this fine day

[thisfinedayofours]

Beautiful Family Sunday

Family in a tree cave in Muir Woods.

We were looking for something fun to do as a family on Sunday, so we decided to blow off Maren's nap and head over to Mt. Tamalpais to introduce the girls to Muir Woods on a perfectly beautiful day.  We packed lunches and got us (and Mina) in the car and headed over the Richmond Bridge through Larkspur, where we saw they were hosting an Off the Grid event.  We opted to stop for lunch.  Sure beats the almonds, cheese and pretzels we had packed!

The girls still wanted their PB&Js (score!) and Mina was allowed to dine outside with us at the picnic tables.  Todd and I split some "sexy fries"(we can never pass those up) from Curryupnow and we also split some delicious fried chicken and donuts from The Architect's Kitchen.  Very nice pit stop!

CurryUpNow

Sexy Fries (criss cut sweet potato fries, cheese, paneer in curry yumminess).  So wonderfully tasty.

After our bellies were full we headed over to Muir Woods.  Parking was sort of half luck and half strategy.  Luckily after 20 minutes, we got a spot.  Mina had to hang out in the car for a bit because they don't allow dogs in the woods.  We did get info from the rangers on where we could take her when we were done exploring.  

Todd talking trees.

I found this very cool Quest of Muir Woods that I printed out and brought with us, so we could find the treasure at the end of our journey though the woods after we found all of our clues.  It really helped to keep the girls interested! We also found and printed out a Nature Scavenger Hunt List. Needless to say we were all fully engaged and amazed by the beauty Muir Woods holds, even if it seemed a bit like Disneyland for the forest (LOTS of tourists and visitors).

Maren practicing her pen skills.

Finding one of our clues.

Todd explaining tree age.

We did it!  We found our treasure after all our work collecting clues throughout the woods. Yay!

Proof!

After we found our big prize, smellled all the wonderful earthy smells and marveled at the old growth redwoods, we headed to Muir Beach, where dogs are free to play!  Family fun days have changed a bit since we've brought Mina into the family.  We have to make sure to find fun things we can all do together or find fun things to do in short spans of time, so Mina isn't left alone too long.  Because this was one of the only options for dogs near, this beach activity wasn't exactly planned. We had no sandals, no towels, no sand toys and no extra clothes.  This is why Maisy came home wearing one of my extra layers of clothes (litterally gave her one of the shirts off my back), Maren came home wearing leg warmers and panties.  Maisy, Maren and Mina all had a blast frolicking in the water.  Maren got a little ocean shy after a wave crept up on her and she lost her balance as the wave rolled out and she requested to be held the rest of the time.  We still don't trust Mina off-leash yet, but she happily played in the water and attempted to chase other dogs (ummm- that's why we don't let her off leash yet!).

Trying to get a picture of all of us.  Nearly impossible.

Getting acquainted with the ocean.

Totally into playing fearlessly in the pretty darn cold waves.

Mina enjoying the sea breeze.

Running for the waves!

A boy and his dog in the late afternoon.

We were tuckered after a long day- 

Car nap, mid carrot and all.

We decided to let Whole Foods cook us dinner with a roasted chicken, we didn't do the dishes and just hung out until early bedtime. Perfect ending to a perfect Sunday.

[thisfinedayofours]

My Dolly Valentine

I was again inspired by Pinterest.  I saw these stick dolls and thought, what a great activity!  

I picked up a box of craft sticks at Target and I had a pile of stained up clothes in my closet from the girls that I've been saving for an activity just like this!  I'm so happy to finally be putting them to use.  We got out some glue, pens and crayons and we were in the lovey doll making business.  

Creative re-use of older clothes!

Maren getting going on her doll.

Maisy gluing on a bathing suit to her doll.

About 3 dolls in I had the spectacular idea to make enough for Maisy to give out to each one of her friends at pre-school for Valentine's Day.  I'm taking the easy way out and not labeling each doll per child. Any doll can be show love and be loved by any classmate!  

