Date Night

The Newport Beach Wine Festival 2013 will be held at the beautiful Balboa Bay Resort this Memorial Day weekend and I wanted to share the details of the extraordinary food and wine events to be celebrated over three days.

Raise your hand if you like wine [I do!]

Raise your hand if you love culinary delights [I do!]

For all my moms out there with hands raised in the air, this event is for you [high five sisters!]

Newport Beach Wine Festival 2013 

Schedule of Events

Friday May 24^th

Master Sommeliers wine Dinner & Reception with Guest Chefs – The Commodore Room: 6:30pm

Six exquisite courses prepared by Executive Chef Ladeger and four guest Chefs with a parallel pairing of old and new world wines for each course.

Saturday May 25^th

Whites wines from France – The Mariner Room: 2pm

Bordeaux From Around the World – The Quarterdeck Room: 4pm

The “Grand Tasting” Gala Event – The Grand Ballroom: 7-10:30pm

The reception will be held in the Grand Ballroom with over 50 vineyards and top-notch cuisine ranging from fine cheeses to scrumptious barbeque.

Sunday May 26^th

Beer for Breakfast – Duke’s Place: 9:30am – 1:00pm

Rustic breakfast faire paired with delicious beers from Europe and other renowned parts of the world.

Australian Shiraz vs. French Rhone Syrah – The Quarterdeck Room: 2pm

Seafood on the Bay – The Lawn & Beach: 4 – 7pm

BBQ Seafood, Sushi Station, Paella Station will be accompanied by a variety of wonderful seafood pairing wines from over 20 wineries.

Cigars, Cognac, Spirits & Sweets – The Commodore Room Patio: 6-8pm

The Newport Beach Wine Festival is a proud sponsor of the 1221 Club Scholarship Fund, which raises funds throughout the year for exemplary local high school students who are college bound.

To book one or more of the Newport Beach Wine Festival events, please call 949-630-4146 or visit BalboaBayResort.com for more information.

This would be such a fun date activity to take your hubby to ~ click here to download a brochure with more information and pricing for each event!

I love family date nights…but when all of our schedules are so crazy busy during the school year, we typically have to end up bonding in the car on the way to soccer or talking about our day over dinner dishes.

But summer…ahhhh summer.  Summer means longer days, (more) relaxed mornings, play time at the pool and sandcastles at the beach. It also means more time to plan fun family dates.

Here are a few family date ideas for summer. Do you have some favorites? Please share below!

Beach Picnics

Pack up some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit…or get as fancy as you want…bring a blanket, juice boxes, napkins, and a handful of cookies for a treat. Then, head on down to your favorite beach and enjoy a simple picnic with a beautiful view. My favorite beach we frequent is Aliso Creek in South Laguna Beach.  It has a fun playground that is manageable with little ones and is rarely overcrowded…plus a small grassy area if you prefer to eat on the grass versus the sand. (Note…the playground will be under renovations the next couple of weeks…right in time to be ready for summer!)

The Irvine Spectrum

There are SO many places to eat that are kid friendly at the Irvine Spectrum. Plus, let your kiddos take a spin on the carousel, ride the Giant Wheel for a great view of Orange County, or play at the splash pad. Lots to see, shop, wander, people watch and sometimes even listen to live music.  A fun way to enjoy the last hours of daylight with your family…because there’s something for everyone!

Pajama Day!

Snuggle up and wear your jammies ALL day for a day date!  Let your kiddos pick a favorite movie, spread a big blanket on the floor and have a lunch “picnic” inside, set up a make-your-own-popcorn bar for snack time (pop a bowl and everyone can mix in their favorite flavors and treats!), have a book reading party, a teddy bear picnic, tea parties, a family dance off…for a comfy day together!

Homemade Pizza Party

Put a spin on typical pizza Fridays, and instead of dialing your favorite pizza delivery joint, go to the store for some fresh pizza dough (Trader Joe’s has one I love) and some fresh sauce. Let your kids wear their dress-up aprons and chef hats, roll up your sleeves and roll out the pizza dough. Let the kids make shapes, pick their favorite toppings and then watch the pizza cook through the oven window.  Maybe throw in some homemade cookies to sweeten the deal…

Camp Out

Organize a family camp out – inside or outside – at home!  Camping is always so fun, but it can be hard to sneak away for an entire weekend as a family.  Break out the tents, the sleeping bags, extra sheets, flashlights, smores fixings, and settle in (or out!) for a technology-free evening together.  Tell stories, make-up silly games, make sticky smores, sing songs, and have some old-fashioned fun!

