This weekend my grandmother had a birthday dinner. In San Jose. No, wait. Cupertino. Well anyhoo, since we knew we were headed out that way I thought we’d give Kari a call and we could have a playdate before dinner at Children’s Discovery Museum.

Kari was planning on going to Hakone Gardens though. I’ve been wanting to bring Isabelle to a Japanese garden so we decided to join her and her family there.

Isabelle and Kari’s daughter, Miss M, ran around making lots of noise for a tranquil Japanese garden.

And then they stood around watching performers. Oh no wait. They only stood around watching a little then Isabelle got bored and tried to start a game of tag. While people were performing. That was an excellent time to leave.

So Kari invited us back to her house. I loved Kari’s house. It felt so homey. It was a perfect environment for little ones with music, books, toys, and a playground in back. I want a house like theirs.

They made us fresh lemonade from their tree out back and we chatted while the kids played some more. Kari’s husband, Jeremy, so patiently threw balls with M, G, and Isabelle. And looking through my pictures I realize this is the only picture I have of Jeremy and G. Bad blogger. I’ll do better next time Kari.

After playing for a couple of hours, which just flew by, Kari sent us off with a bag of lemons from her tree. Mmmmm yum. And we headed off to dinner. During the dinner Isabelle picked up the microphone and started singing happy birthday by herself. Hee hee! That’s my little rockstar.

We hung around with my family talking and eating for hours. I was so busy talking and eating at my table, I barely talked to the other two tables full of people.

We didn’t get home until after midnight. What a tiring but very fun day.