She is over half-way done writing "LOVE MAISY" on the back of each doll.  She loved designing the clothes for the dolls and Maren was pretty good at drawing the legs and some hair.  She was especially good at guiding me in which colors I should be making the eyes, nose, hair, etc.  Over all super fun (and productive!) activity for all!!

Happy early Valentine's Day, Love Maisy and Maren!!

[thisfinedayofours]

Homemade Lotion Bars by Maren and Mom

I found this idea to make lotion bars cruising pinterest when I ran across this post from blogger Frugal by Choice, Cheap by Necessity.  I used her idea and changed the ingredients around a bit to make our own version.  This is the first big girl activity I've done with only two and a half year old Maren.  She really enjoyed measuring and watching the wax and oil melt.  She is slightly obsessed with lotioning up now, but at least she's got hydrated skin!

Note: Disregard the Vanilla Extract in the photo above-  Lame!  I for some reason thought I could make it smell vanilla-y with it. You can't- it's a liquid and liquids and oils don't mix. Duh!  I did end up remaking that batch and adding lavendar oil.  That worked perfectly!  It's kind of what's so great about this activity.  If it doesn't turn out the way you like, re-melt it and add some more of whatever you like!

We went shopping for our goods locally.  I found a wonderful honey shop in Oakland called Bee Healthy Honey Shop.  They have hives in the Oakland and Berkeley hills and will even come remove swarms from your home and re-home them in their hives or heck you can take a bee keeping class with them if that's your thing.   We bought a brick of bees wax for only $10 and the girls got free honey sticks.  Yum.

I noticed a few doors down there was a shop that boasted Shea Butter for sale, so we went on into Sami African Imports and bought a container of shea butter for $7.  

I picked up some Grapeseed Oil and Vitamin E from Trader Joes.  We had Coconut Oil at home already, so we were ready to go!  

You can make as much or as little as you want.  Just use equal proporions of your main components. I used:

1 C Bees Wax

1 C Shea Butter

1 C Coconut Oil

1/4 C Vitamin E

1/4 C Grapeseed Oil

Quite a few drops of Lavendar Oil

This made 14 medium muffin sized bars.

 Bees Wax

Measuring out our Shea Butter.

I don't have a double boiler, which is ideal for this, but instead, I just placed a pan over a pot of boiling water (top pot not touching water).  In my second round when I had to re-do my messed up vanilla bars, I used a glass pyrex measuring cup on top of a metal veggie steamer in a pan with a bit of water boiing water below.  You can be creative.

Melt your bees wax.  It looks dark and the more you melt it and re melt it the "cleaner" looking it gets. Add in your second ingredient, melt, add your third ingredient, melt, add your oils- stir.

I warmed a glass pyrex measuring cup in the microwave and poured my liquid mixure into that to have more control when pouring the hot wax into the silicone molds. I poured away and then put them in the refrigerator to set for a couple of hours.  After they were set, they popped right out and were ready to use.

Ta-da!!  Pretty inexpensive natural lotion bars!  My hands have been so dry this winter- this works like a charm.  To use the lotion bar, rub the bar until it warms slightly and the lotion comes right off on your skin. I am keeping mine on my kitchen counter on a cute little dish.  I've put my "extras" in cute little bags to give to a few friends and storing the rest in a big Ziplock bag.

Yay, for getting rid of dragon hands!

[thisfinedayofours]

Martin Luther King Jr. Day AND Inauguration Day- how we rolled

What a beautiful day for many reasons- one of them being the fabulous clear and warm weather!

I started the day off with a brisk early morning run with puppy, Mina.  It was a nice quiet time in Berkeley as we trotted down MLK just after sunrise to contemplate just how far we all have come.

After I got back home, the activities started.  The girls worked on coloring pages of Martin Luther King Jr. to learn about his messages.

Maisy made a book of his teachings and added her own dreams to the end.

 Maren coloring pink accents onto MLK.

Maisy said that she thought Mina's dream is that everyone would get their own bone.

People of ANY color will be treated equally.

Maisy's Dream Messages: "Everybody would be safe, Everybody would be respectful of each other. Everybody would be kind and nice.  Everybody would find love (in their own time) and be friends. Everybody to be helpful to each other."

