Rocking our world

winetasting nov. 2011

2011-11-27T16:47:00.001-08:00

winetasting nov. 2011, a set on Flickr.

winestasting with the besties in oregon! a perfect day!

party weekend!

2011-11-21T11:06:00.000-08:00

oy vey... we are just coming off of a PAAAARTY weekend!

three on Saturday and one on Sunday. there was going to be one MORE on Sunday, but due to rain... it was cancelled.

we took a ton of pics, too many to post here - so, go see the album...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kmenslage/sets/72157628083184529/

here are a few of the packages - i think one roll of paper, and lots of different ribbon can adorn a perfect package for anyone... a superhero, a princess, and a gourmet!

My "knight in shiny arour" he got this amazing getup at sheridan's princess partyhere he is getting his superhero on at connors party. Kurt and BFF Todd :)

Jump Jump Boing Boing Bounce Giggle - at Coles "Sky High" party

....yawn... Thanksgiving, here we come!

tree lighting at the promenade - a standing and a new tradition!

2011-11-19T12:47:00.001-08:00

The Promenade tree lighting snuck up on us this year - I just heard about it pretty much the day it was happening. Luckily we all were in town and game to go!
We ran into the gorgeous Santiago family who we also saw there last year.
We even were able to hookup with a couple of Liam's besties - Andrew and Connor :)
We missed the Liljegren's this time around - but they were with us in spirit!

The gorgeous tree, and my gorgeous boys.

I think I saw mistletoe hanging somewhere!
A NEW tradition... we went into "Cost Plus World Market" which is a store in the promenade that sells all kinds of great Christmas tree decorations. We told Liam he could pick out ANY one he wanted. He picked out what he is calling "My Sunday School"... how cool.

Ghostly Lemon Cake Pops

2011-11-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

Halloween seems like a distant memory with Thanksgiving on the not so distant horizon (it's NEXT WEEK!)

When flipping through the October edition of my favorite magazine (Food and Wine) ... I saw these super cute ghostly lemon cake pops and had to try my hand at making them for Liam's Halloweeen school party. They were a hit :) and pretty easy to make (messy, but easy) and best of all - it calls for STORE BOUGHT pound cake! great short cut! (also, i melted chocolate chips for the eyes - it called for a special marker that i didn't have, the chocolate worked fine, and didn't mess with the flavor of the lemon.)

Link to the recipe:

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/ghostly-lemon-cake-pops

My kitchen assistant :) he is big fan of lemon!

The gang of ghosts.
Packaged up and ready to share.

trick or treeeeeat!

2011-11-01T14:59:00.001-07:00

We had the BEST trick or treating session ever!
Liam's pal Connor's awesome mama hosted about a dozen of the "besties" from Cornerstone and the parents in an evening of festivities and trick or treating.

here is a link to some of the photos (some from the parade - some from the night) My camera battery died after about the 6th house - but I have invited some of the other parents to post their photos to the site, so hopefully some of them do - so we have more fun images to look at.
http://trickortreat2011.shutterfly.com/

Would you just DIE of cuteness if this dirty dozen of 3 and 4 year olds showed up at your door singing "trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat!??"

In usual Liam fashion.. "trick or treeeeeeeeeeat"!

Cornerstone Halloween Parade

2011-10-28T13:11:00.001-07:00

Oh October... how I LOVE YOU!

Parties, festivals and parades.... pumpkin patches, candy, cookies... what is NOT to love?
Especially when you get to see 18 three year olds in costumes on a sunny Friday morning... cutest thing EVER!!!

Liam has been a little under the weather this week - but he did want to come and celebrate with his friends and of course dress up and all that comes with it. ((and because I AM *ahem* the CO-room mom.... i have the super important responsibility of helping out the awesome superhero teachers))

Speaking of awesome teachers - meet "Ms. Rachel" this tiny thing has twin girls and a son... seriously! she talks like a Disney princess, is adorable, and the kids love her (the parents do too!)

This little cutestuff is Ms. Gillian (oh, and little Ava) Ms Gillian is delicious in every way. We are so happy she is in Liam's class.... she also is BFF's w/ Ms. Danielle, and we all know how we feel about Ms. Danielle!!! ((HEART!!!))
Lil Jango walking in the parade to The Monster Mash

Cute Kurt dressed as Hans Solo (I dressed as Princess Leia... but of course the camera man (woman) never gets captured!)

Two of Liams pals: Baron (Jake and the neverland Pirate) and Connor (Superman)

Gavin - the BFF Frankenstein

And there's our girl Ms. Danielle appropriately dressed as Wonder Woman!

Another super hero teacher - Ms. Kari... we miss her too!

And the girl wonder - Ms. Rachel - how cute is it that all of the teachers dressed as super heroes?

Oh... and yes...LIAM... just look at him... nope, he can't just hang like the rest of the kids - he has to make a special move, or a silly face... i think we have a "CLASS CLOWN"!!!!!

A Cars 2 Bday Party! My Party Place - Agoura

2011-10-23T14:23:00.001-07:00

Three posts in three days - don't anyone fall off your seat or anything!! Especially the peanut gallery over in Cape Cod!

Liam and I spent the morning at a Cars 2 themed birthday party for three year old Aslan. Aslan is new to Liam's school - his mother is a gorgeous brazillian about 2 weeks from delivering baby # 2 and his father is from Israel - so, you can imagine, Aslan is a little stunner himself - too bad I managed not to capture his handsome mug - or his mama's.

Look how cute they decorated the party place! Each child was sent home with a helmet (which Liam has NOT Taken off since we got home) and a bunch of Cars themed goodies - perfect for three year old boys - the girls loved it too!

All of the cupcakes were home made! (And delicious) There were Cars tattoos - Liam and BFF Gav-man got them at the same time.

This is Liam's pal Baron - they are good friends, but Baron only goes to school a couple of days a week, so he isn't in the "Bestie" crowd - but they get along great - Baron showed Liam how to play Air Hockey - it was Limabeans first time ... Baron was a pro!

...but he eventually got the hang of it!

This little cutie next to Liam is Elle... she is the cutest (we are both madly in love with her). She is also new to Liam's school - and a welcome addition!

How fabulous is this cake?

These next three photos to me... encapsulate "life at three"... from the clothes he is wearing (so into Batman) to the ball in his hand and the activities he is into, and the look on his face... these are so Liam right now... I hope (as always) I never forget this stage which I love so much!

Stu Millers Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-22T12:24:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... two posts in two days... a new (as of late) record! But, it IS October, the most smashing month of the whole year. This weekend, Kurt is in South Bend with Arlene attending at Notre Dame Game today - which leaves the Bean and I to search out local Halloween festivities... there is NO lack of them around here. Today we met up with Mike, Henny and the Denny clan at Stu Millers in Thousand Oaks... I didn't get a ton of pics - but they had jumpy jumps, carnival games, tons of pumpkins, a petting zoo and all things halloweeny!

The goats were a teeny bit agressive... sweet - but aggressive, i had several "goat hugs"... in need of shower! I was yelling "NO Liam, DO NOT KISS THAT GOAT"... luckily, he stopped within inches of a goat kiss - ick.

The comedian - always!

I love this little guy.

Calabasas Pumpkin Fest

2011-10-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again.. Calabasas Pumpkin Fest Time!!!

This year was Liam's 4th time - which is hard to believe... but true - here's proof:

At 2 months! http://kmenslage.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-2-month-birthday-little-lima-bean.html

At one http://kmenslage.blogspot.com/2009/10/happy-14-months-lima-bean.html

At two http://kmenslage.blogspot.com/2010/10/punkin-fest.html

Liam's good pals Nate and Abby came along (yay) thank goodness it wasn't QUITE as hot this year... we were smart and went EARLY which helped!

This year (as with each previous year) there was:
food and drink - we had our annual pumpkin beer to toast the season

games and activities -this was the first year we were able to partake in this side of the festival - Liam got a balloon bat and his face painted

cool vendors - i bought a SUPER cute hat - but unfortunately spent all the cash we had so we had to borrow cash from Nate and Abby's mom and dad)

lots of strollers and babies - this year, we hit the fest without either one of those items... just three super excited three year olds and a wagon (to haul away some very lucky pumpkins!)

Being silly at home - anxiously awaiting leaving for the "punkin festa-bull" which is what he calls it. (I see a LOT of his tongue these days!)

Its really hard to try to take a photo of a kid in a bouncy... this one was a farm - he nearly pulled my arm out of the socket running to it!
He loved this walking talking slice of pizza - but proceeded to tell him that "i don't like pizza - its 'sgustin" (of course which is how he says "disgusting") nice. The pumpkin festival needs to up their talent pool in the face painting department... this guy had nothin' on the gal at the SB zoo who gave Liam a killer glitter bat man mask... the 1.5" sloppy bat just doesn't do it for me... but didn't seem to bother Limabean - so, we didn't worry.

When he first saw "the great pumpkin" he was scared, but by the end of the day - he was running up to it and trying to be his BFF... When they got tired, they got a little ride. He and Abby get along famously - too bad we didn't get a photo of her cute twin brother Nate.

...until next year Punkin Fest!

Family Weekend

2011-10-06T21:24:00.001-07:00

October is here (my most favorite of months!).
We have a NEW family tradition... to celebrate the month of October - we have officially determined that the FIRST weekend in October is FAMILY weekend!!!!

This is great for many reasons... one being that there is an awesome celebration in our town called "Reyes Adobe Days" - and we happen to live right off of "Reyes Adobe" street - where they host a Saturday morning parade which blocks off our entire street, leaving us HOMEBOUND until at least NOON on the first Saturday of October... awesome!

This family weekend - we walked to the parade (video to come - Liam met optimus prime... his highlight)... then we decided we would do a little backyard camping!
It was superfun - we grilled out, made smores, had candlelight campfires, slept in a tent and read scary stories. (We brought the iPad into the tent and listened to animated versions of kids campfire songs too). Liam really enjoyed his camp out, and made it through the night in the tent - but by about 6am, he was ready for "wakeup time" - so we hiked about 2 feet to the family room for some Nick Jr. / Coffee/ Bacon / Eggs/ and OJ!

Liam being silly behind the mosquito net

More silly time w/ Daddy. notice the sleeping bag liam is sitting on is the original Coleman sleeping bag from Kurt's childhood! It's in perfect condition!

A very rare photo with me actuallly in the shot (i hate it) but its rare to get a photo of me... to prove, that i actually was there - i do exist! (i swear, i really do!)

he was a big fan of the sleeping bag!

ok.... later Sunday afternoon - AFTER camping, we spent some time in the backyard cleaning up - Liam was making the funniest faces... this is one I had NEVER seen.... and haven't seen again! WTF - who's kid is this???

This is a face I am used to seeing often!

See! Told ya.... If you are wondering WHERE this amazing play structure came from... it is courtesy of our friends Ryan and Kim who's kids have loved it for many many years, but no longer play with it, and needed the backyard space for a BRAND NEW trampoline... so - they donated it to Liam (cool friends - right?)

He is the King of this castle!

It has a telescope and steering wheel, so he kind of thinks it is a pirate ship (pretty fitting for this little matey!)

i LOVE this photo - it totally reminds me of the faces that he would make when he was about 9 months old! It's fun to see all of the "faces of Liam" ... what a character! (My FAVORITE character)

Random Rain!?!

2011-09-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

It has been in the triple digits for about the last week here in L.A.
The weather man did call for considerably cooler weather this weekend, and either I wasn't listening very well... or he didn't foresee the little squall that kicked up here around noon today!

Liam and I were relaxing, watching TV, checking email when I heard what I thought was thunder... then snapping coming from outside ... i looked out, and sure enough... a little rain.

Perfect opportunity to test out the new ADORABLE pirate rain boots and umbrella that Liam got from his BFF Gavin for his birthday. Although it still is in the 80's, Liam insisted that he put on his "jacket for a rainy day"... and we pulled on the boots (all by himself - on the wrong feet) and put up the umbrella and went out in search of puddles to stomp!

We needed the rain - what a fun, welcome and refreshing surprise!

i heart santa barbara!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-04T16:22:00.001-07:00

Happy Labor Day Weekend!
We didn't have any plans this weekend... in fact, we were slotted to visit family in Oregon, but that didn't materlialize the way we had anticipated that it would. So, here we were with a big fat holiday weekend OPEN! We have all been running around working so hard, we thought (for a minute) about staying home, but then thought that we really needed just a night away... just the three of us.
which was the best idea EVER!
SO.... we headed up the PCH to Santa Barbara for the night! It was just a short hour or so drive... we stopped at the Cold Spring Tavern along the way and took in some local music and some local smoked Santa Maria Tri-tip.. YUM! This was a super fun stop!

We stayed in a fun neighborhood and walked to dinner, ice cream and coffee in the am. Dinner was at "Derks" Ice Cream was at McConnells, and coffee at the Daily Grind... all excellent... Today we went to the Boat House and had some lunch and hung out at the beach... it was a gorgeous day!

After lunch we spent a little time at the Santa Barbara Zoo... .we are members there, so we pop in and pop out and didn't have to spend a bunch of time there... it was fun but crowded. The hightlight was seeing Liam transform into Bat Man!!

HAPPY HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

ahoy matey - Liam turned three - arrrgh!

2011-08-21T15:40:00.000-07:00

I guess Liam had to have a significant milestone to get me back to the blog! (i've got lots of backlog to go... but couldn't miss the pirate wrap)

First of all, I can't believe he is three... but, on to party details.

It was all about pirates for Liam and his closest mateys this year :)

Treasure chests, buried treasure, digging for gold, sword fights, pirate tattoos, pirates booty and a pirate ship that washed ashore right in our backyard! A yo-ho-ho time was had by all the little swash-bucklers!

arrrrrrrgh.

As you enter the pirate zone:

pirates booty for the cutie bootie.

digging for buried treasure

the pirate ship (just a small one)

the view from Liam's room! all of his pals jumping around!

his bff Gavin (aka Cap'n Jack Sparrow)

time for happy bday and pirate cupcakes!

look at all the little blonde pirate boys!

a special ocean adventure delivery from cape cod! these fit right into the pirate decor! i think if the balloons hadn't been anchored down, they would have carried liam away!

tough work turning three it be!

so - i am serious about this... whoever hired the sky-writer to come and write THREE right over our house at three o'clock on party day... identify yourself! it's a mystery!

