Independence Day

The Fourth of July comes to Litchfield Avenue! Our little slice of Mayberry takes Independence Day very seriously. I mean, there are town hall meetings (that's right - meetings, plural) to debate the hotly contested bounce-house vs. water slide issue for Christ's sake.

This year the festivities kicked off with a community breakfast on our front yard before everyone boarded their red, white and blue festooned vehicle of choice for the neighborhood parade. (My absolute favorite part of the parade is the fact that nobody is watching the parade because everyone is in the parade. Cracks me up every time.)

List of the day's events

Abby and Kailey in the Old Glory Mobile

The girls climbed aboard the Ameri-wagon and were ready to be tooled around the block for the big parade. Navigating around the bikes, trikes, scooters, wagons and pedestrians is always kind of comical, but I love the ye olde timey-ness of it all. There was one special stop this year as the entire parade paused long enough to serenade "Happy Birthday" to a 93 year old man who was watching along the route. A very sweet moment for everyone involved.

Idyllic slice of Americana

After the parade, the real fun begins with a good old fashioned block party with tons of activities for the kids. Every hour there was an event or contest hosted by a different family on the block, with some going on all day long. The kids enjoyed hours of Foosball, face painting, ping pong, water sliding and even a dunk tank.

Dana on face painting

The Lauritsens ran the wildly popular donut eating contest.

This Rockwellian shot sums it up!

The girls enjoying home made slushies

Brad and my event was the Second Annual Mixing Bowl - a bake off for those who are out for blood. This year we stepped up our game and created a trophy to be passed on from winner to winner every year. We had a great turn out of entrants, although, come to think of it, the majority of them don't actually reside on Litchfield. Hmmm...

The highly coveted Mixing Bowl Trophy

The entries

The ultimate sampler platter

Esteemed panel of judges

And the winner is.... Tony Parise! Tony came in second last year, but brought his A game this time with his delicious home made cream puffs to take the victory. Congrats!

The winners' circle

The Fourth of July is an all day extravaganza of games and good times with neighbors, family and friends. The sense of community and camaraderie is like nothing I've ever experienced before, as I grew up on a street where I couldn't tell you my neighbors' names. So I especially appreciate how rare and wonderful this community is and how lucky I feel to be raising a child who will never know life any other way. We are very, very fortunate to live where we do and holidays like the Fourth just magnify all of the reasons why.

Happy Fourth!

Yeah it does.

Easter

There is something so supremely creepy about this 6 foot man in a raggedy bunny outfit clutching my little girl. And the fact that I had to pay him for the privilege is equally if not more disturbing. We actually tried to get her to sit on the Easter bunny's lap for a photo op last year, but apparently she had sharper instincts back when she was only one because she took one look at the mutant rabbit was not about to have any part of that nonsense.

But there you have it. Easter. And all its weird trappings. I'm sure it's all very confusing for my 2 year old since it has no religious connotation for her. The bunnies, the marshmallow chicks, the jelly beans, the dyed eggs. Very colorful, but very strange.

And we do all the silly stuff. I've come to the conclusion that as her parents, we are in charge of the hefty responsibility of all of her childhood memories. So it's up to us to do it up right and take the opportunity to make these holidays and traditions something special that she'll look back upon fondly.

This year was our first attempt at dying eggs and it was a huge success. Brad and I had fun experimenting with different dying techniques - using rubber bands, stickers and even vegetable oil. And Abs had fun just dropping the eggs in the colorful cups and stirring the contents.

Good old PAAS

Abby and Brad dying eggs

Our snazzy eggs

We left old fluffy buns a little bribe to be sure he'd stop by.

He took our snacks and left behind a little memento.

He also left behind some footprints.

The girls each got baskets from both the Easter bunny and grandma and were ready to start the great Easter Egg Hunt of 2010. Let the fun begin!

The loot.

Thrilled with her score.

We had so many eggs for the girls to discover in the backyard. There were two dozen of the hardboiled variety and at least 4 dozen more plastic eggs filled with candy and small change.

The girls had a blast and were surprisingly competitive about it. It was hilarious to see them in their Easter finery duking it out over gaudy toy eggs filled with stale candy.

After the egg hunt madness was done and all the booty had been found and collected, we headed inside for Easter brunch. I decorated using tons of fun and bright finds from my favorite department store (The Dollar Tree). The entire family had a great time and it was another happy memory in the bank for our baby girl.

The kids table

The adults table

Sweet centerpieces

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dear sweet husband Brad! I asked him what he would like for his special breakfast this year and he said, "pumpkin pie." An odd request (well, not really - thinking about breakfast the day after Thanksgiving...), but his wish was granted and he had a big slice of pumpkin pie and hot coffee waiting for him when he got up this morning. He doesn't actually like breakfast IN bed so we had it at the dining table like civilized humans.

In addition to his pumpkin pie appetizer I insisted on continuing with our Father's Day tradition of serving up a fluffy stack of dadcakes. I look forward to making these freeform pancakes that spell out D-A-D every year and can't wait until Abs can really lend a hand in making her dad's special Father's Day treat herself. Happy Father's Day everyone!

Dadcakes!

Brad's first Father's Day - 2008

October Days

I love love love October in Southern California. It's the kick off for all the fun of the holiday celebrations to come until the end of the year. Since we've had Abby, we've made it a tradition to take her to two very different pumpkin patches every year (if you do it two years in a row it's considered a tradition, right?) .

The first one is Tanaka Farms in Irvine, where Abby and cousin Kailey get all the small town fun of a working farm and pumpkin patch. The girls get to feed the goats and pet the lambs, ride an open air tram through the farm's luscious crop fields (which culminates in the very satisfying firing of a pumpkin cannon), get lost running through the "amazing maize maze" and finally end the trip by picking their own pumpkins right off the vine.

Kailey and Abby - 2008

Kailey and Abby - 2009

The Goat Whisperer

Abby's pick fresh from the patch.

The second one we visit is Pa's Pumpkin Patch in Long Beach, which is more of a county fair atmosphere; pony rides, bumper cars, merry-go-rounds, games, etc. Oh, and pumpkins, too! Definitely more "commercial" but the kids love it just as much - probably more, if I'm being honest. Both are great and really get us into the holiday spirit, reminding us that Halloween is just around the corner.

Our sweet little hobgoblin.

Pa's no-petting petting zoo.

My favorite two pumpkins.