Food, Wine, Art, and Friends

There are lots of things I'm going to miss about Birmingham, but one of them will definitely be the Magic City Art Connection, held each spring in Linn Park.
We started going years ago, because Jeremiah's Aunt Jeannie (who is an artist), always had a booth there. {And if you clicked on that link to see Jeannie's art, you should know that they are paintings and not photographs. AMAZING and hard to believe :)}

This was the first year she and Uncle Sam didn't make the trip, so instead of hanging out with them and perusing art (and taking care of the chicken wings) the whole afternoon,...

Ashley asked if I wanted to have a little girls' time at Corks and Chefs. Every year I've walked by the big white tent where some of Birmingham's top chefs are working their culinary magic...and pouring tastes of wine to pair with their entrees...and wished I could be cool enough to be on the inside of the orange fence. This year I was! But guess who wasn't :)
It's like the Great Wall of China! I felt kind of sad, talking to the "little people" on the other side. Jeremiah was really sweet to offer to keep the girls, even though he had been on call all weekend. They painted head-bands in the kid section of the art festival (which is why Pace is looking like a ninja warrior).
And since I was foot-loose and fancy free, I remembered someone else who was supposed to be having a child-free weekend and seemed to love food almost as much as Ashley and me--Darby! I called her on the off chance that she hadn't flown back to her little nest, and she hadn't. I convinced her to come and experience Corks and Chefs with us.

We had so much fun, that we couldn't stand for it to end even when the chefs had all packed up their goodies.
So, I sheepishly text Jeremiah to ask if we could meet Berkley (who was just coming into town) for half-price Sunday night sushi at Jinsei.
He said YES!!! And we sat outside and gorged ourselves a lil' bit longer :) And talked and laughed (and finished sentences! which is something I feel like I never get to do when the little girls are around).
I came home feeling more refreshed than I've felt in a long time. It could have had something to do with this piece of heaven (Y'all it's kind of scary how much I love food):

But mainly it was just good girl time. You need that every once in a while. Thanks Jeremiah!