Radio Silence

2011-08-02T18:42:00.000-07:00

Not that anyone really reads this blog... but for those few who do - I am sorry about the extended silence... my computer has been down and I just got it back TODAY!
lots of catching up to do :)
i will be actively blogging over the next couple of weeks to catch up.

lots of cool things to share around here!

xoxo

summer lovin

2011-06-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

We're back from Cape Cod! Liam recovered well from the strep throat (so did i... that stinker gave it to me) We were both on antibiotics for some of the trip, but neither of us let it get in the way of having a wonderful time.

It was a great trip - I have about 1000 memories to go through and zero time to do it - so here is just a sneak peek at two highlights:

1) THE BEACH
the beaches in Cape Cod are NOT like the beaches in California! When the tide is low you can walk for miles... and the water is shallow and WARM. Perfect for 2 year olds who love to dig in the sand and find cape cod crabbys!

2) THE ROMANCE and GOOD OLD FASHIONED FUN!

Liam found himself a summer fling - he didn't waste much time getting acquainted with Miss Charlotte. She may be a second cousin... they didn't care!

This hug came after a successful session of throwing rocks in the swamp!

These two could have rolled down the hill together for hours!

All of that rolling on a hot humid day on The cape leads to sweaty-grassy kidd-os... neither of them had a problem with dropping trou (especially liam) to cool off together while running through the sprinkler!

...more to come

strep throat...

2011-06-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

yep - Liam has it. (First time!)
BOO.

He got sent home with a 102.8 fever yesterday afternoon. He was sweet and not complaining - even saying he felt "good"... but he was all out of sorts... watery eyes, lethargic and zoney with no energy (he took a 4 hour nap when he got home!).
When he got up, I knew something was really wrong, so I scooped him up and zipped him over to the after hours pediatrician (we love this place) he saw Dr. Marshall who did all of the tests on him and got a positive strep culture. We are now two doses into a ten day cycle of amoxicillan (which he absolutely HATES) and he is already looking and feeling a little bit better (thank goodness!) I just sent Kurt back to the pharmacy to get the medicine re-flavored... Liam requested "Grape"... i hope it helps.

Feeling happy though that we nipped this in the bud and he should be back up to his zippy sparkly self before the BIG TRIP to Cape Cod next week.

all grown up - ashley's senior prom

2011-05-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

We leave in about two and a half weeks for Cape Cod to watch our gorgeous grown up niece Ashley graduate as valedictorian of her class.. we are so proud and SO anxious!

Last weekend she attended her senior prom with her sweet boyfriend and looked absolutely stunning in a peacock blue sparkly princess dress with an intricate up-do (done my my talented sister-in-law) and to make this look even cooler - she wore crystal encrusted converse low tops (ok maybe they aren't actually "converse" but they look like chuck taylors and paired with this dress... are TOTALLY Ashley!) love this girl! (young woman!)

we got a call from her proud papa as he was driving her and her date to the prom, he was so proud of this knockout - look how sweet this moment is (wish i could have been there to see it in person!)

the shoes! how fun
(and smart... remember all of those formal dances with 6 inch heels, coming home with blisters and swearing off heels forever - or at least until the next dance?)

the adorable couple. i love how his tie matches her dress.

the ladies. ashley and her bffs. all of their dresses look great together too - love the jewel tones. i don't think i ever looked this good in high school!

i am amazed that this big group got together for the big day... thats a lot of planning and work (imagine the text strings and FB messages it took to make this happen!)

Ashley - we are so proud of you, and so happy you had such a nice time at your prom! Remember that night always.

Love you!

Chicken Saute with Sugar Snaps and Asparagus

2011-05-18T17:56:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on cooking my way through Kristine Kidd's book :) Not doing a very good job of documenting it...
I HAD to write about this one though - as it is so spectacular, it actually graces the cover of her book. Plus, spring is here and asparagus is in abundance, win-win!

Here is the link to the recipe online.

I followed the recipe pretty closely, it was easy quick and used simple ingredients. (I love this book!) The one thing that i did not have on hand was the sugar snap peas - i used green beans, because thats what i had - but i bet it would be more "special" with the sweetness and crunch of the fresh sugar snaps. Next time I will prepare to cook this, and buy the right ingredients. Even with a major substitution, the flavors were right on and got big props and has been categorized in the "make this again" category!

Down on the farm... Tye's 4th Birthday!

2011-05-14T14:47:00.001-07:00

Liam's good friend Tye turned 4 yesterday and today was the BIG BIRTHDAY PARTY at Underwood Family Farms. Tye's Mommy's name is Henny... so, it was only fitting that all of us were corralled in the "Hen House"! This was a really FUN and perfect party - all of the kids had so much fun. Liam especially had a good time, and it was so cute because most of the kids go to school together at Cornerstone. Tye and most of his friends are in the "threes" class... and Liam is in the "twos" ... but there was one little boy from his class - and he knew a lot of them from after school care when they all play together.

He picked out his own outfit.. which was pretty fitting - he actually wanted to wear cowboy boots and a "Farmer shirt" when we told him we were spending the day at the farm! Smart cookie.

One of the first things we did was go on a wagon ride that was pulled by Clydesdale horses - it was pretty spectacular and took us all around the massive farm. This is Tye, the birthday boy and his daddy.
After the wagon ride, we all got some animal food to feed the animals on the farm... Liam fed the Peacock, Turkey, Emu, Alpacas, Rabbits, Goats, Bulls, Horses, Pigs... and many more.

He loved this wooden "choo choo" train!

Not as much as driving the full sized "John Deere" combine! This may have been the highlight of his day... he could drive, drive, drive and never get bored of it.

Tye had the most amazing cake... a two tiered farm cake decorated in fondant, complete with the animals - the cookie favors were pretty stinkin' cute too... sugar cookie farm animal cut outs and barns that said "Tye's Farm"... I die.

While we waited for some of that yummy cake, Liam and Daddy played "king of the hill" on the hay stack.

Cake Time! This boy has a sweet tooth, and apparently loves fondant!

Busy little farm hands sure wear themselves out quickly. This was taken about 4 seconds after we drove out of the parking lot!

Thank you for inviting us to your party Tye! We had a wonderful time! Happy Birthday Friend.

While we were away...

2011-05-01T08:51:00.000-07:00

While Kurt and I were busy "skulking about" in London last month, Liam was home with Gramma and Grumpa having SO MUCH FUN! We are so thankful that they were able to take the time away and make the trip up from Oregon to stay with Liam and take care of the house and dogs for us so we could sneak away... I thought I would feel really sad leaving Liam for so long, but with the assurance he was being well cared for and loved... I was ok, and really able to enjoy being away. SO - THANK YOU Mom and Dad! This was the best gift ever!

Now.. on to what Lima Bean did while we were away...
In addition to playing "hooky" from school for a week... they kept this kid BUSY!

He was busy hammering away and fixing things like his "Grumpa"

He got to go see a LIVE performance of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" at church... and even got a couple of bites of a REAL Wonka "Scrumdidlyumcious" bar that Gramma brought for him :) he LOVED that... and I heard even started chanting "CANDY CANDY CANDY" at the end of the performance!

He got to be the KING OF THE HILL!

He crossed bridges w/ Gramma.

He got aquainted with his shadow... he has been really into "Peter Pan" lately, and asked Gramma if his shadow needed to be sown to his feet because he didn't want to lose it!

He climbed through tunnels.

He fed the ducks!

He shot some hoops with Grumpa - how cute is it that my dad brought out a step stool!!

They took long walks on the beach.

They did a little shopping at the do it center and Liam found a sweet spot!

They planted grass seeds in egg shells ...

So, that by Easter, we would have these lovely table decorations - they turned out AWESOME!

They planted some herbs for me :) Been using the chives and parsley a TON - they are getting so big already!

easter time 2011

2011-04-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

It's safe to say, Easter was a big hit with Liam. He has committed "little bunny foo foo" and "here come's peter cottontail" to memory and sings them on heavy rotation (it's pretty cute... i tried to capture this on video - but he gets camera shy when the "flip" comes out) i need to learn "stealth videography"
Things around here have been really busy ever since we returned from London... two working parents and a busy two and a half year old, make for complete LAST MINUTE Easter prep. i literally was THAT mom... buying eggs on Saturday afternoon while he napped! I haven't bought regular white caged chicken eggs since last Easter... it was a little painful - but we decided to acheive the color saturation we wanted, we had to go white (i am very sorry to the chickens who laid these eggs in an 8.5x11 battery cage.. but thats a whole other topic)

i was so proud of liam who waited very patiently while the little tablets fizzed away in the white vinegar! he is so excited :)

Daddy was a great helper, and showed him how to use the "dippy thing" - which is a cumbersome task when your fingers are only two and a half years old.

he decided the "drop and plop" method was the way to go!

easter morning... after sunday school. the egg he is holding is the infamous "mud egg". when kurt and scott were kids, it was their tradition to pour all of the colors together for the very last egg, and make what they called the "mud egg" liam loved that.

This was taken while we skyped with gramma and grampa as well as great gran and gramp from oregon. this skateboarder and skateboard were in the basket from the oregon easter bunny an dhas been the biggest easter gift so far (i think he even likes it more than chocolate!)

a close up of the "mud egg" we used one of the ones that cracked in the "drop and plop" test... and it came out super cool - like a spider web.

can you tell i love this chocolate-faced kid. btw - my yellow dress was lovingly nick-named the "peep" dress by todd and kammy... i told them.. well, if there is one day a year to wear a "peep" dress, easter is THE day!

At brunch - a visit from his favorite.. rockie the clown! they had a major love affair last easter - he is featured on her website...this year he was a little nervous... check out the look on his face!

getting ready for the big easter egg hunt. he was such a big boy and collected a ton of eggs. he even shared with a little girl who was about a year old - it was the cutest thing ever!

and his favorite part of brunch.. of course the mini desserts. here is a strawberry angel food cupcake..mmmmm

truffle on a stick, i think i'll try that please.

i heart pretty desserts

can't make a decision? eat all three!

skatelab and besties

2011-04-10T14:07:00.001-07:00

I don't know what it is about San Diego, maybe there is something in the water - but the people who live there RULE. We had a GREAT Saturday night spent with our local pals Chris and Wendy... and bonus guests Tobi, Tanner, Bryce and Carly. The Tanners are one of our favorite families who we wish lived next door! We always have the best time when we are together. I met Tobi through work over 10 years ago (We all worked together... Kurt/Tobi/Wendy and I). It's so great we have remained friends over the years. The Tanners live in Point Loma...(San Diego)... which is lovely for them... they have a great street and awesome neighbors, and we haven't been able to sway them away to move to the Conejo Valley YET... it's a work in progress! They were in town for little Bryce's skate competition. He is just 6 years old, and is already a sponsored skateboarder... he pretty much shreds. He competed Saturday and Sunday. On his Saturday run, they asked him what his favorite song was... this completely cool kid answered "Welcome to the Jungle"... LOVE 6 year olds who dig a little GnR! Saturday night was a mellow dinner here at the house... We grilled a little chicken, had a little quinoa salad and a great local greens salad along w/ Wendy's famous bean dip... and of course some great wine. We had so much fun catching up... so did the kiddos.

I asked them to say CHEEEESE... they all did!

Pal-in around. Liam ADORES Miss Carly and idolizes Brycer. I thought it would be fun to take Liam to the skate competition this morning to see Bryce compete. The contest was at the Skatelab - and for a little boy - it was ridiculous sensory OVERLOAD. Imagine hundreds of skateboards, loud music, pads, helmets, and a sick indoor skatepark. Liam now wants to be a pro skater! I think he will be getting a skateboard very soon! Miss Carly took such good care of him at the event.

Bryce got some awesome awards and qualified for state. I think the Tanner family will be hitting the road a lot more with this one. (He is the one 2nd from the left - what a heartbreaker!)

Liam is BIG into skeletons... skulls and crossbones... and anything pirate - matey. He was obsessed with the skatelab wagon. He asked to get his picture by it. Look at how cute he and Carly posed together... I die.

skulking about in London - part two...

2011-04-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

Skulking about in London, Part two: Wednesday… our last day. We thought we would just skulk about a different hood with a pricier zip code (or whatever the UK equivalent of zip code is) so we took the underground up to Notting Hill where we ended up at The Churchill Arms. Guess what kind of food they served there… THAI! More on the restaurant later. But after our meal we ended up chatting w/ a guy who worked for the government but couldn’t really speak about what it was that he did (super sneaky) btw - i did tke a photo.. but thought, just MAYBE i should refrain from posting, in case he was REALLY important to the UK government.... Then we chatted up two locals (Simon and Gerry) who were hilarious. They had been pals for life and were just as enamored with us, as we were with them. That day we spent nearly three hours inside the pub.

Our new BFF's - Simon and Gerry!

How PERFECT is this pub? look at the guys sitting at the bar!

After that, we decided to take a walk to Hyde Park via Kensington Gardens – which is the street where all of the houses of embassy can be found. I didn’t know this street existed (the government spy told us about it). I was taking some photos when from a loudspeaker, I was cordially asked to “kindly put away my camera because photos are strictly prohibited on this street”. I didn’t know! We made our way to Kensington Palace and Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, through the middle of a Libyan Protest demonstration and through the neighborhood where I will be moving to (ok wishful thinking, but it’s a nice fantasy)!

Me... seconds before my camera was banished from this street!

My new street of residence in Londontown... moving announcement coming soon (j/k)

This is the backyard of my new street... no yard, I'm not complainin'... just sayin'

We walked and walked and walked and didn’t make our way back to the hotel until pretty late – just enough time to pop in, freshen up and grab some dinner. Bella Italia – for Italian. I got the special “pasta della mamma” because by now I was actually starting to think about the life I had left behind for a minute… and my job as a mom… which I did miss. Kurt had his fave – Carbonara… (he said mine was better… that’s my guy). After our dinner, we wanted just one more drink, and pretty much the only bar open late enough was our hotel bar. We weren’t that excited about it – but the payoff was huge. We met Daniel… master mixologist who talked our ear off for 2 hours and got us plenty pissed with some signature cocktails. I am not normally a hard liquor drinker, but he mixed me some heavenly coffee martini situation… and some drink with bourbon and chiles, garnished with currants… serious. Loved. Kurt had an “old fashioned” done the right way. This “mixology” profession is serious stuff, and they don’t mess around. Thursday morning came very early. Since I was incapable of packing the night before, I had to do it in the morning – along with showering and getting ready to catch a cab by 7:30 a.m. by which to make the 8:15 train at Paddington station. Yes… we were THAT couple, running through the station trying to make it to platform six to catch the Heathrow express. We made it… barely. The rest of the trip was spent in the AA lounge – then onto the 10 hour flight home. The flight home was a little different than the flight out. Instead of completely overindulging in wine and Tylenol PM… I caught three movies and slightly less wine. about 3pm LA time/ 11pm London time. He was SO happy to see us. He grabbed my face and just kept kissing me. I missed those baby kisses, and his sweet little smile. He had a great time at hom Mom, Dad and Lima bean met us at the airport where it was e with gramma and grumpa – they just loved on him and might have had as much fun as we did – in a different way. Need to detox…starting tomorrow!

skulking about in londontown - part one.

