Friday The 13th and Easter

Here we are in April already...where does the time go.  It doesn't seem like I've been in Ukiah for almost a year and a half already.  I just did a craft show in Martinez (SWAN Day) and it was a successful one-day event.  The best part was I got to see three of my close friends, Joel, Allison and Tami.  We spent the weekend at Allison's house.  She is the most generous and giving hostess one could ever ask for.  We all brought food for Friday night, as well as some she had available.  We talked, laughed, caught up with each other.  Then Saturday, Tami and I got up early to go set up our booths.  We let Joel and Allison sleep in, as they are the working girls of this group.  They came out and met us in the early afternoon.

SWAN Day is a yearly event that the Martinez Arts Association puts on.  It's a one-day event, the booths are free, and it's held in the parking lot by the old train station.  I think Tami and I did well and we both enjoy this event.  Of course, my family usually always shows up at this event, so Rick, Jackie, Ron and Tresa all dropped by.  My friend, Rhonda, also dropped by (I hadn't seen her in more than a year, so it was nice to hug her neck).  We had a bit of light rain in the morning (I ended up attaching my rain flap), clouds for the rest of the day, and quite windy and cold in the afternoon.  I need to invest in some weights for my easy-up, it almost blew away a few times.  Ended up taking it down around 3 pm or so, so that it wouldn't blow away.

After we packed up, Joel and Allison stopped by Cinco de Mayo (one of the best Mexican restaurants ever) and picked up dinner for us all.  Then we headed back to Allison's for another night of laughs, talking and sharing.  Allison had put some margarita mix in the freezer for us to imbibe in, so we had some extra laughs.  Sunday morning we got up and Allison just wanted to stay home as she had some chores to take care of, so Joel, Tami and I went to The Original Pancake House for breakfast before all heading home.  Oh my, I had a Dutch Baby Pancake...absolutely the best.  It's a fluffy, egg based, pancake that when it was served was warm; you put some butter on it to melt, dust it with powdered sugar and drizzle lemon juice on it.  Scrumptious!  It is huge, so I ended up taking half of it home for dinner, since I hardly ever eat breakfast I was stuffed.  I enjoyed that tremendously.

Then we all said our goodbyes, and I headed home via Hwy 29 through Napa and up Hwy 128.  I love that drive, it was a nice, sunny day for it.  I ended up getting home around 4.  Didn't even bother unpacking the car until the next day or so, as I was pooped by the time I got home.  But for dinner, I had the leftover Dutch Baby, and was completely happy.  It was a gread weekend with great friends.

Since then, I've ordered all the prints to make our Savannah albums.  I'm making 5 of them, one for each of us that was on our girl's weekend trip.  I'm also making a baby album for Katie, who had Anna Rose a few weeks earlier than expected.  They are enjoying their baby girl, she is a cutie pie!  And of course, spending time with Nettie and her family.  Aria spends usually one night a week with me, and I see her/them a couple more times during the week.  Aria has lost 4 teeth already, and is such a cutie.  Zoe smiles almost constantly, is beginning to say Mama and Dada, claps, scoots herself around in a circle, and is just a joy to be around.

I had the kids and Branson's over for Easter dinner.  We ate out on the picnic table, but had dessert inside as it got a little too windy.  Aria came over the day before and we made her first ever cake.  She chose to make a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.  I got a Paula Deen recipe and we made it together.  Aria did a spectacular job!  We've been watching some cooking/baking shows, and she's been dying to bake something.  She loves watching those shows and I think has quite a grasp on them already.

She ended up spending the night, and I had only bought her a hollow chocolate easter bunny, and the next morning she got up, looked out my bedroom window into the back yard and said "I don't see any Easter eggs out there", so she went looking around the rest of the house (where of course I had nothing for her because mom said she would take care of it all), so when I saw her next, she had a little tear running down her cheek cause the Easter bunny had left nothing at all for her.  Oh my, did I feel like a bad grandma!  So said that the bunny probably left everything at her house, and she seemed appeased for the moment.  We then got ready and she went to church with me, and I dropped her at home afterwards so she could see what all the Easter bunny left for her.  She was perfectly happy when they came over for dinner later.  I certainly won't forget next year!  I felt awful!

Now it's time to finish my taxes and send them off...I think I get a refund!  Woot, Woot!!!