Can you tell we are excited to be on a trip by ourselves?

(PS- My bangs aren’t actually crooked, nor did I cut them myself even though it looks like it. Just having a bad hair weekend I guess. Sorry that was just really bothering me.)

I didn’t really take many pictures at the wedding, unfortunately, so here’s our smiling faces, along with Cathi (Andy’s mom) and Danny, who we got to catch up with during our stay in Madera (nice to see you guys!).  It was beautiful there, in a picturesque setting with a river on one side and a vineyard on the other.

Side note: Andy and I love vineyards.  Not only for what they produce– the perfectly uniform rows of grape vines just really satisfy our compulsive need for order and organization.  We had some good laughs over that, but truly it was sooo soothing to drive through miles and miles of vineyards. Yeah, we’re weird.

On the drive home we stopped in charming Los Olivos, which I knew Andy would enjoy as his Father’s Day treat.  It is almost completely made up of little shops and wine tasting rooms, and beautiful gardens.  Mom, you MUST go here some time… this shop has the most amazing succulents and you would love it.

I wanted to take this beautiful boxwood home with me very badly, but settled for a picture.

Pretty gardens… I would like my yard to look like that.

But this was the real treat we were there for:  cupcakes perfectly paired with a wine tasting at Saarloos & Sons.  Flavors included Peach Ginger Chardonnay (WOW, especially paired with the Chardonnay), Chocolate Blackberry Syrah (pretty and delicious), and my personal favorite, Dark Chocolate Salted Caramel. They were tiny and we were splitting them, but really it was the perfect amount.

We both loved it!   After that we headed back to our kids, who were in fact glad to see us despite their fun filled weekend at Grandma’s.

Last week we went blueberry picking at a friend’s ranch, and came home with about 5 pounds of blueberries!  Not bad considering I was picking one-handed, holding Ben in one arm (he was having a rough morning).  Natalie was a great little helper until she decided to dump her bucket out on the ground and start over… AHHH!!  But she had a ton of fun with her BFF Bekah, and other friends from church.

Ben was only happy when there was a steady stream of blueberries from the bush to his mouth!  I had to work hard to replace the berries he was taking from my bag.  He was covered in dirt by the end, but that’s pretty much the way it goes around here.

That’s what my 5 pounds of blueberries looked like… I froze 1/3, gave 1/3 to my mom, and the last 1/3 was eaten fresh within a week.  I didn’t even have a chance to make some kind of special dessert!

One day Natalie saw one of the older classes jumping off the diving board, and became obsessed with it (which I thought was funny since she was kind of scared of the water and hated putting her face in it).  On the last day, the three kids in her class got to jump too.  I was really surprised, but she came up smiling, then jumped a second time!

At three years old, it is pretty hard to be coordinated enough to swim with arms and legs at the same time.  Natalie got a lot of practice with the kick board and empty milk bottles (genius idea).  As you can see, she is all smiles in these pictures.  She gained so much confidence by the last day, she even let go of the side and floundered around a bit, whoops… thankfully she’s become practiced at holding her breath, and managed to come up not even sputtering.

She can float like this for 10 seconds! Hopefully we can get enough pool time to keep her skills up this summer.

I got to play hostess this time around– summer dining on the patio!

The beautiful ladies… so glad to have them in my life!  There is never enough time to say everything that needs to be said!  Thanks for being so funny, informative, and honest, girls.

Made-from-scratch chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting… rich and perfect, thanks Hannah!

We had  Memorial Day BBQ at my parents’ house, where Natalie and Ben each quickly found a group of friends to hang out with.

The kids also got to pick out new pajamas on Memorial Day.  Apparently this is a very exciting thing, and that’s why Natalie wore hers to the BBQ.

Last week Natalie and I got to see a real ballet!  This was not Natalie’s first trip to the theater– we also saw Beauty and The Beast here back in March.  Never too early to appreciate the arts!   This ballet was a a brand new show, a retelling of Noah’s Ark.  I didn’t know what to expect, but blown away by how amazing it was.  The story was beautifully told through the dance, and even quite moving at times.  I was telling Andy that there was “like, a hundred” people in the cast and he didn’t believe me, so I looked it up online and the newspaper said it had a cast of 150, and 80 of them were the animals.

Natalie sure enjoyed it.  Despite the lack of dialogue, she followed the story very well (with a little explanation from me along the way) and didn’t get restless until near the end of the 90 minute show, when she wanted to get up and dance herself!  I was very proud of her for sitting still and paying attention.  She loved the dancers in animal costumes… the bumblebees in the picture below (children who could not have been more than 7 years old) were her favorites.  Perhaps Natalie will want to dance on stage some day?  She told me she did, after this!

Here are some of the sweet little friends we went with… looking a little tired after the show but all the girls did SO well! I think they were all inspired!

New necklace, a gift from my sis for Mother’s Day! Roses from the property we live on. I’m really into braids right now.

It seems that I am loving orange and green this week? Andy likes the way Natalie carefully separates her veggies.

I often dress us alike subconsciously and don’t notice till someone points it out to me, or I see it in pictures. Do see this weekend’s theme?

We found this grasshopper in our garden. I love bugs! What a great weekend.

We’re hoping for at least one more family dinner before Jake and Joanna move to Maine in just two weeks! So sad for us!  And Natalie will miss spotting their yellow bug driving around town!

Our Benjamin does love to gnaw on a rib!

]]> http://thetoads.hawkbats.com/2010/05/12/family-dinner/feed/ 3 http://thetoads.hawkbats.com/2010/05/05/summers-coming/ http://thetoads.hawkbats.com/2010/05/05/summers-coming/#comments Wed, 05 May 2010 16:51:06 +0000 Mollie http://thetoads.hawkbats.com/?p=1092 The weather has been perfectly pleasant lately and starting to feel summery… I do love this time of year in California. How can we tell that summer is right around the corner?

The garden is in full swing!  Corn, tomatoes, onions, cilantro, various herbs, and a couple mystery seedlings that came up on their own.  We are super excited to make our completely homegrown, made from scratch organic salsa this year!

Natalie wears her swimsuit around the house and yard just because (“choose your battles” and all that).  We have yet to go to the pool or even play in the sprinkler this year, but don’t tell her!

Finding “roly-poly” bugs or pill bugs is a big thing for Natalie and her friends right now.  She is studying one in the photo below.  When she finds one she comes running to tell me excitedly, and wants me to put it in a jar and make a little home for it.  Don’t ask her to touch it though– guess she’s not much of a creepy crawlies person.