Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

After a quick fun filled 1/2 a weekend in Tucson for my mom's birthday, I've decided to try to plant a garden. We used some fresh herbs from my mom's container veg garden for our great dinner on Saturday. It was super tasty (esp the steaks - thanks Dad!) and great company. We got to hang out with (left to right) Connor's girlfriend Abby, Sean's Brother Connor, my mom Kim, my dad Cleve, my brother Keenan, Keenan's roommate Mike, Sean, Patrick and Me (not pictured). After dinner Sean and I went to go see Hellboy 2 at the Park Mall. Boy, I was not used to being out so late - we got home at 12:30! But, I did it and it was pretty good. Think Pan's Labyrinth-style characters in the movie. Fun :)

My mom said that she transplanted seedlings. Well, lucky for me, my local home store didn't have anything right now (so I must be crazy) but we got seeds and we've made 2 mini greenhouses with upside-down Sterilite clear storage boxes.

Here are the filled extra party cups.

Here are the seeds.

Here are the cups before filling - I cut a hole in them with a knife (for drainage.)

Just like this.

When (I hope) the seedlings sprout, I hope to use this stuff. It's called Terracycle and it's made from worm poop and packaged in recycled soda bottles. So genius.

I hope to keep you all updated as to what is growing and how they're doing.

If you are in the desert and intersted in knowing what to plant and when, here's a great resource: http://www.urbanfarm.org/Planting_Calendar.pdf

And if you are interested in sourcing some unique seeds (I haven't done this yet), you can find some great stuff on the internet.

http://www.johnnyseeds.com/home.aspx?ct=HG

http://rareseeds.com/

http://www.seedsavers.org/

This is where Farmer Frank gets his seeds. Farmer Jen, here we come!

____

PS. Fun fact I learned today (unassociated to anything in this post but related to great Summer songs): Holiday Road, the theme some from National Lampoon's Vacation was written and sung by Lindsey Buckingham. Can't believe I didn't figure it out after all these years...Lindsay's the greatest. Here's a You Tube clip from a live performance. And for all of you embarking on a road trip this summer, get excited with this original theatrical trailer for National Lampoon's Vacation.

Farmers and Chefs and More Swimming!

Thanks Mom for coming to visit earlier this week so that I could make it to the Farmer Chef Connection Event for Edible Phoenix (see picture below - that's Bob McClendon, Mike from Bon Appetit, Greg from Quiessence, the Litchfield Park Food and Bev Manager and the guy from the Queen Creek Olive Mill). It was fun and I got to see some old buddies I hadn't seen since Patrick was still in my tummy. It's gotten me motivated to want to join a CSA again. I am going to see if Desert Roots Farm has any room. I miss my CSA veggies.

We've been swimming every day this week since it's soooooooo hot. The pool itself is pretty hot which is kind of yuck but it's nice to take a dip anyway!

Parties Parties Parties

We're having a great summer so far doing a lot of swimming in the pool and hanging out with friends and family. I've drifted a bit from my usual blog schedule but we've needed time to clean up and get ready for the next fun event. Below is a picture from the weekend after the big birthday party.

I had forgotten to break out the pinata at the birthday party so when we had some friends and family over for the 4th, we had to use it then. I think the final blow came after cousin Ryan and our little friend Preston had taken so many turns whacking that thing that it just couldn't hold all the Laffy Taffy and Nerds that had been in there for a week!

I think we were at Pick up Stix when I took this picture. Patrick was really into sticking his tongue out. Nowadays it's sticking his finger up his nose, and sometimes one finger in each nostril at the same time. Nice!

This is at the Children's Museum of Phoenix. This just opened and so far it's a blast. We're glad that our friends also got annual passes because we might just move in. These are giant bean bags that Patrick is trying to climb over. He really enjoyed it!

This was in the car after from being at the Children's Museum for a few hours, he was laughing all the way home!

Yesterday we had a great time with Sean's whole family over here to celebrate his Mom's husband's daughter's graduation. We ate great food, played in the pool and had a super fabulous time. Thanks for everyone's help making it a great day. Congratulations Sheryl!!

The Birthday Boy

Swimming lessons came to an end on Friday. They gave us a certificate of completion and a popscicle.

Here's a picture of the pool that we've been at for the last 2 weeks. If you can see in the shadow, Patrick is leaning in for another lick.