What is your favorite family date?
Share your ideas in the comments below so we can all enjoy some great family date ideas for this summer!

I know many of us are watching the budget these days, because let’s face it, kids are expensive. Spending money to go on a date night can often fall down the priority list. But you can do date night on a budget! Here are a few ideas on how…

Do a babysitting trade

This past Saturday night, my girls were invited over to the neighbor’s house for a play date and my husband and I went out for a dinner date. We are reciprocating with them in a few weeks by having their girls over to our house.

When you don’t have to pay for a babysitter, it makes going out a little more affordable.

They had our girls from about 5 – 8pm, during which time they got to have dinner with their friends, carve pumpkins, and then got in their jammies to watch a movie while munching on roasted pumpkin seeds.  I guarantee this was a much more fun evening than they would have had at home.

Check out local happy hour deals

My husband and I haven’t been into the bar scene in quite a few years, but we researched local Orange County happy hours and found lots of options if you go early. When doing a babysitting trade, dining early is key so you can get home at a reasonable time to get the kids to bed, so happy hours are a great option.

We checked out a great OC sushi happy hour deal at The Cannery in Newport Beach. If you dine upstairs in their Jellyfish Lounge between 4 – 6:30pm daily, you get $2 off cocktails, $3.50 draft beers and half price on the lounge menu. The sushi was amazing and the tab was inexpensive for a nice evening out with gorgeous view of the water.

Make a romantic candlelit dinner at home

To make date night even MORE affordable, do the babysitting trade with neighbors or friends and make a candlelit dinner at home!

Put on a cute outfit, turn off the TV and put on some good tunes, pour a glass of wine, light some candles and voila! Instant romantic evening!

The main point is to get the kids out of the house so you can have a few hours to alone to talk and connect.

I want to know - how do you do date night on a budget?  Please comment below with your ideas!

My mother-in-law is from Switzerland so I am lucky enough to have experienced her homemade traditional swiss cheese fondue on many occasions. It is simply one of the best things in the entire universe.

I love fondue because a FUN-due (sorry) dinner is about more than the cuisine, it is about the experience. I love the leisurely pace. When you are having fondue, there is no rushing, just good conversation and time to indulge in each delicious bite-sized morsel.

If you have never had fondue before, then this deal today on OCSaverTime.com for dinner at Simply Fondue is one that you cannot pass up for your next date night! Only $45 for a 4-course fondue experience at Simply Fondue in Mission Viejo (a $106 value!)

OCSaverTime.com is a new daily deal site focused on Orange County deals.

The 4-course dinner includes:

1.Choice of  Salad: After checking out the menu the spinach and strawberry sounded particularly appetizing to me. Nice to go with a lighter salad for this course.

2. Choice of Cheese Fondue:  Nothing better in this world that dipping a piece of french bread into a pot of melted cheese. Don’t believe me? You just have to try it yourself. You have to go with the Traditional Swiss with the Gruyere and Emmenthaler cheeses a la my mother-in-law Doris. YUMMMM….

3. Choice of Seven Entree Meats & Seafood:  Yes, you read that right, you get a choice of seven different surf and turf options.

4. Choice of Chocolate Fondue: Of course it wouldn’t be a fondue extravaganza without ending with a chocolate fondue. They even have a Thin Mint variety. Are you kidding me? My mouth is WATERING already!

That alone is quite a deal for $45, but this voucher ALSO includes two glasses of wine or two specialty martinis to add a little fun to the fun-due!

I am so snatching up this deal to take my hubby on our next date night. Better believe we will be toasting his mother for instilling in us a love and appreciation for fondue!

Click HERE to buy this deal.

To sign up to receive these daily deals from OCSaverTime in your inbox, visit www.OCSaverTime.com to subscribe.

You can also follow OCSaverTime on Facebook.

[Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but all my opinions, including my obsessive love of fondue are my own! Happy to pass on this deal to you!]

