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1 whole year. Wow. Moments after this photo was taken, the cone broke in half, the ice cream rolled down Kate's face and a big glob hit Henry in the forehead. People were laughing at us. The nerve.She is always so jealous when she see's Henry with a cone. She screams out in anger. Tonight we decided to celebrate with ice cream instead of cake. (Note:  grip of said cone= ice cream cone disaster). My sweet little Kate. One day I will tell you about the day you were born. About how I woke up at 6:30 a.m. with minor contractions and after a few hours of waiting we finally decided to go to the hospital around noon. I will tell you about how your Father convinced me, on the way to the hospital, that we had plenty of time and how he really needed to return some DWTS props and could we please just go and do that before we checked in? The lot was after all, just a few blocks away from the hospital. And the props only needed to go back to Hollywood. I will tell you how I had the most intense contractions, in front of the hospital, on the way to return the props and that I almost made him drop me off. "They are still 10 minutes apart" he kept saying. "We have time." The next contractions came in front of the warehouse, where the props were being returned. I thought I would never forgive him if I delivered you in front of a warehouse. But the contractions slowed and when we finally checked in, I was only at a 4. We did have plenty of time. As the day started to turn to night, I kept hoping you'd be born that day and not on our anniversary. I wanted you to have your own day and not have to share it with anyone else.  You were born a few hours later. After being a week overdue, I was so happy you were finally here. We love you so much. And now you are 1. And you love tomato's. And anything that involves your brother. You are starting to stand and are not shy in letting us know when you do NOT like something. You smile at strangers and they adore you.

We are just about done painting tepee #2. Henry wanted a blue one, because blue is his favorite color. I let him have free reign over this one (he was very disappointed to wake up this morning to find that the brown tepee had already been painted by his Mama while he slept.)  He cannot wait to give his friends a 'tour of the solar system painted on the outside of his tepee.'
One (of the many) things that's awesome about being almost-4: Your Mama let you keep your pants on backwards all day. Because you worked so hard to get them like that in the first place. Being almost-4 rocks!

Well I do. Sort of. Spoonflower is this amazing, amazing online design-your-own-fabric shop. Anyone can design their own fabric. I remember when the beta was first launched, which seems like ages ago. Anyway, you can sign up to receive weekly newsletters from them to purchase that weeks fabric winner. Meaning, every week there is a contest against 6 fabrics that have been designed by other people. You vote on the one you like, and whichever design gets the highest votes is then available for purchase for a limited time (1 week only). Every week, it's a new contest.
This was the winner a few weeks ago. I AM TOTALLY IN LOVE. So much so, that I don't even dare to cut into it. I have 1 glorious yard. 1 yard of pure joy. The print is no longer available (sad for you, happy for me) but keep your eyes peeled, they have some really great stuff.

Happy Mother's Day! Ours is winding down as is our very busy weekend. National Train Day at Union Station: check. Tepee supplies at Home Depot: check.  I got to pick out my very own giant flower pot from Home Depot yesterday. It's gorgeous and I love it. The next 10 days bring 2 birthdays and an anniversary. Oy.

My Mother's Day wish for Henry to sing "Mother Dear I Love You So" with all the other primary children at church today was greeted with a giant thumbs down when the time came to actually perform. For days he's been saying "I'm NOT doing it!" Later this afternoon he hummed the whole song in the back of the car.

"Henry!" I said, "Thank you so much for humming that song for me!"
"It wasn't for you." he replied. "It was for Olivia." (his imaginary friend)
"Oh."

3 years ago around Mother's Day, Henry was about to turn 1, just as Kate is this week. We went to Long Beach and took pictures of him in this little chair and now, it was Kate's turn. A little Mother's Day tradition if you will. An every-other-3-year-tradition. Henry's 1 year chair picture can be seen here.
What started out as this, very quickly turned to this:

Fughettaboutit. She would scooch her little bum to the edge, plop right onto the sand and head straight for the water. It was near impossible but we got one, phew. Life can resume.
Try keeping 2 kids out of the water (insert evil laugh.) Henry was told he could only put his toes in. His pants kept getting rolled up higher & higher. Isn't Motherhood grand? Even when they don't listen, you just want to squeeze and love them to death. I love being a Mother. I love watching my children grow. I love all the questions that are asked. All the curiosities about the world they live in. I love all the Mama's in my life. Hope you had a wonderful day!