After a bit we took a break for breakfast and to watch President Obama's inauguration.  What a birthday present to MLK!  Can you imagine how proud he would be?  We certainly were!

The girls marveling at all the folks there to watch.

Maisy showing Maren who President Obama is.

Proud girls.

We then kicked it into high gear to get over to San Francisco to join the march/parade leaving the Caltrain Depot heading over to Yerba Buena Gardens for an MLK Day celebration.  It was a fun walk full of energy with friends.

Maren and Maisy getting their snack on just prior to leaving for our march.

The fun crowd, singing songs and marching together to remember all the important marches that took place before us.

After lunch we headed over to the Museum at the Mint at 5th and Mission to check out the museum. They had free admisson and a special Martin Luther King Jr. exhibit today.  The museum is a wonderful building and the girls loved checking it out.  They are trying to raise funds to have it open more often and to have better exhibits.

The girls watching Martin Luther King Jr. speak.

Showing love.

Maisy standing in a vault.

Maren AND Maisy standing in a vault at the Mint.

Maisy excited at the open space and art dollars. Maren hiding.

Maisy checking out old minted coins.

Maren checking out old minted coins.

Nap time was next!  Whew- what a fun day to celebrate being an American, big or small!

[thisfinedayofours]

Merry Christmas Card Creation!

The card sitting on our table.

I had a lot of fun creating our Christmas card this year.  As many of you know, Maisy (4 1/2 yrs old), is an avid drawer.  She is pretty talented, if we do say so ourselves.  The idea came to me to use some of her drawings of family members and then attach actual photos of our heads to the bodies. I then tried my hand at Photoshop on my own, which did not go so well.  Todd, my design genius of a husband, gave me great pointers at home and over the phone the next day, while he was trying to work.  After about 8 hours my masterpiece was finished.  I was very proud to be able to learn Photoshop enough to do this in less than 24 hrs! I was also endlessly impressed with Todd's gentle teachings and patience. 

One thing, besides how fun these are, I totally love is that we did not have the pressure this year of trying to get the "perfect" photo to put on a card.  It's nearly impossible to get us in coordinating outfits, all looking at the camera and smiling, especially with a crazy puppy all at the same time! This took all of that stress completely away!

The jpeg image of the card.

The inside of the card.

The back of the card.  Maisy had drawn a picture of a chicken Santa Claus.  No idea why, but I thought it was hilarious.  Happy Clucking Holidays!

After I created and combined all the images in Photoshop, I exported them as jpegs, uploaded them to Shutterfly and put the images on a blank card. Each body was on a different piece of paper, so there was a lot of scanning, cutting, pasting and re-sizing.

The things I learned:  Print a version to look at prior to sending it to print. Maren's head is a bit tiny. It looked fine to me on the computer screen, but not so much on the card (oh well).  Next, I would have said the art work is by Maisy.  I'm sure most folks who know us would have guessed that, but I probably should have said it too.  All in all- I'm thrilled with our cards this year!  Now I'll have to get super creative to see how to top it for next year.

Happy Christmas and a Merry Holiday to you!

[thisfinedayofours]

Our first Cookie Rama

Posted from: CA, USA

WE HAVE THE BEST NEIGHBORS, EVER!

Debra and Anne-  You're the best.  Thank you!!

Debra and Anne our wonderful neighbors, with the beautiful tulip garden each spring, knew our girls were finally old enough to participate in COOKIE RAMA!  

These lovely neighbors bake thousands of cookies each year to bring to each household in the neighborhood.  One type of cookie they bake is a sugar cookie which needs decorating.  I had these images of Debra and Anne staying up all hours for days to decorate the cookies.  This year I found out their secret! They invite their friends, family and the neighborhood kids over to host a huge cookie decorating party, complete with pizza and drinks!

Let the decorating begin.

Decorating round 2.

Really getting into it!

Neighborhood kids gathered on the porch swing in the dining room.

