Susan's Napa birthday

Susan, Taruna, Lynn and I headed out to Napa to celebrate Susan's birthday.  What's not to love about a roadtrip with the girls? We went to Andersen Conn Vineyard, Signorello and Chandon. Napa has definitely lost it's charm, but we had fun almost getting kicked out of Signorello because Lynn pulled out her picnic basket.
Hostess: ."no picknicking..i'm afraid" 
Lynn : Can we eat in our cars? 
Hostess: "I don't know how the manager would feel about that" .
Give me a break lady.

It was great day out and we had an amazing lunch at Bouchon, can't go wrong with that birthday.
We were definitely surprised that we didn't need reservations and just got seated right away with great service. Happy Birthday Susan:)

the girls: Susan, Taruna and Lynn

Infinity Pool at Signorello

View from Signorello

Lashes anyone?

Trout with almonds and blanched french beans--yum

Happy Birthday (Profileteros-yum)

Light painting

Light painting, also known as light drawing or light graffiti is a photographic technique in which exposures are made usually at night or in a darkened room by moving a hand-held light source or by moving the camera. 

 

Susan decided to do set up "light painting" for her birthday weekend at Taruna's apt. in S.F. Susan had the camera, the lights, makeup and glitter clothes for the photo shoot.  Chris and I did the behind the scenes setting up with setting the exposure, and basically running around the models with glo-sticks and flashlights. The rave without the drugs and crazy kids...Party in Taruna's closet!  She pulled out some glam clothes of her own from her party closet. The pictures are worth a thousand words, totally cool! Thanks for introducing me to light painting Susan..you rock! Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Susan (cake in the foreground)

Party time with Aunty T

We have been partying it up with Aunty "T" aka "Taruna" this past week since she is moving back to NYC next month.  Happy Hour with the girls, storytime, slumberparty, and even wine tasting..Nish, Dash and Lynn joined us as well for our wine tasting adventure..kids and all.  We will miss her here for sure, the girls especially. I guess it will be party time when we go visit her in NY..

Happy hour with Inika..she is starting them young.

.

Reading Winnie the Pooh with Rayna, Ini and Dash..

Petting the kitty at the winery

Gold nailpolish by Aunty T

Brunch in Lodi, kids eat free

Backyard fun

Paris purse from Aunty T, Rayna took it to shool with nailpolish inside

Ini running around in Lodi

Taruna with buddy Lynn

Ritham's 1st birthday

We celebrated Vikram and sandhya's adorable baby boy Ritham's birthday last weekend in Sacramento. He is just one, but he looks like such an old soul. Riya was giggling at the magician's tricks, and all the kids had a total blast. It was great catching up with them and it makes you realize how fast kids grow. We only saw him when he was just born, and it had been a year already.  We will be seeing a lot more of them in the next year, especially as he starts to get a little mobile.  Adorable, adorable..

                                                            First Birthday for Baby Ritham

Just one, but he looks so wise.

Kids mesmerized by the magician

Vik's turn to help the magician

Ini Mini

Rayna saw the bunny being pulled out of a hat, yes, that's my face painting skills again at work.

The family..Sandhya, Vik, Riya and Ritham

Riya helping blow the candles out..think she had her own cake

Baby Ritham's cake

Stern Grove-Afrocubanism

 After about 90 degree weather around Concord, we decided to head to the city for 70 degree weather and watch Afrocubanism at Stern Grove.  It was an annual thing when we lived in the city where we got a bunch of our random friends together and watched shows with Anoushka Shankar, Karsh Kale (serious tabla beats) among others.  You can't go wrong with a free concert.  Our old friends Manish and Namita were in town, so we caught up with them along with Pascal and Susan. Rayna and Inika made a new friend named Jayla. I brought lots of face painting crayons for the local kids..Someone should be paying me for all the kids that kept coming up to me. After white wine, zin and sake, it was time to head out and pass out:) We lucked out at Burma Superstar, one of those restaurants in the city that is always worth the wait. Good food, friends, and music..great weekend..love san francisco.

Rayna with her new best friend Jayla and sis

butterfly Rayna

Manish with his cousin Abhishek and Rohan

Party time with Pascal and Susan

Playing in the dirt

Jayla and me

Burma superstar yum yum