Memorial Day

I love long weekends. Sleeping in, eating delicious food, barbecuing, downtime with the fam in bed...it's heavenly.

Today we went to Pescadero, which is a tradition we started a few year ago. The weather was absolutely perfect. It's not often you leave the overcast suburbs and end up with amazing weather on the coast.

It's a fun and mellow way to spend Memorial Day. It's a teeny-tiny town, and it reminds me of the fun little towns in the midwest. This is the main drag.

The flags up for Memorial Day

B was taking in the sights, and enjoying the sun

Our first stop was at the Argangeli Grocery Company. They're famous for their warm ollalaberry pies, and fresh, warm artichoke bread. Lancer just got the pie a few weeks ago when his parents were visiting, so he went for the bread.

The bread smelled SO good. I caved and bought a homemade peanut butter cup that was jam packed with creamy peanut butter.

Somebody else at the table thought the bread smelled good, too.

Beezie scooted her way across the table and demanded to be fed some of the tasty bread.

Papa was nice enough to share his spoils

After eating, we busted out of town with a few stops along the way to take in the views

The weekend was especially great because Lancer was finally home after a 2 week European trip. We missed him a lot. I made Beezie a little photo album she could flip through while he was gone, and see his cute mug everyday. He spent some time in London, and brought back a Paddington Bear. B loves it.

B and I also got a little Costco shopping in. She is a total charmer--I can tell she has my outgoing personality. She laps up attention and smiles in every aisle, giving big smiles and laughs back when people come up to her.

We whipped up a triple batch of my lazy spaghetti sauce.

Kaari's Lazy Spaghetti Sauce

* 6 bottles of spaghetti sauce
* 6 lbs ground beef
* 6 chopped onions
*8 TBS jarred garlic
* 3 green peppers, chopped
* 3 large can of mushrooms, drained
*1 6 lb can chopped tomatoes, drained
*1 large can tomato paste
* 1/2 bottle of red wine--you can omit if you don't care for the taste

Brown the onions, beef, peppers, and garlic. I do 2 separate pans to brown the items. Split between 2-3 crockpots and add the remaining ingredients. Cook on high for 5-6 hours, or 8 hours on low. Freezes well.

Beezie and I also took a trip over to Danville to drop in at Miglet's Gluten Free Bakery. Their stuff is so delicious.

They had been advertising 'Mostess' cupcakes--a very clever take on the oh-so-tasty Hostess cupcakes we can't enjoy. Who am I to turn down a cupcake named after me?

It even had the creamy center!

This little Miglet was delighted to be out and about

She even got a little taste of frosting!

We hope you also had a wonderful and relaxing weekend. We know we did. I am so ready for summer to be here. Bring on the cute shorts, ice cream, the beach, Gilroy Gardens visits, swimming, and endless fun in the sun. Let's pack up our 80 lbs of gear and go!

Does This Baby Make me Look Fat?

Behold--the obligatory belly shots! This is me @ 22 weeks.

For Memorial Day, Lancer and I hit up the tiny town of Pescadero. It's one of our favorite local haunts--good food, fun shops, and lots of interesting locals. This is our favorite way to spend the holiday.


Lancer couldn't turn down a warm, fresh ollalberry pie. Note that I can't eat any of this wheat-laden pie, so Lancer got it all for himself. Shamefully, I might add.


When we got home, we spent the rest of the evening playing on the lawn, enjoying the good weather and our fine canine baby.

I like how Logan looks trapped. He's plotting his escape.

I also found these cool vintage prints for the nursery. I love how the umbrella one will tie in with the other fabric--and the camera one is just too cute to pass up. A lady should have coordinating prints.

I picked these vintage tin signs up a few months ago. They're old gas station numbers, and I'm trying to figure out where they should go.

Check out the library this kid already has! I think we have enough books to get us started. Can you tell I teach reading?

Looking forward to a nice, relaxing summer. Maybe my left leg will even start to cooperate and do its job. A girl can dream.

