Lemonade, Llamas & Landscaping

My little man turned six this past weekend.  As many of my friends know, I'm not a kid-birthday-party-kind-of-gal.  It always seems too indulgent to me and I don't get the invention of the goodie bag and think a bounce house is an accident waiting to happen.    Now I'm usually one for a party, so it's ironic to me that I have been so against having one for Grady.  Well, this year we had a mini-party.  A compromise, if you will.  G wanted a llama pinata, pool-time in his St. Vincent de Paul $5 plastic pool, hot dogs, a pink cake, homemade lemonade and his God-sisters and another friend to attend.  It was perfect.

G made the lemonade the night before and loved the new kitchen utensil that facilitated this process.  He helped me decorate the homemade banner (I could not bring myself to go into a party store, but that's another story).  He drew a mama cow with udders and a baby cow on the banner.  I'm assuming I'm the cow in this scenario?  He helped me decorate the ugliest cake I've ever made...I can't even put a picture up of same.  Trust me, it was UGLY.  He didn't care and I knew the others wouldn't care either.

The kids ate watermelon, got wet in the wee pool, bashed the heck out of a donkey-come-llama pinata, ran around with the baby chicks, ate more watermelon, had aluminum foil crowns made for them, looked for bugs with the big magnifying glasses, ate cake and ice cream and just had a great time.  Best anti-party I've ever thrown and no melt-downs.  Plus, Grady was so happy and that made me happy.  I'm still gun-shy on the kid party thing, but I realized I can do it my way and kids don't really care about the goodie bags or bounce houses - they just want to have a good time and celebrate the day they were born.  I can get behind that.
Look at those faces is the little pool.  Four of them fit in this pool and they had a blast.
The llamas are back.  Last year the llamas returned to the pasture near our house on Grady's birthday.  He thought this was just for him.   This year, our neighbors did it again and it brought tears to Grady's eyes.  He bounced out of his room and shrieked with excitement.  You must understand that the llamas are very much a part of why we moved here.  A symbol of country life where my little boy could be a little boy and roam, run, imagine, enjoy nature, climb a tree, know our neighbors, raise animals, camp in our yard and establish these wonderful childhood memories.  The llamas and the pink playhouse sealed the deal for us and we're so glad they're back.
We have been working on creating an outdoor eating area in our yard and above is a pic of the before...

...and here is the after.  I think it's beautiful and I can't wait to finish phase one of this project.  We have a lot of carpet to pull up (the previous owners used it as a weed block, but it's more like a carpet of weeds now), mulch to order, trees to trim, flower beds to plant and hunting for an outside dining table at recycle town.  I can't wait to make a margarita and enjoy this space all Summer long.

Spring Break: Kind of Camping, More Chicks & Jenner

We spent a great couple of days in Pescadero at Costanoa.  This one of my favorite places.  We spent the last night of our honeymoon here in one of their canvas tents and we were planning on doing the same on Easter day, but the winds kicked up and I changed our reservation to one of the rooms in the lodge.  Truth be told, I'm not really a camper - so this worked out well for me.  We rested, read, explored, got lost (a few times), made s'mores nightly and enjoyed our time away from home.

G showing Steve the agony of defeat in a beach wrestling match.

As we approached the tiny town of Pescadero, I kept seeing this cute little goat and girl pointing the way.  Where to?  I didn't know, but I liked the sign enough to slow down and take a picture.  I had a magazine article on things to do in Pescadero from an old Sunset magazine.  It didn't mention the goat farm located in Pescadero, but when we saw a few hundred goats frolicking in a field - we had to pull over.

We stopped and tasted cheese, watched goats being milked and wandered through their gardens and old barn at Harley Farms.  Such a nice surprise and I recommend stopping by if and when you're in the neighborhood for handmade cheese, fresh eggs or their goat milk soap.

G enjoyed the mystical view from our deck at Costanoa and was sporting the pink/white sequined bunny ears that some lady gave him earlier that day.  He has a knack of acquiring really fancy accessories.

When we got home, we decided to take a trip to Pt. Reyes and pick up a few more chicks for our flock.  The chicks we picked up last week at Larsen's Feed Store turned out to be more ornamental bantam birds and we wanted to make sure we had good egg layers.  Therefore, we purchased two red and two black sex links from Toby's Feed Barn and they could not be cuter!

I'm calling the new day old sex links "chicks" and the three week old silkies "girls".  We had to separate them, as the older girls would pick on the little ones.  We will put them together in a month or so.

When we moved the girls to the coop, we also let them roam free in the yard (while we're with them) and they are so interesting to watch.  The biggest one we've named Mama and she is bossy and likes to show off.  The others are a little more shy, but quickly learning to eat bugs and wander farther away from the coop.  We haven't picked names for them yet, but we will the more we get to see their personalities.

G's painting was also being displayed at Toby's Feed Barn as part of Arann & Paige's wedding advice art display.  Here he is posing for his mother.  Can you see the attitude?  He named the painting "Puddles & Strings" and I thought it was sweet that the happy couple added it to the art show.

We ended Spring Break with a visit to the Rangel girls and beachcombing at our secret beach in Jenner.  It was so hot on the coast this weekend (and still is) and the kids laughed, played, picked up junk and trash, helped find sea glass and found a homemade bow (minus the arrow).  The above shot is of G and Isabella jumping off of a big rock.  I love how happy they look.  