2011-04-03T15:37:00.001-07:00

Name this movie dialogue… So... Maybe we could just skulk around here for a bit and then go back down. That's a thought. I don't usually skulk, but I suppose I could skulk if skulking were required. Do you skulk regularly? No. No, I don't normally think of myself as a skulker but... . Well, why don't you come in and skulk for a while and we'll see? Give up? Ok – one of my favorite movies – Four Weddings and a Funeral skulk (sk lk) intr.v. skulked, skulk•ing, skulks 1. To lie in hiding, as out of cowardice or bad conscience; lurk. 2. To move about stealthily. 3. To evade work or obligation; shirk. In our case – definition #3 pretty much sums up how we spent our time while in London. We woke up when we wanted to. Most of our “breakfasts” were after 12:00 noon and included a pint or several pints at a local pub. We walked ... and walked and walked…. Without much plans about our destination, as long as there was a pub along the way – and well, being in London… there always was! I gained about 5 lbs – and thank goodness we walked so much, or it would have been more. The re-cap. Kurt was already in Switzerland for business, so we decided to just meet up in London. We arranged our flights to where we could just connect at the airport, then travel together to check into our hotel. The flight to London was perfect. When Kurt and I connected at the airport, we hopped on the tube to Paddington station and then took a cab ride to our hotel. From there, we freshened up (I had a bit of a Tylenol PM hangover from the flight) and headed out in search of an Indian restaurant called “Tamarind” (recommended to us by a good friend of mine who lived in London for years working in restaurants and baking pastries for the queen… seriously!). It was great (I think I will do an entire write up to review the restaurants we went to) On our walk back to the hotel, we wanted to see the Ritz Carlton (where a riot the day before had left the windows all boarded up!) and we wandered past some incredible chandaliers in a crazy art deco building that stopped me in my tracks... this ended up being The Wolesly restaurant (formerly the Wolesely car showroom) we ended up chatting w/ the door man for a long while – and subsequently ended up with a reservation for the following night. The next day (Monday) was a “shopping day” so – we skulked about some more as we ventured around our neighborhood (stopping at “The Roundhouse”) on the way to Piccadilly Circus to search for treasures. I was on a mission to procure some “royal wedding” kitsch for my friend MJ – this was a no-brainer.. in London, the royal wedding is a big deal, and Kate and Wills mugs were printed on EVERYTHING! Two notable stops: The Lamb and Flag (OLDEST pub in London) was awesome! We met some great locals (we kept running into lovely people who just loved to chat over a pint… or several!) Hope and Greenwood – the CUTEST confection shop you ever did see! I had to buy myself some tea towels and an apron for when I whip up bangers and mash – or some splendid confections at home. Dinner that night at the Wolseley was nothing short of spectacular – (again … restaurant review.. separate posting) After dinner we ended up at the Roundhouse again chatting up the best bartender in London (Dom) and found out that a reservation at the Wolseley is difficult to come by (lucky us). Aren't those chandaliers delicious??? Tuesday – “tourist” day. Kurt and I aren’t typical tourists. When we travel somewhere, we like to “blend in” (as much as possible with our giveaway American accents!) but, I really wanted to check out the London Eye, so he humored me and agreed to check it out. It was a typical London foggy day, but we were so glad we did this. It was a fun destination to walk across London Bridge, get to the waterfront to pick up tickets… quickly make our way AWAY from the waterfront in search of a … you guessed it – PUB. Which we found just three short blocks away. The Crown and Cushion was old and dusty and authentic and full of local blokes sipping pints mid day and chatting… and it served THAI food – Random (or so we thought) as it turns out… this is rather common. After a pint and some pad thai we headed to the London Eye. The line was just a short 15 or so minutes and the ride lasted about 35 minutes for one rotation. If you ever find yourself in London – don’t miss this attraction, the best views of all of London. I imagine you would see more and further on a clearer day, but something about the fog made it lovely. Tuesday night we had tickets to “Thriller” which was the only thing we had pre-booked before we left. We were running short on time, so instead of a big long dinner, we opted for some chips and a pint at the Coal Hole which was packed (after work crowd). We JUST made the show and got settled into our great seats just seconds before curtain call. This show was so much fun. They really got the crowd engaged - the music and dancing was spot on.

part two... to come.

london calling!

2011-03-26T15:52:00.000-07:00

cheerio - back in a week loves.

smashley shines!

2011-03-23T10:48:00.001-07:00

OUR NIECE ASHLEY - is awarded the Superintendent's Academic Excellence Award!!!

Seriously - this girl is on fire :) We are so proud - and can not wait to attend her graduation ceremony in June to listen to our valedictorian's speech!

BIG props to Ashley - you are an inspiration... perfect attendence for FOUR year - whaaaat??? that is amazing! We will be sharing your story of awesomeness with Liam as he gets into the academic world!

Also - big props to her ultra supportive mom and dad who listened and paid attention to Ashley and her learning style. To recognize that kids are programmed to learn differently - and they deserve big kudos for recognizing that even in her early struggles with traditional school - Ashley would SHINE in the supportive environment at Cape Cod Tech! Super parenting Scott and Sherri!

Here is her story:

20 March 2011 -- Cape Cod Regional Technical High School Superintendent Robert P. Sanborn, III, is pleased to announce that Ashley Rose Menslage has been named the 2011 Academic Excellence Award Winner. Ashley is a student in Cape Cod Tech's Health Technologies program and is from the town of Orleans.

Ashley was selected to receive the award due to her high grades -- she received high honors or honors all four years at Cape Cod Tech and is ranked 2nd in her class, her perfect attendance for all four years, and her enthusiasm and dedication to learning.

These successes did not come easy to Ashley, she says, as she struggles with dyslexia, making her academic success even more of a wonderful achievement. While she had difficulties in elementary and middle school, she says she feels supported at Cape Cod Tech.
"I made the best choice of my life by coming here," Ashley said. "I feel like the whole school is here to help you. Cape Cod Tech is like a huge family -- they want you to succeed."

Ashley would like to become a trauma nurse, and will be attending Elms College in Chicopee, MA in the fall.

rain rain go away.

2011-03-20T19:18:00.000-07:00

whoever said "it never rains in southern california"
lied.

walk this way

2011-03-18T12:47:00.001-07:00

We like to have crazy dance party USA in our family room sometimes... ok - a lot of times.
Sometimes there is a theme.
Liam likes rock - he IS his fathers child.
Liam like old skool rap - because he also carries mama's genes.
So - we mixed it up and did a little RUN DMC meets Aerosmith in walk this way!

this one is so blurry - but he was a dancing machine!

scritch-scratch it up dj Li-AM on the wheels of steel

these two are with mine.
am i lucky... or what?

go mini go!

2011-03-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to my girl mini who ROCKED the Shamrock 15K in Portland on Sunday!
All of that running and training looks good on you sister!
You are my pint sized inspiration!

julie and julia

2011-03-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

I love the movie "Julie and Julia". and I love the line where she says something like "you know what I love about cooking? It's that no matter how crazy and unpredictable your day is, you know that at the end of the day, if you mix egg yolks with chocolate, sugar and butter, it will thicken."
i so get that.
for me - cooking is therapeutic - some people find it a daunting, unpleasant task. not me. i find it fun and challenging and artistic. to select the freshest ingredients from the farmers market - and find something to make out of it. or working backwards - pick a recipe and then go in hunt for all of the ingredients. i don't mind if it takes me to the farmer's market and two additional stores. it's calming.
Around Christmas time, I picked up the new Ina Garten book "how easy is that" which i LOVE, and thought that Ina was my Julia. I've loved Ina for a long time, and this new book is her best yet! I kind of tasked my self with cooking my way through that book and making sure that I was following her many "tips to make cooking easier" I had most of them already - but did pick up a gel mat and a few other items - they work, it's great. I still adore Ina and I totally love that book. BUT... I recently found out that Ina is not my Julia... I had the great pleasure of meeting and working with Ms. Kristine Kidd over the past couple of weeks, and I am pretty sure that Kristine IS my Julia. She was the food editor of Bon Appetit Magazine for over 20 years and recently published the new Williams Sonoma Book "Weeknight Fast + Fresh" . GO BUY THIS BOOK, it rocks. Kristine put this book together based on the seasons and uses the local ingredients that are most abundant throughout the year. The recipes are simple, healthy and fresh. She does not claim that this is a diet book - but all of the ingredients are whole and fresh -she chooses olive oil over butter and of course whole grains over things like white rice, she uses a lot of herbs for great flavor. She is my kind of gal. She even includes quick tips and other helpful advice.
So - I am not giving myself a crazy goal of 500+ recipes in a year. But I would like to try at least one recipe per week of each respective season when I can. Sunday night is usually my "try something new" night... but I'm flexible. She has a lot of great vegetrian dishes that I am sure will be on our meatless Monday menus. Once I work my way through a year - I will have gone through each season, hopefully challenging myself - picking up unusual produce from local farms throughout the year, and had some fun.
SO far, I have made and or tried several of her winter recipes - the first one I have documented is the "Stir-fried Tofu and Mushrooms w/ Greens"

It was awesome, and even Kurt liked it - Tofu and all :)
I made a couple of substitutions (I had cremini mushrooms on hand and not shiitakes, so thats what i used - I doubled the sambal oelek because we like spicy and used braggs aminos instead of soy sauce).

We served over brown rice - it was quick, easy and delicious.

living dangerously

2011-03-12T12:18:00.001-08:00

Today we left the house in BIG BOY underwear. Oh yes we did! We weren't scared, well, maybe a little.
We left the house around 9:30 and didn't get home until maybe 11:ish. We stopped by three garage sales and got some new (to us) toys.
When we got home, our big boy underwear were still dry and we had success on the potty!

We might be on a roll!

crazy hair day

2011-03-11T10:54:00.001-08:00

Today was crazy hair day at school!
SO... not TOO much different than the everyday bed head that Liam rocks - but we kicked up the spikes a notch.
Funny how a little hair gel yields a lot of attitude!

Terrific Two's

2011-03-10T09:40:00.001-08:00

Now, I understand we are at just about the half way mark of the second year - so, we still have several months to go. BUT... I am loving TWO... whoever came up with the term "terrible two's" is crazy. Don't get me wrong, there are moments... but I truly feel that any "terrible 2" moments stem from frustration with expressing thoughts/emotions and a general inexperience in communication along with a healthy side of independence. All totally understandable and excusable in my book.

Last night was a great night and I wrote down a few things that I don't want to forget - here is the short list.
- It was almost 90 degrees (IN MARCH!)
- We ate our dinner outside (Liam LOVED that!)
- He ate an entire corndog on a stick - he is such a big boy (he doesn't like to dip in mustard or ketchup)
- He started with an appetizer platter of grapes, yogurt and cheese (his top three foods!)
- There were some bugs, so we had to use a little bug spray
- Daddy took Liam on some very bumpy wagon rides - after each round Liam wanted more and said "just one more time daddy" (one more time turned into about 12 more times)
- We stayed out until dark and watched the sun go down - we brought candles out to light the end of our night
- We all had hooded sweatshirts on... and to Liam's request - it was HOODS UP after dark
- He ended his night outside w/ Daddy and looking at the red and green lights on "his bridge"
- He took a happy bubble bath and even requested to get OUT to go potty! (breakthrough)
- We read three stories (thats our rule at bed time... THREE stories) but it was such a great night, that he got a BONUS book :)

This morning was terrific too - doesn't he look so cute in his big boy outfit with his cool guy hair?

love those baby blues
"mommy, i run super fast!"

build with me

2011-03-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

one of the many pleasures of living in southern california is that we get temperatures in the 70's even in the winter months. today was one of those days. gorgeous, sunny and warm!

after nap time we played in the back yard. i was kind of trying to get the outdoor furniture organized - it was all tucked in corners and under ledges in an attempt to keep it semi dry during our recent rain - and then... then, i hear this little voice "build with me mommy" - he wants me to build a "tower" with him! "build a tower with me".

how could i not.
stop.
everything i was doing.
in my tracks.
because at that moment... "build with me" was exactly what i wanted to do.

it was awesome!

"i did it! i build a BIG tower mommy!"

super determined - concentration and focus!

happy little lima bean!

can you say "lady killer"

either that or "zoolander in training"

every good engineer needs a break after completing a large project. a swing in the hammock is a perfect place to relax!

This Week For Dinner

2011-02-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

Do you know Jane over at "This Week For Dinner"?

She talks about this novel concept of *gasp* MEAL PLANNING! wow.
AND she lists her weekly meals - she is on like week 213 or something ridiculous.
On top of that - her readers list THEIR daily meals.
Talk about inspiration!
I've been doing this for a while now -and thought - "hey, why not post on our little blog?"
So - here we go, (I'll call this week 1) nothing like a fresh start.

mon – curry tofu and cauliflower w/ brown rice
tues – basil pesto tilapia w/ quinoa and green salad
wed – white lasagne w/ caesar parmesan flatbread (oh - i won this awesome book on jane's site!)
thurs – lemon chicken breasts (ina) steamed green beans
fri – chicken fajitas bar
sat – take out or go out
sun – crock pot meal (tortilla soup or smoky black bean chili)

The recipes: curry tofu and cauliflower AND smoky black bean chili come from the new Kristine Kidd book - Weeknight Fast + Fresh available at Williams-Sonoma NOW! I get to meet Kristine tomorrow at a book signing event at one of my accounts - she is serving HER curry tofu and cauliflower which I am sure will be much better than the version of hers that I made tonight (although... tonight's was applauded by all in this house!)

so - much inspiration goes out to you (all of my ONE blog reader - i love you mom!)

yummy :)

2011-02-24T13:54:00.000-08:00

Round here, we love us some red velvet cake balls... even the littlest member of the team loves them, and was very curious about the colorful sprinkled chocolate covered goodness that was tied up with a pink ribbon.
SO curious that he just had to check it out - he was so cute - I had to take some pics.

