Monday, September 30, 2013

6 & 3

Somehow I now have a six year old and a three year old...when did this happen?! I swear, I hear that Taylor Swift song about being 22 and it was like it was yesterday... Can't hardly believe I am a mother to three girls, one of whom is now in school doing actual homework. 
We just had a little party at our house for this year's celebration. 

Love the expression on Aili's face on that one!
The kids were way into the sweets...the amount of sugar consumed by Lu alone was absurd. 
She ate *most* of these, yet still didn't puke....? I mean she knocked back a ton of marshmallows, plus more than one (actually maybe more than 3) cupcakes, plus god only knows what else. She kinda camped out by the food table all night and I didn't feel like being the Food Police all night, so there ya go. Andie's dream scenario. 


Lisa helped me make those cupcake crowns out of banana laffy taffies...damn that Pinterest. Those things were a pain in the a&$. And thanks to little toddler hands, most of them are falling apart in the picture. Sorry Lisa you worked so hard...


There was a lot of pink at this little girl party. So, we had a lot of alcohol. You know, so the adults could stomach all the pink. 


"Watermelon" Jell-O shots. I may have had some while cooking and getting ready for this shindig. But like, just one. Cough. We also had a keg and margaritas. Hmmm. Starting to wonder what kind of parents we are, all that alcohol for a kids birthday party, plus my menu included cheese and chocolate fondues, with accompanying skewers. Probably not my best move, seeing how kids and fondue go together like guns and a vegan, but oh well. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and by some miracle from above, no child knocked back a Jell-O shot and skewered another kid (that I know of)


Andie loved her princess dress up clothes and shoes. Watching her try to walk in those is so cute. Although trying to get her out of them when she's teetering her way to the car with intent on wearing them in public is murder. Oh, the screams...




Aili and Ari painting a jewelry box present...Aili loves any arts and crafts project and couldn't wait to bust into this one.




This is what my living room looked like after they started tearing into their presents...and the invite said no prezzies! Our friends and family are way too generous. 


The birthday girls...



Aili was super excited to have all her friends over. All in all, I think they had a great birthday. And as always, I am very appreciative to my friends and family, who came out in the torrential downpour and drove a ways to celebrate with us. For us, a birthday is just a good excuse to get to see a lot of great friends and family. And there were plenty to do that with this year :-) 
Muchos cumpleanos my sweets! 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

38,000 pounds

30,000 lbs of gravel (shoveled by hand).
38,000 lbs of concrete.
One hard-working husband who looks darn good without his shirt on (thanks to lots of said shoveling and all the other projects he's always working on).
One wife who never again will look at the lack of a patio on a potential house to buy and think "no biggie we can fix that."
Most especially if said patio needs to be built on unlevel ground.

In the city, young yummy mummies want manolos, a fancy stroller, and a designer diaper bag.
Out here, we covet THIS:

Ok, not the concrete truck exactly, but rather a 1000  square foot stamped concrete patio (I had to edit this Jeff has informed me I got the square footage wrong, I thought it was less), complete with walkways and a special hot tub pad. You know, so that the hot tub is flush with the edge of the patio and I can just roll in like a sea lion after a few drinks :-)

After 3 years exactly of living in this house (well 3 years and 1 day, we moved in the day Andie was born) we finally have our patio! It still needs to be stained/sealed or whatever it's called, (that thing you do a month later) but other than that its done. 

Muchos gracias to some of my favorite firefighters, plus one former cop (my step father in law Dale)

They came and helped which was so nice. Jeff can, in my opinion, do just about anything (except high voltage electrical...some nonsense about not wanting to blow himself up...) and can finish concrete, but for a job this size you really need a crew. It was super helpful to have these guys all help out. 
Did I mention what a large pain in the behind it is to build a patio on an unlevel surface?? This required a lot of blocks to build a retaining type wall plus a lot more gravel and concrete than would have otherwise been required. Oh well. We wanted it here for 2 reasons, one it's the sunniest part of the yard for the longest part of the day, and 2, the other potential place to put one was where the septic tank thingies are so that's obviously a no-no. 