(most of my day was spent trying to keep this one from crawling in the ocean!)

xo

Our little Henry James is turning 4 very, very soon and we are throwing a party. He got the royal jip last year with his little sister being born a mere 6 days before his big day (which ended up not being a big day at all as you can imagine). So we are having a tepee party. I was making these invitations last night (while Chris was at Lebowski Fest; and yes he wore his bowling shirt) finding it hard to believe that it was nearly 4 years ago when he was born. I don't even remember where the tepee idea came from, but we are running with it. Not a lot of tepee party suggestions out there if you know what I mean, which means I'm going to have to put my thinking cap on to come up with something good. I have a few ideas up my sleeve, so we'll see. For sure there will be a big tepee for the kids to play in (what's a tepee party with no tepee??) I'm trying to think of some good party favors for the kids. I want to do handmade, and I want them to really enjoy it. It's a party for both boys and girls and there is a pretty good age range. Henry's not really into Indians (or cowboys) – it's just the tepee situation he digs. I'm pretty excited about it, actually. I want it to knock his socks off!

By the way, I think we are going to serve some type of baked beans (we are going bbq style) Do you have or know of a good recipe? Could you hook a girl up and email me if you do? Muchas gracias!

xo

A very good day at the farm today. The strawberries were perfect for picking and so sweet. We picked and ate, picked and ate, and then…ate some more! "You gotta twist then pull them off" he said. Wise, wise picking advice. The fields went on and on and when all was said and done I think nearly 10 lbs of strawberries were picked. Henry said, "Look Mom! It looks like Kates' face is on fire!!" I'm quite certain she ate her weight in strawberries. These wobbly, chubby, delicious little legs are slowly becoming strong enough to hold themselves up (I am in no rush, I will have you know!) Rolls and rolls and rolls, which she most certainly inherited from, ahem, her Mother. Watermelon popsicles, rosy red cheeks and tired but happy children made for a wonderful day out with friends.  We can't wait to do it again.

Strawberries that are finally in season and tasting oh so sweet. In-season fruit means extra delicious, bountiful and affordable. This here is our second case of mango's (at .33 cents each, we couldn't resist) I usually curl up with one on the couch, after the kids are fast asleep, peeling it with a pearing knife and putting the skins in a bowl. I've become quite skilled at getting every ounce of flesh off those babies. Summer, I am so glad you are right around the corner (although May is my most favorite month of the year). Nothing beats fresh fruit on hot Summer days.

Yesterday morning, we headed south along the PCH/Rte 1. You can see on the right hand side of this picture the road we traveled. It was a bit overcast all day and rainy in spots, but everything was still so beautiful. There were times when the ocean ran into the sky and you couldn't seperate the two. Our first stop was Big Sur which was about 30 miles south of the Inn we were staying at. Blink and you'll miss it. I think there were 2 places where you could stop and this was one of them. Here is a picture of the Big Sur River Inn. There was a fire burning and it smelled wonderful. A quick peek behind the Inn, and we discovered this: And this: We have decided that we absolutely must go back in the warm Summer months and sit in these adirondak chairs. We'll curl up with some good reads while the children splash around in the river. Perfection. We continued South with no real plan in place. This area reminded me so much of when we lived in Boston. One Summer we drove up to Portland, ME, put our car on the ferry, and traveled up to Nova Scotia. We spent about a week there, driving around the entire island (and up to Prince Edward Island, too). Anyway, it was the Western part of the island, I think Digby, the tall, tall trees nestled up next to the ocean.  Just south where the above picture was taken, we encounted a beach full of seals.  Hundreds and hundreds of seals. Just prior to getting here, I was also passed out in the car. Must be something in the air that makes everything and everyone want to take a nap. Yawn. Next up: Hearst Castle. That place is intense. I mean really intense. Gaudy? Absolutely. By the time we arrived here, there was a pretty steady rain. Henry & I were in flip-flops. Fantastic. Most of the tour took plaee indoors, which was a bummer, because the grounds were incredible. There were guest houses on the property (each around 6,000 sq ft) which were amazing and not quite so over the top. This is one of the guest houses and one of the few outdoor shots I have. Inside the guest house: The thing that was so fascinating about this castle is that it's in the middle of nowhere. In the early 19th century when this was built there was nothing around which meant that they had to build farms and plant vegetation in order to survive. There are cattle & dairy ranches, fruit trees, vegetable gardens, etc.,. on the premesis.  I love that. I wish I could grow everything I ate. Wouldn't that be great? Chicken coops for eggs, etc.,. This is the Venus Pool (you can see the raindrops hitting the water) and here is another indoor pool: You should google image the castle- there are amazing shot's there, too.

Now we are home and feeling rested and relaxed. The
trip was a much need calm before the storm.

Chris had a shoot in Carmel this week so we tagged along and drove up along the PCH on Wednesday. While he was working yesterday, I took the children to the Monterey Aquarium. I cant even think of the last time I was even at an aquarium. I’ve definitely never taken Henry, but this was amazing. It boasts that it’s the largest in the country and we got to see some really incredible things. We are off to Big Sur today so Ill leave you with some pictures of our day yesterday.