"mommy, can i please have one? pleeeeease?"

"If you can unwrap it, you can have one... just ONE"
"YAAAAY!!"

determined!
almost there...

Getting closer.

GOT IT!
(Can you tell that i absolutely LOVE this face??!!)

Sweet sweet chocolatey success!!!

bootcamp

2011-02-21T09:52:00.001-08:00

Potty training bootcamp that is.
Liam spent most of the weekend with his pants off. We kind of thought he might be ready to potty train, and figured that we would take advantage of the three day weekend - as we didn't have too much going on, and could spend some time with Liam to work on potty training. He has been doing pretty good on the potty - he will sit on it and go - but really only when HE wants to. The plan was by the end of the weekend - he would be potty trained.

FAIL!

We diligently took him to the potty every 30 minutes. He had some success - but a lot of times he didn't want to be on the potty - and didn't go. He seemed surprised when he actually did go. There were rewards and big dramatic potty dances.

There were several times where he would just start going (off the potty) so we would swoop him up - a stream of pee flying through the air (on the floor/ walls/ me - you get the picture) and plop him on the toilet until he was done. We mopped the floor about 25 times - it's never been cleaner by the way. We THOUGHT he would get it... he hasn't. He IS better... but far from potty trained. I guess he just isn't ready. As with everything else - he will do this on his time - why would we ever have thought differently?

ROCK OF AGES!

2011-02-18T10:00:00.000-08:00

Last night Kurt and I had a great date night and saw "Rock of Ages" at the Pantages! It was AWESOME! It takes place on the Sunset Strip circa late 80's early 90's when the glam bands were making their way onto the music scene in a big way. The costumes were a hoot - the music was so much fun, and the entire show was a blast! This show was especially fun because Kurt actually lived in LA and hung out on the Sunset Strip when all of this was REALLY happening... so he knew all of the little inside jokes - like about the new Arby's moving onto the strip - and that the "Bourbon Room" was really "Gazari's" .... i think he even used to dress like these guys - seriously! (I think my brother kind of did too - they are about the same age and liked the same kind of music)... Even if you were never into glam rock or hair bands... SEE THIS SHOW if you can. It was only the 2nd night of performance in L.A. and it only stays here fore 2 weeks. Oh - and that guy from American Idol - Constantine Maroulis was the lead - and he was great!

Some of the covers featured bands like: Whitesnake, Pat Benetar, Twisted Sister, Poison, Asia, Night Ranger, Styx, REO Speedwagon - and more :)

Here are some pix and our playbill!!

Valentine's Day Love

2011-02-16T13:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day (just a couple of days late!) We have been so busy over here, i have sorely neglected to update this blog - but I can not skip over Valentine's Day - especially because we had such a nice one this year :)

We baked cookies as a family over the weekend. Liam did a GREAT job of decorating the cookies and putting lots of sprinkles, sparkles and candies on top. We gave the cookies to some friends and teachers - they were a big hit!

We had a special dinner guest on Sunday night - Arlene - Grammy M! She has been sick for a while so, we haven't seen much of her lately - actually we really haven't spent any time with her since the holidays, so it sure was great to get to spend some time with her - know Liam enjoyed it. One of the funniest moments of the night is when Liam asked for his sleeping bag - when he disappeared inside of it for an extended amount of time, we realized that he had gone in there to sneak away and eat more chocolate (after we had told him "thats enough")! We got a good laugh about that especially since he had done something similar at Christmas.

On Valentine's morning, we had a love fest skype call w/ Gramma and Grampa in Oregon - they had sent a box of goodies for Liam, so we had him open it while they watched - it was pretty cool... gotta love skype for times like that! At 9:30 there was a party at school. Liam and I made the fruit salad together - and all of the other moms pitched in and brought bagels w/ pink cream cheese, goldfish, juice, cookies and really fun crafts. It was a fun party - probably one of the best because Liam actually decided to WEAR his listening ears, he was engaged, he followed instructions, he loved the food, the crafts and passing out his valentine's cards!

When we got home from school, we got to go through his bag of treats - he got some great stuff :) His school even gave him a teeshirt to wear for School Pride Day! how fun!

After Liam went down, Kurt and I had a delicious and healthy dinner at home together (at the grown ups table which we rarely eat at!) - it was a great time to reconnect, turn off the TV and actually talk... we should do that more often :) I highly reccommend it!

Happy Valentine's Day!

How cute is the little love bugs bulletin at school? i love it!

Our Valentine's Day table setting.

Liam's cookies - they were so cute - and how funny are the new conversation hearts? "holla"

"CHEESE" w/ grammy m.

He was lovin all the cards :) he especially liked the cards from the grammas/ grampas and the special special doggie card that he got in the mail from his GREAT GRAN!

I am not sure i can explain... he just decided that the shirt needed to come off so the necklace could speak for itself!

passing out invitations - Ms Danielle is such a great helper!

Daddy was a super helper too!

We all pitched in (even Mommy got a minute to help out and pass the camera to Dad!)

This is what 14 two year olds looks like eating breakfast together! They are all so cute - we are blessed that Liam is meeting some really great friends!

saturday hike

2011-02-05T18:08:00.001-08:00

We had a great Saturday. We started our day with Sports Class - we signed up for another session through parks and rec... it meets on Saturday mornings at 9am for a half an hour. Liam is still a little young and doesn't quite get the concepts of all the sports - but he is getting better - and he seems to enjoy it, so we are sticking with it.
It was such a gorgeous day today (sorry East coasters!) high was around 78! So, we were itching to be outside. We attempted to go to a fun hike/picnic place called Red Rock Canyon... and we kind of got there (via gps directions) however, we ended up on the back side ... with no picnic area or anything. Liam was a trooper and did part of the hike and had a blast throwing rocks, kicking dirt and being a total boy!
It was fun to do something different... explore a little and see a local spot that we have never seen before - it was pretty spectacular!

on top of the world!

coming down

throwing some rocks over the edge

time for a water break!

juicy

2011-02-02T18:40:00.000-08:00

SO - apparently there are some health benefits of drinking fresh juice... I mean REALLY fresh juice. I have been reading this book called "Clean" that tells all kinds of good stuff about it. SO.... I thought I would give it a whirl.

Here is my new toy -a Breville Juicer - not the top of the line... but not the bottom of the barrel either.

My first experiment was apple, carrot and celery. It was on the list of the least weird combinations. Also - I had all three on hand because Liam and I went to our regular Tuesday night Farmer's Market date.

So - I started with two apples, a few carrots and a stalk or so of celery - all organic from local farms.

THis is what two apples a few carrots and a stalk or so of celery look like when juiced. A little frothy, a funky color - but WOW... this stuff was actually good! I barely even tasted the celery. Next time I will add some lemon so its not SO sweet.

The streets of Cape Cod will never be the same!

2011-01-31T13:16:00.000-08:00

SO... I was informed this morning that little D didn't waste ANY TIME... (In typical Dakoda fashion of course!) he rushed right out this morning and earned himself his driving permit! Having ridden shotgun in a Dakoda operated vehicle sometime last year... I know that this kid knows whats up about driving - after all - he has been operating heavy machinery for years and has a good head on his very broad and very muscular shoulders!

Congratuations Dakoda!!!

We love you!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAKODA!

2011-01-30T19:08:00.000-08:00

Our "little" nephew Dakoda is having another bday today.
In honor of his birthday we listened to the recording of "Where the Wild Things Are" that he and his family recorded for Liam. At the end of the recording Dakoda tells Liam that he can't wait to "cannonball with ya dude"! This year... Liam is understanding more WHO Dakoda is - and WHAT a cannonball is... and he said that this year... he is game!

Wish we could celebrate with you! Have a magical year Dude!

link to last year Dak bday

Liam-isms

2011-01-27T14:19:00.000-08:00

Every now and then Liam says things that amaze me... here are a few recent "Liamisms" that I don't want to forget.

1) early morning over breakfast
Liam: Mommy, you have Coffee
Me: "Yes, I do have coffee Liam, do you want to smell it?"
Liam: (faking coughing sounds) "cough cough....Mommy I cough in your coffee!!! That's funny!"

2) at home eating a kind of cracker he had never tried before
Me: "Liam, do you like those new crackers"
Liam: "These crackers CRACK ME UP!!!... That's funny!!"
Me: "Liam... YOU crack me up!"
Liam: "That's funny!"

3) report from his teachers after removing a cheerio he had stuffed up his nose this week
Ms. Danielle "Liam, why would you put a cheerio up your nose"
Liam: "I was saving it for a snack for later"

ahh to be two and a half... when everything is funny!

64 degrees and SNOWING!!!!

2011-01-21T11:33:00.001-08:00

Yet another reason we LOVE Liam's school - SNOW DAY! This morning they brought in several TONS of snow to their play ground for the kids to enjoy. This morning it was 64 degrees and sunny! We all had been talking about snow day for a couple of weeks, so Liam was good and ready for it. He was up early today - excited, and had his gear on about 45 minutes before it was time to head out the door! Unfortunately... about 4 minutes before it actually WAS time to go - he ripped off his boots, and hat and scarf and said NO SNOW DAY. I WANT TO STAY HOME! NOOOO GO TO SNOW DAY! (it was dramatic and pretty out of character). I finally got him calmed down enough to get into the car and get on the road. The minute we pulled into school - he went into mass hysterics again... I'm trying to hold him to carry him into school and he pulls the limp body thing (loads of fun)... and makes a big scene with crying and crocodile tears. Once again I get him calmed down enough to join his friends outside - which he is excited about - but once he gets out there, he wants NOTHING to do with the snow. NOW he wants DADDY! (who couldn't come with us because he was on an important conference call). I am beginning to think that he will be snow traumatized forever - and getting ready to sign him up for therapy - when DADDY shows up. Immediately Liam is all smiles and ready to sled down the big hill! Thank god for Kurt - he really saved the day today - and everybody ended up having a REALLY fun time.

Getting ready for SNOW DAY!

Before Daddy arrived - just looking at the snow - the uber close up is because this is about as far away from me as he would get... clinging on most of the time.

Another pre-daddy arrival shot.
This is what 4 tons of snow in Los Angeles looks like!

HOORAY FOR DADDY!

After snow day, they changed into comfy clothes and had donuts and hot chocolate.
I think he liked the donut!

I think Taylor did too (the little girl to his right)

Sharing his hot chocolate with Ms. Danielle.

gingerbread-man-house

2011-01-14T16:12:00.001-08:00

... that is what Liam called his gingerbread house!
Gramma and Grampa were the head engineers on this project - but Liam was the foreman on the job. Too bad he had a taste for his project! He loved building the house... ALMOST as much as he loved eating the house and it's decoration.
They used super sticky sugar cement to hold the walls together, and adorned the exterior with M&M's, gumdrops, mini marshmallows and other random sweets.
By Jan 1st, Liam had eaten every last marshmallow off the roof!

What a fun and festive afternoon!

Gramma and Grampa working away while Liam almost ate the project!

Doing what he does best...
Again... fingers and building material IN HIS MOUTH - at this point the rule became "5 to 1"... meaning 5 candies on the house to every 1 in your mouth!

Happy grands!

Putting on the final touches

The house even had an icicle or two... (Liam kept calling them bicycles!)

Polar Express Train Ride

2011-01-09T12:34:00.000-08:00

One of our Christmas surprises this year was how much Liam adores the movie "Polar Express". We anticipated something like "A Charlie Brown Christmas" would be more his speed - and the length more geared towards his 2 year old attention span. He surprised us by watching The Polar Express (run time one hour and forty minutes!) straight through from start to finish. When it was over - he said "again"! I don't know how many times we have watched the movie this season - but more than a dozen for sure. Since he was so obsessed, we thought he might enjoy taking a trip to the North Pole on a local railroad. Bonus - we took the grandmas and a grandpa with us! It was great - this will be a tradition for sure!

On the way to the train ride - the way his hat pushes on his ear makes him look like a little elf... I think he has some "elfin magic" in him - especially this night... he seemed to look like a little elf most of the night.

Grandpa and Liam posing. (again... a little elfy)
Watching the train arrive w/ gramma merlinkey.

How cute is this train... it looks just like the Polar Express!

Our elfy hostess "Twinkle" passing out the freshly baked star cookies (Mrs. Claus had made them that ver morning!)

We all got our tickets punched - LIam's was shaped like a candy cane - he also got a magic bell! (Oh and some chocolate milk too!)

He was most excited to meet Santa who gave him a candy cane.

He was a little overwhelmed by meeting the conductor. He is looking a little elfy here too - so is the conductor - such a cute man.

He connected with a good friend who apparently sent him a memo on what to wear!
Peas in a pod!

He was a little wired after the train ride and wouldn't sit too still for a photo w/ Grammy M.... but they still look cute talking to this vintage Santa Claus.

Santa Was Here!

2011-01-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

No trip to see the mall santa this year...Santa came to US.
Seriously.
He did.

So - I have "upgraded" to the new blogger format - and unfortunately cannot figure out how to rotate my photos the correct way - and the video isn't uploading (technical difficulties) so, I will work on it. but without further adieu, i bring you... THE SANTA VISIT (this was about 3 days before Christmas.

Liam sat right up on his lap as he asked him what he wanted for Christmas... Liam replied "a Woody doll" (which Kurt quickly corrected as "um Santa, he means a Woody ACTION FIGURE!"

Ask and ye shall recieve! He got one! How does Santa just KNOW?

The next morning, Liam had to wear his Buzz outfit to hang out with his pal Woody!

This is Liam looking up to the "elves" saying - "SEE Elves... I've been a good boy - Santa brought me what I asked for.... um... thanks for sending a good report!!!"

Hopefully I can figure out my technical difficulties soon - until then.... don't strain your neck!

christmas memories 2010

2011-01-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

Here we are... 2011, and not a Christmas memory has been documented. Once again, I am behind schedule - I like to think of it as living in the "now"... been so busy just savoring the season - Until today, I haven't yet had time to reflect... let alone download any photos or formulate any kind of re-cap!
Kurt and I sat down today and made some lists. More words than eye candy today. I'll work on getting the photos up soon (promise grammas!). There are a lot (PLUS Kurt put his NEW Flip HD into some serious work mode this season - so we even have some GREAT video)... again... SOON (see how HARD I am working on the not procrastinating thing?).

