Strawberry Pickin'

Saturday night we had Clara, Jake and Chloe over (okay we really had their parents over to play Beatles Rock Band and the kids sort of had to come along too). They partied, we partied. The kids ran around with a trash can on their heads, and Addie was found at one point with my razor trying to shave her legs in the shower. Dear Lord!

The next morning the entire party re-grouped at Tanaka Farm in Irvine for a cook-out tour and some strawberry picking. The farm is all organic and we were encouraged to snack on the fresh veggies right out of the ground. I can tell you that pulling up root vegetables is very therapeutic. We munched on bok choy and picked a stalk or two of everything and then they cooked it up for us in tinfoil packets. While everything was delicious raw, I was glad I brought a piece of leftover pizza along for Addie who liked eating broccoli flowers but wasn't so into half cooked beets (me either). After, they let us loose in the strawberry fields where we all stuffed our pie holes and filled our baskets. There is nothing like a freshly picked, sun warmed strawberry.


Jake, Addie, Clara and Chloe


Edible Chinese broccoli flowers


Fresh picked celery leaves


That's some big beet



Check out more photos here.

Open Wide

Can you guess what this is?

A view into Addie's mouth complete with tongue and teeth. Hilarious.



Super awesome spider

The Messy Baby Face Photo

Ah, and here it is. The first Messy Baby Photo: Rice Cereal. It took us 4 weeks after getting the OK from our pediatrician to start feeding her solids and two weeks for me just to post this photo. We just couldn't seem to find the time. Like, who doesn't have time to feed their baby? Really. What sort of parents are we?

She's been dying to try food though. She salivates every time we pop a morsel into our own mouths, and she chased Addie around the living room for a bag of blue corn chips. It's taken so long to post this photo that we've given her pears already too which she adored. I kept thinking I'd get around to downloading and editing the video (to spare everyone 7 minutes of scraping rice cereal off of her chin) but that's hasn't happened.

Happy, hungry, messy baby.

Art Walk

It was the Spring Brewery Art Walk last weekend. We went 2 years ago and missed it last year so I was pretty excited to check it out again. The Brewery Arts Center is a live/work artist colony and the vibe sends me back to life in Brooklyn. This year however, that magical nostalgia just wasn't there. Instead it felt dirty and messy and lonely. I think we just got their too early to soak in the carnival vibe or maybe I just should have eaten lunch before we left which often leaves me cranky.

Many of the studios were closed and the other half seemed to showcase creepy severed doll heads. Even a new art studio for kids reeked of cat urine and floral scented candles, forcing us back outside to catch our breath. I'm sad that the experience wasn't inspiring. Still, I think everyone who lives in LA should go once though to catch a glimpse into a different world.

Tomato Red

Unsupervised manicure

Rock-a-bye Baby

This is from Easter weekend in our backyard. Addie is holding Eliza and singing Rock-a-bye Baby to her. So sweet.

The South Beach Wrestler

This outfit looked better on the hanger. Like the stripes. Not so into the sleeveless arms. As Addie said the other day, "Eliza wants to kick my butt."

7 Months and On The Go

Eliza is 7 months today and got the boot from school for a 101 fever. Poor gal has a cold and I still made her sit for her 7 month photos. Cruel, cruel Mama. I just read on Facebook that another baby in her room was in the ER last night for a 105 degree fever. He's fine now but has Hand, Food and Mouth Disease. PLEASE don't let Eliza get that.

Since learning to sit up on her 6 month birthday, Eliza has now mastered crawling, gets up the one stair in our house and now can pull herself up into a standing position. Good-bye crib bumper. Hello jail cell.

As you can see from the photos, she still has a shoe fetish.

Happy Birthday little sweet pea. Feel better!

Charlie and Lola

Some more rad art by Addie. This is Charlie and Lola - still one of her favorite cartoons.


She LOVED drawing with her Cousin Max on Easter who brought his art supplies with him. Oh and this is the only photo of her in her Easter dress - snagged in a mad shopping flurry at Target when the Liberty of London collection came out. People were lined up before the store opened to get their hands on the goods. Mama was also attired in a top from the collection. Little Eliza was in an Addie hand-me-down. Poor Eliza.

Easter Weekend

To sum it up:

Celebrated Jake's birthday
Learned the difference between a fire truck and a fire engine
Addie made it clear she does NOT want to be a firefighter when she grows up
Easter Egg Dying Party at our house with 7 kids and 8 parents
Beatles Rock Band
Tequila sipping
The Easter Bunny
Jelly beans for breakfast
Egg Hunt in the backyard
The second annual slug on the egg
Made bunny and flower sugar cookies
Ate copious amounts of the dough (first sugar in 40 days)
Greek Easter dinner at Aunt Karen and Uncle Peter's
No pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses
Earthquake in Mexicali
More Beatles Rock Band
Learned I have no idea how to harmonize - at all
Read our new Easter books
Happy Easter!

Spring Break

Before there is Easter there was Good Friday. Or Spring Break.

Friday, the girls had off from school. We had thought about heading out to Palm Springs but decided to stay in town to play. With all the rain we had this winter, I had wanted to check out the wildflower scene, but the California Poppy Reserve and other wildflower hot spots in Kern county are all about 2 hours away. Not prepared for that long of drive, we opted instead to head to the old Cornfieldsite, now the Los Angeles State Historic Park north of Downtown. We brought a picnic and searched for ladybugs amongst the lupines.




Check out more photos from our adventure here.

Happy Easter!

Addie was excited to get this Easter card from Nana and Pop Pop only the bunny didn't have any eyes. Thinking this was wasn't quite right, she insisted we cut out black eyes from construction paper and she glued them on herself. Much better.

Happy Easter!