Snapshots of a Birthday Weekend

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so naturally, this weekend was completely about celebrating her!

There was the obligatory Egg's Benedict (her fave!)

{Free} Starbucks treat before she was treated to a mani/pedi

Birthday flowers

Plus some shopping, The new Winnie the Pooh movie and an AMAZING dinner prepared by Chris' mom, complete with a beautiful Haupia cake (also her fave), a coconut-milk based Hawaiian dessert! All-in-all, a wonderful weekend celebrating an even more wonderful mom!

Twenty-Five in Photos

Happy Tuesday, lovelies! I just wanted to share a little from my lovely weekend!

It was a wonderful combination of surprises and birthday traditions! The weekend started with my sweet husband planning an entire day near the Bay, which consisted of things I've never done yet have always talked about. Mostly scenic places I've wanted to visit. Plus, it was the perfect opportunity to play with my birthday present-a Canon EOS Rebel T2i!!! I LOVE it so much and definitely need to keep playing with it in order to utilize its full potential!

The rest of the weekend included some birthday shopping with my mom, our traditional mani/pedi and some really good eats!

And to top off an already perfect weekend, we indulged in a spa day yesterday, followed by lunch and dessert at one of my favorite little french bistros. It was a perfect way to celebrate turning 25!

Here's a little peek at the weekend festivities!

Superb day in San Francisco! Our first stop was the very large farmers market at the Ferry building, where we lunched and picked up some lovely gourmet chocolates!

Then it was off to Fort Point for some spectacular views of the Golden Gate!

While driving the coastline we were lucky enough to catch this awesome view of the whole city.

Next we took a short hike to the Point Bonita lighthouse. It doesn't get better than this!

My new toy!!

Point Bonita lighthouse

And finally, we went to the Redwoods, something I've been talking about for a while!

Simply magnificent!

And for dinner we had some amazing braised short ribs at March aux Fleurs, a charming little french restaurant just outside of Sausilito!

After what was a total day of relaxation at the Meritage spa in Napa, mom and I lunched at Bistro Jeanty, where we indulged in tomato soup in puff pastry.

and the most incredible creme brulee that has ever touched my tastebuds!

Bistro Jeanty! If you are ever in the Napa area, I highly recommend checking out this little bistro. You will not regret it!

And finally, we took a walk through the sweet town of Yountville and soaked up the gorgeous weather (ahem, and tried to walk off lunch).

All in all, a perfect birthday!

Birthday Bliss

Great news-I feel 100% better today! Goodbye congested, sneezing, nasty allergy symptoms and hello birthday weekend! I can't wait, both for the birthday festivities I've been told about as well as the surprises my husband has up his sleeve! Plus, Monday is set aside for a day of total pampering at a spa in the wine country with my mom-it should be absolute bliss!

Have a simply divine weekend!

image/via

In Honor of Dad

Yesterday was my dad's birthday and in honor of him, I baked one of his favorites - carrot cake! He has a bigger sweet tooth than anyone I know and what better way to say, "I'm happy you were born" than with a good ole' fashioned sugar rush?

I made this cake a few months ago, merely to test its goodness and determine if it was worthy of a birthday cake. And after sending a few pieces home with my mom and receiving a voicemail from my dad the following day gushing over how tasty the cake was, it became clear I had picked a good one!

This delicious version comes from Pinch My Salt (shocking, I know!). It definitely delivers as a perfectly sweet treat! I love to pair a nice thin slice with a bold cup of coffee for that perfect balance.

Carrot Cake

recipe courtesy of Pinch My Salt

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
4 eggs
3 cups grated carrot (about 4 medium/large carrots)
1 1/2 cups canola oil
3/4 cup chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, sift together first six ingredients. Stir in oil then stir in eggs, one a time. Add carrots and stir until well blended then add nuts. Divide batter between two 9-inch or three 8-inch cake pans and bake in preheated oven, 30-35 minutes for the 8-inch pans or 35-45 minutes for the 9-inch pans. Cakes are done when a toothpick inserted the center comes out clean. Let cakes cool in pans on a wire rack for ten minutes, then remove cakes from pans and let cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8-oz. packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter (one stick), softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

With an electric mixer, cream together cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar and blend until well combined. Blend in vanilla extract. Use immediately or refrigerate, covered, until ready to use. If refrigerated, the frosting will need to be brought to room temperature before using (after frosting is at room temp, beat with mixer til smooth).

all images courtesy of Pinch My Salt

A Day at the Museum

Just wanted to share some pictures from our weekend! As I said last week, my Moms birthday was on Saturday and she wanted to go to the California Academy of Sciences for the day. I should start off by saying that we are total museum geeks, so there wasn't much need for convincing!

The California Academy of Sciences is so cool and you can literally spend all day exploring! My favorites are a tie between the Planetarium and the Rainforest (where I ended up taking way too many pics of butterflies).