SO - here are the lists / categories of the season:
Memories / Surprises / New and Old Traditions ... and top 10 things we learned.

Christmas Memories:
- #1 the visit from mom and dad (Liam's Gramma and Grandpa from Oregon)! It was the BEST. it was so fun having a lot of people around at Christmas... Liam LOVED spending so much time with them - and I am pretty sure they had a great time (aside from both of them leaving sick... oh flu... you ARE the gift that keeps on giving!)
- The awesome gingerbread house project.
- Our prosecco birthday party
- The Polar Express train ride
- Santas visit to OUR HOUSE
- The great pj party at school
- SNOW DAY at church
- Our little jumpin elf
- Liam truly getting into Christmas this year in every sense of the season... down to passing out the Christmas gifts like a little elf :)

Christmas Surprises:
- HOW MUCH Liam LOVED watching Polar Express... and The Santa Claus movies.. in the days of VHS... both would have been worn out by now.
- How I received #44 (tasting spoons) of my newest favorite book (how easy is that - ina) from todd and kam... how is that for friendship?
- 6 pairs of black boots from kurt... he literally brought me a shoe store for christmas... how sweet is that?
- the hot air balloon ride that i was SO excited to give to kurt (thank you GROUPON!)
- oh... we ALL got sick...every last one of us (i didn't say ALL the surprises were GOOD ones)
- at exactly 1:02 p.m. on Christmas day.. Liam said to Kurt (completely unprompted) "Merry Christmas Daddy, I Love You!) ... he wrote it down... i saw it on a note in the bathrooom!
- About half way through the gift opening explosion Liam said "NO MORE PRESENTS MOMMY!" ... really?

New Traditions of the Season:
- Watching the Polar Express the day after Thanksgiving
- Riding the Polar Express Train on the day before Christmas Eve in Fillmore
- Making home made Hot Buttered Rum Batter (It's SO MUCH better than storebought... and so easy.. how are we just now learning this???)
- Henny's amazing Beef Stew on Christmas Eve!
- Ham and Cheese Paninins on the day after Christmas.

Old Traditions that keep on keepin on:
- Christmas light drives
- Elf on the Shelf
- BIG Pine Candle / BIG fake tree
- Hot Buttered Rum at night
- Enjoying Christmas dinner with the Kenmans
- Christmas Eve Service at Calvary (with appetizers at Grammy M's house)
- The big beautiful box of gifts that come from Cape Cod
- Watching LOTS of Christmas movies

Finally... the TOP TEN THINGS WE LEARNED THIS YEAR about the holidays:
10) Tree lighting ceremonies are over-rated.
9) Starting the "elf on the shelf" tradition can not come too early (we may start in February this year!)
8) Massive amounts of cream and butter make excellent mashed potatoes.
7) When making gingerbread-man houses (as Liam calls them) the rule must be a 5-1 ratio... meaing you must put at least FIVE candies on the house to ONE candy in your mouth. at least.
6) ONLINE shopping rules. However, the same rule about shopping early applies on Cyber Monday... shop EARLY... the best deals are out of stock before 9:00 a.m.
5) The older Liam gets... the MORE assembly toys require... PUT the toys together the night before... little boys don't have much patience on Christmas morning. And if we all want to enjoy the toys... its better that they are all assembled - only a bow required. easy access is key.
4) There is ALWAYS enough room for extra guests at Christmas dinner. No matter what.
3) Make time for at least one date night to reconnect and clear your head between Dec. 1 and Dec. 23.
2) Less is more. (with the exception of butter and cream in the mashed potatoes of course!)
1) Christmas is magic! And its children that really help us all remember how much fun it is to believe!

Christmas memory photos will be posted all week.

Grampa/Liam/Gramma having some fun after the Polar Express Train Ride

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T17:09:00.001-08:00

Reflecting on the past year - we've been blessed.
A wonderful year.
An amazing family.
Lots of Christmas memories to post... soon.
Tossing around some resolutions.... will post...soon.
Maybe one is to not procrastinate so much.
maybe.
Until then... off to enjoy Lima Bean, and take the last "Christmas Light Drive" of the season.
Cheers to 2011.

reflecting on a great year

9 bottles of prosecco...

2010-12-16T15:00:00.000-08:00

No - I didn't drink all 9 by myself.. i had some help from a few good friends. Over the weekend, we hosted our first "Holiday Kickoff/ December Birthday Celebration" December is always such a crazy month with holiday parties, shopping, Christmas cards, wrapping - add in the fact that BOTH Kurt and I have December bdays (yay sagg) - we rarely throw ourselves a bday party - this year was different - we decided - "what the heck" lets have some fun with this. We invited a bunch of friends - and naturally being that it is the holiday season, a lot of our pals sadly couldn't come... but that didn't stop the party people that did show up from having a great time. We had a very special guest on the guestlist - MINI :) my bff... she came in on thursday and stayed through Sunday - it was SO great to see her, and she was an amazing help to have while preparing for our fete!

We sent out our e-vites about a month ago asking people to bring their favorite appetizer along with the recipe to share - this was a GREAT idea - not only did everyone bring their A-game.. it meant I didn't have as much to do.

We had:
- baked brie en croute w/ bacon and mushrooms with a brandy reduction (OMG)
- gorgonzola and walnut crostini topped with fig and drizzled with honey (OMG)
- prosciutto and bocconcini skewers (yumm-o)
- endive, pear and gorgonzola one bite salads (MMM)
- mac n cheese balls (thank you trader joes)
- goat cheese, tomato and pine nut crostini (tasty)
- 7 layer magic bars (toasty coconut!)
- red velvet cake balls with crushed peppermint (oh yes we did)

AND we had a prosecco bar! that is how we easily downed those 9 bottles... some straight up - but mostly sprinkled in with a little pomegranate juice / peach puree / limoncello etc. etc.

just some holiday decor - we filled that bowl w/ kettle corn :)
Here is mini working hard on the one bite salads!

here is the NON-alcoholic bar (tucked away all the way in the back)

And the prosecco bar!

We also had a traditional bar set up when you first arrive... nothing like being greeted by an open bar!

Me and mini - moments before the first guest arrived

some pals having a toast (kim, gina, rich, ryan)

red velvet deliciousness

this is what the little trash can looked like in the morning - i think this even had been emptied at one point during the night.

CHEERS!

happy holiday kickoff!
and happy birthday to all of the December bdays!

blessed... abundantly!

2010-12-06T20:30:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone... and without a blog post from me.... Not that it's means for a bah-humbug... just that we are SO absolutely abundantly blessed, we have just been busy living our delicious, amazing, beautiful life.

We are so thankful. So thankful for SO many things...
to name a few:
our family, friends, Liam's school, our small group, our church... our health, our doggies, food on the table, fun to be had... just life... sweet life.

Liam - you make this life simply.... lovely! Who knew one sweet little boy could bring so much joy?

We spent our Thanksgiving morning with good friends and family - of course, we forgot to take pics... but we LOVE you todd/kam/grammy M.! Thanks for a fun kickoff to the day.

We were lucky enough to get to spend the evening at Heather and Jims... we DO have some pics - on another camera... i hope to post them soon - Heather's Dad made the turkey on the Weber... hands down - BEST turkey EVER! Gracias to all the peeps of Casa Tequilla!!! xoxo

Here is a glimpse of what has been happening in the last week or so...

just another day in the life of a rockstar!

he don't need no stinkin' door!

In case you didn't know - Liam's sense of style is un-matched... especially when the weather calls for LOTS of accessories!
Teddy bear jacket / moto-x pants / woody boots / island hat - i wouldn't have put it all together - but its FAB.
A birthday dinner for Kurt with good friends - impromptu Bolognese!!!

The first of the ornaments on the tree!
(YES, those ARE his mummy pj's from Halloween... he loves them...they fit...they were clean - we pick and choose our battles around here)

The elves that watches Liam to make sure he is being "nice" and NOT "naughty"... i am not quite sure HOW he gets this concept... but he does... a Christmas miracle! Daddy - putting the star on top!

This is what happens when you throw a snowball to a two year old and expect him to catch it!

Happy Holidays!

just another day at the park

2010-11-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

the mercury has finally dropped below 60 degrees - which in southern california is call for boots, hats, scarves and winter sweaters! it rained most of the weekend - but after the storm - sunday brought us a crisp beautiful fall day. after church we scooped up the doggies, grabbed some take out and headed to our favorite neighborhood park. this park is awesome, it's small but open, the dogs love to run, and the playground equipment is just Liam's style!
We can see the park from our house!
We can see our house from the park!
We always have fun when we come here! It's nothing special... just an ordinary park... just an ordinary day. Don't you wish we had more of those?

Liam and Daddy waving from the tall spirally slide!

A boy and his Jinxie dog. They had a blast running and running and running around together!

Even Ace Face was giving out kisses!

This seems to be the most common view I get of Liam these days - of his back - running away. Always curious about the world - on to the next thing. Growing up way too fast.

Really... you CAN see our house! It's just a stones throw away as the crow flys!

harvest fest at cornerstone and gobble gobble cookies

2010-11-15T12:46:00.000-08:00

Liam's preschool had a Harvest Festival yesterday. It was super fun. There was live music by Melissa Green, Arts and Crafts and a Bake Sale! The Bake Sale was created to raise money for some extra programs at school - like for SNOW day - when they bring tons and tons (literally) of snow in for the kids to play on! So - Liam got his "BAKE ON"!

we decided to bake traditional sugar cookies shaped like TURKEYS - because they say "gobble gobble" and Liam LOVES saying "gobble - gobble"

and fall leaves
Liam had a lot of fun cutting out the shapes

IN A-C-T-I-O-N!

he liked kissing the turkeys

and of course - eating the dough!

" no mommy, i didn't eat any dough!"
...busted!

here is how our turkeys turned out - gobble gobble!

all packaged up and ready to sell.

ON TO THE PARTY...

oh... this explains why i inherit 2 cups of sand each time i take his shoes off when he comes home! it totally makes sense now. (those are his friends sadie and ted)

all boy - look at that dirty face.

we pulled up a blanket on the lawn for ths show.

this cutie is liam's friend mackenna - they are good pals!

"hat and glasses OFF mommy!"

the kids LOVE Melissa Green!

... Liam's bake sale intake:

1) Brownie

1) Oatmeal Cookie

1) Chocolate chip Sandwich Cookie

mine... well, thats personal.

whoooosh - its windy out there!

2010-11-11T13:05:00.000-08:00

we definitely have that "wind blown" look today! the dust that this wind kicks up makes my eyes all watery and itchy, and every time i look in the mirror, i notice some new particle of the outdooors that has landed in my hair... its a great look.

while i was dropping liam off at pre-school, his beloved basketball hoop blew over! the backboard cracked, and the hoop is all bent up :( bummer.

its hard to capture wind on a still shot - but, whoosh! even the needles on the pine tree are getting blown around.

this umbrella ended up in our yard... it's not ours - i don't know who's it is? if you are missing a green market umbrella - we have it, come and claim it!

this is a little more than just SWAYING in the wind - these poor palm trees... i hope they recover!

stay safe out there - don't blow away!

toy story mania

2010-11-09T12:31:00.000-08:00

If you know Liam... you know he LOVES Toy Story. He now has seen all three movies, and is even starting to recite some lines... for example, when I wear boots - he almost always says "theres a snake in my boot"! Sometimes cute, sometimes annoying.... always LIAM"!

In any case, we were thrilled to be invited to Dylan's 2nd birthday party that was a Toy Story themed party! BONUS! Dylan is the son of my friend Tiffany - Dylan and Liam went to the same daycare briefly which is where I met Tiffany, she was a very fun / cool mom, and I had invited her to join my mom's group - where we got to know eachother a little better. Since then, she and her husband Mark have been busy, and welcomed baby brother Cole just over 10 months ago - talk about BUSY! a 2 year old, and a 10 month old! (And this girl ALWAYS looks amazing!) I don't know how she does it!

For halloween, she dressed her boys as Goose and Maverick from Top Gun (genius right?)... Liam found one of the boys helmets and wore it for pretty much the first hour of the party! Yep - he IS eating Doritos - which he has never had before - i think its safe to say he loved them... and probably left some of those super cheese-a-rific fingerprints all over that helmet - sorry Tiff!)

How cool is this cake?

How gorgeous is this family?

Seriously... she has 2 under 2 (well, she did until this week anyway) how does she looks so freaking good??

Liam LOVED the cake.

But NOT as much as he loved the surprise guest! This is what his face looked like when Woody joined the party!

Instant pals!

Liam would be happy if we adopted Woody into our family. Because all of our family portraits would look like this!

school photos

2010-11-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

when i ask him who is that in the photos i get "giggle giggle - awwweee!!"

i couldn't agree more!

happy weekend and TGIF!

meet the cast...

2010-11-02T20:51:00.000-07:00

Halloween...it's over!
it was a whirlwind around ourhouse. PARTY PARTY PARTY! I love it. Isn't this what it should be like? No wonder October is my FAVORITE MONTH!
We partied. We played. We had FUN. FUN. FUN.!
We took 5 billion photos!
Here are a few - no photoshop - SOOC. too many photos to edit. ALL FUN!
Come and meet the characters that made our Halloween this year the BEST EVER!

From left to right: Grammy M, Daddy, Mama, Liam-Lakerbiy, Gramma D.

Liam the Laker-boy and Ms. Amy a.k.a. Madame butterfly (LOVE HER)

The Laker Boy - this was his costume of choice. he wants to wear his "laker shirt" and "laker shorts" EVERY DAY. oh and Laker Shoes TOO!!! have we created a monster?

Ms. Danielle - a.k.a. "Ms. Anielle" - or Ms. Butterfly. Liam adores this girl, she is the SWEETEST! LOVE HER.

BUZZ! He loves Buzz, and we totally thought this would be the costume of choice. He wore this exactly three minutes while he opened and ate Ms. Amy's sweet Halloween treat that was nestled in his "pack pack"

"too cool for school - i don't need no stinking costome" boy. LOVE my "popsickle" which is a dum-dum - his favorite halloween treat.

Daddy, Liam and the Storm Trooper.

Master Carver - Daddy! And "punkin-guts"!

"Grammy-M" the "Cleanest and MOST exact pumpkin carver you ever did meet!

