family and catching up. I think they enjoyed meeting my little family (judging by their "we love your family" "we love you guys" comments) and I loved surprising Juan with some weekend birthday celebrations. 

We had a hard time saying goodbye...little G even burst into tears saying goodbye to everyone :( but we will come again! Next year.