A Weekend of Firsts

What a special weekend this was.  I got to check three things off of my "I'd Like to do That Some Day" list. 

For Maysoon's birthday, I wanted to attempt to make a homemade cake for her.  Now I say "attempt" because I have made cakes in the past. However, they were hardly edible and extremely heavy. Me and my over mixing. So I decided that I'd try one last time.  If I fail then I'll know that baking cakes is not for me. Since last year for her first birthday we had her monstrously huge party, I wanted to make this year as low key as possible.  Just me and my girls, baking.

The recipe was successful. Yay!  I made one (crucial) mistake by using store bought frosting.  If it weren't for some time constraints I would have made homemade frosting.  Next time.  I'll post the recipe later on this week. 

On Saturday we had the privilege of attending a creative children's open house at Barakah Life Studio.  The weather potentially cancelled the event, but luckily the skies cleared up for a beautiful afternoon of crafting. This month's theme was "collage" so there were many beautiful papers, different types of scissors, and plenty of glue sticks for the kids to use.  Everything was set up so nicely and I wanted to take pictures, but I got very shy and stuck to taking only a few of my girls while they colored. 

Did you know I'm actually very shy in person?  Well, I am at first until I can assess my surroundings and get a feel of the people around me.  I'm working very, very hard on coming out of my shell.  I digress. 

I finally got to meet the very talented (Mashallah!) Khadija O'Connell who was an absolute pleasure to be around.  She has set up her studio so beautifully,  It was such a serene setting perfect for creating all things handmade.  My girls and I look forward to going back for future open house events and hopefully take classes one day.

Sunday afternoon while picking up Jenin from Sunday school, I spotted a brochure for Peace Village, which is a Muslim run farm located right here in Fremont.  I noticed some open house dates and realized that there was one that day.  We rushed home to pick up Maysoon (she was home with her dad, I didn't leave my two year old home alone) and headed over there as quick as the speed limit would allow us.  We got there towards the end of the open house but there was still a large crowd hanging out. 



Maysoon assisting Grayee with a drink of water.

The girls headed straight for the dirt, of course.  They dug around a bit before I moved them over to see the animals.  What is it about tiny goats that make us forget all our cares?  We had a fun time petting them and following them around.  The rooster made his presence known repeatedly and quite loudly while chickens scuttled all around us.  As we left the animal's pen, I was stopped at the gate by a lovely mom that had recognized the girls from my blog! I was actually shocked that any Muslim Bay Area moms read my blog.  I even became a bit flustered as I've never been approached by anyone regarding my blog before.  (There goes my shyness again.) I was pleased to meet her and look forward to seeing her around the Bay again, InshaAllah, God willing. {Salams Shannon!}

My girly-girls found their way to the sand pit and went to town.  They loved that they were allowed to get dirty and that I was okay with it.  We eventually moved into one the classrooms that Jenin was curious about and decided to stay for a while.  They set up a little tea party with another set of sisters that we had first seen at Saturday's Barakah Life event.  We introduced ourselves and later found out that we would be running into each other again at another event later on in the week.  We continued to play with some play-dough and wooden blocks.  We were having such a good time that we didn't realize that everyone had already gone home.  Again, another wonderful afternoon that we hope to experience again next month.  Unfortunately Jenin's schedule currently doesn't allow for her to be able to take any of the classes, but I'll definitely bring her back to this lovely little farm in the heart of our town.

Baking an edible cake, creating at Barakah Life, and playing at Peace Village. Check, check, and check.

How was your weekend?