Mother's Day 2013

Mother's Day started off early with a special brunch at Thatcher's preschool.

He was being a little stinker and refused to smile....

I got him to crack a smile though ;)

On actual Mother's Day I woke up to fun gifts from the whole family.

In case you need this translated (I did on a few of them)  -  My mom likes to play with me.  My mom looks pretty when she goes to parties.  If I could give my mom something special, it would be flowers.  My mom is funny when she plays Monopoly.  I love my mom because she makes me laugh.

After presents we headed up to Los Olivos with all 3 kids.  Lollipop was excited to be included!

Look at that pretty smile ;)

Riding shot gun with mom ;0

Me and my first ;)

Our first stop was breakfast at Petros. 

Mimosa = Happy Momma!

Not a bad view across from me ;)

At least I ate light for one meal that day..... Talk about a cheat day!  

Don't feel too sorry for Lollipop, she received her fair share of bacon passed under the table.  ;)

The hotel cat from the Fess Parker Inn.  

When I saw the kids touching the cat I got really paranoid because I am SUPER allergic to cats.  I made everyone go back to the bathroom they had just came out of to go wash their hands again, and then one more time just to be 100% sure.  Because that would not have been fun on Mother's Day.....

Next stop, the little garden outside of Coquelicot Winery for some bocce ball and 

some crisp, cool vino.

We walked around a bit but it was hot, REALLY hot.  I actually can handle it but the kids were beet red and kept asking for a pool.....

Thatcher found some shade under this horse. 

And I found shade at Consilience Wines with a cold glass of Rose. 

We ventured over to Los Olivos Cafe for lunch but there was a bit of a wait.  Lucky us, across the street was a beer tasting at Bin 2860 Wine and Craft Beer Shop.   It must have been over 90 degrees so wine wasn't tasting that great anymore and beer was a welcome change.  

The kids were able to sit inside the game room of the Fess Parker Inn, which is connected to Bin 2860 and play board games (really they were just enjoying the air conditioning). 

Lollipop did a good job of protecting me from the cat.

Lunch at Los Olivos Cafe was perfect. 

The bread and herb olive oil they have there is hands down the best I have ever had.  You can't stop dipping the bread in oil and eating the bread and then asking for more and then repeating that.  

Lollipop was salivating. 

I had the Artisan Cheese Plate (and Lollipop tried to pull a fast one). 

All mine, sorry Lollipop! 

We decided to head out of the valley and back to SB to cool down a bit. 

Later we headed up to Cafe Stella for a last hurrah because if you have ate and drank that much the first half of the day, you should continue, right?

Shirley Temple Craziness! 

Poor Lolly, I think she would have rather stayed home and napped but I needed all my kids with me ;)

Thatcher stuck this flower in my hair which looks like it is coming out of my ear.

We ended with bleu cheese sliders - stick a fork in me, I was done!  Although a twice-a-year Mother's Day sounds like a good idea to me ;)

Flamenco Practice

Pay no attention to the fact that they are using dish towels instead of scarfs, there is a 3-year-old boy starving to be the center of attention and the fire engine siren that would not go away!  Thank you Sofia for the extra practice.  We are working on getting Samantha to shake those hips!

Random April Photos

I should preface the start of "Random April Photos" by saying I am now the proud owner of an iPhone 5.  I say this because most of my random photos come from my cell phone AND my droid was stolen recently so some idiot has a bunch of my pictures that are forever lost (yeah, yeah I know, I should have backed them up), HOWEVER, I LOVE my iPhone and can't believe I ever had a Droid or a Dell computer for that matter - switched to the Mac Book Air a month or so ago.  So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the person who stole my phone for pushing me to buy an iPhone sooner than I would have but people who steal SUCK!  Now back to those random photos.....

My awesome trainer, Drea, has been challenging me on the weekends with different runs and on this particular day I ran up (well tried to run the whole thing, about a mile before the top it gets way too steep, I could either run in place or walk, I walked...) to Inspiration Point.   I had to send her this photo of me proving I made it to the top because the first weekend I tried, I got lost, like really lost..... And this was after she kept saying, "there is no way you can get lost, there are signs/arrows that point you in the right direction."  Well I got lost.... 

Lollipop had a dental cleaning appointment at the vet and we knew she had to get a tooth extracted as in ONE tooth.  I received a call from the vet later that day asking for authorization to pull 19, yes NINETEEN teeth!  Italian Greyhounds are known for their teeth issues but NINETEEN teeth had to go?!  I was shocked!  But what are you going to do.....teeth are as important as the heart for the dog and you know we would do anything for our dog so she now has one funky looking smile, we have one hefty vet bill and bonus, a fresh breathed canine that seems to be happier than ever so win-win (I think...). ;)

Samantha's class took a field trip to the Santa Barbara Fair and I was in charge of this group of three (A'xela, Carlene and Samantha).  We had an hour to walk around to all the exhibits, see a magic show and check out all the animals.  

We watched a cow milking demonstration.  That was interesting..... The cow's name was Nestle. 

And this was her four-day-old, YES FOUR, day-old calf named, Crunch!  Cute, huh?

A baby goat drinking Diet Coke ;)

And that is all the pictures I have of the fair because things got hectic towards the end. I took the girls into the petting zoo and a goat ate A'xela's skirt.  I am not exaggerating, the goat ATE her skirt!  Prior to going in they had us tuck every one's name tags in their shirts for fear the goats would eat them.  Forget the name tags, those goats were not messing around.  A dad came to the rescue and pulled the goat off of her skirt but half was already gone.




The Stones are back!  Well just for a week to visit us from Holland but we are excited to know that they are cutting their adventure short and will be returning for good in August.

We had an amazing week of activities planned with the whole group to welcome the Stones back to sunny Santa Barbara ;)

Girls' dinner at Arigato

Bocce Ball at Arnoldi's 

All the ladies (don't pay any attention to Dr. Phil over there in the corner or Thatcher) ;)

The whole crew!

We love how Thatchy gets cozy every night with his friends.

My kids have a thing for Chick-fil-A and that cow that is always waving and jumping around on State Street.

Reese and Samantha made this sign one afternoon.  Translation: No Boys Allowed.  Only Girls.  

Uh-oh....

Thatchie getting his dance moves on with the one-man band.

Shoppers.

3-year-old going on 6.

Samantha's Earth Day homework

Adding in some curb appeal to the house.

We may be entering the Lego phase...

Getting silly making lemonade.  Have I told you all reading this blog that we have a lemon tree that has a crazy amount of lemons year-round?  Want some?  

Junior League Gala

Our wonderful friends, Mike and Sarah Paskin, invited us to be their guests at the Junior League Gala at the Coral Casino again this year.  

All dressed up and ready to go!

Holley looking stunning in coral!

Sheri, Bess, Me, Marina and Holley

Marina, you are supposed to be standing on the other side of Phil ;)

Meghan, Bess, Sarah, Me, Leanne, Holley, Sheri and Tia

Bill and Victoria 

Our stunning hosts, thank you!!!

Is there a better venue in SB?

And the end of the night looked less put together and posed ;)

This is my favorite photo of all because in box 3, we are no where to be found because I am pretty sure we both fell on the floor ;)