We ended the day with dinner and spent Sunday at a few wineries. It was lovely!

Mom and Dad

Touching the starfish!

Cheers!

Weekend Getaway

Happy Friday! Are you as ready for the weekend to be here as me?

I am so excited to be getting away for another little weekend trip, only this time it's to celebrate my beautiful mother's birthday (we do love to celebrate birthdays in this family)!

The Hansens and both of our parents will be leaving for San Francisco early tomorrow morning for a day by the Bay. We're staying overnight and then making our way to Napa on Sunday for some wine tasting. Definitely looking forward to a little getaway with the family!

And to end the weekend, we will be going over to the {almost} Van Unen's new home for dessert!

Hope you have a lovely weekend!

image/horizon-virtuel

Birthday Details!

Well I think I'm all recovered from a fantastic birthday weekend and ready to get back in the swing of things. Happy Tuesday, by the way!

For those of you interested in how the birthday festivities all went down, you came to the right place! The only trouble is, I had such a grand ole' time I just don't know where to begin! All I know is, twenty-four has been kind so far:)

Since I do not wish to bore you with the complete itinerary of this past weekend, I'll just touch on the highlights! Though I should warn you this may still be a long post!

So lets see, Friday was set aside for a girly day with my Mom. Except instead of letting me plan out the day, this year she kept what we were doing a secret! I do love a good secret. After enjoying some of these delicious little treats over coffee at Panera, we were off for a little "road trip". Along the way I opened several gifts, only to find money and some great workout accessories in each bag.

I was truly stumped by all of her clues...until we got to the Walnut Creek exit and I instantly knew she was taking me shopping at lululemon (hence the money to shop with)!! Bah, I was SOO excited because our lululemon has yet to open and an opening date remains TBD (get it together Galleria!). And just our luck, we got a parking spot right in front of the store!

I had a ball trying on handfuls of clothes. After finally deciding on several pairs of pants, an "I heart running" water bottle and a few no-slip headbands, I was giddy as a clam. What could top this off you ask? Well, becoming part of their Research & Development program helped! By being a personal trainer, I receive a discount and the ability to submit ideas and feedback on their products!

After my lululemon spree, we continued shopping, lunched at California Pizza Kitchen and found a divine little bakery called Frosting and desserted on their cupcake truffles (my new favorite way to enjoy cupcakes!).

And that was celebration day #1

Saturday morning I woke up begging Chris to let me open my surprise gift. He gave in and totally thrilled me with the cutest new purse from Vera Bradley! Then we got ready to head to Napa for some wine tasting and lunching at the deliciously good, Bistro Jeanty. Our original picnic plans were altered because it was a bit colder than we anticipated. So after dropping Abby off at my parents' for the day, we headed out.


And this is where it got interesting...

About half way there, we had a tire blow out! We pulled over, changed the tire and realized how lucky we were to be safe AND right across the street from Wal-Mart/Sam's. Of course the story only gets funnier when I tell you that our spare tire was also flat. I was laughing at this point!



So yes, I got another surprise birthday present of new tires on my car! Admittedly, I got a bit grouchy waiting in Sam's, but looking back, it really didn't set us back too much and we have a memorable story.

And wouldn't you know, after finally arriving at the first winery of the day, Chris' "checking in" via the four square app on his iphone finally paid off because the winery was offering a two-for-one tasting by "checking in"! Yay for free wine!! We certainly needed it at that point!




The day ended up being wonderful with more wine tasting, dessert at Bouchon bakery and dinner at Bistro Jeanty! You read that right, dessert and THEN dinner, because it's allowed on your birthday!



And that concluded celebration day #2

Sunday was not only my actual birthday, but also the day my marathon training had me scheduled for a 10 mile run. Talk about a way to begin your birthday! Before I went to bed Saturday, Chris told me to open the card that would be on my nightstand. It was very important I opened it BEFORE I left for my run. So I did and it was a card shaped like a refrigerator telling me to look in a specific place in the fridge. I found a new water bottle, filled up with a note instructing me to look in the hall closet. My incredible husband bought me a CamelBak for running! He is so thoughtful!!

After my run, he met me at the Starbucks across the street from our apartment for a birthday coffee! Then we went home, got ready and met our family for breakfast at Awful Annie's, where I splurged on my favorite waffle! It was perfection really!



The rest of the day was pretty low-key. We realxed, played Wii at my parent's house and got ready for dinner. We went to Teppanyaki, which is one of my favorite things EVER! And dessert was back at my parents house, where my Mom made sea salt carameled brownies by special request and some of her own cupcake truffles! Everything was absolutely fantastic!!





In this one I am showing off my sparkly ring thanks to the AMAZING jewelry steam cleaner from my Mom!! It truly rocks my world that my ring can look good as new every day!






Thank you to my ridiculously wonderful and incredible family for making my 24th birthday the best yet!