Kids Being Silly

Some recent photos of the kids being silly and one with Wicket too! This is harder to achieve than it looks...

Lake Anza

We went to Lake Anza this past weekend with some friends. It's a pretty little lake, really a hidden gem in the much bigger park it resides in (Tilden Park in Berkeley). The amazing thing is, it's just 15 minutes away. I love it because it's small, contained, and there's sand which the kids love. I often think of how fortunate we are to live in the bay area. Near perfect weather most times and so many awesome kid's activities to do.

Lazy Sunday

A couple lazy Sundays ago, we found ourselves with nothing to do which was actually nice. For once, no classes, events, birthday parties. Just us at home. Of course the kids were bored and it was hot that day, so I let them outside to get their creativity on. Clean up was much easier and the kids burned some good energy. What more could you ask for?

Strawberries Galore

We had baskets of organic strawberries left from our berry picking so Alia and I made two quick recipes with them.

1. Three ingredient popsicles. Combine coconut milk, one ripe banana, strawberries into an immersion blender and place into silicone popsicle sticks. After 3 hours, we had delicious, creamy popsicles.

2. Easy strawberry galette. I use ready made puff pastry, sprinkle top with brown sugar and flour to prevent it from getting soggy. Combine 2 C. sliced strawberries with 3 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tbsp flour and 1 tsp vanilla. Brush pastry with milk and sprinkle with sugar. We used pink sparkling sugar we had on hand to make it more fun. Bake at 425 for 30-40 minutes. It was a little on the tart side, so next time I might increase sugar to 5 tbsp.

 So fun for Alia and we got to make good use of the berries.

Big Basin Beach

After berry picking, we stopped by Big Basin beach in Half Moon Bay which was just a 10 minute drive away. We hadn't planned on swimming so the kids didn't have swimsuits, but they had fun watching the kites fly by and dipping their feet in the sand and water. Kian's still hesitant when it comes to water so he mostly stayed back and watched. I remember the first time he went on a beach, he didn't like the feel of sand but I can tell he's warming up to it. The kids had a ton of fun and although it made for a long day, it was worth it to see how happy they were in the moment.

Swanton Berry Farm

We went berry picking recently at Swanton Berry Farm located about 1.5 hours from us near Pescadero and Half Moon Bay. We invited one of Alia's school friends Jeannie and their family. They have a younger daughter, Abigail, about Kian's age so it's fun to hang out with them since our kids are similar in ages. Although we took Kian last year to another strawberry farm, he was not walking at the time and stayed in a stroller the whole time. This was his first time actually picking berries and he absolutely LOVED it. He picked and ate his way through the field and enjoyed every second of it. The farm is beautiful and has ocean vies and a picnic area. We went to the beach afterward for some sand fun. Pictures coming up in the next post.