Italian Weekend

Friday night we traveled to San Pedro to join Andria and Roberto at his family's home for pizza night. Roberto's dad does masonry for a living and has an incredible pizza oven right in their backyard!  The food was incredible and everything was homemade and handmade, from growing the tomatoes, making the dough and baking the pies. Perfect summer evening with great family and friends. Although I must say the highlight was watching my dad flip pizza dough in the air!  40 years later and he hasn't lost his touch! 

We brought home a huge bag of garden tomatoes from Roberto's mom. I turned them into a delicious marinara sauce tonight. In order to show the sauce its well deserved respect I even made homemade pasta with Jack's help. It was  fantastic!  I have a feeling I'll be getting pasta tools for Christmas this year because we all want more handmade pasta!

Aliens

Jack and Lauren WANTED to sit together at breakfast today. On one hand they might just be really sensitive to the fact that I have a cold and they are trying to be sweet so I'll feel better. On the other hand they might be robotic children placed here by aliens who abducted my real kids. Probably aliens. 

Jack watching over Lauren

I snapped this photo Jack and Lauren as we were walking through the crowds at the balloon festival this weekend.  Good to know that big brother is watching over Lauren.

Full of Hot Air

On Saturday we went to the Santa Paula Hot Air Balloon Festival. We tried a few years ago only to discover there were no hot air balloons. Apparently they lift off early in the morning and don't return until late afternoon. We were there midday. That was a LONG day. Wiser now, we went around 6:30. We got corn dogs and chili fries from the food trucks for dinner (and heart burn an hour later).  We threw a blanket down and relaxed until dark. Finally the balloons were filled and they glowed in the night. They were really gorgeous. The kids loved it!  Lauren cheered and danced. They were so sweet holding hands as we fought through the crowds. Jack took such good care of his baby sister, it made my heart burst with happiness. Despite Rob getting caught in the Kettlecorn line for 30 minutes I think we all had fun. He hates lines and crowds, but the kids were so thrilled when he brought it back that it made up for the frustration. Now the kids have seen the balloons and we don't need to go back for a while. 

Water Paints in the Water Closet

What better place to contain the mess of water colors?  The water closet!  Ha!  An entire room designed for wet messes. Brilliant!  Wish I could take credit for this, but it was Jack's brain child. He's one smart cookie. 

Get Cooking!

I am so relieved!  The kitchen is finally reloaded and ready to go!  I've washed every dish, glass and pan!  Then organized my amazing, huge pantry and all the cupboards. It's hard to chose my favorite part. The pantry is so spacious and organized it definitely tops the list. I really like having the microwave above the range to open up more counter space. The Caesarstone counters are perfect. The new sink is enormous. I'm really happy with the newly painted cabinets. Best if all our contractor was fabulous!  We feel like he gave us great ideas, high quality workmanship and a fair price. The subcontractors were all easy to work with and it was even finished in a timely manner. As challenging as a kitchen remodel can be, our was great. I am looking so forward to breaking it in now. 

Showers

Given the choice between a bath or a shower our little boy now prefers a shower-gulp!  Losing teeth, starting kinder, taking showers-yikes!  Next thing I know he'll be driving a car and going to prom-aaakkk!