Well Hello Mr Toad

It has been a very quiet week this week and we have enjoyed the sunny days out and about downtown. The other day I had these missions (shopping for prezzos!!) to do as well as go to the library. Everywhere we went people were saying "oh she's so cute". So here is a pic of the cute one a little boy (obviously!!) hanging out with Mr Toad outside the library. Sure he has long hair but we are hippys man and we enjoy being in the granola state - California, man, full of fruits & nuts.

Scrappa goes missing....

Look at the naughty little rascal hanging his head in shame for worrying us to death! On top of the hangover on Sunday we discovered that Scrap was missing and we searched everywhere for him. Called the animal lost & found to no avail & we were planning to call the shelter in the morning. In the end he reappeared at 8pm that night!!!

The aftermath...

Oh headless pinata, you gave us lots of joy and the poor balloon that once was blowing in the breeze with it's helium high is laying on the ground. Lucky the floor wasn't too messy as James has mustered up the energy to clean up before he went to bed (oh by this time I had passed out cold!)

Caught red handed!!

"Hey Mr Ashwin what you up to?" Here is the icing stealer busted in the act! I was moving the cake away and still he would look over the table on his tippy toes and pull the plate toward the edge so he could take a dip into the orange blossom icing. Most of it ended up on my jeans as he would come along and grab me after he'd had a taste.

The evidence...

In the foreground you can see the massive bottle of margarita mix that went with the massive 1.75 litre bottle of tequila and triple sec. There is the shaker to the right of the pic with it's classy retro vinyl cover :) Notice we have no pinata as the lollies are scattered all over the floor - they were good!

Cheers to you!

After the many margaritas James is looking quite sober here - but the red eyes are a giveaway :) He is ready to down the strawberry margarita... It was a great investment to buy some martini glasses, it is just an excuse to have another cocktail party!! Maybe we could do a tiki night theme or something else that has the American twist on things. Bummer we have to wait until September for James' birthday - we'll have to think of an excuse to have another party soon??!!

Straight from the shaker...

Here is Andy's concoction of freshly squished strawberries, tequila and triple sec - whoa that was strong! I had a couple of these at the end of the night and don't remember too much afterwards... Still they look pretty cool and did taste quite good as well. We had plenty of margaritas made "to go" for those willing to have more. So we thought we would mix it up a bit as people had mentioned strawberry margaritas to me - worth trying once and hey if the night went on further, who knows what would have appeared!

Bring on the food!!

Here is a selection of some of the food that we had - there were plenty of olives, tortilla chips, a five layer dip, salsa, enchiladas, and the most tastiest cake (made by knitting master Shona) was the gingerbread (birthday) cake with orange blossom icing - mmm that went down very well and we all enjoyed it!

Our beloved pinata....

Da Margarita Party!

It was an awesome night and here are a couple of pics of the crew who came over and just fitted into our apartment! We all enjoyed the delicious potluck mexican (spanish/italian) feast of food. The margaritas were flowing from the beginning to the end including an experimental Strawberry margarita! We did a homemade margarita mix with fresh lemons and limes with cane sugar (as opposed to corn syrup - not very nice and is added to everything in the USA). James choose the cow balloon in the background as cows are his friends! By the end of the night we were pretty wasted and I drank way too much tequila!!

What's inside you - you smell nice!

This is our pinata for the margarita party we had on Saturday night. It was a great night and we drank lots of tequila and the margaritas were tasty! Man my head hurts today but it is worth it as the night was was wild. Mack is sniffing out our little burro for the lollies that he has in his body. There were plenty of them - 4 bags to be exact! I had to hide them in the pinata before James got home from work as there wouldn't have been any left for the party. We now have a headless pinata and thank goodness Ashwin isn't too freaked about it - he still likes to pick the body up and pull the paper mache off (great?!? more vacuuming!!)

Mr Noodle

We were having a lovely meal of buckwheat soba noodles with shitake and eggplant the other night & we love eating noodles with chopsticks. Next to us, Ashwin who was having the same meal started protesting with loud screams on his chair - this isn't a good thing! We were wondering if he was just sick of being there but instead he wanted the chopsticks we were eating with - it was very funny to watch him attempt to eat with them! Teach him young and before we know it he'll master the art of chopsticks.

Fancy pants

This is the fanciest iris I have ever seen - usually I have seen the solid purple variety with a stripe of yellow & white. These ones were much smaller and probably a hybrid of some kind? This was found outside the library - a place where we do spend a lot of time! I have to say that I really enjoy going to the library but with Ashwin at such an inquisitive age I can't wander in peace.

Bright Leaf, Bright Leaf!

Wandering around parkland during the week we went to a fave park of ours near the library. There is the smallest Japanese garden there in the corner hidden away - compliments of a sister city of Mountain View. Here is where I found this lone maple standing out like a beacon amidst the green - they are one of my favourite trees.

It's time for a bath!

The other day it was bathtime for Ashwin & as he was so keen for a bath & to play with his bathtime pals he decided to climb over the edge and hop in - clothes and all! It was quite funny as James came home and saw it all, we then had to deal with his wet clothes and the worst thing was to deal with his very wet nappy, yuck!

My what a big butterfly!

This is the coolest balloon I have ever seen - Shona got it as a birthday surprise last week and we have enjoyed having it in our loungeroom and Ashwin has enjoyed playing with it! Day by day the helium leaks out and now we have a bit of a flaccid looking butterfly body just hanging there. When my neighbours came over and saw the butterfly balloon from behind they thought the balloon was "something else" (starting with P and ending in S) anyhow, I will leave that to your imagination...

Swinging like a cowboy

Ashwin looks like something from a western in his new hat from Aunty Shona - it is just perfect for when we go to the park. The bonus is that it stays on his head, usually he doesn't like hats and takes them off straight away but this one ties up with a bobble under his chin. We look like a right pair of country bumpkins hanging around the park with our cowboy hats on. Oh well as I said to James "When in Rome, do as Romans do... or should I say When in the U S of A, do as yanks do??!!"

Fancy a line dance??

Danger Mouse himself on the edge of the playset doing a bit of a dance! Lucky for him I wasn't too far away as Ashwin enjoyings going to the edge and then will climb on my shoulders to get down. I was constantly shouting "No!" whenever he got to this spot and then when he saw that I busted him there, he started his little dance. This has to be my favourite park near our house as it has a fence and this huge redwood tree and the playset is just the right size for little ones - Ashwins size.

Wondrous wisteria

Looking closely at the Wisteria tree I found that the flowers were in full bloom and they had such a glorious scent. This flower is seen quite a bit in Japanese fabric design and on kimono such as the one at Hakone Gardens (see our flickr site). I had never seen one this close before and did not realise they have do much detail in each and every flower. On kimono the wisteria is generally stylised & with a bit of luck (& time) I can be inspired to design some fabric patterns from my photos with a new visual diary project.

Turtle lovin'

Basking in the sunshine are a family of turtles keen to show off their shells and colourful bodies. I love watching them swimming about and climbing atop the branch for some rays. The second one from the left is just hanging with its front feet over the branch and looks very chilled.