Last Christmas my parents gave my husband a “coupon” for a night out on the town and offered to take our girls for a sleepover at their house, which we redeemed this past Saturday night.  As a sort of spontaneous decision, we decided to try www.priceline.com to see if we could get a good deal to stay at a local hotel for the night.

Has anyone done Priceline before? I have to say it was pretty exciting going through the bidding and seeing where we ended up!  My husband did all the bidding – check out his tips below if you ever want to try it!

We ended up getting a room at the Hyatt Regency Newport Beach, which was a great location for a one-night getaway.

The weather was gorgeous, so we arrived around lunchtime on Saturday dressed pool-ready and checked our bags with the bellman.

We spent the afternoon reading, snoozing and enjoying the Jacuzzi (the small batch of homemade margaritas we snuck in made it extra fun. Yes, we were rebels sneaking in some booze – living it up on our big night away! Woo hoo!)

Later in the evening we walked over to the Newport Dunes and had a great dinner at the Back Bay Bistro. There happened to be a great live band that night (Tom Solis) playing my favorite kind of mellow music. By the way, if you go there for dinner, the Kobe beef sliders were out of this world. Didn’t see them on the menu, so they might have been a special, but ask for them!

The next morning we slept in and I read a People magazine in bed with a Starbucks coffee. My version of Heaven. For breakfast, we walked from the hotel over to Balboa Island and ate at Wilma’s Patio (the BEST.)

We headed home around noon relaxed, happy, and ready to see the kids. 24-hours to be a couple and it was amazing.

Now, admittedly, we are VERY lucky to have local and willing grandparents to help us out. But if you don’t, maybe you could recruit a family to do a trade off sleepover with each other’s kids so you can get a night away every once in a blue moon?

And with Priceline.com can score you a steal of a deal! Our accepted hotel bid was $78 (+ tax + $20 parking it ended up being around $120 total.) If you didn’t eat out at pricey places, it could be a very reasonable getaway! Heck, you could grab take-out burritos and head back to the hotel to eat at the pool. Main point being, for not a whole lot of money, a date like this can be  priceless.

Here are my husband’s tips on how to bid using Priceline:

1. Learn which hotels are in the area you chose – for example, if you select 4 star hotels in Newport Beach/Huntington Beach, first look on Priceline/Hotwire to see what # star hotels show up in that area.  This will give you a good idea of what hotel you might get if you make a Priceline offer.

2. If you want 4 stars – have an idea of how much a 4 start hotel room is going for on the night(s) you chose.  You can do this on Priceline/Hotwire.

3. Make an offer – remember your offer excludes tax. Also, remember that some hotels charge resort fees, parking, etc. so that you know exactly how much to expect to spend.

4. If your bid is not accepted you have a few options:

a. Wait 24 hours and submit a new bid for the same area and hotel rating.
b. Immediately bid again by adding in a new area and/or hotel rating.

Tip: If you find areas that do not have hotels matching the hotel rating you chose, you can bid again before waiting 24 hours. For example, I wanted to stay in a 4 star hotel in Newport Beach/Huntington Beach and my initial bid was rejected. I then had the option to bid again by adding a new area into your search.  I looked through nearby areas and noticed that Santa Ana and Laguna Beach did not offer 4 star Priceline hotels.  So for my next bid I increased my offer and I added Santa Ana knowing that my bid would only be accepted in Newport Beach/Huntington Beach.  If my second bid was not accepted I could then increase my offer and add Laguna Beach.  You can keep adding new areas and keep rebidding, just be sure to do your research so you know you are only adding areas that do not offer 4 star Priceline hotels.  The hotel mix changes frequently, so be sure to check before you bid.

5. After your bid is accepted and you know the hotel, call to hotel directly to see if you can request a room type (i.e. King, two doubles, etc.) The hotel will not be able to guaranteed bed or room type, so you have to be open minded and go with the flow on whatever you get.  We were lucky the hotel was able to get us into a King bed room.  We also had the option to upgrade our view for an additional charge upon check-in.

That’s it! This would be really fun to do as a spontaneous family get away for the night!

So it’s Friday!  Anyone have a fun date night planned this weekend?

Hope you all have a great one! XOXO

[Photo credit: Hyatt.]