SHAAAARK ATTACK! we bought this costume on clearance at Old Navy... it ALMOST fits this year. Kurt persuaded Liam to wear this for the mock trick-or-treat we did upstairs the night before Halloween. We tried to get him used to the process, and teach him to say thank you, and only knock on doors with the lights ON.

Mama. Reading the Halloween At The Zoo book to her Lima-Shark! Orange Stripeys and all! This book, by the way - is AWESOME..if you don't have it... BUY IT!

THE MUMMY! He wore these awesome Mummy Pj's from TJ Maxx at the Melissa Green concert at Americana at Brand on Halloween with good friends The Levy's!

Oh LOOK! the jack-o-lantern cast!
From left to right:

Traditional Happy Jack-o-Lantern by Grammy M and Daddy
Monkey Skull - by Mommy

Tato - by Liam
Farmer Baby - by Liam
"Liam" - by Gramma D.

"AAAAARGH" Pirate.

Gramma D - and the fist bump... eating a "sketti" lunch.

YAAAAAAAAY HALLOWEEN!

when it rains...

2010-10-25T10:04:00.000-07:00

IT doesn't rain very often around here... but we have had a little spell of wet weather over the past week of so. Over the weekend - a funny thing happened. Liam picked out his own outfit - which in itself isn't odd... he likes to choose what he wears these days. What is funny, is that he put this fabulous look together including the rain boots... the boots have been in his shoe basket since mid summer, and he has never shown much interest in them, and has never asked to wear them before. Mysteriously - no other shoe would do on this rainy day.

Quite a sense of style this little man has. Afterall... he is his father's son!
Some other observations about this shot... yes - tha is a trader joes sticker on his cheek. He left it on ALL day - and yep - it left a mark. He has a golf ball in one hand - and some Dia De Los Muertos postcard in his other hand (we got that one from the pumpkin festival, and today, he didn't want to let it go???)

Just as cute from the back!

very concerned about his "punkin bucket"

"these boots are hard to walk in!"

Another fun rainy day activity... FORTS! Daddy helped build Liam this really cool fort. He had two entrances, a pitched roof, a lantern to light it up - and it was stocked with snacks. He played in here for hours! (The dogs liked it too - especially the snacks!)

Welcome to my fort!

I think he secretly (or not so secretly) wishes for more rainy days!

punkin' fest

2010-10-22T10:16:00.000-07:00

The Calabasas Pumpkin festival was last weekend! We love this event - it is so much fun, and every year - it becomes a little more age-appropriate for Liam... this year was great! It was great because Liam is REALLY into pumpkins - and because the weather was perfect... a little cool - but shouldn't it be a little cool at a FALL festival? Last year when we went - it was over 100 degrees... WAY too hot! Speaking of the year after year thing... something crazy hit me when we went to the festival this year.. It was Liam's THIRD time to the same event. THREE years in a row! Doesn't that make him sound like a kid and NOT a baby? Seriously... THREE years in a row. wow. Sometimes I just want to stop the clock, make it slow down and just enjoy every moment again and again. When they say "these are the days"... I think they are talking about THESE days.... these precious fleeting days of childhood.
slow it down already!

here are the links to pumpkin fest years ONE and TWO... look how much Liam has grown! Oh... and the last two years happened to fall on the 19th of the month... so the blog posts were dedicated to his monthly bday - which I haven't done since he turned two. It just seems like at two - you stop counting the months... maybe i should start it up again?

Liam loved this punkin-man. We could see him from the table we were eating lunch at. At one point the punkin-man had to take a break and Liam became very concerned about where he went. We told him that punkin-man had to take a nap.... which seemed to pacify his curiosity. Needless to say, the minute punkin-man came back out - he rushed to go get a photo with him!

Kurt just LOVES his boy, and the feeling is mutual. Liam LOVES him some Daddy! - and now that Liam is getting a little older - they are really having a blast together!

See... he REALLY is into pumpkins! Here he is kissing one!

I hope I never forget this little smile.
Meeting a bat!

ham

2010-10-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

the video below is the kind of video that only a mother or a grandmother could love. its about 45 million (ok 24) photos of liam. just liam in the same spot. just making silly faces. some of the faces are almost exactly the same from frame to frame, and most are slightly (or more than slightly) out of focus... but i had to put them ALL in. we were at the pumpkin festival of calabasas yesterday and while eating lunch, he was in a silly mood and was making funny faces.

speaking of just 24 shots... can you remember the days of film... where 24 was an ENTIRE roll. and each shot was strategically set up - and everyone had to count to three... look at the camera and be sure to say "cheese"! and it was so expensive to develop and print that you MIGHT just maybe process 3-4 rolls a year? wow, how times have changed. at any given event, i could easily snap of hundreds of shots... and maybe, just maybe there are a couple of keepers. thank god for technology! back in the days of 24 shots per roll... i don't think a shot like this would have been possible!

or any from this set!

resting peacefully together

2010-10-15T13:58:00.000-07:00

The main reason for the trip to South Bend was not to see Notre Dame play Stanford, and it wasn't to visit Cory Lake, and it certainly wasn't to take a trip to the ER in Granger Indiana... it was to fullfill Kurt's Grandfathers wishes of returning to his "home" in South Bend, IN to be laid to rest by the side of his wife Alice who had died 15 years prior to Grandpas passing earlier this year. Kurt's grandfather was nearly 103 years young when we went to be with Jesus and Kurt's Grandmother. He led a long prosperous life as a tool and die maker - working for Studebaker and even Mattel! His wife was a home maker and care taker. Together they had two girls - Arlene and Helen who each had two children. Kurt's grandpa came to America from Germany - and arrived on US soil October 8th 1926 (i am not exactly sure of the year - but know the day very well).

Here is a photo of William and Alice Finkenbrink on their wedding day.

And here they are together again after all these years... together eternally. I sure hope they are having a great time re-connecting and making up for lost time.

There was a lovely service right here in the spot where they were laid to rest. The pastor was wonderful and the words she said were touching and comforting.

Liam was very busy during the service. Luckily we had some extra arms - Auntie Sherri! Liam kept her busy playing with her keys - and checking out all of the tractors that were in the area.

I thought this was a sweet moment, just after the service wrapped up. Helen and Arlene... the two daughters of William and Alice as they shared a hug and probably some memories of their childhood together with their mom and dad.

I haven't been to a lot of memorial services or funerals - but haven't seen this being done before. They brought out some dirt and asked if anyone would like to take a shovel and put some in the hole. Here is Elaine, Diane and Scott.

The grandsons...

We went back to visit a few days after the memorial service. I love this photo of Arlene. She has the perfect expression on her face. Proud and Strong.

This tree will keep the resting spot company. It was the prettiest tree in the park. And was one of the only ones that was starting to change colors - as if to say "I'm ready for you... welcome home"... I will stay here and stand strong to protect you.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you asthe world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

Notre Dame

2010-10-05T14:40:00.001-07:00

After a short break from blogging - I am back with some travel stories. There has been a lot of travel in the last month, so I am likely to forget some things - but I will start with our trip last week to South Bend, IN. Since, this trip was eventful, I am going to break it down into some parts. The first part would be our time spent on the Notre Dame campus. Kurt has always talked about Notre Dame with affection and I never quite understood what the admiration stemmed from until I stepped foot on campus on a game day! First, let me start out by saying that EVERYONE in town is a ND fan... The girls at McDonald's ALL wore ND garb - as did seemingly every person you passed on the street (especially on game day).

Here are some photos of game day.

We rented a Sienna Mini Van while we were there - mostly becuase I am completely obsessed with the awesome marketing of the swagger wagon! And actually, it wasn't half bad for a mini-van. Liam loved it the most - and kept himself entertained during tailgate time!

So did the rest of the gang.. and BEER - the breakfast of champions! What you can't see in this photo is that they are all watching the movie RUDY - the screen is behind Scott. If you haven't seen "Rudy" - watch it (that is unless you don't feel like crying today).

Liam got a lucky ND Shamrock painted on his face, and enjoyed a little Capri-Sun that we bought on campus.
Grammy M, Liam and Daddy posing next to the Knute Rockney statue.

Kurt and the most awesome Sister in Law in the world!

Lima Bean and Uncle Scott (yes.. the BEST Brother in Law in the world)

Proud Papa and his boy strolling campus. Maybe one day Liam will go here and play for the Irish? (Sounds good... but awfully far away!)

The charming couple.

Kurt and his mama - they have this same photo taken nearly ten years ago!

Uncle Scott was teaching Liam how to feed the swans... The swan was very interested in Scott's fingers!

"no smiling"

Grammy M bought Liam a lucky leprechaun at the ND bookstore (which by the way was the most crowded bookstore I have EVER seen. I could stand to be in there about 12 seconds before I planned a speedy escape).

Too tired to stay and watch the football game - which was ok by me.
- ND got crushed
- Liam had a nice and much needed nap
- Sherri and I got some much needed sister time

- Arlene and her boys got some much neeed family time

- we did more than just hang out on campus while we were there... more about Cory Lake, The Finkenbrink memorial, Liam's trip to urgent care and the house Grammy M grew up in (and Great Grandpa built brick by brick soon).

there's' no place like home...

2010-09-27T20:21:00.000-07:00

back from three weeks of hopping on and off of planes every 4-5 days or so.

lots of progress.

lots of work.

lots of fun.

lots of smiles, tears, hugs, conversations, friends, family.... and all that comes with travel.

at the end of THIS day.

we are HAPPY to be home.

travel stories to come.

really. they are.

for now.

bed.

that's all.

becoming friends

2010-09-21T21:08:00.001-07:00

After one of the worst weekends I have had in a long time, a breath of fresh air walked into our house tonight! Ariana and Jasper of Becoming Mom came to visit! Ariana, who I now totally feel comfortable calling my "good friend" and her family are visiting from New York and took some time away from their family vacation to visit Liam and I. We were planning on getting all of the family together, but at the last minute, Kurt had to take a meeting in Seattle and was sad to not get to meet Ari's hubby Jeff... but the girls and baby boys had fun! (And we are planning a NY trip in November to visit them).

Ari and I began our online friendship back on the message boards on "The Bump" when we were pregnant - swapping stories of awesome baby products and sharing pregnancy woes... then later reconnected after Liam and Jasper were born on the same day. (Swapping newborn stories and lack of sleep woes). We have been in communication on the web living bizarro parallel lives ever since.

Tonight we met face to face... which might seem odd - but it felt like old pals.

The boys played guitar together, watched a little "Toy Story" together.. Liam taught Jasper all about Buzz and Woody, and Jasper displayed excellent sharing skills (Liam on the other hand wasn't very into sharing... he is working on that!")

The boys ate a semi-balanced dinner of KRAFT mac and cheese (I don't think Jasper's tummy or tongue had ever experienced the flourescent orange cheesy coating which only comes in the Kraft blue box - or easy mac packet), grapes, veggie snacks, cheese, crackers and milk. Ariana and I noshed on Presecco and Salad w/ some snacky snacks. (btw Jeff - excellent choice on the Prosecco - delicious and lovely label!)

Liam was a little cranky - but they got through it and together the boys had a lot of fun moments of laughter. We were so so happy they came to visit. I unfortunately did not take many or good photos... (When Ari brought out her big powerful equipment, i just kind of forgot to grab a camera!) But there were a couple of cute moments where I did click a few frames off... the lighting is bad - and the shots are blurry - but the moment was super cute. Ariana and the fam had gone to Universal Studios earlier in the day and met Curious George (both the boys favorite) so they were reviewing the shots of George together on her camera... so cute:)

Liam pointing out George and Jasper in the screen display.

I need to edit this one a little bit - this is SOOC... but what a perfect moment. Photographer mommy taking a moment out to kiss her baby - still with her massive impressive equipment in hand!

napa 4.0 a whole lotta photos!

2010-09-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

We're back... from the 4th "almost" annual trip to Napa.
We had a great time again.
Stayed at the Villa Palma again.
Drank lots of wine again.
But did a few things differently this year :)
This year was the photo year. Since last year - everyone had upgraded their equipment. Clare got a Rebel Xs and is loving it... Tonya got a great Nikon... and Char (the newbie) had a really cool Lumix point and shoot. (I still have the same camera, but upgraded my lens.)

We had a little shutterfly website that we built last year - so we added all of our photos again this year... so far we have like 415 photos up there!

Here are a handful :)

I love the feet kicked up on the wine barrel in this shot! It's at V. Sattui winery.

The girls... this is at Bennett Lane Winery. We got lucky and found two guys who were there taking photos for the winery's website... they had insane cameras and were rocking the "L" lenses... it was pretty funny because they were all "do you mind if we change your settings"... they were probably laughing because us "amateurs" are shooting in AV... when I got it back... it was in "M"!!! (which I am way too scared to shoot in!!)

Char took this one - its is Clare, Me, Tonya at Chateau Montelena. This is the winery that put Napa on the map by winning some big wine competition in Paris in 1976 for their 1973 Chardonnay. (See the movie "Bottle Shock"... it tells the whole story) This place is stunning!

Char - at the Chateau. She's a teeny little thing!

Tonya at Summer Estate winery... if only she didn't have a smudge on her lense - this would have been a GREAT shot. Look at the landscape in the reflection of her fancy gold shades!

This little dude was hanging outside of Markham winery.
He had more personality than the staff there.

Beautiful Clare - at V. Sattui.

200 of the 415 photos are probably of this fountain.
One because it attracts lots of awesome birds,
Two because we didn't have to move from the porch to shoot it and
Three... it was beautiful.

I think this has to win the prize for best fountain/bird shot though. Its totally a staredown for the top spot on the fountain.

Appetizers! The tomatoes are from the owner of the Villa's garden. They were waiting for us on Saturday night when we returned from tasting.

There are lots of gorgeous iron gates on the property. This one encloses the driveway.

There are those yummy tomatoes again... they arrived in a Dean and Deluca bag..
which made them even more luxurious.

We were the first to taste this Cab. at Mid Summer Cellars.. "Rollie" the winemaker used the "thief" to steal a taste right from the barrel. It was a VERY cool experience (minus the "Real Hosuewives of Chicago that showed up and crashed our private tasting).
Rollie's wine wins for the best wine - we bought his 2007 Canon Creek Cabernet Sauvignon to sip along with the ridiculous rib eye steaks that Tonya grilled on our last night there.

napa bound!

2010-09-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

leaving.

soon.

for.

napa.

with the girls....

click here to see last years adventures.

stories to come.

it's liam and daddy against the world all weekend long!
wish us all luck!

nap notes - a wonderful helper!