Then Saturday was all about the big luau Patrick 1st/Jennifer 30th Birthday Party!
I think we had about 30 - 35 people in total at the party. The house was full of food and fun and shave ice.

The fishy take home boxes filled with aloha buttermints, shells and a beach monkey beach ball.

My mom's pinapple pupu platter from back in the day, good thing she's kept it! :)

I finally put up these cute curtains that I'd been hanging on to. I hemmed them any everything. Like our very own cabana!

Sean's surprise for me was to fly my friend Jenny in to town. When she arrived Friday night I was totally confused at first but so happy! Patrick was happy too!

Here's a picture of one of the cupcakes that Jenny and I decorated for the party. You might be able to see but we attempted to make a wave design with frosting and a toothpick at the bottom. Here's a link to the recipe.


We had a great day and I'm still washing dishes and doing laundry from the busy weekend. Boy was it worth it!

Swimming and Balloons and Blueberries, Oh My

Sean reminded me that I haven't posted for a little while. So, here is out latest update.
We started swimming lessons through the City of Phoenix at the Sunnyslope High School swimming pool. It's eight classes for a 2 week period. So far, it's been more just swimming and getting used to the water than lessons but Patrick really likes the water. He is able to blow bubbles underwater and we practice kicking and floating and he just loves it (well, maybe not the floating part yet).

The picture below is from another swim day, it's of Patrick full of sunscreen at Aunt Katy's house. I think I went a little overboard and made a little ghost baby. I didn't know how to cover his scalp knowing he might not keep his hat on. So, I covered his head and made him have greasy head for a few days, but at least he didn't get sunburned. There are more pictures on our web album.

We had a lot of fun swimming in Katy's pool with Patrick's cousins. Despite the fact that this picture looks really refreshing (and it was), it was ridiculously hot out and if you didn't have a hat, you felt like your face was melting. But the melting didn't last too long as long as you splashed some water on your face."Boon boon" is what Patrick calls balloons. If you recall, I posted a cute video of Patrick with his first balloon from Trader Joe's. At the time, he wasn't sitting up that well yet. Now that that is not a problem, it is a balloon graveyard in our house. Every time we go to the grocery store, we have to get a balloon or Patrick is not happy. Thank goodness Safeway and Trader Joe's offer free balloons. The balloon in this picture below is from our fun Father's Day in Tucson. Grandpa got Patrick a Burt of Sesame Street's Burt and Ernie. I'm happy to report that the Burt balloon is still alive and in our living room. What a great find!! Thanks Grandpa!

The following weekend on June 21st, I turned 30. Wow, I can't believe I'm 30 now. I don't feel older but I feel like I need to act older or something. Like I need to practice speaking in a deeper voice. We had a great day and did lots of fun things. Sean had suggested that we do 30 fun things for my 30th birthday. I am proud to say that we got them all done. Some of the items included seeing the summer solstice light show/lecture at the Burton Barr library (see picture below).
And going to Pane Bianco for lunch. Here's Patrick flirting with the cute girls who work there. Sean had the best sandwich he thinks he's ever had. It was a prosciutto, mozzarella and basil sandwich. MMMMmmmmm.Other things on my list included: not doing dishes, not taking the garbage out and the like. Hey, it's hard to get 30 things done on a list...but we did it. Other highlights were going to Lee Lee Oriental Market for some banana leaves and shelf sight seeing. This place is great! We needed the banana leaves for a recipe that I'm making this weekend for our luau party. We also swam in our pool and Sean and I watched the mid-season finale episode of Battlestar Galactica. It was a great day!

We also ate Patrick's new favorite food: blueberries. He gets excited just looking at them. So, thank goodness it's blueberry season. He's also started crawling more. He's into the drag-leg crawl. It's pretty funny but he just like the option that he can just lean back and sit at any second.

I've also found my new favorite kid show. Patrick really isn't into TV but when I desperately need a little time to get dinner ready, I look for The Backyardigans. They have great music and a cute theme song. I am actually having trouble getting it out of my head but that's okay for now. I've been looking for more great summer music and I downloaded the new Verve remixed CD. It's the fourth CD now in this series and it's just great. One of the faves: Gimmie Some.

Any other great summer music picks?

