Weekending!

October 21, 2013 by Summer

We made the trek out to the hills of Los Angeles this weekend for an awesome pumpkin carving party my cousins were throwing. What a fun, lovely, festive day! Ellie thoroughly enjoyed the pumpkin patch (climbing the hay bales), bobbing for apples, the puppies (yes, they had puppies!) and the incredible array of food and desserts. It was a lot of fun for all of us and so very nice to catch up with cousins, family and friends, whom I hadn’t seen in quite a long time. Sunday was spent mostly lazing about. I got some early morning writing accomplished sipping tea on the porch. There was some cleaning and some laundry sprinkled in and some dancing to the Beatles and Otis Redding albums with Auntie Lindsey. A new garden was planted (I’ll talk about that in more detail sometime this week) and we ended the evening with Daddy reading books with Eloise and Mama getting some reading in as well (I’m reading Irving’s Legend Of Sleepy Hollow, just in time for Halloween). It was a lovely weekend all in all. How was yours?

-joining Amanda with Weekending!

Weekending!

October 14, 2013 by Summer

We attended another festival this weekend. Jeff really wanted to check out the Seaside Highland Games and even though it didn’t sound like something I would be into, I decided to check it out anyway. It was a very fun morning and Ellie enjoyed all the animals (Highland cows and sheep herding dogs). And I have to admit, it was fun seeing all the men in skirts as well. Sunday morning we took a trip to the local pumpkin patch up the street and had a very fun day picking pumpkins, seeing more farm animals and letting Ellie explore, explore, explore.

How was your weekend?

– joining Amanda at The Habit!

Weekending!

October 7, 2013 by Summer

We were very busy this weekend! Jeff and I got out for our first post baby date. We wanted to celebrate our anniversary by heading down to Santa Barbara and trying out the relatively new Relais de Paris restaurant on State Street. On our honeymoon, four years before, we had fallen in love with the original restaurant in Paris. At the original restaurant, they served one thing, steak and frites and oh my goodness, the meal was the best thing I had ever had. We both ended up going back several times as well as visiting the Relais de Venise in New York City a few years back. So naturally, we were very excited for this date. My mom and dad took Ellie for a few hours (they came to SB with us and walked around and kept Miss Ellie busy while we lunched). It was so very nice and the food was just like I remembered it! Sunday Jeff, Ellie, Auntie Lindsey and I spent a very nice morning at the Avocado Festival. It was a fun, busy day with a fun, busy toddler paving the way for us. In between, we did a lot of playing (especially on and around our new table and read some new library books too).

How was your weekend?

-joining Amanda over at The Habit.

Weekending!

September 30, 2013 by Summer

A weekend filled with Oatmeal Pancakes (my Grandmother’s special recipe) and chai tea.

Early morning zoo visits in the “pack a pack” and seeing the giraffe babies and Mama.

The end of summer garden bounty was collected. The garden cleared out for new winter plans.

An abundance of lemons and oranges and hot peppers were picked and put out for neighbors to bring home if they so liked. It was fun watching people walk or drive by and smile when they saw the “free” sign.

Banjo’s were practiced.

Early morning books were read to Char Char as she sat close to the heater and to Ellie.

Pretend play with stuffed vegetables and strainers.

The most amazing zucchini muffins were made again.

Pumpkins we grew ourselves (not that well) were picked and explored and then given to “pink baby” to rest her tired dolly body against (and yes, that is a hand-sewn rainbow jumper Pink Baby is sporting. Her regular attire was sadly splashed with baby pee and so we had to come up with transitional outfit. I think it suits her just fine).

The light shone just right to remind us that even though it’s hot and dry, the daylight hours are changing, signaling that fall is here.

A quick, but glorious weekend! How was yours?

– joining in with the lovely Amanda over at The Habit!

Weekending!

September 23, 2013 by Summer

A pretty low-key weekend again. We are all still getting healthy from a head cold that made its way through the house, so we decided to take it easy. Lots of reading of board books around these parts. I do declare, we have a lover of books around these parts. We did however head out to the next town over to bring back a special early Christmas present back for Jeff. A banjo. He’s been wanting one for a while now and we found one this weekend at a price we couldn’t pass up. He’s been practicing all weekend and loving it! And I have to say, it’s always been on my “perfect husband list” to marry a man who played an instrument. Now, hopefully in a few months I can cross that off the list and declare him “the perfect husband”.

