Fairy Garden

In preparation for Gabriela's fairy birthday party this year, we planted a fairy garden using nature she has been finding and collecting over the past year.  We had a fun time putting her garden together and it is sitting happily in front of our living room window now, but will be making an appearance at the birthday party.

Beach Day with the Clowers

My brother Tim and his wife brought their three darling kiddos up from Hollister for the day so we could get in some extra visiting. What better way to spend time together than by taking a trip to the beach?  Here are the daddies, out in the water with their girls.  

Caeti trying to warm up after going in the water.

Easton teaching Wes how to play with his caterpillar toy.

Easton: See, like this!
Wes: Hmm, I'm not so sure you've got it right.

Caetlin eating Pirate Booty out of a hat

Sand Castle Building

Mina with four arms

The girls had so much fun chasing each other on the beach

Just look at these cousins having special time together. 

It's moments like these that remind me of exactly why we moved back home. 

Gabriela is going to grow up with so many memories of her cousins. They will be her best friends and well, what more could we ask for?

After beach time, we had the kids all hope into the bathtub.  That's right, 5 kids in the bath.  They had a blast.  Well, I'm not so sure about Weston, but all the other kids had fun.

After bath time, Kristie and I made dinner together while the girlies all played.  Mina played find-and-use-every-accessory-you-can-get-your-hands-on.  And here is the picture to prove it:

Behold, Princess Masquerade Mina on a warm sunny day at a luau with 6 purses, maybe more.

Discovery Museum

The kids and I drove up to Sausalito on Thursday to visit the Discovery Museum, but more importantly to visit with my cousin, Kate, who was in San Francisco for a family vacation.  Kate lives in Madison, WI and is married with a darling 18 month old, Gabriel.  The last time I saw her, she was in high school.  So, we were overdue for a visit. 

Gabriela was too tall to go in the Tot Spot.  So she used her mad building skills to construct a house with the outdoor blocks. 

See how cute little Gabe is??

Gabriela pretended to be the mail carrier in the Clifford the Big Red Dog exhibit.  She wore the mail bag and collected all the letters.  She was really excited about the blue mail box, since we sometimes drop our mail in a box just like this.  Gabriela really enjoyed herself in this area.

It was a beautiful day, so the kids spent a lot of time playing outside at the museum. Gabriela climbed up and down this little crow's nest and the big boat.

The kids both really had a thing for the brooms.  Gabe pretended his was a vacuum. 

Just look at this proud mama with her darling little boy!  Gabe was so friendly and gave me bunches of hugs. Easton and Gabriela too.  We are so happy we got to meet each other's families.

There they go with the brooms!

The outdoor area is really cool.  In addition to the boats to climb and play on, there is a boat sand box, a gravel pit to dig in, trucks to play with, and this outdoor hut/maze contraption. Gabriela made some friends and played tag with the kids.

And then there were some nests.  We played in the wave room and the fishing/docks/trains room too, but didn't even touch the art room which is usually one of Gabriela's favorites.

We had such a good time, I bought a membership - they were also having a super special. I am so glad that Kate and John took time out of their vacation to spend with us. It was wonderful meeting Kate's family, catching up a little, and watching our kids play together.

Peach Picking

Last Sunday we went peach picking with the Yalins.  I joined a fruit CSA from Frog Hollow Farm and they sent out an invite for this peach picking event at their farm, which is about an hour away from where we live.  We had a really great time. 

Everyone there was so friendly. When we first arrived, Gabriela got her scavenger hunt paper and was ready to spot bees and spiders and ladybugs and butterflies at the farm.  

They had a tasting table for us to sample all the different preserves they make at the farm.  There were compotes, jams, olive oil, chutneys, granola, and even cookies.  Everything was amazing.  After we left that table we came to this little gem of deliciousness:

 Three giant rows of fruit drying.  The farm staff told us to sample as much of each variety as we wanted.  And, let me tell you, there were a lot.  Some fruit was just starting to dry, so it was super soft, still juicy, but a little crisp on the outside and toasty warm from the sunshine.  Easton was even a fan.

 Just look at that beautiful fruit!

 Daddy and Gabriela are checking off items on her scavenger hunt.  When she turned in her paper, she was rewarded for her hard work spotting things with a giant fresh peach popsicle. I may have stolen a bite or two, and it was just as tasty as everything else we sampled there.

 Most of the peaches on the trees were still hard, and they soften within a few days.  But I stuck to picking ones that had fallen from the trees already. I figured those ones would really be ripe.  We were lucky to find some super tender peaches to feast on right then and there. 

 She got right to business tasting the peaches she found and picked herself.  She was really proud of herself. 

It was the sweetest thing seeing her wander through the rows of the orchard in search of the perfect peach, and then presenting us with the "best peach ever".  I'm not going to lie, it made me daydream about having our own farm for her to play in.

 Rowan was very excited that the farm had trees that were actually growing balls.  He threw some peaches and ate some too.  We enjoyed some during our serious picnic, which I wish I had photographed.  I cooked some barbeque chicken that morning and made an herb-vinaigrette potato salad.  We had green salad, olives, watermelon, rosemary almonds, some homemade Turkish pastries, lentil salad, and more.  The peaches tasted like peach pie filling, they were so sweet and delicious.

Rowan kissing Easton

On our way back, we couldn't resist sampling more of the dried fruit goodness, we bought our peaches, and also some nectarine plum compote. yum.  Gabriela said she was the "luckiest kid ever" and that she had so much fun on the way home. 

