Yikes

This rather large black widow was camped out on the front porch last night.

Field Trip to Local Apricot Grower

We had a wonderful field trip with the MOMS Club earlier this week to a significant local business, here in Patterson, the "Apricot Capitol of the World!" Dave Santos of Blossom Hill Apricots (Lucich-Santos Farms) very generously gave us a great tour of the processing facility and the orchard, let the kids pick cherries and sent us each home with cherries and apricots. NICE!

The facility uses computer optics and manual sorting for size, color, defects. There were about 125 people working in the processing facility.

  He told us that they are processing 2 million apricots a day!! More than any other apricot grower in North America.They clean, sort, and package organic fruit & send them to Trader Joes, Whole Foods, lots of high end grocers as well as the non-organic varieties to Costco, Mariani (dry fruit processors) and jam producers too!

Yummy!

Then we trooped out to the cherry orchard - which they officially finished picking a couple weeks ago - and he let us gather what we pleased. What a fun treat for all of us!!

Dang! Those were some juicy cherries. phew!

Now we're home with more fruit than we can safely consume - any favorite apricot recipes, anyone?

We started with popsicles. (blended apriots, yogurt, honey, milk)

A fun treat on a hot afternoon.

Liv's New Pet

No. Not really.

But she did ask. "Can the bunny be my pet? I really want one."

"Let's talk about it some more and then discuss it with Daddy when he gets home."

We kept bunny overnight. Fresh water, clean the box, lots of yummy grass. 

We talked about what kinds of love and attention pets need. And also how wild bunnies like to hop around and run, and that living in a cage, she wouldn't get to do much hopping. :(

And then ... she escaped.

Of course, Jeff started researching puppies again. sigh.

Finger Painting for the First Time

Finger Painting!

I have fuzzy early memories of happy times finger painting as a preschooler with my Grandma Maryalice. I've been stalling for a while, dreading the mess, and unsure how one even sources butcher paper these days... 

But finally, I picked up the paints at Target & just gave up on the slippery paper. (Though I will keep looking - does anyone have any ideas?)

 I really wasn't sure how to start, but I showed them a couple pictures of kids finger painting, covered the table, squirted some paint on plates, gave them paper and stood back.

A period of tactile exploration...

Wait. What is Liv looking at?

Awwww. Really?

Right. Ok. Umm,

Let's keep the paints on the paper...

"Sure! Why didn't you say so?!"

Needless to say, I stood back as much as I could... which of course, ended up not being very much.

And those are about all the pictures I took. sigh.

 The aftermath...

(not too bad after all)



Happy Hollow Zoo

I promised the girls an adventure. Liv's first suggestion was a dinosaur museum. However, there are no dinosaur museums in Northern California. Maybe when we go back East this summer.  So I suggested a trip to the zoo! And everyone thought that sounded like a great idea! Now to pick a zoo. Plenty of small city zoos with in a couple hours of here: Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, San Jose, and of course San Francisco! But this place stood out as a best bet for families with small children.

Our weather has been pretty unseasonable these past few weeks. Cool, cloudy, even raining! Anyway, I had mentioned to a couple friends that I was planning this trip but was considering postponing, when she reminded me that hot and sunny isn't that much fun at the zoo, for anyone, not even the animals, never mind with toddlers. Right!!! Upper 60s and overcast was sounding pretty good, as a matter of fact, and off we went!

As expected the carousel was an instant favorite!!

Its a lovely carousel called the "Keep Around" full of endangered species.
Here are the girls previewing their first ride!

We were lucky to have no wait, and no height restrictions!

We rode a couple times then I managed to persuade them that we should go visit the animals, too!

The squirrel monkeys and capuchins are, as always, adorable, familiar, engaging.

Camila was especially excited, signing and trying to say "monkey" and "cookie" (because the monkey had a snack!).

cool cat!

Danny Dragon train ride and a chance to grab a bite of granola bar!

Liv is JUST big enough to ride by herself on the swings! She measured exactly 36" at the drs office a couple of weeks ago. When she got to the sign she had to stand up VERY straight and not look down at all.  :) 

Camila was a little disappointed.

But very happy about getting to ride on the firetrucks!

DING - DING - DING

There is also a fun redwood climbing park. With lots of structures for big and little kids.



A big day. We all had a blast.

The kids were nearly asleep by the time we got out of the parking lot.

Its been a while...

I've been just barely keeping up with the basics of home & family, while working through my latest bout with depression.  I feel like I've got my feet back under me now, and that my girls are getting all the attention and stimulation they need.
So! What else is new around here?
Camila is starting to talk! Very fun for all of us - especially her! I mean, it's not "English" but it is getting closer, and some words are recognizable even if you're not her mom! For example, "cookie" - she's got that one Nailed!
Jeff just finished a big two week maintenance outage at the plant. Ugh, always stressy and he never gets enough sleep.
Liv is using her "potty power" every day and most nights, too! We are all very proud of her!
The computer totally choked on its OS. It was so bad we had to send it out for repair... crazy! Jeff can always fix these things, it was ugly! So, I was essentially off line for a while there. The upside is that we also purchased a new tablet computer & so far we really like it.
The binky fairy came to our house recently. Its been a little hard to get used to, and the girls cried for their binkies sometimes. We still miss them on occasion, but not too much.  We're all doing ok, now. I never intended the binky to be such a Thing, for So Long. Sigh, hopefully no permanent damage done.
Jeff is off to Vegas with his brothers-in-law for the annual goof trip --ooops. I probably meant: "golf" trip.
Liv has a cute new haircut. And I think she's grown some more. She is dancing on this line between toddler (baby) and almost-a-big-kid. Its quite interesting to observe (and share, and guide) her excitement as well as her reluctance.
I'm sorry that haven't taken pictures or video recently, but I'll get some up here soon. Promise!

Bike Party

We went to a very fun bike riding party with the MOMS club. They roped off the cul-de-sac and big kids (out of school for spring break) and all the usual preschoolers rode their scooters, bikes, trikes, skateboards; shared hotdogs & mac-n-cheese. While moms and babies sat in the yard on our camp chairs & blankets. What a fun event!