Dia de los Muertos

 We spent a warm, sunny Sunday at the Dia de los Muertos Festival in Mesa. The end of October is when I can finally tolerate being outdoors and this is always a fun festival to walk around - everything is so colorful. There are vendors with day of the dead items for sale. There are altars set up to look at, there is even an altar contest. There is food and music. There is people watching. Some come in costumes, some only paint their face. Whatever they do I could sit (in the shade) and watch them all day.

 Catrina dolls - Pat got one this year to add to his collection for his altar.

 

The Community Altar where I think anyone could add to the display for a loved one.

Pat and William enjoying the music of the Mariachi Band.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of nice weather weekends and we can start breathing the fresh air and enjoying some time outdoors before the heat sets in again.

My BIKE

Here is my new bike.....well I got it last Spring, but it quickly turned too hot to ride and then the summer hit and it was hotter than he!! for months on end so my bike sat in the garage waiting for me. The last couple weeks or so it has been cool enough early in the morning for me to take a ride around. Actually I have only done it on the weekends, but I love my bike, I love riding around on it and I look forward to the cooler weather headed our way so that I can go out regularly after work for a spin. 

This is what I think I look like riding around town:

 

This is what I probably look like:

  But never mind that, I am having fun no matter how I look.

William's 15th Birthday

Happy Birthday, William!

No school today for William. As a special treat for his birthday, Pat let him stay home so the two of them could have some FUN! The day started with a breakfast burrito, and moved on to game time at Dave&Buster's. Dinner was at Joe's CrabShack, William's all time favorite place for his birthday dinner. Not only does he LOVE crab legs, he has become quite fond of garlic mussels. 

 

After dinner it was home for the "special" cake/bars that I made for him with this recipe from Pinterest. William is quite the fan of cotton candy flavored anything, so when I saw that I knew it would be a hit. Okay again mine don't look like that, I never claimed to be a great cook and/or photographer and clearly I am lacking in both areas, but William LOVE LOVE LOVED the Cotton Candy Birthday Bars and that is all that matters.

I can't believe my baby is 15 years old and look at him almost as tall as me. How does this happen right before my eyes? He is such a smart, funny, loveable young man. I wish you the happiest of days to come, keep smiling and keep making us laugh! Love you forever, mom

Pinterest #3 - How to make a Blog Header

I am giving credit here to Pinterest for this one. I did find this tutorial on Pinterest, I had seen it before in my blog browsing but never marked it and had lost it. I am no computer techno geek, as we all know, however, I was able to follow the instructions and make my new blog header. It had been driving me crazy, as in out of my mind crazy, that my header was not as wide as my blog, but I had no clue how to fix it. The tutorial is super easy to follow, after all I managed to do it and I might say in the span of only 3 hours. WOW more pathetic than I thought. Granted it is not the best or most professional of headers, however, for now it is better than what I had and with some playing around, I may be able to change my headers more frequently. But for today enjoy the photos from Sedona in the springtime.

Pinterest #2 - Creamsicle

Last January Mary Lou, Anne and John were out here for a week, and when they went home, I was left with this HUGE bottle of Whipped Cream Vodka. It is a very sweet Vodka and I didn't give it much thought, threw it in the freezer for another day. Well another day just came and thanks to Pinterest, and my endless pinning I found this recipe for a Creamsicle. I can pretty much attest that it tastes just like a creamsicle from the hot summer days of my youth. My drink doesn't look as good as the one pinned (I think she used photoshop) and I may not have added Sprite, but it sure tasted good. You can take my word on that or you can make your own!