There was such a wonderful feeling of community, friendship and thankfulness.  The girls had a great time. I was a cookie runner, so I got to see all of the fabulous cookies as they were being completed and set out to dry. COOKIE RAMA made each one of our days!

There were over 3 tables double stacked with frosted cookies, over 1564 in all and that was ONLY the FROSTED cookies (there were other varieties as well!!).

That stack in the back is just a peek at all the cookies that were to be frosted.

They also had bins and bins of other baked cookies.  We were all sent home with a heaping plate of cookies and a Christmas ornament for each girl to remember our experience by.  So far the holiday season is off to a very jolly start!!

Close up of the marvelously decorated cookies.

One table of cookies.

Another two tables of cookies.

We already can't wait until next year- it's already on our calendar!

[thisfinedayofours]

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving.  We wish we could thank each and every person in our lives personally to let them know how grateful we are to have them as a part of our world, but in the interest of actually getting this bird cooked- this fancy dancing bird will have to do!

[thisfinedayofours]

Our Happy Halloween- The Wizard of Oz meets Star Wars!

Posted from: CA, USA

This year our family theme was a mash-up.  The Wizard of Oz meets Star Wars.  It was very fun to plan.  

HansScarecrow poses with Glinda-Leia the Good Princess of the North.

Maren as Yoda-Lollipop Guild- she welcomes you to muchkin land she does.

This is Dorothy-Vader, though she refused to wear the Vader part.  I was happy just to have her dressed.  She wanted to switch and be Hello Kitty at the last minute and that was just not going to happen!  She thought she could sweeten the deal by being a mash up of Dorothy and Hello Kitty. That also was not going to happen.

Our festivities started the day before Halloween where the girls designed pumpkins and Todd and I executed the design.  Maren's has the mustache (at her request). Maisy's was scary with lots of hair.  I'm sure you can guess which parent did which pumpkin....

The girls and Todd making scary faces. Maren exclaiming, "I did it!"

Maisy's icky scary pumkin hands!

Girls posing with their finished Jack O' Lanterns.

  After pumpkins it was time for a bath.  This is where things got really gory.  Maisy was protesting the washing of her hair, when she shifted rapidly in the tub, where her chin met directly with the back side of the tub.  Gashes and blood, oh my! We quickly got the kids out of the tub and Maisy and I hurried to the ER.  Two hours later we were home with 3 stitches and a Dora Band Aid.

Maisy relaxing with an iPhone.   The ER aint no thang to her!

She was super brave!!

The next day went on as a normal Halloween day. Gymastics, Halloween Party at Todd's work, School, cooking for the potluck, carpool, dressing up, Block Party then Trick or Treating. Getting dressed was rough. Both girls were beat and emotions were running high. At one point I threatened to call a babysitter and have Halloween without them. Luckily they pulled it together, because that was a threat I don't think I could have actually pulled off. To get them calm I offered them a flashy piece from my jewelry collection. They thought they were sooo special. It was the key to serenity, until I had just put on my 80's prom dress I had ordered from Ebay when Maren fell face first onto my jewelry box and split her lip. She was fine after I offered up her lollipop to her. My poor dress that had survived 20 years since the 80s was not so lucky and now has blood stains on it after me wearing it a mere 45 seconds. Oh well.

Trick or Treat!

"Look at what I have!!"

Needless to say we all pulled it together and headed out to the evening's festivities! All in all we had Halloween success. I do wish we had gotten a family picture.... maybe next year.

Now what to do with all the candy!? I wanted to throw it all out, but it seemed so wasteful, so, I gave the girls 2 small bowls for them to pick out their most favorite pieces.  The rest we decided to ship off to our lovely hard working and brave service men and women in Afghanistan. Sugar problem solved in a very happy way.

[thisfinedayofours]

Dirty Girl Mud Run 2012!!

This weekend was a huge vacation and a fun filled adventure packed into only 2 days.  I had the extreme pleasure of a girls weekend away (in Pleasanton) with 5 fabulous girls I've known for a decade!  It was an amazing relaxing weekend.

