My night with Bethenny Frankel

Do you know who Bethenny Frankel is? Did you know she has her own talk show now? How about the Skinnygirl Cocktails? That has to ring a bell, right?

Jack, my mom, my sister, my sister-in-law, and my mom-in-law all do not know who she is. That's unacceptable to me!

In any case....

Let's start at the beginning. To kick off Bethenny's new talk show, she hosted a 10 city tour for fans. For her CLE visit, there were drawings to win free tickets and my friend/co-worker, Roxanne & I entered one of them. And after entering, I happened to stumble upon a mall setup for video entries. I made the boys say "Hi Bethenny!" on camera. Remember this?

 A week later, Bethenny's camp called me and told me that the video entry was a winner! I won 2 free tickets to Bethenny's Cleveland Cocktail Reception.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!! The party was held at the recently built MOCA - Bethenny's team did a fabulous job at transforming it into a fun party venue.

About 150 of us there enjoying an open Skinnygirl Cocktails bar, passed appetizers and fun little areas for us to enjoy!

 The video/photo booth that won us our tickets!

When Bethenny came out, the room went crazy. She has the teeniest waist and the biggest personality. You either love her or hate her!

 Personally, I loved her Skinnygirl Moscato. Win! Win!

Then it happened.

Earlier in the night, a producer approached us and asked if we wanted to be part of the "Would you ever" segment. Our names would be put in a bowl, Bethenny would call some names to the stage and we'd have to answer silly questions. "Bethenny can ask anything so you can't be shy," said the producer. Not sure what happened next, but I said "Sure! Yes! I'd love to!" And there my name went into the bowl.

It was time and the first name called was, "JAMIE ELWELL!"

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Seriously? What am I going to do? AAAAAAAH!!!

Roxanne literally had to push me up onto the stage.

I was one of 5 women on stage to answer questions. They were all questions about sex. Luckily, the crowd was into it and we didn't have to do much but answer yes or no.

I was so excited, I didn't know what to do with myself. The girl next to me handed me her drink when she had to take the mic...and I drank her drink. Who does that?

 

Then Bethenny had one last question, "Would you ever....accept a free trip to NYC to be in the audience of the taping of her premiere show?"

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So yes, Roxanne & I are headed to NYC in 9 days. We'll be there from Sept 5-7 taping Bethenny's premiere show to air on Monday, September 9! Bethenny's producers and travel people are calling me this week to finalize arrangements. Oh yeah, her people are talking to my people me.

And so there you have it. My girls night out with Bethenny Frankel. A little tipsy in this photo - but what do you expect after a night like that! SO.MUCH.FUN!!!!!!

NYC, here we come!

Family time: Bachan & a Baptism

My mom (Bachan) arrived last Wednesday and it's been non-stop fun ever since. She flew in to help us with the days between preschool and kindergarten. Colin and Justin both were out of school for a bit and now Colin has almost a full week off before kindergarten begins.

Mom brought the California sunshine, so we enjoyed several trips to the pool. Mom even braved the pool alone with both boys! She kept saying, "let's go to the country club." haha.

 

  Colin had swim lessons all summer with his summer camp and we've continued them for a couple of weeks. This is me teaching him the importance of a tight streamline. =)



Quick dry off...

 This is how we lounge.

The boys enjoying Starbucks walks and treats:

 Belated Happy Birthday Dinner to mom!

 Jack checking his inspiration for his next project....

 Live music after dinner... (+ice cream for dessert!)

On Sunday, Jack & I snuck off to Michigan for Danny's baptism. I missed Colin & Justin, but Ana and Alex made sure I had enough cuddle time. Love these kiddos.

Danny, the baby of honor. Jack & I are honored to be his godparents. I'm not sure if my official title is buddha-mother or god-mother. Either way, we love this little guy! =)

Matt & Elena had a fun family party after the baptism. Lots of fun Romanians, relaxation time and beautiful weather. Reagan, Brooke and I did a mini-photo shoot with the guest of honor. So handsome!

 

While we were in Michigan, Colin & Justin were spoiled silly. Zoo time with Bachan!

Busy and fun! As Justin would say, "my heart is happy."

Pirates & Knights

Aravindh has an amazing camera. If this isn't a clear picture, I don't know what is. Here are the boys at one of our Leela dinners. Pirates, knights and fairies are pretty standard for a weekly dinner.

Party, Party, Party

Friday: We got the weekend off to a fun start with dinner & shopping at the mall. Sweet Factory for dessert and we did a video for Bethenny Frankel. She is coming to CLE for a visit so she had a booth at the mall for people to take a video/picture to win tickets. I used the boys for cuteness points. Wish me luck! (Mom, that's what I look like in work clothes. and no, I do not pull my hair back all of the time.)

 Saturday: My weekend kicked off with a baby shower for my dear friend Myah. She had it in the penthouse suite of a building overlooking the lake. The weather was perfect... isn't that view amazing?!

 The kids went over to Auntie Uma and Carlo's house for a sleepover. They had a blast: pizza, ice cream, big kid cars, sleeping in a new room, night lights, and more. Thank you for a great sleepover!

 While they were at their sleepover, Jack & I headed downtown to celebrate his 20th high school reunion. His friends are the nicest people and he had a great time catching up with everyone. One of his friends, Heather, and I snuck off to the casino for 45 minutes. I won $80 at the pai gow tables!

 

Sunday: I picked up the boys from their sleepover and headed straight to Leela's graduation party. It had a peace theme and Aarti was so creative with everything. Here are the goodie bags she made all of the kids.

 

Colin, Justin and Leela are great friends. I tried to find the oldest blog post with our weekly dinners and found this picture.  So much fun to see the kids all grow up together. Colin & Leela are about 2 years old here. And if you look closely, Aarti is holding Justin in the background.

And look at the kids now...Leela & Colin are headed to kindergarten!

 After Leela's party, we were off to Grandma's. It's fantasy football season and Jack had his mandatory draft picking, beer drinking and pizza eating "meeting."

How many years have I been to Grandma's? and why have I never seen her apple trees? The boys loved picking apples and Grandma made applesauce for them!

 "Look mom, a real apple (with a leaf). Like the kind on TV." - Colin

 Then cousin time... they blew, chased and popped bubbles. Don't you love her backyard? It is so peaceful.

 But the best part was cousin time in Jack's truck.

 We figured out that they were playing doctor/ambulance. Justin was the patient, Sarah was the driver and Colin & Sam were the paramedics/doctors. Loved watching these guys play together.

 And then we came home to find Bony and Martha sleeping in the house together. Oh, you didn't know? I came home last week and the boys told me that Jack bought a 2nd russian tortoise (aka. turtle). Jack didn't like to see Martha lonely (he has yet to describe lonely turtle characteristics to me), so he got her a friend. Justin had naming rights, so he named her "Bony the Hope." Don't ask. We call her Bony for short.

I need a weekend break from our weekend of partying! Lots of fun times and we're all going to get some good rest tonight.