Pumpkin Patch and Picnic by the Lake

This month is a busy one for our family! Lots of traveling and Forced Family Fun, starting with a trip to the pumpkin patch and a picnic by the lake!


We sat in the traffic leading into the Pumpkin Capital of the World, Half Moon Bay, to bring the boys to Lemos Farm's pumpkin extravaganza.

Calvin is super excited about petting the goats.

He did calm down.

But he may have been a little nervous even after we left the goat pen.

Mushy Henry!

Sugar Pumpkin :)

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

The next day we headed over to Del Valle park for a picnic by the lake with some friends.

 

Rachel and Sagan

Matt and Autumn

 Napping in the cabana. Look at that little tushie sticking up! 

We had to take these fast so that Henry wouldn't be in the sun too long!

Calvin's turn for a ride! Sagan said he was heavy!

Our busy little guy was fascinated by the ladder golf balls. 

Love that smile so much!!!

We don't have many pics of the 4 of us!

You can tell that poor Calvin is tired! Hard to tell if Henry is laughing or crying, though... let's assume he is smiling!

A-Camping We Will Go!

Big news at our house! James got a new job! He will be working as a product research engineer at Align Technologies. I'm so proud of him and excited for him as he starts this new chapter in his professional life. He decided to take a week vacation between his last day of post-doc work at Stanford and his first day at his new job. To celebrate, and to take advantage of his week off, we decided to venture out on our first camping trip as a family of four!

James and I love camping and we live in such a great part of the country where there are lots and lots of gorgeous places to camp and hike (mountains, desert, and beach!) practically in our own backyard. But it's been a while since our last camping trip... back when I was 7 months pregnant with Calvin! We have been eager to get back to the great outdoors, babies and all :)

When I looked at this pic, I was like - oh geez, we had just arrived and already Calvin is trying to eat sticks!
Then I remembered that I had given him a snack of freeze dried peas, so don't worry!
That is actual food he is putting in his mouth!

We went to San Mateo Memorial Park, just outside La Honda, CA. Since it was the middle of the week and the off season, there were very few other campers and we got a nice big campsite. 

We were used to having the trunk plus the whole backseat to pack our camping gear, but now our backseat has two baby car seats! James should get an award for Trunk Tetris :)

We saw this pretty doe just after we arrived.

Maybe it seems crazy to go camping with two babies, but we really enjoyed it! James did all the work of setting up camp, cooking, cleaning, chasing away raccoons, breaking down camp, and packing the car. I spent most of the time nursing Henry who is a snacker and likes to eat every 2 hours or so. I felt kind of guilty and kept thanking him for doing everything and he was just like, "It's not work. I love camping."

Calvin had a blast. He loves exploring and he just wandered around discovering treasures in the nooks and crannies of our campsite. He also tasted a fair amount of dirt and one acorn.

Calvin in the redwoods

Yup. That is the acorn. We didn't intend to let him put it in his mouth.
James was trying to get him to show it to the camera. Oh well!

Henry did what Henry does... eat, sleep, soil diapers, and snuggle with mama and daddy.

Of course they both did their share of fussing and crying when they were tired and hungry, but no major meltdowns. Mostly they were both very sweet and happy.

And James and I got to play with silly Calvin and cuddle with mushy Henry and enjoy one another's company.

Banana slug!

What a goofball.

We took the boys on a short hike.

We brought yummy food... pumpkin pancake mix for breakfast, pb&j with fun trail mixes for lunch and snacks, steak fajitas with peppers and onions for dinner, and of course s'mores!

We made some unusual s'mores, though, because we had done our shopping at TJ's and they didn't have normal marshmallows. They only had chocolate covered marshmallows, but we bought them anyway. I got the idea to make the s'more sandwiches, then wrap them in foil and cook them on the grill over the fire. We didn't get the fun part of roasting the marshmallows on sticks, but the end result was super yummy! The chocolate covered marshmallows got nice and melty between the graham crackers and I think the ratio of chocolate to marshallow was just right :)

James has recently learned how to play guitar and he brought one along and played songs by the campfire. There we were, Calvin asleep in the tent, Henry asleep in my arms, enjoying our s'mores and James' guitar music... when our relaxing campfire experience was rudely interrupted by some furry intruders! A pack of very bold raccoons made multiple attempts to snag some food from us! They totally freaked me out. James chased them away and threw sticks at them. The second night I kept feeling paranoid that they were lurking and were going to come bother us again! I was feeling totally afraid of the raccoons!

Me: I think they're out there. Do you think they're going to come try to eat the babies?!
James: [ignores me]
Me: What if they attack us and scratch Henry's face? What if they bite the baby?!
James: They're not going to bite the baby. I'm going to wash the dishes.
Me: What if they come while you're gone?!!
James: Then I'll chase them with my knife! 