We did the Dirty Girl Mud Run San Jose (Pleasanton).   It's a 5K (we think) run and muddy obstacle course for women.  It was beyond fun.  It was a huge play ground.  We challenged our ideas of being tidy, we challenged our bodies in the obstacle course, we lifted each other up and supported our friends to accomplish this super fun (and really not too hard) course!  I'm already looking forward to doing something like this again.  It was just fun to PLAY and laugh!!  Our team was named Chicas Sucias (Dirty Girls in Spanish).

The before run shot.

First MUD.

Most of us just left our shoes there....

Climbing the wall.

Making it over!!

YES!! That was fun!

Let's do this again.

I was super surprised and so happy to see Todd and the girls at the finish line.  I had no idea they were coming. Maisy and Maren were very leary of me and super quiet.  Maisy's first question was shyly, "Where did you get that shirt?  Where did you get those pants?"  I'm sure she was quite baffled at why I was so darn dirty, when I'm always trying to keep them from getting so darn messy. It was really funny.

To top it off, we girls stayed in a hotel suite in a hotel with a pool and relaxed in a hot tub sipping drinks after the race.  It was pure relaxation!

Love my ladies!  Thank you coming out to get a little dirty!!  And to Todd- thanks for being so encouraging and being super dad while I was away.  Boy did I need this weekend, whew!

[thisfinedayofours]

Temescal Alley Finds...

Posted from: CA, USA

Maisy and I had the most serendipitous adventure in the Temescal Alleys this afternoon.  I've been meaning to check this area out for some time and I just happened to remember that Doughnut Dolly was here as I mentioned to Maisy we should pick up some treats, so we stopped in.

We headed into the first alley (I didn't know at the time there were two alleys) and we entered shops and looked around at the rare finds.  Next we stumbled upon an art gallery, Mission: Interface Gallery. 

The folks inside were so kind and really just wanted Maisy to experience art.  They graciously invited us to enter and loved answering all of Maisy's questions about what they were doing and why.  They were working on a bench peice that was embellished by any person who felt like leaving their mark. Maisy was thrilled at the idea of getting to create litterally on a table!  We stayed for quite some time and her additions became more and more interesting.  

As we were leaving Maisy asked if she could write on our table at home.  I said, in fact, she could not, she thought she had the solution next- that she could just write on the chairs.  I told her again, this is, in fact, not the case.  Then she really found the proper answer.  I know, for Christmas, I want my very own table that I can draw on and stuff and make really pretty.  Yes.  Perhaps we can work that out. :-)  I love where we live!

We did make it over to the second alley and of course, Doughnut Dolly was totally out of doughnuts, but that's okay, we didn't mind, that just means we'll have to come back!

[thisfinedayofours]

Disney On Ice!

We were lucky enough to come up on 5 tickets to Disney on Ice- 100 Years of Magic thank you to pals at  510 Families. Thank you!!

Our friends, Juna and Sara, joined us on our adventure.  We didn't tell the girls where we were going, just that it involved BART and Disney.  

Gazing out the window of the BART train wondering where we are going.

Of course they thought we were either going to Disneyland (oops) or grandparents' houses (all grandparents live over 400 miles away at least!).  We arrived at the Oakland Coliseum BART station- and they were not yet impressed-  as soon as we got to the door at the Oracle Arena though, and the Disney schwag was apparent they got all giddy!

It was super fun to see the surprise on their faces!

Thrilled to be seeing Disney on Ice!

Waiting for the show to start.

The older girls were completely entertained the entire time, for about an hour and 45 minutes from start to finish including intermission.  

Juna on the edge of her seat.

Maisy enjoying the show with some popcorn.

Maren (2 yrs) got a bit restless after intermission, but Jelly Belly's helped to keep her cool.  The show was quite entertaining.  My personal favorites were the Toy Story army men and the Small World act.  Sara's favorite were the Mulan costumes. Maisy's favorite was The Lion King number and Juna's favorite was all the Princesses.  The strangest costumes of all were the Nemo fish costumes.  I think they could have used a bit more work, but the show overall, was really fun!

The finale.

The girls ran down for a closer look at the characters at the end of the show...

