Memorial Day Weekend

Friday I got off work at 2pm and that's when Connie Govea Stuart showed up at my house. Perfect timing! We had planned an art play date together. Unfortunately, we didn't start the art work until 6ish cuz we had some essential things to do. One of them included lunch at Bake Sale Betty's. We ended up getting our sandwiches and desserts on the house - not sure why. Maybe cuz we had to wait an hour before it was ready or because they just felt nice. What ever the reason it was wonderful and well worth the wait. Bake Sale Betty's is right down the street from Craft Depot - so that was an easy hour to kill. You never walk out of there empty handed. Here are my finds...

Then we had a few other shopping spots to hit before heading back to my house for some artful play. Here's what I ended up making Friday - thanks to GGS for the suggestion. A mini house book - 14 embellished pages, about 2 inches tall.

Saturday morning I started my day with the morning run at the track - ran 3 miles. Glad to get that out of the way. Then did some quick shopping at Target. After that it was off to lunch with my best friend since Jr. High School, Denise. We tried this new restaurant in Walnut Creek, "The Door", Asian fusion cuisine. We both loved it - can't wait to go back. It was great catching up with her.

Saturday evening ended with a bday dinner to celebrate my mother-in-law's & my niece from Hawaii's bday. We had so much food and so much fun. Here's a picture of my mother-in-law with some of her grandchildren.

Mango mousse cake was the dessert of the night.

Sunday - I did my morning run at 7:30am - phew - got that out of the way again. Then I took my mother-in-law out shopping - along with Frances and Rachel. It was fun - we all found something to buy. After shopping, Rachel and I went swimming - it was so hot today, so we thought the pool would be crowded - but hardly anyone was there. It was so nice to have the pool to ourselves.

Saturday night after swimming - Rachel made one of my favorite desserts: Blueberry Crumb Cake - oh so yummy. Here's where I got the recipe...you've gotta try it. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/blueberry-crumb-cake-recipe/index.html

Monday, I did the my morning run again. 3 days in a row! I did some "work-work" for a couple of hours. For lunch, we had a family outing to SF Japan town for some ramen noodles - yum!

The restaurant is called Suzu and we'll definitely be back. Here's our dishes - everything was really tasty. There was quite a crowd waiting to get in.

J-town is also one of Rachel's favorite places to go for the bookstore and gift shops.

I bought these adorable key chain rings at a gift shop in J-town. They're only 2" tall - they're quirky and sweet and I just couldn't resist.

We came home and I took the kids swimming again - it wasn't as warm as yesterday - but we still had fun. What a nice ending to a long weekend.