The weather was chilly at night. I think we did a good job of keeping the babies warm - thanks to lots of layers of clothes, some fleece footy pajamas for Calvin, and a fleece swaddling blanket for Henry. Unfortunately, we did not do a very good job of keeping ourselves warm in the tent!  I barely slept the first night because I was so cold. The second night James let me have extra covers so I could sleep. Next time we need warmer blankets for mom and dad! The babies slept fine. The raccoons didn't eat them - though they did swipe a banana that James was trying to bring to Calvin early in the morning!


All in all it was a nice, relaxing trip (raccoons aside) and I'm so glad we went for it, even though our kiddos are so young. We look forward to lots more camping trips in the future!

Almond Flour Scones

The day before James' birthday I was sitting in the waiting room at our doctor's office waiting for Henry's check up and I was like Oh crap. I have to make birthday breakfast! I had almost forgotten about it! How could I forget birthday breakfast?!

Obviously I hadn't bought any special breakfast groceries and I seriously doubted my ability to make a crack-of-dawn bakery run because of the babies. I had to figure out something special that I could make with groceries we already had and I wanted it to be easy. Flipping pancakes while Calvin hangs onto my leg and whines does not qualify as easy. So I turned to my handy dandy "Breakfast" board on Pinterest and sighed with relief when I saw this flourless "scone" recipe from Delighted Momma.

The original recipe is for blueberry scones, but I did chocolate chip for birthday breakfast. Something a little more decadent. My version of the recipe is at the bottom of the post :)

Dry ingredients: almond flour, chocolate chips, unsweetened shredded coconut, sea salt,  baking soda
Wet ingredients: egg, honey

Mix wet + dry and you end up with very sandy feeling dough. Shape it into scones on a parchment lined baking sheet.

They only take 10 min. to bake! I was able to throw together the batter and have them in and out of the oven while Calvin was eating his Cheerios in his high chair. Whew!

Unfortunately, Calvin got bored before I was finished baking and poured milk all over his tray.
Guess he didn't want dry Cheerios.  *Facepalm*

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Almond Flour Scones

• 2 c. almond flour or almond meal (mine is from Trader Joe's... you can also make this by grinding raw almonds into a powder with a food processor!)
• 1 c. add-in (chocolate chips, dried blueberries, dried cranberries... I used mini chocolate chips this time, but I've also made them with cranberries and they were great!)
• 1/4 c. unsweetened shredded coconut flakes
• 1/4 tsp. sea salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 egg
• 2 tbs. honey (or agave syrup) 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 

Mix the almond flour, chocolate chips (or whatever your add-in is), coconut flakes, sea salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the egg with the honey (or agave).

Pour the egg and honey into the dry ingredients and mix it all up. It's really easiest to use your hands to make sure all the dry ingredients get a little wet. It's kind of a weird sandy dough.

On a parchment-lined baking sheet, form the weird sandy dough into whatever shape scones you would like. I made 6 circles about 4" in diameter. I thought about getting fancy with a cookie cutter and decided to take the easy way instead :) They won't change shape when you bake them.

Bake for 10 minutes or until the tops are golden brown. (I know, I know, they're already brown. They will get golden-er brown-er I promise.)

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I love this recipe because it's easy and  yummy and as long as you use dried fruit instead of chocolate chips they are gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free. I have people in my life with those food sensitivities, so I'm always glad to have recipes up my sleeve that I can cook for them. Just keep them away from people with nut allergies!

30 Beers for 30 Years

Don't worry. James did not drink all these beers! It wasn't that kind of party ;)

James turned 30! For my homebrewing beer connoisseur, I crafted (read: stacked) a beer can cake! And this is no Bud Light or Miller Genuine Draft creation. Not for James. No, this beer can cake is crafted of craft brews, of course! A selection of four beers from San Francisco's own 21st Amendment brewery, plus one from New Belgium brewery out of Ft. Collins, CO. That's right, James is 5 six-packs old. 

For anyone who might be Pinterested in making a beer can cake like this one, there are 17 cans on the bottom tier, 9 in the middle, and 4 on top. There are cardboard circles covered in scrapbook paper between the layers. Mine are about 12", 10", and 8" in diameter. I didn't do anything to attach the cans, so this cake isn't portable. My card says: Cheers! To 30 Happy Years with 30 Hoppy Beers! Note: If the beers you use aren't very hoppy, you might want a different message ;) Oh, and if you want that nice crooked edge on the card, cut it hastily with kitchen scissors.

We started the day with birthday breakfast! I got up with the babies and made almond flour "scones" with chocolate chips. They are super yummy and super easy. I'll share the recipe in another post.

James went to work and I spent the day throwing together a last-minute dinner party while Lola helped with the babies. I cooked a pot roast - James' favorite comfort food - with mashed potatoes and I cheated and used a salad kit. I also cheated and bought a cake at Safeway, but it was a hit :)

It's a S'mores cake topped with mini marshmallows and Golden Grahams! 

Looks like Calvin is signing "milk." 

Happy 30th birthday, James!!