Japanese Hanami (spring party)

I was lucky to be invited to my friend Ai's Japanese Hanami party. What better way to celebrate spring than with a fabulous block party with friends. The street in which Ai lives, is also the street we fell in love with when we first moved to this area. Oddly, it also happens to be the same street where many of my close friends reside. Although we were unable to find a house in this hood, we are able to partake in the many festivities that happen here. They've been known to have huge white sheets hanging from trees in order to watch a summertime DVD, as well as up to 6 or 7 large blow up pools in the middle of the street for the fourth of July. Healthy scare crow decorating competitions in the fall, and fantastic light displays for the winter holidays abound.
So this particular "holiday" was filled with sushi. Lots of sushi-the real kind, and the candy kind. I'm still debating which I enjoyed more, the candy sushi made out of Twinkie sections, or the rice crispy treat sushi. It was all so beautiful, I am still kicking myself for not getting pictures of the spectacular creations. My excuse is that my hands were too sticky to pick up my camera. I did manage to snap a few pics of some of the guests though. I'm playing around with my colors in Photoshop-can you tell?
For my portfolio please visit peanutportraits.com. Enjoy!