Girls' Weekend

 For my Dad's 60th birthday, all of my siblings flew out to surprise him and celebrate together.  We knew we wouldn't be able to be together for mom's, so we sorta celebrated that, too, but when her birthday rolled around, it was very shortly after Grandpa's passing and we had all just gone home.  It seemed like a sad and lonely way to spend a big birthday!  So we decided we'd plan a girls' weekend in October.  Most of it we spent relaxing and crafting.  Here's a tiny baby blanket to donate to the NICU to be used either for tiny preemies or for bereavement packages.  I've fallen in love with this project and continue to work on it now that I'm home.  But we also did some playing (SHOPPING!), too...

 This is me on Pier 39, with "fairy dust" on my cheek.  I found some great Christmas ornaments for the boys at the San Francisco Music Box Company.

 This is my mom at Ghirardelli's.  All of us but one had a mint ice cream brownie sundae.  I can still taste it...

 Mom, Quynh (my brother Gene's wife), Allie, Kasey (Sandra's niece), and Sandra (my mom's college roommate and a dear friend to all of us...one of my very best friends, in fact)

 Mom and Emily when we went to breakfast before shopping at the Gilroy outlets.  Emily pulled a "Gloria" (from Madagascar, where she can't find her straw with her lips) and had us all in stitches.  We actually laughed the vast majority of the weekend.  Laughter is good medicine!!

 These are pumpkins we saw on our drive to Gilroy.  Had to document them for the boys since we always read the book about the mice tending their ginormous pumpkins each Halloween.

 Sandra and Kasey brought cards and taught us how to blend using the markers used in anime.

Allie was not a fan.  It was hilarious!  We had such a great, relaxing time.  Even the plane rides were relaxing.  Thank you, Momba, for hosting us and taking us all over the place and giving us an extra bag to fit all our great finds in for the trip home!!!