Date Night = Irish Pub, Beer and Pool

After a night of pre-teen girls in the house my love'a and I were able to take some time away for us. Theres a new Hennessys Irish Pub that opened up recently and so we were off to check it out. Of course I tried to order the darkest beer on the menu , because to me dark beer is like dark chocolate, but they were out of Guinness. WTF is all I thought for a second. Thats almost like going to McDonalds and being told "Sorry, we are all out of hamburgers today".  Growing up in the Northwest, was like growing up in the beer capital of the world.  Im reminded of one of my favorite places for a good fix of pub food and unique beers was McMenamins They have beers with names like Sleepy Hallow and Hammerhead and the best pub food ever!

Other then that little detour the rest of the place was great! The decor, staff and the POOL TABLE was free! After sharing a plate of awesome fish-n-chips we headed to the Billiard Room and wrapped up our night with a couple games...Jeff 2 wins y Yo solo uno! And I only won because he accidentally sunk the 8 ball. I never win against Jeff because hes a monster when it comes to playing pool, I mean geez he did practically grow up on one, it is sort of our lifes blood.

Happy Birthday Leah Badeah**

Monday we celebrated our daughters 12th year. Happy Birthday Leah! .

 We brought her class some cupcakes, pizza and drinks. Her class sang her both versions of the birthday song, Spanish and English and I thought that was very special. Everyone was also using the English they knew with Jeff and I, too cute and I appreciated that.  

And for dinner she selected the Sirloin Stockade near Liverpool for her birthday dinner.

*I hope it was an off night for the restaurant. If you live here or plan to visit and think you might be in the mood for a buffet, just take caution, in other words...the food was cold and tasted like shit!

For her"at home party" we are planing a sleepover with a couple friends this Friday for Leah. Pretty excited about getting the house decked out and having a few of her friends over. Should be fun! Simple age birthday themed. I made these cute purple  stamped #12 invites and had her hand write info on the inside.

JJ's Day!

14 years ago I became his momma and every year I sit and ponder where all the time went. I'm pretty positive I'll be doing that for the rest of his life... Just like all of his first, like his first step and his first word, he hit me with a big first again. JJ asked for no big party. My heart sunk. All he said was he wanted to celebrate with us. I didnt dare push it and we ended up having a really perfect.

I brought homemade cupcakes to school, I wonder if he is outgrowing this? Some may think so but I just may do this until he graduates from school! Who doesnt love a cute cupcake anyway?

We always go out for dinner on our birthdays so his choice was some good ol' American food. TGI Fridays near the Grand Plaza it was! He was pretty much in heaven when he saw that the fried shrimp was accompanied by tartar sauce his favorite!

We headed home for cake and gifts! Leah did all the decorating of JJs chocholate cake, her special gift to him she said.

Saturday Breakfast & Farmers Market

My Puerto Vallarta Peeps! Sara with her daughter Renta & her nephew, me and Maritza

So this past weekend I got together with my PV peeps over breakfast at again
View Larger Map">Haciendas (I'm hooked on this place and I cant believe I have never been there before!) The two times I have been, I actually had the same thing - red chiliquiles con huevos - mmm mmm good! Below is the outside of the restaurant I have become a regular at now!

View Larger Map

After breakfast we decided to check out a new Farmers Market in "Old Town" Puerto Vallarta. It was great. Small in scale from what I am use to back home. Portland Oregon has the most amazing Saturday Market! Anyways, back to PV's market. Lots of food vendors selling various, jams, breads, deserts and let me not forget th pickle booth. Both dill and bread and butter pickles. I know this sounds odd but a good pickle is hard to come by here in Puerto Vallarta, plus if you find an imported jar you will be paying top dollar for those crispy cucumbers! So I did pick up a small container of bread and butter pickles for 30 pesos while Maritza went for the dill pickles.

There were also a few craft booths but really is not the focus of this market. The space is limited too , they have done a good job at organzing it all. I had such a great weekend!

Easter Swapping

A group of friends and I did a "swap" package with an Easter theme. "What is a swap?" you ask...Well first you and one or more then one person agree to swap a specific item or you can also have a wish list of items you would love receiving with a price limit.

Sara, Jackie, Maritza and myself all decided that this would be a great way for us all to stay connected now that we are miles apart. Jackie moved to GDL and Sara now lives in Mexico City. So each one of us girls swapped packages with one other person within the group. We paired up like so:

Jackie had Maritza

Maritza had Sara

Sara had me & I had Jackie.

Normally I think we are going to be mailing items via snail mail, but for our first swap we managed to get each other our packages without spending any shipping money! Loved it!

Heres what I received:

crafted felt bird-yummy nutty/honey treats- decorative medal heart- orange floating scented candle holder & candle

Sara & I at Haciendas having breakfast

Friendly Visits

My friend Sara is in Puerto Vallarta for the next couple weeks and I was very excited to meet up with her over breakfast at Hacienda's restaurant. First time I ate there and if you are ever visiting you have to stop there!!!

Sara actually moved away to Mexico City about a month ago and we never "really" got to say goodbye. So this made me even more happy to be able to spend some time with her and to catch up on her wonderful fairytale love story. You will have to go to her blog to get all the juicy details! Believe me it is worth the read! http://locuasia.wordpress.com/

We caught up on all of the things going on in our wonderful & crazy lives. It was so nice! Before you know it we had been sitting there for over 3 hours! I did not have my camera , but Sara did and as soon as I get some photos of our morning I will be sure to post!

Afternoon Get Togethers

Yesterday the kids and I met up with “the girls” at a café just outside Puerto Vallarta I believe the name was something like Lumbake but honestly I think I am way off on the name and will have to come back and edit it later……I think the colony was Fluvial. I am still learning my way around this city. The café offers a nice menu of mostly sandwiches, salads a great kids selection and of course fabulous beverages. I had the ice tea which was too sweet for my taste but there are Italian sodas, mochas, smoothies and lots more.

from left to right....me of course, Michelle, Maritza, Jackie, Sara

So here is the big secret about the place……there are fun play structures for the kids outdoors and an indoor air-conditioned play room, with toys galore, flat screen tv, arts and crafts and the best part is that someone is “watching the little ones” while mom and dads or in our case girlfriends can catch up and gossip! I loved it and hope we go back very soon.