Wednesday, June 30, 2010

8 months



oh my. my little connor has had an exciting month. he is now 16 pounds. he is gaining weight quickly. he loves to eat his baby food. i don't think we ever had such a good eater. he gets really excited when it is meal time. he especially loves his cheerios. i take the box out of the cupboard and he kicks his legs in anticipation. he still doesn't have any teeth yet, but i think they should be coming in soon.

he is not crawling but he has picked up speed with the scooting around quite a bit. man that little guy can get around. he sits up really well unattended and the other day i walked into the bedroom and saw him standing in his crib. yikes. that was a first. we had to move his mattress down a notch. i love to watch him play with mason and dahlia. they are so cute together. he can interact more with them and they love to make him laugh.

he has not been so good with sleeping lately. his naps during the day tend to be short and then at night he will wake 3 or 4 times. ugh. i am one sleepy mama. when does the always being sleepy part end?

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

more cherries!




yes, we have gone a little cherry crazy around here. jen and i drove out with the kids to go cherry picking one more time. it was so fun. not as much fun as the first time with the whole family but almost. we picked 10 pounds each. oh my. i think we might have picked too many. though i did read that you can pit them and then freeze them for future baking so i think i will do that with some. we picked rainier and bing cherries this time. i love the rainer cherries. they are my favorite.

when i got home i tried baking my first dessert with the cherries. i made a cherry cobbler. miles requested it. it was good, but i really want to make a pie. i don't know why making a pie seems like such a big project. i think it is the crust. i am going to do it. it is officially on the list of things to do.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

jumping boy


connor has starting jumping in his jumperoo. we just love this little toy around here. we have had this jumperoo since mason and all the kids loved to jump. it has taken connor a little while to figure out how to use it. when we put him in it he would just stand and laugh. last week he surprised me by jumping. so funny. mason still holds the title of best baby jumper. we will see if connor can surpass him.

Friday, June 25, 2010

stylish girl


i just loved this outfit that dahlia put together. she is such a fashion girl. it cracks me up. she is always talking about the best shoes to match her outfit. i don't know where she gets that from because i am not a shoe person. i am usually wearing flip flops or converse. how funny is it that i am now feeling inspired to put a little more effort into my daily outfits, uh, because of my two year old.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

the cherry chomper




if you have kids and a lot of cherries, you need a cherry chomper. oh my gosh this little kitchen tool is just perfect. the kids had so much fun pitting the cherries. i already had a cherry pitter, but i could not resist buying this one. the one i had before was not very easy to use and would launch the cherry pits across the room. now with the cherry chomper the kids argue over who is going to help me pit the cherries and the clean up is so quick. all the pits get collected in the base and you just empty it out when you are done. easy. now if only we could stop eating the cherries long enough for me to make that cherry pie.

Monday, June 21, 2010

fathers day


we had a really nice fathers day this year. the whole family came over to our house to celebrate my fathers birthday and fathers day. my dad's birthday is so close to fathers day we always celebrate them together. we had a feast with grilled steak, chicken, corn on the cob and a tomato and mozzarella salad. for dessert i made the yummiest carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. the kids had fun running around the yard and playing in the hammock. i love having everyone over. it is so nice to see our backyard filled with so much activity and fun. i wish i was outside relaxing with everyone instead of racing around inside trying to finish the meal. why is it i can never have everything done before a party?

mason, dahlia and i were excited to give the dads some homemade barbecue sauce and cards we made for them. the barbecue sauce is a barefoot contessa recipe. the kids colored the pictures for the labels and i printed them on sticky paper. it was a fun easy project that we were able to finish in a day. happy fathers day.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

a hammock



miles decided the family needs a hammock so we agreed to get one. he has been wanting a hammock for as long as we have lived here but there was always a question of where to hang it. we have one big tree for one side, but what about the other? we finally figured out that we could use the swing set for support on the other side. we ordered this hammock from rei. rei is one of my favorite stores to shop at. i get so inspired to be more outdoorsy every time i go there.

we have been in hammock heaven since miles set it up. the kids love the hammock. although i must say they have no idea how to relax in it. for them it is a big swing. i have tried to lay with them in the hammock and they were just jumping around in and out. completely missing the point of the hammock. even connor refused to just lay with me. i am going to have to work on teaching these kids how to relax. ha.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

cherry picking





my mom and dad invited everyone to go cherry picking with them this weekend. we loved it. i remember them stopping by my house two years ago after cherry picking with a huge box of cherries for miles and me. i was so surprised that they would drive so far and pick cherries for fun. the whole idea intrigued me so i was excited to be included this year in the cherry picking festivities. i completely get the fun now. it is so addicting. i could have picked far more cherries than we brought home. miles, mason, dahlia and i picked almost six pounds of cherries. this is obviously not enough because we have eaten half of them and it is only tuesday. jen and i are making plans to go pick some more next monday. the picking season is very short and we need to get moving.