Baby's First Haircut

This is the before:

Well, this isn't technically his first haircut. Technically, I cut those last 15 wispy last hairs that hadn't fallen out - on Easter. But tonight after a terrible mommy job haircut this morning in the highchair, it was finally time to get it cut. We debated about going to Sean's place or the "kiddie cuts" place and we decided we should leave it up to the professionals. Cool Cuts 4 Kids it was. We went to the one at the Paradise Valley Mall and I think we made it at a good time since it was pretty empty. While we were able to blow bubbles at Patrick, flash Elmo movies in front of him and sit him in a little yellow car barber chair, he still screamed and yelled and Sean had to hold his head. But...we did it.

And here's the after:For those of you who don't know already, they give you this nifty little souvenir card with a polaroid and some hair to take home and put in their baby book. Pretty cute. You can click on the picture and you can see Patrick a bit better when it goes to full size.
It's super cute but I'm still mourning the loss of his natural punk rocker hair style. However, this is much more polished and maybe we won't be hearing as much of "wow, look at that baby's hair!" exclamations anymore from strangers. You'd think we hear "oh what a cute baby" but no it's "check out his hair." So, we'll have to see what people think.


After the haircut we went to 31 flavors and let Patrick have a little lick. I must say I was surprised that he liked Sean's Reese's somethingerother vs my Strawberry. I'm just hoping he remembers happy ice cream and haircuts instead of crying and haircuts. $1 scoops on Tuesdays...cool.

Unbollweevably tasty food and an Elmo plane

Before you get distracted with all the tasty food, here's (finally) the picture of Sean's new ride. He was kind enough to let me drive it home the other day and I only stalled 4 times. Twice while backing up before getting on the road. It drives like a race car. It makes me want to be the next Danica Patrick. So super fun. And cute, don't you think? Let the drooly food talk begin...

This week, my mom came to visit for a few days and it seems like all we did was eat. Well, we did a good job at that. We went to Los Reyes de la Torta (second time for us, first time for my mom) for dinner Wednesday night. It's almost a joke how huge this food is - and how good it is too. That first picture up there is of a swimming pool sized goblet of strawberry milk. It's - for real - a 32oz+ sized cup of yum. We kept saying "mmmm, mmmm" after we'd take a sip. We're not super sure what's in there besides strawberries. It might be some cinnamon or some dulce de leche. Whatever it is, we're getting that again. We ended up taking it home and finished it for breakfast the next morning.



Sean got the Torta Del Rey (see tall tall sandwich above). King sized sandwich with king sized layers of flavor. I can't remember all that's in it but I am going to try...breaded pork, ham, breaded beef, tomato, egg, avocado, refried beans, cheese, banana peppers, jalapenos and chorizo. It's just nuts. So tasty. Something you are not going to eat everyday. I can't believe they make these sandwiches, it just makes me want to laugh - they're soooo big. It's the equivalent of a 64 oz Coke - in sandwich form. If I ever order this, I'm splitting it with 3 other people.



We topped off the meal with this unassuming plastic-clam-shell-packaged chocolate cake with flan baked on top. What what? Did you say flan baked on top of a chocolate cake? Who comes up with this stuff? Fluffy and rich and creamy. We can't get enough of this place. If you're wondering what Los Reyes de la Torta means, it's Sandwich Kings. True dat.




Patrick has been enjoying his Elmo plane rides to the bathtub. Here's a picture to prove it. He rests his legs on the wings while Sean pushes him down the hallway to the guest bathroom that houses his ducky tub. It's really cute. It makes bathtime fun for all!

Below are some pictures of out trek to Gilbert yesterday to try out some more customer and critically acclaimed food at Joe's Farm Grill. We're huge fans of Joe. I have known him (not closely) since I moved here in 2000. His BBQ joint was one of my larger customers when I worked at Coke. He's got great business sense and a clever menu and we are addicted to the BBQ restaurant Joe's Real BBQ - but I have to say that the Farm Grill didn't deliver for us. Patrick got the 4 cheese pizza, Sean got the bacon bleu cheese burger and I got the ahi tuna sandwich. No big deal. It wasn't bad food but it wasn't tasty - it was weird. Maybe we were hoping for too much. Too bad too, it's really cute out there and has a neat atmosphere (except for the swarming flies at our outdoor table). Nonetheless, it was a fun family outing and Patrick got to taste his first sucker. I think you should check it out if you don't care if the food doesn't blow you away. Except for the chocolate malt, that was pretty tasty. Get that. Okay...more food talk to come I'm sure. Happy Sunday!