Happy Summer Solstice!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year in Santa Barbara. Summer Solstice. I am not much of a parade fan, however, this one is awesome! It's always really colorful, a little strange, and lots of fun! This year's theme was "Splash," and people got pretty creative. There were lots of Mermaids and "Mermen," Poseidon on stilts, yellow submarines, Brazilian dancers, kid surfers, and lots of random people that are just plain strange, and I have no idea what they were supposed to be (that's the funnest part in my opinion!) It's a great people watching fest!

Owen had his very own seat for watching the parade! (However he did sit in Nana and Adam's laps for the majority of the time (the sleepy time anyway).

We skipped Owen's nap so we could make it to our favorite festival. Needless to say, he was pretty tired for some of it, but got his second wind shortly before the parade ended. We then followed the tail of the parade to a big park where the after party was happening. Owen walked most of the way, and then got to ride on Pappy's shoulders for the rest. We danced and enjoyed the sun until it was time to head home and try to put the little guy down for a nap.

Owen was in awe of this giant! We were hoping he would walk under his legs like a "bridge" (that he loves to do with us at home), but he was a little too intimidated I think!

Begging for french fries from a little girl's happy meal who was sitting next to us. I think she gave him three, he was stoked!
After the parade walking with Nana and Pappy to the park.
Having fun at the park. My little tree hugger.
Pointing to his very first band aid for a skinned knee "boo boo" ; (
I just had to add this one. I heard him yelling "Mama, Mama" yesterday and I walked outside only to find him STANDING in the fountain! Grrr, it was the second pair of pants I had to change already for the day (he had only been wearing them for less than half an hour too!)

Santa Maria Children's Museum

Today we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Santa Maria. It was an hour drive, but worth the trip! It didn't look like much from the outside, but the inside was the best place in the world for kids! Owen had free range off the whole place and had a blast! He was able to cook me a meal (oven roasted fish with a side of eggs, onion and carrots ; ), he got to push a shopping cart all over the place, we were enclosed by a giant bubble, we crawled through tunnels, hopped on a saddle, rode a tractor, jumped on foam steps, watched fish in a tank, pet a bear, planted a cauliflower seeding, and slid down a whales tongue to name just a few things : ) I will let the pictures do the rest of the explaining!

Owen had to go for a bike ride over the "bumps" (speed bumps) before we went anywhere. He really wanted to wear his helmet!

Cooking with cabbage!
My wonderful meal Owen prepared for me!


Us in a giant bubble (before Owen popped it!)

Sporting a New Haircut at the Beach!

Yesterday Owen finally got a much needed hair cut! Later, we went to the beach with some friends and tired him out before bedtime. Here he is working on a sand castle.Luke, Laith and Owen having fun

Luke eating seaweed : )

Owen having a great time with Daddy!

Here he is flying high! He was laughing so hard

Warm'n up!

Wow, I can't believe it has been a week since my last posting! That sure did go by fast! The weather has slowly but surely been getting warmer so we have been doing a lot outdoors lately (as usual) Here are some pictures to catch up from the week!
First of all, THIS is a good reason to wash all your produce before you eat it! Here is a little brown frog who decided to make the inside of a large basil leaf his temporary home. Thank God I didn't try to pick it while he was on it. That would have been a scream you all would have heard on the EAST coast!

One morning this week, I thought it was too quiet for too long so I went to see what Owen was up to, and I was pleasantly surprised to see him nicely coloring in his drawing book at his table. He brought the paper and markers outside by himself. Only children are so good at entertaining themselves :) Lately he has been wanting to climb into our bed (when we are not in it) and play. He will sometimes just sit and rest for a minute, or point out which side Mommy and Daddy sleep on, or crawl under the covers and pretend he is sleeping. I can't believe that he can even get up to our bed without any help (it's pretty high up).

