I had such a lucky weekend with girlfriends. Dennis Fiorvanti from Essential Wholesale planned an amazing birthday weekend for his beautiful wife (and business partner), Kayla. He flew in Kayla’s friends from all across the country to wow Kayla and in a feat of surprise-genius-ness, really truly surprised her. We all hid in the kitchen and waited for her to arrive home. And boy was she happily shocked!
Dennis had everything planned out – dinner at The Melting Pot first. If you’ve never been there, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience; decadent food, an amazing experience and way too much tantalizing food. It is not for any sort of dieters though; I literally gained 2 pounds overnight after this sumptuous feast. (P.S. In case you have never had the pleasure of meeting Kayla, in the top left photo, that’s Kayla’s Mom, Kayla and me).
After a late night giggle fest, the next morning we did brunch at Kayla’s favorite breakfast place and then it was off for Group Pedicures for all of us! We were so happy that the spa could accommodate all of us. I went with a pale pink but had a completely jealous moment over one of the other gals’ ‘Very Merry Berry’ colored toes.
After pedicures, we went to go see Julie & Julia (see Donna Maria’s write up about it here; that’s Donna Maria in the green in the above photos) and all agreed it was an amazing movie – a definite ‘Must See’ for all entrepreneurs.
And as if that was not enough, Kayla treated us all to dinner at her favorite Lebanese Restaurant followed by a shopping trip at the Essential Wholesale sample bar. I left with a bagful of goodies and a guilty heart for being so greedy. But even with my guilty, greedy heart, we all agreed that the goody bags for the birthday party attendees were sure a classy touch.
All in all, I felt super lucky to be included in such a special weekend for Kayla. It was the perfect girlfriends’ weekend and I returned to Bellingham feeling thankful and refreshed.
awww… nice pictures you got there.. you having real fun! Oh I cant wait thill weekend comes!
How fun and what a great thoughtful guy!! (I am lucky enough to have a "Dennis" of my own)
Every single one of you is completely right:
Dennis should teach classes on gift giving for husbands. It was truly one of the nicest, most impressive feats of organization I've seen for a truly selfless reason.
dM, um, yes, we did eat all that. No wonder my scale is a full 3 pounds heavier now that it's sunk in. For the awesome memories and laughter we had, it was sooooo worth it!
Kat, I am sure that we will all meet up at a Soap Guild Show or something soap related one of these days! =)
Burnt Mill, Definitely hold out for a Dennis (or a 'Chris' – that's my guy and he's thoughtful, kind and steady too). You deserve the best.
What a blessing to have good girlfriends!
I don't know what I would do without mine. They listen, they encourage, they brainstorm, they giggle, they pray, and they celebrate our common womanhood, motherhood, wifehood, business hood, and doing girlie girl stuff is just plain necessary once in awhile!
It is always refreshing to get together and we are better because of that.
One day I would love to get the incredible opportunity to meet the women who are influencing me every single day of my life 🙂
How totally fun!
oh how fun 🙂
I need a husband like that when I get married!
Sounds like a wonderful weekend. Definitely made her birthday extremely special.
I think Kayla's hubby needs to give all our hubbies a lesson on gifting to their spouses. ;D
Sounds like you had a VERY amazing time! So jealous!
A-M: Thanks for including such great photos of our fun time together in your blog. I felt more empowered just hanging around with you, Kayla, her mom and the other wonderful women for an entire weekend. Girls Rock! And cool, supportive husbands like Dennis are just wonderful! A-M, you even took photos of our food. Oh, geez. I am astounded at what we ate! Did we eat all that??! LOL! It was a weekend to remember. You and everyone there made sure of that! I'll be laughing about this from a rocking chair one day. It's nice to create memories that can make you smile forever! Thanks for being there, A-M. You are special.
wow- that sounds like a blast!
how fun and absolutely delightful! I look forward to one day being able to do stuff like this…