A labor free weekend

This long weekend I feel like we indeed rested from our labors! And boy, did that feel good?!!

Swimming, rock climbing, zPizza, shopping, and visiting friends were the only "tasks" on our to-do list. Well, Hrishi had to deal with fixing the sprinkler system but once that got done, it was a smooth ride.

On Saturday, since it was Ganesh Chaturti, a dear Hindu family festival, Hrishi made delicious modaks, which are like little rice dumplings filled with yummy grated coconut, poppy seeds, and sweetened with jaggery (whole cane sugar.) It is usually served with warm ghee (clarified butter) but for obvious reasons (Ella's food allergies and my diet), only he enjoyed the dish with the traditional ghee topping! :)

Finally Ella got to do some rockclimbing after a long time. She loved it and didn't seem to have gotten rusty or anything. Love this picture where she and Hrishi are climbing at the same time:

We had our friends, the Fernandes, with us this time. Their oldest son who is one year younger than Ella was super excited to try. Ella was playing "instructor" carefully giving him climbing directions :)

The younger one was happily cheering and posing for pictures:

After rock climbing, we went next door to zPizza and enjoyed our favorite: chicken bbq with tomatoes, corn, red onion, and vegan cheese.

I love this one:

And can't really tell you how happy and grateful I am that there this one pizzeria that we can go to!!

After lunch we stopped by "Builder Bear" and got a Lamb! :) (She earned this for obedience and for putting up with a TB shot we had to have done for her for our adoption paperwork.) "Happy" is an understatement:

(Take note of its outfit: mandatory long pants and long sleeve shirt/hoodie!

(For some reason, Ella loves long pants and long sleeves one her stuffed animals AND  herself! Lol!) :)

Sunday was nice, went to church, then did some grilling with friends.

Today went to the park and just hang out together:

(tire swing= BIG favorite!)

("Super girl"!!!)

And after the park and my workout, we had to say good-bye to daddy for a week... (Darn, he has to travel again this week!! :( :(  We then got ready for Ella's swim lesson. She did great although today she started with a new instructor. I'm really proud of her for being so dilligent and working so hard! (Inspite of waking up at 6:20 this morning thinking it's a school day and not being able to go back to sleep, and not napping this afternoon, she still gave it her 100%.  This on top of the instructor change. Moreover, when the 30 mins of class were up, she came out and ran to the other end of the pool (where there were no classes) to practise for a few more minutes! Well, if that's not dedication, I don't know what is?! Lol :)

And I naively thought that she's going to be wiped out after such a full day and just fall asleep in the car on the way home! Oh, I was wrong! She played Angry Birds on my phone and when we got home put this beautiful drawing up on her easel! How can she do all this when I was ready to throw in the towel at 3ish today after my workout????!!!!

The finished product:

Tomorrow we're off to work/school but luckily it's a short week! (Short also means that it'll be even more packed!) Oh well, life is good!