Celebration

We had a great weekend, loaded with lots of work, exam nerves, but also with fun and relaxation. For Ella work consisted of a lot of piano and ballet practice at home and classes at school. Her relaxation and fun started when I took her to the Dollar store (in between classes) so she could pick up a little toy, and then when daddy got a little surprise toy for her after his exam. She was in heaven!! As we started saying our "highs and lows" at the dinner table, all I heard during our Sat and Sun meals was "My high was when I got this toy and this other toy, etc.!!!" So funny! [I gently reminded her that some things that we could count as "highs" are simply being together and enjoying a nice meal, being healthy, etc. "But mom, I do like my new toys a lot!"...]

But the highlight of the weekend, through all the running around to classes, grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, and gardening (those were some of the things that kept me busy this weekend), was celebrating Hrishi's completion of a few hundred hours of study for his Six Sigma Black Belt Quality Certification Exam,  taking the actual exam and feeling good about it. He still has to wait for the final score which will arrive in an email within a couple of weeks. But boy oh boy, I was itching to make this cake for him...so I did. I got the idea online and although it didn't turn exactly as I was hoping (I don't know how to make fondant and honestly didn't have the time even if I wanted to), it was still pretty close in appearance and most importantly, DELISH. It was chocolate with sweet dark cherries and white fluffy vanilla frosting. (Ella added a few red skittles for the "heart"- isn't she a sweetheart?) The cake was yummy!

Let's just say that I was pretty pleased with the end result considering that I only had a about 5 mins to apply the frosting on.  Hrishi was pleasantly surprised and "got" our theme right away.

And now some of the more random everyday things we are blessed to do...

• Soak in after-school time at Kid Country park. We absolutely love that park!

(Note that I got the best "model" to work with. She poses for me freely almost any time. How lucky am I? :))

• Assidously create beautiful art every single day (thank goodness for those amazing teachers!)

• Do a tiny bit of landscaping... plant hycinth, fresia, and lily of the valley bulbs. Now if they can just bloom (quickly, please!) (No pictures since we did this pretty late in the evening.)
• Nap... that's one of my most favorite! (no pictures here either, everyone was zzzzzzzz....zzzz!)