We spent the morning, after picking up the banjo in town, walking around and milling about. Ellie’s new favorite thing is pushing her umbrella stroller around (she LOVES umbrella strollers and ONLY umbrella strollers. Don’t try to stick her in anything else, unless it’s Gramma and Grandpa’s push car).

Sunday was spent reading and relaxing and then a special dinner at my parents house. A lovely dinner, a lovely walk afterward and a lovely weekend over all.

How was your weekend spent?

-joining Amanda at The Habit!

Weekending!

September 16, 2013 by Summer

A low key weekend. Friend’s First Birthday parties. Lots of practicing the art of walking. Wanting to take walks with Daddy in the “pack pack”. Wanting Pink Baby to ride in the “pack pack”. Wearing Pink Baby in her very own rainbow wrap. Real baby sleeps in Mama’s rainbow wrap… Very Good weekend.

How was yours? joining Amanda over at The Habit!

Weekending: Labor Day Edition!

September 2, 2013 by Summer

A scattered set of pictures throughout the weekend. Jeff and his sister (and Linus our shepherd mix) returned from their camping trip up north just in time for the three-day weekend. Our days have been rather lazy and chill (well, as chill as can be with an almost 13 month old). Hot days with the fans blowing. Lots of time in the kiddie pool, sun tea, yard sailing (I scored those lovely pottery pieces at an estate sale as well as several great books for our home library). Fantastic early morning skies and coolish morning walks. There were visits to new coffee joints and lots of reading books (both alone in a basket and with family). Ellie is practicing her walking any chance she gets. And we had my parents over for an impromptu Labor Day dinner, complete with grass-fed tri tip, potato casserole, broccoli and baked beans. I made some peanut butter fudge and fudgey corn flake balls for dessert and we ended the night with a wagon walk to help a certain someone fall asleep. It’s weekends like this one that remind me of the beauty in the every day. I am grateful for days like these… How was your weekend?

-joining Amanda over at The Habit!

Weekending!

August 25, 2013 by Summer

It was a quick, sunny, nice weekend. Jeff and his sister went to the Red Sox/Dodgers game so we spent the day with Gramma and Grandpa. They of course spoil their little grand baby rotten (i.e. new push car toy)! We had such a nice day with them! We discovered “noses” this past week and finding everyone’s (including the dogs’). I got Ellie’s hair pulled back in two pig tails for the first time and oh my, she is darling with pig tails! I think she thinks so too. Sunday was a lazy day with walks downtown, cookies and iced chai’s in the afternoon and a tired-but-happy-she-got-to-go-with-us bulldog. The house is in ruins and laundry is piling up. I have a long week ahead of me. But thank goodness for lazy weekends. How was your weekend?

-joining the lovely Amanda over at The Habit!

Weekending!

August 19, 2013 by Summer

It was an artsy weekend! The weather was dreary again in Ventura so we headed north looking for some sun and found it in Santa Barbara. We decided to spend a morning at the Museum of Art since Ellie had done so well at the Natural History Museum. And once again, she seemed to enjoy every bit of the museum experience. We didn’t get to take too many pictures in this museum (museum rules) but she would point to different pieces of art, “neighed” at the sculptures of horses and looked on, wide eyed at the strange modern and installation pieces. We even got to add her name to a children’s sculpture in the children’s art exploration area (and no, there is no 5 in Eloise. I stamped the wrong stamp).

We also enjoyed a nice afternoon at a local art walk (plus the sun was out in our neck of the woods finally)! There were all types of artists working on chalk sidewalk art, live music and other art vendors. A nice ending to our artsy weekend. How about you? How was your weekend?

-joining Amanda for weekending!

Weekending!

August 12, 2013 by Summer

We had a wonderful weekend and spent a very special Sunday down in Santa Barbara at the Museum of Natural History. We had never been and found a real treasure! It was very child-friendly and Ellie seemed to just devour every new room we brought her into. There were areas for her to crawl around within the museum and there were children’s books about certain subjects (like insects) in many of the rooms as well. We got to see mammals of North America, birds, giant squid, minerals, real live insects and Ellie explored their tinker-toy lab which she thoroughly enjoyed. There was an amazing outdoor area with rocks to climb on and sticks to build with and even a little stream with buckets for children to fill water and rocks with. It was a lovely place to visit and I’m certain we will return.

*joining Amanda for Weekending!