After the show we decided to push our luck and go to lunch.  We stopped off at 19th St. and headed to Rudy's Can't Fail Cafe, where hungry and tired girls kinda ate lunch.  We got out of there and back home, just in time for Maren's nap!  What a great lead into the weekend.

[thisfinedayofours]

Puppy Madness!

Posted from: CA, USA

Oh the learning curve!!  

We'd read all the books and articles we thought we needed to- we bought all of our supplies, but nothing prepared us for really being new puppy parents.

Thank goodness Mina is all kinds of adorable and a real lovey.... because having a puppy is some serious work and can cause a bit of frustration, but we are getting better each day.  Luckily she sleeps well at night (unless she has the runs and I am up every hour- YAWN!) and she likes to take long naps a few times a day (which I've tried to take full advantage of).

The first week has been filled with many puddles, lots of TV for the kids and simple meals.  

Crate training is okay, if you mean that she likes her crate.  She does.  She even likes to poop there.  Awesome.  So we are trying to re-train that. 

She is really smart though, we had our first puppy class at Bravo!Pup.  Mina is the youngest (and cutest) in the class.  She already has "sit", "sit/stay", "Mina!" and "down" all down.   She's a sucker for boiled chicken breast as treats!

The picture is kind of funny, none of these willing participants look to be enjoying themselves, but they did.

Today she had her first bath at home.  Maren was a fantastic helper and fed her chicken the entire time to train her that baths are fun!

It was lots of fun to watch her zoom all around after she got dried and brushed.  She was a crazy ball of puppy energy!

We have left her for a bit at home alone, the first time she some how escaped her crate.  Today, she escaped her puppy play pen and was roaming free and greeted us excitedly at the door.  Thank goodness we only found one puddle in and "acceptable" spot and no chewing up of any human items!

She's getting pretty good at "going potty" on command when we take her out.  We hope this continues!  It seems that each day brings a new adventure and a new learning experience!

[thisfinedayofours]

We adopted a most wonderful puppy today~ Welcome, Mina!!

Posted from: CA, USA

It's been months and months in the planning and the waiting for the right puppy.  We've had her room all ready along with all her puppy needs.  I spent two days cleaning and scrubbing and sanitzing.  I don't think I've ever had a house this sparkly.  I hope Mina appreciates the effort!  I was so very nervous about her catching Parvo, but thankfully our breeder talked me down today!

Mina's "room".

Maisy and Todd meeting with Mina.

Bringing Mina home.

This afternoon we finally were able to welcome 8 week old Mina into our family.  She is a beautiful Authentic Australian Labradoodle from the super fabulous breeder at Golden Gate Labradoodles. We are over joyed and slightly overwhelmed!  It was definitely a pizza night, the girls went to bed early and we've so far had 3 puddles in the house, but also a couple of successes outside!  The first couple of hours at home were definitely a bit chaotic.  I'm so thankful that Todd has tomorrow off from work!

Trying to get a clear close up is difficult in the low evening light!  Puppies sure like to move!

We have no real plans this week except to stay home and get to know our new family member and to let her get to know us.  Lilly, our six year old cat, and Mina met and Mina growled and barked. Lilly just looked at her amazed at how cats have changed....

Mina and Lilly checking eachother out for the second time.  It went much better, with little to no sounds at all being made by either party, just a lot of curiousity!

We are being very dilligent with her training and she starts puppy training classes at Bravo Pup next Sunday.  

Mina with her antler.

The girls love Mina and are needing to be reminded that Mina needs her space and they are so far being receptive to this.  We are keeping all eyes on Mina to make sure everyone, including Mina, are safe.

Staring up so intensely at Todd.

Mina enjoyed playing outside with all of us in between attempts to potty. She is a super lover and just wants to be close to us.

Maren trying to start a game of fetch.