This morning we went to the pool in our complex and had a lot of fun! We all even got to sit in the hot tub for a bit. I thought Owen would think it was too hot, but he really enjoyed it and floated along in his Daddy's arms completely happy. I think he liked the bubbles the best : )
After Adam went to work, I started working on the garden. However, my little helper was more of a little destroyer. So, after many time outs in a chair, I gave up about half way through and left it for tomorrow. We came inside and read books instead. His favorite book right now is Where The Wild Things are. He says "Max" over and over again, along with "Wild Thing" (in his own way) It's really cute.He found Adam's gardening gloves and thought he would help by putting them on. He found it a little difficult to pick things up needless to say : )
My hydrangeas are starting to come back in full pink force!

Sunday

Today we lucked out and got a picnic table for $10 on Craigslist! Now Owen and his friends can eat, paint, draw, etc.. in the back yard and it's just the right size. He was eating lunch when Adam carried it in the house, which means he was too excited to eat after he got one look at his new table : ) He is so happy, I am hoping it keeps him distracted from picking my tomatoes for now!

Later on I took Owen to the beach to burn off some energy before bed time. Sadly, I think a little finger print touched the camera lens, so the pictures all have a hazy film over them : ( Anyway, we had fun finding rocks once again and throwing them in the water. We did that for nearly 2 hours! Mommy is tired too!
Looking for rocks.

Found one!

Saturday

Our morning started with some light reading by Daddy after breakfast.

Later, I was coloring with him with markers at the kitchen table. I left him for about 90 seconds to use the bathroom. When I came out, this is what I saw! Here he is checking out his art work. And then pointing to it admitting that this is his fine work. Fortunately, his masterpiece was done in washable crayola (bless those people) markers and came right out with one of those magic eraser sponges.

After Adam went to work, we took off to Nanna's house to see my niece Katie, meet her new boyfriend and have dinner. First thing Owen did when we got there was run outside to the garden to pick carrots! He brought them in and helped Nanna clean them up..........

And then stuck them in the juicer................ And gave me a big "Cheers!" when he had is fresh carrot juice in his sippy cup : )
My beautiful niece as happy as can be.

Owen is enjoying his snacks at his brand new kid sized picnic table!

Jimmy Kimmel Live!

Adam and I got out for the day yesterday and headed to Los Angeles. Neither of us are big fans of that city, but we got our free tickets to see one of our favorite late night hosts in Hollywood. It was a lot of fun. The show was high energy, we clapped and "woo hooed" a LOT! Ed Helms (Andy Bernard from the Office) was on as well as Thomas Hayden Church (Sideways), they were both great. Ed Helms I thought was really funny. We got to see 311 play about 5 songs at an outdoor concert at the end. It was great! The only down side is that we were supposed to meet our friends for dinner across the street but it got out MUCH later than we had anticipated, so we sadly missed them : ( We ended up sharing an awesome pizza at this fancy Italian restaurant before we headed home. It was a great night!

Oh, and the best part was getting a picture of Elmo so we can show Owen how "cool" we are : ) And here is Big Bird crossing the street. Hilarious. There are characters just walking around all over the place asking for tips for their pictures. I guess we can tell Owen that we went to Sesame Street!

Fairview Gardens

We decided to join a community garden /farm for the summer. We pick up our vegetables and fruits once a week. You never know what you are going to get, each week it's different. This is the first week and we got spinach, lettuce, strawberries, green beans, carrots, squash (yellow and green), and a kholarabi (which I had never had before). We had the most amazing salad with dinner tonight! The kholarabi tastes like a mild radish. It was really good.

Owen has started picking as many green tomatoes as he can get his hands on in OUR garden. He has plucked at least 10 that I know of. Ugh, we get so frustrated. He knows very well not to do this and gets put back in the house EVERY time he does it, but he just keeps on testing us! He looks us in the eye with his hands on the plant and says "no no" as he proceeds to pull on the leaves or tomatoes until we pick him up. He is also picking our lettuce, throwing rocks in our flowers and tackling my rosemary plant. I wonder if Home Depot sells any "kid deterents." Our little garden fence is not working to keep those bigger "animals" out of our plants! And I thought that gophers were the only things we needed to worry about!

Owen's not all bad really, he has been very sweet and cuddly lately when he's not getting into trouble in the backyard! He just likes to help and immitate everything that we do. It's very cute.