Tag Archives: sundays

a birthday… oh yeah, and a wedding thrown in too, surprise!!!

19 Sep

talk about throwing something together last-minute,  and by last-minute i mean about 40 hours before.

so on friday afternoon i get a message from my brother’s girlfriend nikki, asking when i would be alone to talk about some very classified information. as luck would have it, i was free at that very moment. (thank goodness…. less than 40 hours to prepare would have been nuts)  so she came over with this grin on her face, that only a little kid would have when you know they have a secret, like stealing a cookie or something. she prefaced the conversation by making me swear with one hand over my heart, that i would not tell a soul what she was about to divulge to me. and with that, she blurted out, ” me and your brother want to get married this sunday!” i smiled from ear to ear and said, “WHAT?????!!!!!”  i think we even did a little party dance too. ( it’s hard to remember the details at such an exciting moment, lol!) so  since nikki had already planned a full weekend of birthday fun for my brother, everyone was already set to be at their house on sunday for a bbq. with no spare time for her to plan the surprise wedding of the year, she looked no further then your truly to do the planning.  for anyone who knows me, you know that party planning and weddings, and any gathering for that matter is my most favoriteist thing in life!  so i was definitely up for the challenge. luckily i had saved a substantial amount of stuff from my own wedding, so there was little to buy, but much to do. to throw into the mix of things, i also had a work meeting that night and a full book at the salon the next day, so the small window of time that i and to decorate was going to be saturday night after work. we’re talking about 5 hours to be exact. along with the help of my mother, i blew up balloons, hung paper lanterns, arranged flowers, lined up chairs, fluffed tulle, and streamered everything else. all that was left to do was waiting to reveal the secret to everyone else the next day. the day had arrived and  everyone started to show up as expected, but as the anticipation started to rise in mimmo and nikki, they didn’t want to wait any longer, and asked me to deliver the exciting news.  so i gathered everyone into the kitchen.  i started by saying how we had all come together to celebrate mimmo’s birthday, but that wasn’t the only reason we were here! nikki raised her left hand revealing the engagement ring that mimmo had proposed to her with just the night before. the room went crazy with excitement!! it took me a minute to quite them all done, just long enough to say, but that’s still not the only reason we are all here ….. we are also having a wedding…… TODAY!!!! no one could believe it. we drew open the blinds to reveal the decorated backyard, and the reality was starting to settle in. the excitement and tears in the room was overwhelming. our friend nina performed a sweet little ceremony and we partied the night away! it truly was a perfect day and a perfect little wedding. we are couldn’t be happier to be a part of this special day, and even more happy to have nikki officially join our family ( which of course she always has been because she’s the amazing mother of my amazing nephew) congratualtions you guys, we love you

xoxo, gina and giuseppe!! 

oh yeah, happy birthday too! (i almost forgot with all this excitement)

her’s some pictures of the birthday/wedding day bliss!!

men of the house

18 Jun

hope everyone had an amazing “papa’s” day!

here are some pictures of our fun day.

all the grand kids with nonno

hysterical

antipasto

beef stew

… all the papa’s with their kids …

my brother mimmo with nico

my brother-in-law frank with gino and gianna

where it all began

my doggy daddy
giuseppe with rocky and bruno

…..

gino’s celebration cont..

22 May

so my nephew’s first communion was last weekend, but we didn’t get to celebrate.

so this weekend, that exactly what we did.

my parents hosted a group of friends and family at their house, and here’s how it turned out!

there’s the little man we’re honoring!

boy’s station

girl’s station

hanging with their friends

i swear it’s always so hard to get a picture of us together cuz i’m always the one taking them

mother’s

16 May

so this year we hosted mother’s day at our house.

since i’m the only non-mom, not including my dog mommy duties,

i thought it would be a nice treat for all the mama’s in my family to a little day off.

i made them all some chamomile sugar body scrub for some relaxing shower time.

plus i was super excited to put some use to our brand new picnic table that we painted a couple weeks ago, bright yellow!

i was really nice to have the family all together to celebrate the reason for our existence

mom’s!!!!

that’s my mama….. isn’t she the cutest?!balsamic glazed chickenfruit pizza

here’s a little flashback to the past of my mama and i.

then and now!!

even though giuseppe’s mother couldn’t be in vegas to celebrate with us

we send her our love, all the way to italy.

we love you guys.

happy mother’s day!!!

sunday overdose

9 May

this weekend was my cousin walters birthday, so like most sundays where we end up at my parents for lunch, that’s exactly how this day started…. except with an overdose of sugar!  the guys spent the morning on the couch watching soccer and us girls stayed outside enjoying the beautiful weather and admiring my mothers blooming garden.  then after a typical feast of food, we ended this meal with two amazing desserts, one, a candy birthday cake made by my brother mimmo and his girlfriend nikki, (both not too shabby in the kitchen) and the other a pineapple cheese cake that my mom surprised us with after i had mentioned  the night before that it had been years since we had it.  it was definitely a treat for all of us!  we spent the rest of the afternoon in a sugar comma, just long enough to regain some energy for an evening out, to continue the birthday celebration. so around 9:00, a few of us met for some appetizers (don’t ask how we even had room to eat more) at my family restaurant, then went to a club on the strip ( can’t remember the last time i was in a club, and when we got there, i realized why it had been so long…. not my scene these days) regardless, i was with good people, which meant a good time. happy birthday wally!!!

here’s some pictures of the day!

that’s my mom working on her vegetable/herb garden

that’s my pops and adorable nephew

there’s the cake bakers, my brother mimmo and his girlfriend nikki

here’s the rest of the  photo’s from the evening….

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