my mom loves to pick cherries. she was so cute telling my dad that he has to take her cherry picking every year until she is unable to walk. they had a blast and picked almost ten pounds between the two of them and my niece zena. we even got my sister christina to come along. she was a very reluctant cherry picker but i think she had a good time. she kept making jokes about how she usually picks her cherries at ralphs.

we picked our cherries from villa del sol sweet cherry farms in leona valley. they are not crazy cheap. they cost $3.00 per pound. they are so good though. really. mmmmm. i really was thinking i would have enough to make a cherry cake and maybe a cherry pie, but they are so good to just snack on that we haven't cooked anything with them. that is why i can't wait to go back. thank goodness i have my sister jen and mom more than willing to come along.

Monday, June 14, 2010

sitting up


yay for connor. he is now officially sitting up without any assistance. this is a big step. he had managed to sit up for a couple of seconds before flopping over but today he sat up long enough for me to stand back and take a photo. what a big boy.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

it's a helicopter



mason was so excited about the large box a package arrived in yesterday. he grabbed his tool box and announced that he was making an airplane. miles jumped in and helped with all the cutting and taping.

today they took the airplane that now has morphed into a helicopter outside to be painted. dahlia and mason took turns riding in the cockpit. they were having so much fun. i like how mason added the flag to the back of the helicopter. so funny. i just love it when they play like this.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

kindergarten


we registered mason to start kindergarten in the fall. i am not very happy about this. we went last week to the open house and i was so disappointed when i saw his school i started to cry. just a little bit. it was not at all what i was expecting. i think i was expecting it to look like the school i went to in orange county when i was a kid. mason's school is a public school in los angeles. it looks really old and kind of crappy. the old part doesn't bother me as much as the crappy part. it doesn't really look very clean or nice at all. the classrooms were very crowded with too much stuff on every wall. it looked like a mess. i really hated it. i was holding mason's hand very tightly thinking "i do not want my son to go to school here."

after we got home i spent the whole evening researching private schools near us. they are way too expensive. we just can't afford private school right now. i got increasingly desperate and researched home schooling. i don't know about home schooling. i would love to do it i just don't know if it would be the best thing for mason. i think he is really craving the interaction with other kids his age.

miles and i had a long talk about it and i reluctantly agreed to enroll him in the public school. we are going to try it out. mason is only four years old and won't be five until october so we really could wait a year to start school. that is the option i really would like to go with but we will try this. the school he will be in got really good testing scores and miles thinks this is more important than how the school looks. i agree but i really think it is about the whole package. meanwhile i am praying that next year we will be living some where else that has a better school. i really can not wait to move.

Friday, June 4, 2010

abstract friday




today was a perfect day for painting outside. miles set up the kid's easels and let them enjoy painting in the sun. it seems that mason is inspired by jackson pollock. he was having so much fun with his splatter technique. i actually thought his paintings were turning out quite interesting. dahlia was taking a much softer approach to her painting and kept to the traditional brush strokes. i was really enjoying watching our budding artists paint until i got a little too close to mason's splatter. let's just say that i am so glad the paint they use is washable.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

the huntington gardens





we went back to the huntington gardens today. we didn't get to see everything last time so we decided a second trip was in order. we spent most of our time at the children's garden this time. there were lots of tunnels for the kids to run through. they also had water fountains to play with, and a magnet with iron dust for the children to sculpt. the kids ran around there for at least an hour. it was so hot out today. we were all worn out when it was time to go.

of course we couldn't leave before seeing the amorphophallus titanum (a.k.a. the corpse flower) that is getting ready to bloom any day now. when the blooms open on this extremely rare plant it emits a smell of rotting flesh. this enormous flower is over three feet tall. it would be cool to see and smell it blooming, but i think we will just have to check back online to see what it looks like.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

snow cones




last week while shopping i simply could not resist buying a snow cone machine. there was a very inexpensive one at target that was calling our names. after much deliberation over choosing the perfect flavors (blueberry lemonade and watermelon) and picking out all the cups and accessories needed the kids and i raced home to try it out. the fact that it was freezing cold that day did not deter us. we meant business. i am so happy to say that the snow cone machine is awesome. so easy to fill with ice and then just turn it on. no turning a hand crank for ten minutes only to get a thimble full of ice like the snoopy snow cone machine of my day. oh no. this baby does all the work for you. needless to say snow cones have been requested for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day since this amazing little machine arrived at our house. of course not every meal can be accompanied by a snow cone but we are having our fair share. i think this will be a favorite all summer long.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

swimming inside



eating cookies for breakfast and lounging on boats in our pajamas.