Christmas Social Butterflies

Last weekend, we had 3 parties to attend! It is nice to be busy, but we were really busy! Friday morning we started out with our great playgroup - Arabella had fun making a really pretty Christmas ornament and doing the sit-n-spin (I remember having one and loving it when I was a kid)!

Then it was off to Laura and Allyson's for lunch before heading to Tamara and William's for a Secret Santa and Christmas Tea Party! The tea party was beautiful! And it was a nice relaxing afternoon despite a house full of kids - I guess having three, yes three, nannies on the premises to watch and keep the kids in occupied in the playroom helped with the relaxation!



The tea party was a true high tea but we added champagne. There were scones, jam, clotted cream, tea sandwiches and petit fours - delicious!

I love this beautiful chocolate centerpiece!

After our tea, it was time to exchange Secret Santa gifts which was a blast - I got an awesome cross body purse and I love it! The kids had fun hamming it up for the camera right before we left! It was great! Thanks Tamara for hosting a beautiful afternoon tea and for having your nannies decorate cupcakes and keep the kids occupied!


On Saturday, we got to celebrate with Ryan and Tanya at Ryan's 2nd Birthday party! It was a great afternoon filled with fun and food! All the kids loved the animator and the bounce houses - it wore them all out! Once again, Arabella was wiped out and had a great sleep!



Arabella helped Jay put up some Christmas lights outside. They did a great job and it makes the walk so pretty at night!


Our final party was on Sunday evening, at our house! We had some of Jay's CAT co-worker's and their families over for cocktails, appetizers and dessert. It was so delicious and we had a great time! All the kids had fun running around and playing dodge ball in the basement...not too sure how that worked since I stayed upstairs and enjoyed my wine with the other wives!
One of my new favorite wines - Cupcake Malbec - just perfect!
The raspberry trifle I made for dessert!
Arabella sneaking a piece of salami from the antipasto platter!
The beautiful table! It was another successful party! Our weekend was busy but full of Christmas cheer - we wouldn't have had it any other way!

Tea Party Fun

We had a lot of fun on Sunday at the tea party for Christa and we decided to do a few silly group shots of all of us minus Sheila, unfortunately she had to leave early. I love this amazing group of women! You are all my saving grace(s) here in Montreal!

Saying Goodbye To Our Jersey Girl

Beautiful Christa!


Yesterday, on the first day of Spring, I hosted a tea party in honor of our friend Christa, who is moving back to New Jersey in a few weeks. In order to get her to my house, without knowing that we were throwing a party for her, we planned to have a Spring Clothing Swap. The idea for the tea party came about when we decided that we should all get dressed up and do something fancy since most of use live in jeans and leggings! Christa also loves tea...she and I have become addicted to David's Tea (a loose tea store at our local mall)...there could be worse things to be addicted to, right?!? I also thought having a beautiful tea party on the first day of Spring was fitting for this type of occasion. We spent the afternoon enjoyed wonderful food, tea and celebrating friendship. Christa was surprised and overcome with emotion but enjoyed her celebration.

The tea table with beautiful china tea cups.


She arrives and still has no idea.

Carrie explaining to her the meaning behind the gift we gave her.
This photos is so perfect, it shows her raw emotion and how overwhelmed she is with the surprise.

We each did a few scrapbook pages and put them into this beautiful album.

Two of my scrapbook pages. I am very happy with how they came out and I am not usually into scrapbooking!

It is hard for me to believe that I have only known Christa since September, honestly, she is one of those people that I had an instant connection with and I feel like we grew up together. We are both East Coast girls from Italian families so we get the same things. Case in point, she calls pasta sauce gravy, just like my family does. She has such a silly sense of humor and can make me laugh at the drop of a hat. We have daily phone calls or sometimes 2 or 3. We see each other at least twice a week and she (was) one of my Bikram yoga buddies. She is so honest, kind, caring, genuine and full of grace and I am truly blessed to have her as part of my life. Christa is one of those people that will be a part of my life for a very long time to come and I am honored to call her my friend. I am going to miss you, Arabella will miss Sofia and Jay will miss Joe. Our door is open anytime you want to make a trip back to Montreal. You have touched my heart and soul in more ways that you will ever know, I love you Christa.

Hot Off The Press

Photo by John Mahoney, The Gazette

I promise this will be the last Fancy Nancy post, at least for a little while or until the Arabella's next tea party. But I have to share this news that is hot off the press...she made the West Island Gazette! The article is short, but there are some adorable photos of Arabella, 3 to be exact! You can check out the article here - http://westislandgazette.com/node/20879 I love how the photos capture her looking sweet and coy and you can see she is having a fun time. I am so happy that we went to this event and we look forward to the next one!

Arabella's First Tea Party

Arabella had so much fun today at her Fancy Nancy Tea Party! For those of you you don't know who Fancy Nancy is, you can find out more here....http://www.fancynancyworld.com/#/home/
Before we left for the tea party, Arabella had to get dressed up in her princess skirt. She looked so adorable and had so much fun spinning around and showing off for Auntie Lori and I.


She was a little shy when we first got to the library and she didn't want us to leave, so Auntie Lori and I just stayed in the back of the room and every so often she would look over to make sure we were still there. At the beginning, the librarian introduced herself as "Fancy Nancy" and Arabella decided to stand up and introduce herself as "Arabella, this is mom, this is Auntie" - it was so sweet. She seemed to enjoy the Fancy Nancy stories that were read and then they made a fancy craft. The decorated foam crowns with sparkly stickers and craft jewels. She really had fun creating her crown and then she enjoyed the tea party. They served apple juice in fancy cups, cookies and a little piece of cake. Auntie Lori and I even got to help out with the serving. It was fun to see her enjoying the tea party.

Getting Ready for Fancy Nancy

One of Arabella's favorite story character's is Fancy Nancy so when I saw that our library was going to have a Fancy Nancy tea party, I decided to register her. At first she wasn't interested, but when I reminded her a few days ago, she got excited and has been talking about it ever since. This morning when I came up from working out, she was coming downstairs and she was already dressed...well part of the way. When I asked her about it, she exclaimed "Ancy Ancy Tea Party MOM!!!!!" Goodness, Arabella, you just melt my heart and I can't wait to go to the tea party with you today!