The farm staff said they will have another event in the fall, and I am totally bringing our family back! 

Heather signed up for the fruit CSA too, and I got a jar of Burnt Caramel Sauce as a thank you for referring her. I can't wait to try that stuff with vanilla ice cream.

We have already finished our pie.  We shared some, but who am I kidding, we ate most of it ourselves.  Still have lots of peaches and got more in our fruit box. Time for more baking.   yum.

More Summer Fun

Here's what our week has looked like in terms of the Summer Fun List -

• Build sand castles at the beach and fly a kite - this weekend we headed over to Crown Beach.  Gabriela and I bought new sand castle molds and a giant new beach shovel that she tested out with Daddy.  It was a great success.  Although, it was super windy at the beach, which made for lots of goosebumps and shivering for little girls who insisted on going in the water anyway.
• Visit with Grandma and Grandpa - Grandma and Grandpa came up to Oakland to help celebrate Uncle Nate's birthday this weekend too. We also got to visit with Uncle Jesse, Auntie Ann, and cousin Nolan.  We had a wonderful feast and, of course, Crazy Cake.  We feel lucky seeing Grandma and Grandpa two weekends in a row.
• Dance Class 
• Movie Theater - The movie last week was Smurfs.  It was kind of hard to watch.  Gabriela seemed to be enjoying it at the time, but afterwards she told me, "Mom, I know you want to take me to the movies to have fun, but I don't like mean movies".  I was proud of her for not liking the movie.  At least we had some yummy popcorn.
• Go to the park - We met several of Gabriela's preschool friends at the park last week.  She was so proud of herself for going across the monkey bars all by herself for the first time.  Gabriela has also been riding her two wheel pedal bike to the park when we go.  She still needs to practice starting and stopping, but rides like a champ.  Later that week, we returned to the park to do a summer solstice project and have a tree picnic.
• Go peach picking - this was my favorite part of last weekend. I have lots of pictures and will give you a whole post about this one.
• Bake a pie - I used the wonderful, juicy and delicious peaches we picked to bake a pie. Gabriela was my helper and had fun PART of the time.  If I'm going to be honest, peach pie baking included several time-outs for bad behavior towards baby brothers.  It wasn't totally fun, as a result. BUT eating peach pie for dessert and teaching Gabriela what "a la mode" meant was definitely fun.
• Family beach dinner - on Summer Solstice, Gabriela and I picked up things to have a yummy salad, pesto, and watermelon for dinner.  When Daddy got home, we informed him that we were having Family Beach Dinner, and headed over to Crab Cove where we saw that several other people had the same idea. After dinner, we walked on the beach and collected a bunch of sticks to use as fairy wands for Gabriela's fairy party later next month.

We had plans to see an outdoor movie on Friday, which is on our Summer Fun list, but the weather was awful.  So bad , in fact, that Gabriela said, "What the heck, Mom??? I thought it was summer!" Plan B was just as fun - homemade pizza dinner with friends, movie for the kids and wine and conversation for the grownups.

Happy Father's Day

Every year for Father's Day, I make Lane a photo book with pictures of him and Gabriela and now Easton from the past year.

I was so bummed when we got a little paper from the mailman on Saturday that we missed a delivery. So Lane had to wait until Monday for his book. At least I got to give him a preview, and you can have one too.  Just click here

We spent the morning with some friends of ours enjoying a giant Father's Day Brunch Potluck.  There was a garden herb fritatta, pistachio orange blossom french toast, blackberry coffee cake, roasted potatoes, bacon, melon, coffee, and mimosas with fresh squeezed orange-grapefruit juice! 

Lane's parents came by for a visit and we had dinner with them and played a game with Gabriela. It was a great way to end our relaxing day together.

Lane is such a sweet, loving, and fun daddy to our children. We are all so lucky to have him.

Let's Go Oakland!

One of the things on our summer fun list was go to a baseball game. . . WITH fireworks!  The coliseum is so close that we can hear the fireworks from our house.  Who better to ask to join us than our friends, the Swans who are big Oakland A's fans.  They were wonderful company, as usual. Olivia and Brenna came all decked out in their A's gear, and they brought their friend, Arianna who was spending the weekend with them. 

 Brenna and Gabriela both got new A's hats.  Gabriela's was an early birthday present. (Gasp! her birthday is coming so soon! I better get my party planning act together)

 Look at these girls!!  They cheered, they danced, they ate hotdogs, they snacked, and played with each other.  It wasn't even too cold for a night game. I really enjoyed explaining how the game is played to Gabriela (me!!!) And, right after I sang Take Me Out to the Ballgame with her, she gave me this giant hug.

 At one point I busted out the emergency bubbles.  They were a hit.

 Look at these girls!  So much fun.

The fireworks show afterwards was pretty amazing. My only regret was that I forgot to inform Gabriela and prepare her for the fact that fireworks are incredibly loud and you can feel the booms inside your body.  Basically, she was terrified when they started and said, "I never ever want to see fireworks again!" Not exactly the reaction we were hoping for.  Nevertheless, she ended up enjoying the fireworks and said afterwards how beautiful they were.  And now, on Tuesday, she's still talking about how that was the best part of her day. 

Lane's dad told us that Grandma Chaney was watching the A's game on television trying to spot us on TV. How cute is that?!?