Mother-Daughter Lookalike Contest winners

Lisa and Kate Cole are the ultimate mother-daughter duo.

“My mom is one of my best friends,” said Kate, 18.

“We’re really close,” agreed mom Lisa.

They also bear a close resemblance. And our readers took note, choosing the Coles as the winners in this year’s Pleasanton Weekly Mother-Daughter Lookalike Contest.

“People who knew me would comment to Kate, ‘I know you’re Lisa’s daughter,'” Lisa said.

“We get that a lot,” Kate agreed. “People will say we could be twins — they say that often.”

“My whole life, I’ve looked like my mom but since I’ve gotten older it is more obvious that I look just like her,” she added.

“I think she sometimes does resemble my husband (Seth) — I think she’s a good blend of both of us,” Lisa said. “When we are together, our resemblance is more striking.”

Kate said she doesn’t see any physical resemblance with her dad but thinks a lot of her personality is like his. She also noted that her older brother also looks a lot like her mother, and her younger brother looks like a combination of both parents.

Kate graduated Amador Valley High School in 2017 and headed off to San Luis Obispo. But this fall she will attend the University of Arizona and major in deaf studies.

“I have been taking sign language for about five year now,” she said. “I want to help people, at the end of the day.”

The family includes Joshua, 21, attending University of Denver, and Noah, 13, who is at Harvest Park Middle School.

“We moved to Pleasanton in 2003 and just love it,” Lisa said.

Lisa had a teaching credential when she moved here and began to substitute with the Pleasanton Unified School District when Noah was in the first grade. Now she tutors at Foundations Tutoring downtown. She also works one day a week at Girlfriends Boutique on Main Street.

“Kate and I shop a lot together — and we spend a lot of time together with the whole family. It’s really important to all of us,” Lisa said.

They entered the contest many years ago, and Lisa remembers Kate being unhappy with the picture she chose, in which they both wore “little cowboy hats.” Still, they made the eight finalists that year.

“This year a friend of ours on Facebook tagged me on the contest and said, ‘You and your daughter should enter this,'” Lisa said. “Kate said, ‘Yes, but I’m picking the picture this time.'”

“I’m blessed to have her as my daughter,” Lisa added. “It was just a fun contest to enter together.”

Now they are looking forward to attending the Alameda County Fair together with the prize tickets.

Second place in this year’s contest went once again to Jasmin Castagnola and her daughter Cecilia, who just turned 3.

“I still get comments from family and friends — and strangers on the street,” Jasmin said.

She thinks the resemblance is mainly in their button noses and dimples. But Cecilia gets her lips from her dad, Matt.

“A few people in the last year have told my husband that she looks like him,” Jasmin said, which pleases him.

Jasmin owns Hair Diva Salon in Pleasanton and said once again her customers encouraged her to enter the contest, and she was looking forward to updating everyone on earning second place for the second year in a row.

“Maybe next year we’ll go for the gold!” she said.