One huge shout out to the authors of the Puppy Whisperer!  We found ourselves just sitting there holding Mina because she'd cry if we weren't right next to her.  Todd and I looked at each other and we *knew* this is not at all what we should be doing!  We turned to our trusty book and low and behold the answers came. We are now all lined up cozy and either napping or watching TV- Lilly on the arm of the couch (napping), me, Todd and Mina (napping) in her crate on the floor at Todd's right. We've so far survived.  Step two, is getting her to pee OUTSIDE!  And big step three, sleeping through the night (I know this takes time).

I have down all the places to take your kids and all the activities for kiddos, now I need to get all the same information on awesome stuff to do with your dog!  Yes, we are now dog people!

More updates on our adventurous life with a new puppy, a cat and two young kids later!!

[thisfinedayofours]

Our Fall Activity

Posted from: CA, USA

This was a nice activity that took us quite a few steps to complete!  It was nice because it kept us occupied for a nice chunk of time.

The activity was initially inspired by elsiemarley.com. 

We started out by hunting for treasure leaves around the neighborhood.  The girls both loved this!

After we got back home, we went through our leaves to find the best ones.  

We then cleaned them off and I put the leaves that we wanted to hang for art through the laminating machine. Maisy got out some origami paper and wanted to include that in the activity, so I traced a few leaves and cut them out and laminated them along with our real leaves.  I then cut out all the laminated leaves and the girls chose which fall leaves they wanted in their rooms.  I then armed them with tape and let them decorate how they wished.

Maren prefered to line them up nicely.

Maisy prefered to make hers into a full blown tree using the rest of her art work as the trunk.  (She got a little into it!)

And that was a nice introduction to fall!

[thisfinedayofours]

Healdsburg and wine tasting with kids

Posted from: CA, USA

Todd and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary this weekend.  We took a mini-honeymoon right after we were married to the Healdsburg area and thought we'd return again, this time with the kids. This sounded like a lovely idea at the time.  In retrospect, I think I'd find weekend babysitting for the children as wine tasting isn't as fun with children, if you can believe that!

Tips that did work for us though:

1.  Rent a house with some rooms and a yard!  We rented a small cottage with two bedrooms and a cute garden off the back of the house.  The accomodations weren't glamorous, but they did the job. We used VBRO to book our rental.

They had ripe grapes on the vine and invited us to pick and eat all we want from their veggies and their flower gardens! 

The girls really enjoyed exploring.

The house we rented had a lot of chickens on the property and they left us a beautful dozen of farm fresh organic eggs! 

This was the hard part- the girls are used to sleeping in their own separate bedrooms at home.  So getting them to do this:

Took a bit of work and ups and downs and a lot of she's touching me's and a couple of hours.  In the thick of it, we were questioning our logic for making this a weekend instead of a day trip!  Thankfully the second night went a little better.

2.  We selected wineries based on them having space and something for the kids to do!

Preston winery has a large organic garden, tons of friendly cats and shady picnic benches.  This was a win.  It did not work well to have the girls in the tasting room as there was way too much stuff to touch in there, so we sat them outside with cupcakes from Moustache Baked Goods while Todd and I took turns going in for mini tastes.  We had the pumpkin woopie pie with cream cheese filling, a strawberry jam cream cheese cupcake and a chocolate cupcake filled with gooey carmel with chocolate frosting and seasalt.  We all shared.  It was sooo too delicious!

We brought drawing utensils to pass the time on the grounds.  And that was it for wineries that day. We were also very cautious about how many sips we had and only had one glass of wine out during our tasting trip to make sure we were all safe.

The next day we learned about Bella Wine Caves from a family we met.  They apparently are VERY family friendly and have activities and coloring pages for the kids to do on the weekends.  If we ever go to the Dry Creek area again with children, we will definitely stop here!

3.  Let the kids be kids.We made sure to stop at a super fun park, Giorgi Park, on our way home to let the kids wind down.  

4.  Try to eat kid friendly, but still enjoy!  We took them to dinner at a restaurant called Campo Fina, which was very tasty and offered the kids chalk boards to draw on.  There is also a bocce ball court out back!

Keeping the tots entertained.

Margherita pizza and prosecco! Yum.  We then headed home and made our plan for the next day.

