Happy Birthday, Dear Daddy

Saturday was Peter's 38th birthday, so after Sabbath School we headed down to Dos Lagos and hung out in the conveniently located Barnes and Noble bookstore and then outside (it was a gorgeous day) by the beautiful, enormous fountain while we waited for Shari, Joel, Mom and Stanton to arrive for a celebratory birthday lunch at Rosine's. Emmy took the opportunity to divest us of every penny we owned (in favor of the fountain, of course), and Shari took the opportunity to try on Emmy's hat.

After we were seated, Peter opened his present from Emmy & Mommy - a new t-shirt emblazoned with a cute pic of Emmy and the text "Some bunny loves me!" (is that gag-me cutesy or what?!). Although our alfresco dining experience was a trifle chilly, the stimulating company and terrific mediterranean cuisine more than made up for the windchill factor.

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed back to Mom and Stan's place for some homemade banana cream pie. Mom & Stan had just recently received the toy piano they'd ordered for Emmy's birthday, which Joel and Mom put together the day before, so Emmy had the delight of playing it for the first time that afternoon. It was a huge hit. Then Peter opened his gift from Mom & Stan - a Krups cappuccino maker - and Peter made delicious cappucinos for everyone, which turned out to be a perfect accompaniment to my mom's to-die-for banana cream pie.

It was a lovely, relaxing day, but the highlight was definitely Emmy's rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" later that evening, which she played and sang for her daddy with gusto. We think she may be a child prodigy, akin to Mozart. In addition to the forceful playing and heartfelt singing (in this case she decided she wanted to sing in her "kitty voice"), we were very impressed with her fancy pedal work. Enjoy the performance!

Hoppy Easter

Since I spend most of each Easter Sunday singing at a Catholic church gig in LA, we did Easter brunch with my family on Saturday instead. We gathered at my mom and stepdad's house for our traditional feast of goldenrod eggs, tender asparagus, savory vegelinks, fresh out of the oven melt-in-your-mouth scones with clotted cream and preserves, and a refreshing fruit salad of fresh oranges and berries. Stuffed to the gills, we then stepped out into the beautiful garden for an Easter egg hunt. It was a lovely afternoon, unseasonably warm (in the mid-80's) - we couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. As the only child present, Emmy had a field day hunting for the dozens of eggs we'd hidden, her every move shadowed by the family papparazzi. She ate up all the attention, looking adorable in a Janie and Jack outfit from Grandma Jean and bunny ears from Mommy. After finding all of the eggs she immediately asked us to hide them again . . .

Lunching with the girls at Grapevine

On Friday I had the rare opportunity to have lunch with my dear friends Brenda and Rachael at Grapevine restaurant in La Verne - and to meet Rachael's adorable 3-month-old baby boy, Kieran. We had a lovely time chowing down on delicious Middle Eastern cuisine, kissing Kieran's irresistably chubby cheeks, trying to prevent Emmy from drowning herself in the ornamental pool near our table on the patio, and generally catching up on what's been happening in each other's lives.

I really enjoyed spending some quality time with these amazing friends - and it was a lovely respite from the seemingly neverending flood of activity that goes along with being a (somewhat) responsible parent, spouse, employee, homemaker and member of society.

It was especially wonderful to see how happy Rachael is as a new mommy, and what a terrific job she's doing with Kieran. Holding her darling little butterball made my ovaries hurt (to borrow a phrase from my cousin Janel )!