2010-09-08T09:14:00.001-07:00

One of the great things about Liam's new preschool is that I get a cute little report that they call "nap notes" sent home in his backpack every day. SO far, all of his reports have been good and said things like "Liam listened very well today"... they also tell you if they napped well that day, need diapers/ wipes or a change of clothes on hand to be replenished.

Yesterday's note looked like this :) Kurt and I were proud of Liam and can't wait for him to bring some of those wonderful helper skills home with him!!

california kids

2010-09-03T12:37:00.001-07:00

Have you ever opened up a catalog for kids board shorts and swimsuits and thought... now, that BLONDE haired, BLUE eyed child, IS THE quintessential California kid? That is EXACTLY what these two (well three counting Liam) little pro-surfers in the making are!

Meet Carly and Bryce. They are the most outgoing, fun, energetic, sweet, little kids you have ever met. They belong to our good friend Tobi and Bob who live in San Diego. (we wish they were closer) They came to visit us on Liam's birthday when we were on vacation... they brought presents and smiles with them.

They left an impression on Liam... ever since we have been home, he has been talking about them, and has to show me the picture that Bryce drew for him almost daily!

They had fun playing in the boat! I think Liam could pass for a sibling.

How gorgeous is miss Carly? She had spent the week at surf camp learning to shred the waves!

Meet Bryce... at just 5 years old - he is a professional skateboarder... He went pro when he was just three! see for yourself... click HERE
oh.. and you know this one... Lima Bean... he is a little more aprehensive about the ocean. He'll learn.

brotherly/sisterly love!

First Day of Preschool!

2010-09-01T09:46:00.000-07:00

Today is Liam's very FIRST day of preschool!
WOW!
When Daddy asked him how he felt about goint to school this morning, he said "excited"... and I think he really was. We attended a little meet and greet last night and he got to see his classroom and meet the teacher and just play... he couldn't stop talking about all of the things that he saw there all last night and this morning.

These were the things he was saying:
Liam: Mommy, Wags... Wags the dog at school
Me: Yes, Liam, there is a BIG doggie on the door at your school
Liam: Mommy... Thomas at school
Me: Yes, Liam, there is a Thomas the train table at your school
Liam: Mommy... Car, Bike, Penguin
Me: Yes, Liam, You drove the car and rode the bike outside at the playground at your school... and you saw a penguin on the wall... very good for remembering!
Liam: Mommy... puzzle, crayon, Wags... apple cubby!
Me: Good job remembering Liam, you are right - ALL of those things are at your school!

SO - this goes on for an hour last night and all morning today.

Anyway... we arrived at Cornerstone at about 10 minutes until 9:00 am this morning. Liam was one of the first to arrive in his class - we arrived at the same time as his good friend Tye and Tye's Daddy - Mike. We think Liam and "Sadie" will become good friends - she is very cute and her parents are sweet.

His teacher is Ms. Amy, and she must be the most patient woman alive - and adorable to boot.

It went great - no tears. No tears from Liam OR from Mommy! Can't wait to hear about his day!!!

Daddy and Liam in front of the school - it is in a really cool historic building... spanish style that has been completely rennovated and is very clean and nice on the inside.

very secure... a gate on the outside that surrounds the front patio, then another security system at a secondary door, they also have lots of cameras around... i guess there are a few celebs kids that go here... we might have met a certain laker and his wife and kids this morning... just maybe. ;) oh - and that is mike and tye :) they were nice enough to wait for us as we took photos this morning!
the BIG doggie by his classroom :) he was very excited about that!

checking in

Liam's Apple Cubby... see all of that paperwork in his cubby... that was for us. We forgot and left it all there - oops, will pick it up when we go back this afternoon to pick him up. Hope it wasn't too important.

They are WILD about books at his school, they are everywhere, there is even a library where they have time with a librarian a couple of times a week!

I think this is going to be wonderful for Liam!

red velvet cake batter.... kinda creepy.

2010-08-29T20:15:00.000-07:00

it started out very very clean.

clean paper cups.

clean muffin tin.

liam was very clean and did a great job putting each paper liner in each hole. in fact - what spurred the spontaneous RED VELVET cupcake fest was that he found the muffin tins and brought them out and said "COOKIE". so i gave him some paper liners just for fun... to see if he could do it. And he could. he filled 24 holes... perfectly. how could i not help him finish the job?

the only box of cake mix i had in the house was red velvet. (the emphasis on the RED)

the red is kind of creepy.

see what i mean?

and he looks a bit sneaky...

like he is up to something.

see what i mean?

the kitchen was a mess. it looked like a crime scene. but - he was happy.

we were all happy.

and now we have 24 red velvet cupcakes to eat!

green car, flag truck and a postcard

2010-08-27T17:21:00.000-07:00

VERY RANDOM post today... but a few tiny things happened today that I don't want to forget.

I just got home from picking up Liam at Gail's.
On the way home he said "GREEN CAR" "GREEN CAR" "GREEN CAR"... and i didn't think much of it until i looked around, and next to me was a bright green mustang. wow. I mean, I know we work on colors, and he might associate green with preschool things like grass and frogs... but a car... really? And NOT when we are working on colors?
hmmm... i had to test it.
So we pulled into a parking lot where a big semi truck was, and i said "Liam, what color is the truck" and he said "Flag".... it was red white and blue... he was right!
smart little boy!

which leads me to "postcard"... he got one today. From his teacher. His TEACHER! He is starting school next week! Her name is Ms. Amy and she said that she can't wait to see Liam and that his school year is going to be fun and exciting.

We can't wait!

TGIF!

Happy 2nd Birthday Liam!

2010-08-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Happy 2nd birthday Liam!!!
Somewhere around mid August of 2008... in a sleep deprived fog, I closed my eyes... I opened them sometime around August 19th 2010 and I am amazed at how my life has changed. BUT, this isn't about ME... this is about YOU.... Limabean, you are TWO!
Two years amazing.
Two years delicious.
Two years curious.
Two years fearless.
Two years outrageous and energetic and tireless.
AND TWO YEARS YOU!
We MADE IT Liam. Past the sleepless nights, past the breast feeding, past the mommy and me groups. Past the bottles and baby food, the exersaucer, the bibs, the Mylecon, the infant seat carrier, the spitups and learning how to walk.
Past the first, second, third, fourth and beyond airplane rides... past the infinite Dr's appts. and vaccinations. The swaddling baby burritos. the teeting, the BABY phase... and LOOK. You are a boy. Just LOOK at how far we've come.
YOU ARE TWO.
You are a total stud. The coolest kid we know. The coolest kid MOST people know. You are endearing and sweet and personable and just a pleasure. YOU can TALK - I mean seriously Liam, we COMMUNICATE! You can tell me when you are hot, cold, tired, hungry, happy, hurt, bored or whatever... we CHAT. We watch movies together, we have a LOT OF FUN together. This doesn't mean that you don't frustrate me from time to time, because lord knows... YOU DO, and clearly, you get frustrated too. This frustration appears in bouts of tantrums, yelling, lots of NOOOOOO's, and sometimes even hitting mama. I KNOW, Liam, that this is just because you don't quite know how to handle your feelings yet... I get it. It's ok. You are learing. You will never STOP learning, I am still learining... and its O.K.!
You are SWEET (did i mention you are sweet) , cautions, careful, empathetic - yet lively, full of spirit and joy.
You love to color, and I LOVE that you know that you ONLY color on paper (or "pee-per" as you call it). You love to swim and play and RUN. YOU LOVE LOVE LOVE MOVIES... I am amazed that you can sit through a WHOLE Disney Pixar film. Your favorite movies are:
CARS - you know ALL the names of ALL the cars
TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2 - You adore BUZZ and have a crush on JESSIE. You have a Mr. potato head which you call "TATO" and you are very skillful at putting all the parts in all the right places (most of the time.)
NEMO - you LOVE Nemo, Nemo's Daddy AND Dorrie
MONSTERS INC - you try so hard to say "Wazowski"

You are our joy, our love, our life.

We love you sweet angel.

xoxo

Happy Birthday 2 year old big boy.

Love,
Mama and Daddy

watching Nemo

opening up his bday gift of the WHOLE TATO FAMILY

HAPPY 2nd bday Cake. They spelled his name wrong, so we had to do a bit of a recovery mission on the cake.

Sheer joy in seeing his candles and his cake (this is the 2nd of the cakes!)
cake is even better for breakfast the next day!

Liam climbed 81 steps on his birthday morning! He looks pretty happy about it!!

2 year stats.

2010-08-23T17:36:00.000-07:00

height 36 inches
weight 30 lbs

85th percentile for both

happy and healthy little 2 year old!

the dr. did mention that liam has a slight heart murmur, but said this is nothing to be concerned about - just something to note and watch.

he did great at the dr. and only cried because he didn't want to take his clothes off... other than that, he was cooperative w/ the doc. and an overall star patient!

back to reality...

2010-08-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

i barely turned on a computer the entire time we were on vacation. i think the fact that the resort charges $15.00 per day for internet access had a little to do with it, but i am glad i stayed fairly "unconnected". the only problem is that now i have a TON to catch up on... oh well, everything good must end...

today is the first day back to work.

also, Liam has his 2 year dr's appt at 10:00 - and is going back to Gail's for some temporary daycare until preschool starts on Sept. 1st.

this week i will catch up on a post about Liam's 2nd bday - year 2 stats - and the big vacation to San Diego.

images lost...

2010-08-16T08:23:00.000-07:00

last night we celebrated Liam's 2nd bday with his grandma M. it was pretty fun - we unveiled the BIG bday gift (which he LOOOVED), he got a really cool Thomas the train from gramma which he also LOVED, we ate cake. Liam was so awesome with the cake and kept saying "my birfday".
we took about 200 photos.
we LOST about 200 photos.

wtf?

what happened?

i took the memory card out of the camera and insert it into my computer to pick and choose the ones i liked (like i have done thousands of times before).. but THIS time. NOTHING.. no photos from 08.15.2010.... the last set was the moon photos from a couple of days ago.. WHERE DID THEY GO? they disappeared between camera and computer.

has this ever happened to you?
suggestions on retrieving them?
is the memory card bad?

i was sick about it all night. some of the shots were priceless....

i guess the silver lining is that his ACTUAL bday isn't until later this week... so, we can have a "re-do".... but still...

aarrrgghh.

there she goes...

2010-08-14T08:10:00.001-07:00

...there she goes again....
OFF TO COLLEGE!

Tiff's last day with us was yeserday - Friday the 13th. As much as I am going to miss her, I am so proud of her - as she is off to college in San Luis Obispo (one of my FAVORITE towns ever). She has been such a blessing in our life - making my life easier day by day - and enriching Liam's little life in every way. She was so cute on her last week... she wanted to do something fun with him every day...
so this past week they: went to the water park, fed the ducks, went to the farm, went to the indoor kid gym, took lots of walks AND she brought him "Toy Story 2" DVD for his bday!! She also left an unbelievably sweet note for Kurt and I! What a lucky kid Liam is.. and I am a lucky mom to have snatched up this amazing opportunity to have this gorgeous girl for 6 weeks this summer... the fastest 6 weeks ever!

It is a good thing we are going on vacation this week, because I don't think Liam will understand why "his" Tiff wont be knocking on the door bright and early every morning.

Good luck Tiff! We love you.

Tiff and Liam at the Farm - he is feeding the goats... his fave!

note to self...

2010-08-09T09:53:00.000-07:00

time is fleeting and memory fades...
kurt and i were chatting with pastor steve at church yesterday (he is the wonderful man who married us and leads the sheparding team at our church) he was telling us some funny family stories and things his kids used to say - and he was saying that they had waited too long to write certain things down that they wish they could remember... everyday things. like that his kids called the pacifier an "ucky-doo"... or that his daughter was petrified that she would go right down the drain with the bath water. things like that.

so - here are a few, that i don't want to forget about Liam.

- he calls his pacifier "tar"... we have NO idea how he came up with that one!
- he says "sure" when he means "yes"... its so cute, and gives him that carefree laid back persona
- he loves to jump... he counts... 1....2.....JUMP. he never tires of this.
- his favorite foods right now are hot dogs (which he used to call "hawks" but now can say "hot dog") and oatmeal - which he still calls "oh-meeeel"
- his favorite movies are toy story (a story) cars (he calls lightning mcqueen "stickers") and nemo (which he calls Neemu)
- he is beginning to say things like "tank u" and "i sorry" which melts my heart
- he loves going in the pool - even when its freezing. we will heat up the hot tub a little to bring him in, and he says "i want the BIG water" which means he wants to go in the pool...

these are just small little everyday things - that i hope i never forget.

date night

2010-08-01T20:06:00.000-07:00

it's not the kind of date night you might think...
my date, he isn't my husband.
my date... he isn't even two years old yet...
my date... was great.
he was perfect, and charming... he didn't hold the door open for me, but he made me smile... at least a million times a minute.

meet my date Liam. he took me to see my favorite band, the wiggles. how did he know they were my favorite?

he kind of liked them too...

this is what his eyes looked like all night long.
isn't he dreamy?

this is his buddy Sam... we had to say hello.

after the show, he even bought me a DVD - so we can watch the Wiggles together anytime we want.

isn't he a peach?

i don't think kurt would mind... do you?

a snippet from the show...
"i hope you've all enjoyed the show... and now it's time for us to go"

tractor tongue

2010-08-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Where, you might ask did we go to find these pint sized tractors? Where else, but Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark. I hadn't been there except for last fall when we went to their huge and popular harvest festival that happens every year. So, when Tiffany and Tom along with twins Nate and Abby suggested we go yesterday, Liam and I jumped on the chance. And we are so glad we did... it was a totally different experience and going there when the weather was pleasant and the crowds were manageable was a treat (well going anywhere w/ T,T and the twins is a treat) ! Plus the kidd-o's are a little older now- and really got into the activities... Liam loved climbing on all of the tractors (of course) he even poached farmer Freddies REAL tractor when we were out in the field picking raspberries and tomatoes. Freddie was a good sport about it :)
Along with any good farm come farm animals... here at Underwood they have Emu's, Pigs, Chickens, Ponies and Goats... Liam loved the goats... they were so funny. He especially enjoyed feeding them, you could buy goat feed and feed them through these feed tubes. We bought two rounds of food and Liam wanted "MORE MORE MORE"... and he (and I ) were amazed that the goats walked the high beam high above the farm with fierce strut of a supermodel. I didn't take a whole bunch of photos because lugging around a big camera at a dusty farm + chasing after a running toddler isn't an equation that is super successful!