3.  Plot out your routes and think ahead (snacks, treats, toys, lunch)!  We stopped at Jim Town on our way to Alexander Valley Vineyards and White Oak Winery.

Showing off their lollypops!

Jim Town is cute eclectic little store and deli with a killer Brisket sandwich!  We ate soo much delicious food to always make sure we had plenty of food in our bellies.  Wine and an empty belly is no good!  We let the girls pick out a lollypop that they were allowed to have a Alexander Valley.

Enjoying their lollies.  After they finished their lollies, they played with a huge pile of corks and stacked and counted them and knocked them over and built again!

4.  Look for other kids!  The only other winery we went to happened to have a very nice young boy in it!  He was excited to see other kids, so we brought out our backpack of toys and the kids all played very nicely together while eating bunny grahams.

The winery had a really pretty fountain outside that the kids loved playing in and around.  That was a plus.

Other than the above listed items, we walked around downtown Healdsburg and popped into shops that looked interesting and checked out the town square and ate more and more!

Now I feel like I need another mini-vacation!!

[thisfinedayofours]

Bug Hunting and mobile learning

Posted from: CA, USA

Just as I did with Maisy at 2, I'm now starting to teach Maren her letters.  One letter a day.  We are currently on G.

It's re-inspired me to do a bit more home teaching with the girls, so today we went bug hunting.  I know totally not G related, I can only be so organized!  So I gathered our tools which included 2 magnifying glasses, a bug keeper, 2 ant anatomy coloring sheets and colors.  We took a long walk on the way to drop Maisy off at school and did this fun bug activity on the way.  It really helped to fill up the morning.  I'm still trying to find my balance of what do to each day since Maisy's school hours have moved to pm.

We started out digging and looking under leaves, in damp places and under rocks after our walk to the park.  Unfortunately we only found tiny little ants.  We should have stayed home, we have tons of critters in our garden, but I was looking for an adventure and well, I suppose when you adventure, you don't always know what you'll find.  We found ants. 

Maisy looking at her captured ant.

After trying to find more bugs, but finding none, we moved on to coloring our ant worksheet printed from the California Academy of Sciences.

The basic lesson was to learn about a bug's habitat (outside in nature), where we may be likely to find bugs (apparently not at this park, but usually under rocks, in shade, under ground etc.), what bugs are good for (helping to break down waste, making more dirt and sometimes helping more flowers to grow) and the main components of the body (head, thorax- where the legs join the body, and the abdomen).

Then they played a bit.  

Then they colored a bit.

Then played a bit.

The wagon worked out perfectly as a mobile little learning station giving the kids a flat surface to do their work on while also being functional and allowing me to take Maisy to school over a mile away in style.  Almost every person we passed immediately grinned upon seeing the girls being pulled down the street in a cute red wagon.

One older gentleman commented, "Aren't you glad you are home to be able to do this?"  I answered with a smile, "Yes, I am glad."

[thisfinedayofours]

Our Maren turns TWO!

"It's my party and I'll be cute if I want to"

With only one day to prepare after we arrived home from vacation, the party was on!  

We started off the birthday weekend with dinner at Fenton's on Friday night.   Maren clug to Dad as the restaurant sang Happy Birthday.  So sweet!

We had the party at home the very next day.  This time we had the food catered!  Both brilliant ideas.  I did bake the cake myself (with some help of a gal we'll call Betty), wich actually looked and tasted really yummy!  Yay us!!

We bought a bubble machine and turned the carport into a bubble dance party.  Sidewalk chalk, some musical instruments, a parachute and some ride-on toys completed the entertainment.

Bubble grooving.

Reid and the parachute.

Velia and Maren being artsy.

The backyard portion of the party.

We opted to wait until after nap time for Maren to open her gifts.   She was very studious and took great notes, so we knew who to thank for such thoughtful gifts.

We were very pleased that she was completely amazed by the musical jewelry box we got her.

"Oh wow"

"hmm"

"Look at that!"

All of the gifts were incredibly thoughtful and will be loved and appreciated!  Mostly we appreciate all of the friends and family that have helped us celebrate one very special little girl.