An amazing end to an amazing week.  I hope yours was just as lovely.

Chicks, Eggs & Easter

This week was all about the chicken and the eggs (eventually).  We went to the feed store and purchased four bantam white silkies that are a few weeks old.  G was super excited (translate: slightly scared) about getting the chicks, but they are doing well and we'll put them in their coop in a week or so.  White silkies are a pretty docile bird and have good mothering instincts.  We will be adding a few more to the flock that will be better layers (that sounds funny) later this month.
Steve ordered this fantastic new coffee pot called the Technivorm Moccamaster.  It's like the rolls royce of coffee makers and I think he'll have to be buried with it to justify the purchase.  One of his clients is a coffee junkie and she came over this week, brought her own coffee beans and tested them out in our machine for its inaugural pot.  I decided to make the Banana-Chocolate-Ginger bread recipe that I found in Molly Wizenberg's book, A Homemade Life.  She raved about the bread and I think it would have been better fresh out of the oven, but it was okay in my book and went great with the perfectly brewed coffee.
I've been devouring the cookbook Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros.  It has the most beautiful imagery and lovely hand-written notes on the recipes about childhood food memories from the author.  I was helping out with a Spring/Easter party at G's school and decided to make the above cupcakes.  They were extremely dense and using the mini molds was the right thing to do, as the larger ones were almost too much to eat.  The frosting was sweet and looked gorgeous dripping down the sides of the mini-cupcakes.  We have renamed them "fussy pink cupcakes" and I will definitely be making these again.

G dictated the above note to the Easter Bunny and had a real hard time getting to sleep because he was so excited.  He kept peeking out his bedroom window as he tried to go to sleep - hoping to catch a glimpse of the big bunny.  Remember what that was like?

We colored eggs with his kindergarten class and had an egg hunt at the school.  The kids had their faces painted like bunnies by me and another mom.  They were all so sweet as they ate their hard-boiled eggs, carrots, grapes and cupcakes.  There is a definite sweetness about Spring/Easter that is different from, let's say, Christmas.  Not much is expected, they take delight in the smallest of things (eggs and candy) and there isn't so much hype attached to it.   I really enjoy the changing of the seasons and think Easter represents a renewal in the garden, home and family.  Happy memories were made this year.

G picked out his outfit for his class party.  I had to capture this image.  Pink (his favorite color) shirt, floodwater jeans w/ patches, different pink striped socks and his penny loafers that I found at a thrift store for $2.  Steve warned him before he went to school that he should be ready to defend his clothing choices.  G didn't get the sarcasm, but I did.  G loves pink, loves socks, loves those too short jeans and loves dressing up for a good party.  Well done G.

Easter Sunday in our weed garden.  The wild poppies were a nice splash of color for this photo op.  We left our house around noon and went on a coastal adventure to Pescadero.  I'll post more about that this week.  

Spring Finds, Fish Fest & Hecht Sr. Visit

Hit the thrift stores with my mom at the beginning of last week and hit the jackpot (or so I think).  Lovely vintage silk pillow case that I will use as a small table cloth $2, fantastic orange shoes for $9, vintage silver and rhinestone pin $8, turquoise (brand new) purse from Nieman Marcus $8, brand new, never been worn, Sperry Top Sider boots at 50% off for a grand total of $17.50, vintage Oklahoma mug for 50 cents and my favorite find...yellow cast iron skillet w/ lid made in Belgium for $4.  I was on a thrift store high for days.  I also scored a hard plastic pool for Grady from the St. Vincent de Paul in Rhonert Park for a whopping $5.  The Easter Bunny is going to deliver that treasure this weekend.  Aside from all of the fantastic and interesting (and funny) things I have been finding at vintage stores, I have really enjoyed the hunt and time spent with Steve, Grady or my mom while searching the thrift stores.  I also purchased a few clothing items for G, Steve found some shirts and it feels really good not to be purchasing something brand new that had to be made just for me.  Reuse, repurpose, recycle...now repeat after me...

Steve's dad was here for the weekend festivities of Fisherman's Festival 2009.  The father-son duo shared a bulldog or two (made with Hecht secret-family Kahlua recipe) and we ate, drank and were merry all weekend long.

Grady loves Fish Fest.  He danced, walked a dog in the pet parade, visited the Marine Mammal Center so much that I thought he was stalking the volunteers, did spin art, grabbed as much free garb as he could (as pictured above), danced some more, hung out with his friends and when asked where to go next?  Probably the wine booth.  He was given lots of yummy orange juice, minus the sparkling wine.  He enjoyed every second if his six-hour tour of duty on Saturday.  What childhood memories are made of.


Grady and his partners in crime, Isabella & Sophia after acquiring their candy necklaces, of course.

Grady painted a lovely wedding present for Arann  & Paige this week, as pictured above.

Grady finally agreed to have his hair cut.  I thought I wanted the shaggy mane cut, but after it happened...it made me kind of sad for his lovely, long locks.  He looks so much older now.  It is only hair and he can grow it back, but feels a little sad as we're approaching his sixth birthday at the end of the month.  Everyone said is would fly by and they were right.

Here is a little video snipet of Isabella and Grady dancing at Fish Fest last weekend.  It made me smile and I hope it does the same for you.