There is something about a tractor that brings out the tongue of a toddler - check out these pics of Liam, Nate and Abby - as their determination abounds, their tractor driving skills flourish.

Liam-tongue

Nate-tongue
Abby-tongue

a few moments

2010-07-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

we just got home from a few days spent w/ family and good friends in oregon.
the weather was great, and we had a blast.
liam was less than an angel on the flight out... he was "THAT" kid for the first 15-20 minutes of the flight when he yelled "OUUUUT" or "DOOOOWNNN" at the top of his lungs... it was awesome. i was glad that we were able to somehow distract him for the rest of the flight.. but it was exhausting... luckily the return flight went MUCH smoother.

speaking of exhausting... i am exhausted tonight... so just a few teeny moments of the fun filled weekend.. more this week...

gramma and liam ride the carousel at the salem waterfront

liam rides daddi-o's shoulders on the morning walk to get the newspaper

getting the paper (liam calls it the papierre - he thinks he is french).. i thought this picture was cute... liam was saying hi to a neigbor dog (dough-gie) as doting gramma and grampa beam on.

cousin alex was sweet enough to share his "raging waters" with liam during the visit at great-gran and great-gramp's house.

cute brother mikey and his lovely girlfriend christina

ladies man

2010-07-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

Meet Tiffany... or "Tiff" as Liam calls her. She is our summer nanny! Yes... Nanny - we have a nanny albeit temporary... she is awesome. Our regular daycare provider (Gail) retired July 1... which left us without daycare for the summer.. as Liam will start preschool Sept. 1. Tiffany has been the lead babysitter during our small groups, and we just love her... lucky for us, she was looking for a temporary summer gig before she heads off to College in San Luis Obispo. Win - Win! We absolutely love having her around... more importanly... Liam adores her.

Today was Tiffany's birthday, and she asked if she and her friends could take Liam to the Santa Barbara Zoo... we said "sure" and they were off this morning. Here they are in front of the Lion's Den.

Did I mention that Tiff is super duper cute, and so are her friends... look at Lucky Little Liam!

a short little video - they got to feed the giraffe, you can kind of hear Liam saying graffff

splash pad

2010-07-11T13:51:00.000-07:00

We live just a few minutes away from a really cool park. A big park with lots of hiking trails, a dog park, a duck pond... and our favorite new activity... the SPLASH PAD! We took Liam here last year - but he wasn't really walking well enough to have a blast. What a difference a year makes. Today the weather is in the 80's not too hot, not too cold... but just perfect to get a little wet outside. Liam was in need of something to DO... so I took him this morning. We sat on the sidelines for a good 20 minutes while he watched the kids run and squeal and laugh and get absolutely drenched. I honestly didn't think he was going to get wet. He would barely get a finger wet... then I started getting wet... then he followed suit. He got upset when his clothes were getting wet - so he wanted to take them off... good thing I had a swimmy diaper. So - he stripped down... and after he got his feet a little wet - there was no stopping him. He was a natural... he had SOOO much fun. Just a few shots. His face says it all.
I have a feeling we will be stopping by this park regularly this summer!

happy little water boy

just one of the kids...
he was the littlest one there - but it was cool because all of the big kids were very sweet to him.

splash!

wheeeee!

... and he was running!

cute-daddio's

2010-07-09T18:37:00.000-07:00

Kurt's good friend Brad and his two lovely daughters are visiting from Boise Idaho this week. Today was a special treat for the whole family. Brad's dad "Saul" owns Cali Camp which is an amazing summer camp for kids in Old Topanga that has been around longer than 50 years! This place is indescribable... acres and acres of native california landscape with all the fun things... swimming, horses, zip line, mini golf, tumbling, fishing, acting and dancing - arts and crafts... you name it! You need to be at least 4 to sign up for summer sessions... but we were lucky enough to get invited for lunch today. After lunch we were able to play a little mini golf with the kiddos.

The Daddy's even turn into little kids when they step on the property... the camp slogan is "It's a GREAT day at Cali Camp now that YOU have arrived!"
And it was!

How cute are Brad and Kurt teaching the babies how to play?

Brad is really getting into it - he is even wearing Brooke's red camp back pack.

Kurt is giving Liam a pep talk before the big shot.

...and setting him up for major sucess while Abby looks on.

All the kids have their own special "form" - here is Liam's style. Looks to me like he might have inherited Great Gran's shuffle board skills.

Brookie looks cute on the sidelines.

Liam is a little unsure of the INDIAN man.

Good friends playing together.

Brookie is a little-mommy and loves taking care of Liam.

BEE STING!!!

2010-07-02T20:37:00.000-07:00

Sweet boy stepped on a bee tonight!
We were playing in the pool, he climbed out to get a towel, and all of the sudden started yelling "hurt hurt FOOT HURT HURT HURT!!!" We thought he stubbed his toe, but when he didn't let up, i went over to pick him up, and sure enough a bee fell off of his foot and was buzzing in circles on the ground... errrrrr!!!

so - he cried for about 20 seconds, and calmed down enough for me to explain what had happened - we whipped up some baking soda and water mixture to put on, and he was more concerned about the "mess" of the mixture on his foot than the "hurt"....

he was a trooper - his foot is a little swollen - but all of the rest of him is ok... we gave him a drop of childrens benadryl before he went to bed... so, we'll see how it goes.

updates to come.

any awesome bee sting advice to share???

my other life...

2010-07-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

I am finally home!
Back from my other life... that one where I work... and set up restaurants and try to grow revenues based on increasing participation, raising check averages and train on the importance of merchandising - the one where i attend LOTS and LOTS of meetings oh yes, and there is that ever present calculation that discusses variable and fixed costs... break even points and contribution margins... (are you bored yet?) So - I am so glad to be home - but i will say, I work for a great company. A company that believes that food is life, that breaking bread together creates community... and that investing in your community is one of the most important darned things that you can do. So - one night, our VP of communications opened up her home to all of us to spend a night of cooking together... we shopped at her local market and were broken into teams (hors d'oeuvres, appeys, entree, dessert) and given 30 minutes to shop (top chef style). she also has a wood burning pizza oven in her back yard - so her husband cooked up some amazing pies while we were in motion.

the menu ended up something like this:

hors'doeuvres:

-home made tortilla chips with fresh guacamole, pico de gallo and lime sour cream.

-grilled cheese quesadillas

-smoked portabello mushroom quesadillas

salad

-local greens with point reyes blue cheese, red onion, strawberries and a white balsamic/honey-dijon vinaigrette

entrees

-grilled citrus and white balsamic halibut served on braised curry fennel (this description doesn't cleary explain this dish)

-red wine marinated flank steak with an onion balsamic reduction topped with fresh herbs

desserts

-gourmet smores bar with home made gluten-free graham crackers

-strawberry rhubarb cobbler with lavender whipped cream

-apricot - white chocolate cookies

-gluten free grilled peach crisp

the pizzas ranged from classic margherita to gorgozola, and walnut with mushrooms etc.

we ate... for hours....

although the food was delish... i am so blessed to be getting back to regular life with liam and kurt.

looking forward to a GREAT HOLIDAY WEEKEND!!!

dancey dance

2010-06-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

I am touching down at home just long enough to have one nights sleep in my own wonderful bed, and to share one sweet morning with my boys.

And to see Liam do his animal dancey dance!

Happy 22 months Liam! Happy Father's Day Daddy!

2010-06-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

Happy 22 months Lima Bean!
Well, it makes sense that you would be awesome at being 22 months old, because your favorite number is two! Whenever you ask for something, you usually want TWO of said item. Probably because you know you get two bears (vitamins)... and when we count one....TWO.... three..... something good usually comes at the end of the counting - like SLIDING down the slide, or JUMPING in the pool, or a big PUSH on the swing.

I started writing down all of the words you say - I even started entering them into an excel spreadsheet. I swore that I would take the time to enter the new words as you said them... but i failed - rather you flourished... you say entirely too many words for me to record... when i realized that my efforts would be futile, you were over 125 words... you must be close to 200 by now. you are SO very smart!

This weekend was really fun! On Saturday we went to a local event called "touch a truck" which was great because you are really OBSESSED with trucks. It was a big FREE event where they brought in tons of trucks and the kids could climb on them, honk to horns, push the buttons, etc. etc. there were police vehicles, fire engines, cement mixers, military vehicles, boats, a helicopter, dump trucks, UPS trucks - you name it, it was there. we had no idea just how many trucks would be there! Your favorite by far was the K9 search and rescue unit. You got to meet the dogs who find people when there has been a disaster. They gave you a baseball type card with a photo of your favorite dog, and his stats. It has been in your hand for the past two days! You do love dogs!

For Father's Day, you spent the whole day with your daddy. You went to church and then played in the pool at home, and your grandma Arlene came to visit. What a great weekend!

Looking forward you your double deuces month!

Love you!
mama

We took a lot of pics a the event :) enjoy!

the lake show... and mini bean bryant

2010-06-18T09:52:00.001-07:00

there was a little game on tv last night called game 7 of the NBA finals.
there were two little teams playing named the celtics and the lakers.
the celtics wore green, the lakers wore purple and yellow.
because the purple and yellow team won... there was peace in the menslage house!

a couple other things were affected due to the game... my commute home from work was nearly THREE hours (that sucked)... and the L.A. fans rioted the streets and set cars on fire. what is up with L.A.? the lakers win... they riot... the lakers lose... they riot. *sigh*

liam has been REALLY into basketball lately. on our morning walks he points out every single basketball hoop. and says "bask. ball oooop"... and every ball on tv isn't just a ball - its a "bask ball". and he likes to watch basketball on tv. he watches and commentates with things like "throw" "catch" "ball ball ball" "go" "go" "go wakers"!!!

and he looks good in purple and yellow - a vintage # 8 kobe jersey! did you know that kobe's middle name is BEAN? it is... so - kobe bean/ lima bean - maybe liam is destined for basketball fame and glory?!!

daddy is schoolin liam on how to handle the ball

he shoots....

look at that follow through.. so pretty, so pretty!

yeah! he scores!!!
someday liam, that hoop wont be so far away! keep on shooting little buddy!

* heather - yes, its cole's jersey!! we still have the #8 jersey! will return... promise, can't believe it still fits!!

ponyboy

2010-06-15T20:08:00.001-07:00

mama has been busy. this month probably marks one of the busiest months i have had in a while... 4 overnight (multiple night) business trips... one consisting of opening two restaurants... two where i have to make presentations in front of lots and lots of people and one marketing meeting with my peers across the country that includes a top chef style "quickfire"challenge. with one trip under my belt, i have been busy in preparation for what is still to come.

thank goodness my amazing hubby is so supportive and has arranged his equally if not more busy schedule to accomodate and care for liam while i have been away.

the weekend while i was away at the restaurant openings, he took liam to his pal Dexter's 2nd bday party. Dexter and Liam are really best of pals... I met his sweet and talented mum (she is an Aussie) at a local moms group. We also have been going to the same church, so Liam and Dexter have become more accquainted in the daycare on Sunday mornings. Recently we have been able to spend a little more quality time together, and Liam was invited to share in Dexters Bday celebration at Griffith Park in L.A. Orignially we weren't going to be able to participate because I was out of town... but Kurt was a trooper and didn't want Liam to miss out on the fun... so he manned the mission and took Liam!! (Am I lucky or WHAT)

they had a blast... and Kurt took photos!!!

READY for the ponies Daddy!

Dexter and Liam... natural cowboys!

Happy Pony Pals

I can't believe I missed this smile! We will have to take him back soon!

They also got to ride the train... and ever since, Liam has been obsessed with "choo choo"

Michelle (Dexter's Mum" has been channeling Ina Garten and made these amazing cupcakes... I think Liam loved them!

We had our great friends Josh and Kerry come visit us from Oregon over the weekend... we didn't take a lot of photos - but stories to come... Liam can't stop saying "JOSH"....

weekend work...

2010-06-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

There is bound to be chaos when a team is given 2 days to open a cafe!

Our team got the keys to an empty facility on Friday, and after two days of unpacking boxes - LOTS OF BOXES, receiving produce orders, prepping, cooking, making and hanging signs and artwork, many trips to random stores... the cafe was open for business by 7:30am yesterday morning... lots of work, lots of laugh, a few tears and much wine! thank goodness we had a fun crew - but i am so happy to be home!

to fill the empty space and deter from the empty cash register station, we set up a mock farmers market.

to fill up this random little alcove, we created a "refresh" station with complimentary "spa" water.

the salad bar - even with the hideous yellow crocks that we had to use (ours were back ordered)... it turned out ok.

"classics" station... yum

Happy BIrthday G-link!

2010-06-04T07:48:00.000-07:00

A very happy birthday to my beautiful Mama!

holiday weekend

2010-06-01T10:05:00.000-07:00

We had a great Memorial Day weekend... we did pretty much nothing, and we went pretty much nowhere, and it was wonderful!

We did take some time to thank and remember those who fought for our country and paid the ultimate price.

We grilled everyday! We ate hotdogs, hamburgers, fish tacos and tri tip over the course of the weekend.

We swam in the pool and enjoyed the great weather.

this photo pretty much sums it up

"kitch"

2010-05-27T11:11:00.000-07:00

You know the saying "One man's trash is another man's treasure"? It's true. Or at least in our "hood" it is. Around here we see all kinds of things sitting next to the trash cans on trash day. In fact just today on our morning walk, we saw a king sized matress set (it was black and floral and probably from the '80's) and we saw an orange velour rocking chair, a broken down bar cart some random well-loved outdoor furniture...

and THEN... just 2 houses down from ours, we saw THIS....

a well-loved kid-kitchen! it was super dirty and had probably been kept outside, maybe stored along the side of their house for a year or more... and was covered in stickers - lots of them said things like "girl power" and "100% angel"... i said - "hey kurt, do you think beanie would want that"... and he said "sure"... so we picked it up and walked on up to the house for a little detailing before Liam got home from daycare!

He calls his new toy "kitch" and likes to pretend to wash dishes and cook things.
He even made me a golden graham and fruit loop salad last night (a career as a chef just may be in his future)

he is not so much of a food snob that he doesn't use a microwave..
(we didn't get ALL of the stickers off... we left a few)
even Jinx and Ace are benefiting from the new "kitch"