After watching Jeff do this a bunch of times, I am starting to learn a little about this process myself. (Enough to know at least that if I tried to finish concrete it would come out looking like dog poo)

Finishing concrete is kind of like frosting a cake...
Isn't it funny how stereotypical male/female jobs correlate? Like concrete finishing/cake frosting (not sure Jeff would agree there...) Quilting/wood working (with all the exact measurements and angles), etc. I could think of more, but I won't bore you. 



After the concrete is poured and starts to "kick," that's when you start the stamping process, which of course is all the rage and desired by all people looking for higher end homes, AKA better for resale and nicer for us to enjoy. So, we wanted to give give it a whirl. (And by we I mean I wanted it and Jeff indulged, he was pretty happy with the final project!)
Here he is throwing around the releasing agent...looks kind of like an Indian ritual. We picked a grayish color base color (you can add dye straight to the truck, who knew?? Not me apparently) and charcoal for the release agent.

It won't be as dark as it is here, this is after the release agent was put on before the stamping. After 2 days we pressure wash it and the charcoal color is mostly in between the stamps (is my understanding anyway). The patio is 3 levels, the bottom one by the walkway shown above is where the hot tub will sit. 

Jeff stamping. Should look like slate when it's done.


View from the back deck inside. You can't see the lower portion here but you get the idea. It's still very dirty and darker with the release agent. After its pressure washed on Friday we can walk on it :-)

Finally after 3 years we are almost done with most of the major landscaping projects. There's still stuff we want to do but most of the bigger projects are done. Can't wait to enjoy it. 

Monday, September 23, 2013

the SLO life

                                          It was a busy summer. 
                                        Full of pool time and play,
                                      Bright skies and sunny days,
                                  Starting with sand between our toes
                                   And ending with a sunburned nose.

I have gone through a couple thousand baby wipes, drank about 
100 cups of coffee, and slathered on countless tubes of sunscreen.
 I have laughed a little, and cried a lot. It was amazing, busy,
 heartbreaking, fun and fulfilling all at once. There were some bitter 
disappointments as well.



 I was so happy to be there, in spite of all of that. 
And I got to spend it with some of the most beautiful, funny, and 
frustrating little people that I know. Little miss Avie, about 2 months 
old here. She smiles, coos, sleeps through the night most of the time, 
tries to laugh, loves to nurse and cuddle, and is about the sweetest
 little baby you could ever imagine.

My other girls are all stuck on my iPhone...oops. More pictures of them 
later. 
   I learned how to drive on this road, back when I was fourteen, and my 
   dad would come to visit.

   I also drank a good amount of wine... It's a good place for that.

   I just love all the succulents here, near the coast as you're getting
  close to Carmel and Big Sur especially. Did you know SLO county 
  is considered the happiest place on earth to live?






   This does not surprise me...


Avery and I went to Avila one day, what I call my "baby" beach, and did a little shopping. 
(Is it just me or is it so laughably easy to just have one child with you?!)
And of course it's not a proper girls day out if there's not shoe shopping...

   A bend in the road....



We also took a little hike in the Morro Bay estuary area. It was gorgeous, 
you'll have to take my word for it and not the pictures which aren't the best 
due to the fog.






You can see the sun struggling to peak out here overlooking the 
valley...from where I was standing it was all darkness and fog, but in 
the distance, there was a brilliant sun. You can just barely see it 
here, but in person, It was there, just beyond reach.



I loved this rock, kinda wanted to relocate it home to my patio, not 
sure how that would work though...

There were these big cracks in the ground, thought I would break my ankle... 
Minimalist running shoes = No so bueno for hiking. But, I left my hiking shoes in 
Washington, and you gotta work with what you got.

   It took awhile to figure out which way I needed to head. There are paths 
   everywhere there, all different trails, and some are marked and some are not.

      After a bit I discovered that all the paths seemed to eventually 
     end up in the exact same place.