Spring has Sprung

This weekend was wonderful. First and foremost because the weather was amazing. Finally, some sun and much needed heat. hip hip hooray!!!

About two weeks ago, Nemi and I planted our seeds (cilantro, spearmint, basil, scallions, and oregano). Some of the pots are clearly labeled and others are not (good job, Mom). This week we noticed that some of the seeds are starting to grow, yippee - only that we do not know what it is because it has no label (good job, Mom) - so we have yet to see what those are. Today we noticed that the cilantro is sprouting (labels, Yes!!). I am so excited. I called Nemi over and together we counted to sproutlings (whatever) and gave each other a high five. Last year I had no luck with my attempts to have fresh herbs in the house, but hopefully this year Nemi will be my lucky charm. Well, sort of, behind the scenes my friends Lori and Leah get most of the credit because they told me when, and where and how to plant my seeds. Believe me when I tell you that I am not very good with gardening, so I take in all the help I can get. At the end of the day we will see if I could maintain what has begun. If so, here is my plan. To make:
Homemade spaghetti sauce with fresh basil and oregano
Homemade sofrito with fresh cilantro
Kimani's secret BBQ sauce with fresh scallions
Loads of mint tea - maybe even some minted lebana (wrong spelling, but it is an Arabic dip- delish!) - Amin and Cindy I need your guidance here.

Well, we are all looking forward to it. I just hope I do not drown nor dry out the pots. Will keep you posted.

Ok on to the weekend. On Saturday we headed out for a walk to a near by walking area - Park Lake - and at first Kimani wanted to go around three times (yeah, right - we bearly made it once around). 3/4 of the way Nemi encounters the playground and yada yada yada we had a blast on the playground/beach.

Sunday was fun because I was sore from our walk at Park Lake, but I really wanted to go to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Newark. I have been wanting to go for years. So after church, we met up with Marisol who drove us as close to the event as she possibly could and after fighting to get a parking we finally made it to the park. Wow! I had never been there and though we found out later that last week the trees were in full bloom it was still a nice time. There was activities for the kids galore: face painting, decorate your own kite (that was cool), Turtleback Zoo petting zoo area, sand art station, and just all kinds of different things. The best part was the hot dog we bought. It was about 12 or 13 inches long. HUGE! Literally Kimani, Nemi, and I all ate from the one we bought. Huge!