St. Patty's Day Party

Did I mention this was a crazy busy weekend? After I attended a friend's baby shower in the morning, we headed over to another Playgroup Party - this time it was a St. Patty's Day Party!

Our hostess, Lisa, went to town with decorations. As with this group of friends...we always do potluck for our gatherings and this time, it was all green food! The kids thought it was hilarious!

We usually get the kids fed and then have grown up time while we eat. Here's Dawn with the lineup of plates! LOL!

With green Mac & Cheese, green veggies, green jello...yes and even green frosting for the cupcakes...the kids loved it! Of course, during their meal, they spent some of it looking out the window in search of the leprechans! Too funny.

After the grownups had a chance to eat and socialize, the kids went outside to play to burn off some steam. We also celebrated our 5 year anniversary as a group of friends since we all met because we were all going to the same fertility clinic. When we first met, we had 1 child in 9 families. Now we have 20!

Lisa had more St. Patty's day activities lined up for the kids. She read a story and had Irish music in the background. Got the kids up and dancing...that's for sure!

Apparently, Jeff has been too shy around these friends because he was playing with the Siler girls and I got so many remarks about how they were interacting it was too funny! I kept telling them all that this is just a glimpse into the daily routine at the Pudoff House!

Play Group Picnic!

This was a crazy busy weekend! We hadn't seen our Playgroup friends in a while so we all decided on a picnic at an El Dorado Hills park for a playdate.

The Pudoff family, as is always the case, was the first there and so we marked off a few picnic tables and Jeff and Lexi went to play and explore. The play structure was really nice and the view...well, let's just say that the gated community must have Million Dollar homes because the view was breathtaking. Folsom Lake, the hills, just beautiful.

Joe Zavada and the Burns family was next to arrive. Funny to see how the kids interact with each other when it is not the whole group. Lexi and Natasha spent quite a bit of time running around, collecting pine nuts, just playing. It was so cool.

They also stopped to pet and play with a golden retreiver puppy who was just so cute. Reminded me so much of Chopin when he was a puppy!

The kids also chased and played with a neighborhood cat...they were pretty busy! I think Lexi really liked this playdate because she got a real kick out of the "picnic" aspect of the outing.

After all that playing, Lexi went home and took a really nice long nap. That gave me time to prepare dinner since Grandma Pudoff and Uncle Sam and Aunt Chelsey were coming over for dinner!

Playing Outside

It has been really nice outside lately and whenever that happens, I've been encouraging Lexi to go outside to play. Today, Jeff happened to be out in the backyard practicing, what else?, his golf swing. So Lexi decided she wanted to join him. Of course, I'm not quite sure when she put her ballerina outfit on since I was actually inside cooking and cleaning! LOL. When I looked up and saw her ensemble, I just had to pull out the camera and take a few pictures. She is quite the character, isn't she?





The following day, it was so nice again, she wanted to go draw on the patio.

With days as nice as they are, I can't say no! Keeps her from going stir crazy in the house.

Crab Feed Cake Donations

For the past few years, I have made and donated cakes to Active 20-30 #1032's Crab Feed - Dessert Auction. Last year was the first year that I donated 6 cakes, two of each flavor. This year I did the same, two chocolate with chocolate mousse filling, Lemon cake with raspberry filling and Carrot Cake. I am so pleased to say that these cakes helped raise over $1200 for children's charities in the Sacramento Region!

Last year was also the first time I had tried to sculpt anything for the decorations. I started off with fondant sculpted carrots and I must say that this year's carrots looked even more realistic!

This year, I added sculpted Lemons to my repitoire!


I am finding that the sculpting is lots of fun!