Family Weekend

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!?!

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!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!

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

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

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...

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.