Cousin Park Date

The following day, my sister-in-law, Carolyn, Charis, Josiah, Ezra and I all went on a morning walk. We hit Starbucks then a local park for the kiddos to play. And although we had to take the looong way around to coffee because of the construction going on, Josiah loved all the machinery! 

Ezra decided to practice his bear-crawling in the grass...

Josiah LOVES cars so the tractor was a huge hit!

Carolyn and Charis

Josiah giving Ezra some love

Attempt at a cousin shot

Such a beautiful morning at the park!

A Whole Lotta Family

These past two weeks, we've had lots of fun family come and visit. My parents have been hosting my great-aunt, great-uncle, 2nd cousin and his two little kids all the way from Joplin, Missouri. And last weekend, W's brother Wesley and his family came into town. Everyone went over to my parents' for a big yummy dinner (courtesy Pioneer Woman's awesome recipes). We dined on blue cheese & grilled onion burgers with a side of "fancy" mac n' cheese and salad.

There was lots of playtime with the kids!

Lauren & Josiah after I said "Say Cheese!"

My great Aunt, Grandma & great Uncle


The babies were inside for awhile, playing in the "great room" as my mom calls it. I was able to capture some great action shots of the two cousins...going in for the kiss...

Muah!

Gonna have to teach that boy not be so uber friendly with everyone he meets! But he definitely loooooves his kisses!! ;)


Charis, who just turned one on Ezra's 7th month day!

Sitting with some excellent reading material

While Ezra just tossed the reading material around.

Yearning to get into mischief, outside!

Ezra did a lot more pulling up on things while she was here. Here he is trailing behind the fast moving Charis.

It was a crazy full house and lots of fun!

Saturday School

As awful as it sounds that W has a class on Saturdays, it's actually turned out to be quite a lot of fun for the whole family. W is taking a 5 week Rec class for an upper div GE requirement (don't get me started on these new time-waster requirements!). A few Saturdays ago, we headed to Fremont for some rock climbing. E & I left W to do this while we walked the mile & a half to a shopping plaza for our own work-out. After W was done, we all met up for lunch before heading home for naps!

Last weekend, W's class met at Jack London Aquatic Center for some rowing. I was *so* happy I joined even though our house still needed some prep work done before our guests arrived later that day. E & I walked along the Oakland Marina on the jog path that led to Jack London Square. The area was so beautiful--I really do adore Oakland, so many little gems tucked away. The morning started out cool and overcast.

Houseboats!

We bundled up to keep warm!

By the time I grabbed some delish organic coffee (started in Oakland) and found our way to the Square, the clouds burned off to reveal blue blue skies!

I was bummed I didn't see W out on the water with his class but from what he said, it was a very disorganized group so they didn't get too far. He still had a great time. Who wouldn't on a gorgeous day like this out on the bay!? I told him I was jealous. We've already decided to come back & rent kayaks.  

Love This Baby!

The Calzone Experiment

I'm not much of a baker. I know it's something I would enjoy but I haven't really gotten into it yet. During Christmas time, I love to bake but usually only get motivated by friends or family. So when I came across this really easy calzone recipe, I figured I couldn't mess it up too much. 

Spinach-Ricotta Calzones

makes 6

What You'll Need: 

1 pound frozen dough (TJ's has a great one, but I didn't have time this week so I just got some at Safeway. What would be ideal to me would be to make my own...a goal for another time!)

10 oz. frozen spinach

1 container (15oz) of ricotta cheese

1/4 t. minced garlic

1 t. dried basil leaves

2 eggs whites

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 can (8oz) pizza sause

optional: 1 pound cooked ground beef

What you do:

Preheat oven to 375

Grease 2 cookie sheets

Then mix all ingredients (except dough & sauce) into a large bowl

Next divide dough into 6 equal parts**

Roll each into a 7-inch circle on lightly floured rolling pin

Top each half with mixture 

And carefully fold dough over filling

Pinch edge or press with fork to seal securely

Place calzones on cookie sheets

Bake for about 20-30 minutes or until golden brown

Cool for 5 minutes

While cooling, heat up sauce in pot & serve for dipping

**For the superb baker that I am, I used all 3 loaves of bread for my 6 calzones without realizing it. These puppies were HUGE as you can probably tell from the picture! I was stuffed after only eating half of mine. W was delightfully surprised that he was great after one. (normally he has a bottomless stomach) Next time, I will change that and put more seasoning in the mixture to add more kick. But this meal will definitely be in my rotation!

