Cbad

Healthy way to start the morning......

 We woke up bright and early and  headed down to Carlsbad so that I could meet up with some friends to talk about an upcoming shower were throwing. We had husbands and babies in tow as well since we planned on a beach day afterwards. We talked for about an hour about the party, had some mimosas, and scones then headed down to the beach. The weather was a bit windy and the sun was in and out of the clouds but it turned out to be a really fun day. We hiked down the beach with 8 kids and found a nice secluded part of the beach. Olive spent most the time crawling down to the water at full speed while we chased her. She refused to take any steps all day. She was on super speedy crawling mission. She definitely got a taste of sand this time as she was covered from head to toe. Eating at the beach as an adult is hard enough with all the elements but feeding a baby that won't sit still is quite exciting. The boys and Alison got to surf and Olive even took and hour nap! 

We didn't want the day to end so we went back to Alison and Scott's for some tacos and margaritas. We sat in the backyard with the kids and ate a yummy dinner. I miss having all these friends so close by. Saturday summer bbq's should be a must so we're going to try and continue doing these once in awhile. All the kids get a long and it was so relaxing to make dinner and hang.

Today started off with Dim Sum with Evan which was delicious but Olive is in a phase where she isn't really easy to bring out to restaurants. We had a good few months where she was easily entertained and happy playing with a spoon but now she gets super bored and throws everything off the table. Eating usually consists of handing her a million things to do all while she throws each and everything. We've tried it all. I'm sure it will get better but for now I think staying home is much easier. Today I was on a mission to garden like crazy. It was crazy humid and hot and it seriously felt like Florida and not California. We even got bits of sunny rain which was wonderful in the heat while working outside on my garden. I'm attempting to grow Kale, Arugula, and carrots. I had no idea what to do so I googled a few things here and there and there are all these crazy technical things about gardening. I'm really naive to the whole process so I did what I thought was best and I hope something grows. If anyone has any advice on what to use to help it grow (organically) I'm super open to suggestions!

It will be another early night. Blake is already passed out and I think I'm ready to join him. Too much sun this weekend makes for a tired house. Let's hope Olive feels the same way.....







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i love eggplant

Just sitting down on my computer with a big glass of wine and a cake pop with the hopes that my child will sleep all night! I'm scared to drink my last half of wine cause if I do she will be up at 11 and if I don't she will sleep till 5. Hmmm what to do what to do......

I have some retouching to do for a job I shot last week so I'm waiting for Blake to get home so he can help me. Aka do it for me cause he is nice like that. Another wild friday night in the Sinclair house. 

I made a really yummy dinner tonight thanks to this lovely mommy blog. Blake and I get pretty stuck in our few go to meals that it's pretty rare that we add something new in the mix. I mean I am always trying out new recipes but most of them have never really stuck. I think Blake is going to start hiding my Bon Appetit Magazine cause as soon as that comes in the mail there is guaranteed to be some weird meal being made and most of the time I royally fuck it up. I LOVE food and I consider myself a foodie but I suck at cooking. Anyways the point of this post is that I've found a new meal that we can add into our mix. Basically it's a roasted eggplant with really yummy flavors. It just so happened that I went to the farmers market yesterday and picked up eggplants, red peppers, green beans, and tomatoes. Then a few hours later I saw this recipe come in in my blogroll and it had all the ingredients that I bought. Anyways I have this really bad habit of skimming through recipes and kinda ignoring the ingredients that I don't  have or using random substitutes. I completely ignored the walnuts cause I don't like nuts in my warm food (don't get me started on my weird food pet peeves). Also my lemon tree is empty so I didn't have any citrus except a bottle of lemonade my mom left at my house. Besides being totally white trash it worked out perfectly. Next time I will leave out the red pepper flakes cause Blake and I are totally pussies when it comes to spice. I also added in a bell pepper and next time I might add a carrot. It was seriously so good and so easy. I didn't make the fancy rice but it sounds fairly easy. Anyways just thought I would post this cause it was easy, vegetarian, and fun to make! And if I didn't screw it up you won't either!

Photos from today.....

Pickle

 I had no idea eating a pickle could be so cute but dammit it is. Olive seemed to enjoy her pickles at the deli last week so I gave her one today and she was quite pleased. Sierra was actually the real winner here since Olive would take off little bites of pickle and spit them out. We have been spending most of our afternoons in the backyard. She helps me water the plants which means she splashes in the puddles and gets completely dirty. She finds every single dead leaf and tears them apart. She even picks out weeds. Score! She is really into pointing these days which is pretty cute and she is non stop waving wherever we go. It's like she can't let someone walk past without waving. I like seeing peoples face light up. Babies and puppies make people happy. Oh and she said ball tonight like it was no big deal. Her walking is getting better and she takes about 2-3 steps on average and the most I've seen is 4. She looks drunk.

My mom just left today after being in town for a few days. It always takes me a day to readjust to not having all that help once she is gone. While my mom was here I finally caught up on dr appointments that I've been meaning to go to for the last few years. That and we got a ton of party planning done for Olive's big birthday bash. I decided on an owl theme. I know super uber hot right now but whatever its cute and etsy is exploding with owl shit so it's pretty easy. I've already ordered a shit ton of little decoration things here and there but I feel like I still have a bit to do. I did a little cake pop baking test tonight and it was pretty much an epic fail. I was actually testing out a color for a bridal shower that I'm throwing but testing a recipe for Olive's birthday. I have way too much party planning going on. Either way I need a new recipe and some decorating skills.

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Happy Birthday Mom

On Sunday it was my mom's birthday so we headed up to my parents house to hang out for the day. We spent most of the day at the pool doing what we do best (snacking and swimming). Olive someone managed how to teach herself how to climb in and out of the pool. She figured out how to get in the pool feet first which amazes me cause no one taught her. She did that for a good hour. Then we had a little pool party foul. Stella the big black and white dog who is in a lot of photos bumped into her and knocked her down face first. It was a total accident and didn't look too bad till I pulled Olive up and her nose was bleeding. I'm pretty sure I had a mild heart attack and thought the world was going to stop for second. Blood and babies are never good. She screamed her little heart out while I just held her as tight as I could. My mom cleaned her face up and we gave her a Popsicle which of course made it all better. Her first crappy sugar treat and first bloody face. She seems to be all better now except for a little tiny scratch below her nose. Besides the blood the day was great. We went out to our favorite deli and had a little cake before heading back home. Olive tried a pickle for the first time and she loved it.

And now for my sorta out of order photos........