But What I Really Want is a Pony

Things have been a little crazy-head crazy for the last few weeks. Work, life, play...it's all been a little overwhelming. As Blog Man pointed out..."don't think we haven't noticed that your blog has been lacking posts." I know, I know. Here's what we've been up to in the last month.

A little eating and dancing in SF with the girls

@ Medjool

I think we partied with Heidi from the Hills. See?? I was too afraid to actually look at her face. And, according to Perez, she is recovering in a hospital after being "tortured" in Costa Rica. Like we would ever be so lucky.

Caught up with the "kids" I used to nanny for. Nathan, Hillary, and Miranda. Better known as Newtie, Boobie, and Mirsy. But I would never share such an embarrassing thing on my blog.

Worked endlessly on the finishing touches for the yard. We bought 5 new pigmy date palms for the bakyard.

Checked out our tasty peas a'growin in the garden. Dobbie has given up chicken, and now favors the peas. We have to watch him like a hawk.

Our lil' garden, by the Party Shed. I love lettuce on demand.

The Shed showing off the sweet cowbell we got in Germany, along with the vintage Deutsche Post sign from the 30's. We picked this up at a flea market on the river on our last trip. We both knew when we saw it that it was perfect, and meant for our little Euro-inspired shed.

LOVE the sign

What Euro shed is complete without a planter box with flowers? We saw them all over Switzerland, and I knew that I wanted to add one. I finally got some free time and got to it.

The finished product--ta-da!

Made some lamb meatballs with a pomegranate reduction and homemade yogurt sauce. Recipe here. Make this now. You won't regret it.

Added 3 hanging ferns to the back patio

Planted tomatoes and strawberries in hanging baskets. I wanted the Topsy Turvey, but the ol' Ball and Chain said they were too ugly, and would be a blight on his nice looking yard and garden. So, we did these instead.



Planted some new plants along the back wall. This is where our tomato plants were last year, but they were all psycho, and ate our landscaping light. Once they started in after the sidewalk, we had to pull them out. They were demonic.

Planted a new tree in the front yard. Our old one died, and we finally picked out a new one.

Dogface helped out, of course. He's a huge help. And by huge help, I mean huge hidderance. But he sure is cute.

Spent Memorial Day at the beach in HMB and in Pescadero with Tinger. This included a BBQ in our backyard where Lancer apparently thought it was appropriate to wear socks and sandals with mesh shorts and a Pizza My Heart t-shirt. Can someone please remind him that he's not German? Thanks.

Memorial Day snug with Dobbie in bed

I was so excited about the Pony Rides. Apparently, they are only for kids!! What the hizz-ell kind of racket is that? I wanted to go all Veruca Salt on the people, but decided on a pouty face instead.

I was telling Lancer and Tinger how Pescadero is known for their olalliberries. They made fun of me and my imaginary fruit. Imagine my delight when I spied this little number. Take that, suckas!

This photo has no good explanation. Lance decided that he doesn't pull enough stupid faces in photos, so he spent the day making up for it. I wanted to cheers his milk, he wanted to pull a stupid face, and this is the end result. Aren't we a handsome pair?

I love this sign

The beautiful view--gotta love overcast CA days at the beach

This is great. Look closely--see that red dot? That's a stupid kid. See the dumb dad down below? He was telling his kid to climb up on the cliff. On the endangered vegetation. Many feet above the ground. We contemplated calling 911 and/or CPS, but let it go. I don't think he fell off the cliff, because there were no ambulances when we left. What was that dad thinking??

Love at the beachie

We ate brunch at Hobees, home to world famous coffee cake. See the stupid face? Someone's on a roll!

Lj's "red-white-and blue" breakfast. I had the usual eggs and bacon.

The Ladies

The gents. That face sure never gets old--not.

More planting....

Summer is off to a good start. I have 3 fun activites planned for church (ice-cream social, Pioneer Day picnic, luau) and plenty of my own parties on tap. I am already planning my New Moon party--that should be killer. And I also have NKOTB tix for July 9th--yay! Plus, my 15 year reunion in good old Cedar Falls, Iowa. I'm excited to spend a week with my family and old-school friends. I love summer. I'm so glad she's here.