One of the Greatest Things

W insisted on registering for this when we were thinking about baby products. I was very skeptical, but E totally loves his. He will get so wrapped up in it while the dogs jealously sit near by. Pancho tries to lick up his left-overs. So far I've put watermelon and apple slices in it and E goes to town. Nothing else around him matters, which is amazing considering this kid is distracted by every.small.sound. 

He gives this teether a thumbs-up!

Girls Swim Party

Ezra is definitely surrounded by lots and lots of women.  He was the only one representing his gender at our girls swim party. There was lots of pool time, laughs & pictures taken.  

Autumn got to show off her new fabulous swim-wear. She's so hot, she melts your popsicle!

The girls getting ready to swim.

Meghan and her side-kick camera (remember her? She's the one who did our maternity shoot!). This is just day 2 since she's been back from Germany. We're so lucky she hung with us, even with horrid jet-lag!!

My favorite baby girl tried out our new floatie.

While Ez gnawed on finer things, like pool toys. 

After our little par-tay, Papa showed up for a quick dip to cool off---a good break from studying. And to hold this little naked boy...who was definitely ready for a nap!

That little naked boy is 7 months, today!! Hooray!

Bankhead Theater

I'm really enjoying our current dates nights!! My parents are getting into the habit of switching Ezra for some theater tickets, and this week was no exception. :) We had a delightful downtown dinner at Amarones using one of our discounts from restaurants.com . This was after a hectic dash back to my parents' place because we forget to get the tickets from them.  

And of course I was really excited about this venue. No surprise, but I've been wanting to go since the Bankhead opened in 2007. The night's entertainment was the phenomenal Ottmar Liebert, a German with amazing guitar skills. His flamenco style was very sexy and cool. It would have been perfect outdoors with some room to dance, although we have no dancing skills whatsoever. We so enjoyed the time together!

Camping.

Perhaps we really are crazy! But we survived a quick camping trip while the Jenkins were here. So that made: four adults, two infants, and two dogs all sharing a camp site around Lake Chabot. W & I have camped here several times when there was just two of us, definitely a different experience this time.

We had to pack a ton of stuff.

Tim & I had a tent skills war.

{And I won!}

Our friend, Mel,  came to visit for a few hours & held E so I could beat down Tim, unencumbered.

E also tried out his new ride. Loved it.

He also really loved crawling around in our tent.

The boys played together in our tarp hallway.

After this weekend, Tim officially dubbed our little E as the "open-mouth baby". I have no clue why.

We devoured some delicious steaks authentically "flame-broiled".

{This is what the men were doing while the woman-folk played with & took a ridiculous amount of pictures supervised the babes.}

Lots of stuff to unpack {and re-pack, load & put away at home later.} See those two sticks? I took the liberty of whittling them for roasting marshmallows. And that's the extend of my wilderness skills, besides beating Tim at tent making. ;)

So things were going super well. Until bedtime. Yeah, we all know what's coming next... We did our little routine and I tried to put Ezra down for the night. But he had different plans. It took him a much longer time than normal {insert about an hour} to finally go to sleep. Thankfully, it wasn't meltdown status. Definitely not the fun part of the trip, but we weren't surprised. It wasn't great but it could have been a lot worse. And he made it up to us by sleeping in. Nice kid, that one. 

The next morning we hung out and ate breakfast before W had to go to his Saturday class up the road. One of his last classes this quarter is an outdoor class & they were orienteering {using a compass} in Oakland which was about a 25 mins. drive from our camp site. 

 So with W gone, I did what any other mountaineer Mama would do. Kirsten helped me strap in E so I could help with packing.

Her smile really says, "I'm so happy I don't have twins!" :)

Ready for work!

After loading everything up, we took a quick hike to Lake Chabot before picking up W from his class. Lucky guy totally missed all the packing! Sheesh!

And Ezra & Ethan solidified their growing friendship on our drive to W. Here they are going in for the grab.

BFFs forever. They shook on it and then held hands.

So, would I do camping again with an infant? Absolutely. It was really fun, besides the bedtime ordeal. Having another couple there was also extremely helpful because W & I could do things together as oppose to one having to stay at the campsite while the other went off if we were alone.