The week before Easter

Birds are everywhere right now!
I sent an Emily Dickinson care package to my niece, Madison in NY

I hit a wall with my running last week.  I only logged 5 miles of combined running/walking.  This is about the time I usually quit.  I forced myself to get out, had Grady tag along and motivate me and I sluggishly finished two miles on Saturday.  I'm hoping next week is better.

We had two pieces of Grady's artwork professionally framed and I finally hung them this week.  I think they look beautiful.  The one on the left, "Their King", will be in a local art show next week to help celebrate the 40th annual Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival that is coming up at the end of April.  Grady was a finalist and placed in the top 6 (out of 38 entries).

The portrait on the right is of Steve and G painted this for him as his Xmas present this last December.

Left photo :: Before haircut
Right photo :: After haircut

Really.

Spent some much-needed girl time with my friends this week.  Coffee, thrifting, mani-pedi, champagne, lunch, haircut.  Oh, how I love my tribe of smart, funny, adventurous, amazing friends.

Easter kind of snuck up on us.  We kept it simple.  Decorating our eggs with Sharpies this year.  What an easy and lovely way to do them up.  We all participated while Steve made us an amazing breakfast.  The rest of the day was spent lounging, reading and working on G's 4th grade mission project (photos of that next week).

1. Sophia & Grady (upper left)
2.  Grady & another Sophia channeling their inner Buddha (upper right)
3.  Neighbor, Giovanni & G in the back pasture at sundown (lower left)
4.  Balancing cups on their heads in order to catch the rain (and entertaining themselves for 2 hours!)

We spent Easter dinner with the Rangel clan and had the good fortune to get treated to a meal caught by and cooked by Miss Sophia.  She is quite the ham lately and cooked, sang, played piano and danced  her booty off for us!

The best Easter I've ever had.

Silly String :: Good idea in theory.  A mess to clean up when it dries.

I keep waiting for Grady to tell me he doesn't believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but he's holding on.  The Bunny is suspect, but he wanted to hunt for eggs and find his basket first thing in the morning.

I'm holding on to these traditions for as long as I can.

The little boy in Grady is holding on, too.