Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Ah, Cinco de Mayo -- a great day to celebrate all things south-of-the-border, as well as a day that marks my brother and sister-in-law's 7th wedding anniversary and the 7th birthday of one of my nephews as well. My beloved son and I took a little road trip about 120 miles west to have a little three-year-old style Cinco de Mayo fiesta of our own with my sister-in-law and two of my nephews (not the ones celebrating a birthday). She bought a little pinata (I have NO idea how to type the "n" properly on here, you know, with the squiggly sign over it, so you'll just have to imagine it) and hung it from the tree for the boys to swing at. I'm sure you can picture it in your head -- two three-year-olds each armed with a fat plastic bat, just a disaster waiting to happen! Fortunately no three-year-olds were harmed during this little fiesta, and, after downing some hard-earned Smarties and Tootsie Roll Pops, we went to our favorite Mexican food restaurant in their area and ate our weight (and then some) in chips, salsa, queso, tortillas, sour cream chicken enchiladas, and fish tacos. Who doesn't love Cinco de Mayo? This gringa sure does!

Obviously our Monday got off to a great start. We also enjoyed a pretty great weekend as well, hanging with our boy, our five pooches, and just enjoying the sunshine.

We also have a new rule at our house for the boy -- whenever he is in the backyard, he is required to wear a lifevest. We have a swimming pool in the backyard, and we have gone round and round trying to figure out a way to fence around the pool. Our backyard is fenced, but the area around the pool is not. Unfortunately though, it really is in a bizarre spot in the backyard, and there really seems to be no good way to fence it in further. So my cousin's wife told me that she had heard of a family that had a similar problem and had their children wear lifevests at all times while in the backyard. I think it is brilliant!
Anyway, long story short, don't you just love the plumber's crack?!

For the first time in a very long time we also hired a babysitter so we could get out and see a movie ("Iron Man" -- I highly recommend it). I saw a second movie Sunday afternoon with my girlfriends ("Made of Honor" -- cute, predictable, funny, but I could have done without some of the jokes, hence the PG-13 rating). My mom and I also got a little drive in on Saturday to go visit a little quilt shop she had read an article about. It was about a forty minute drive from my house to get there, but it felt so nice to get out a little bit in the country on such a gorgeous afternoon. The quilt shop was in a newly built log cabin that they built from scratch with no plans whatsoever (pretty impressive in my book).
And how cute is my "brown paper package tied up with string"? I bought a pattern I had been eyeing on the Internet already, and some orange fabrics to get started on the pattern, and three very cute reproduction feedsack patterns for fun as well. When she wrapped up my purchases in the brown paper, well, that was just the icing on the cake! (Not to mention I had "My Favorite Things" stuck in my head the rest of the day.)Down the lane from the quilt shop was the most adorable house I have seen in this whole area, and I was kicking myself that I didn't take my camera to get a picture of it. It was so quirky and cute that it truly looked like Snow White could have walked right out the front door to greet us. I definitely will be making my way back down there just to get a photo. You've got to see it!