26 April - Eclipse trailer

Here's to the beginning of the June 30, 2010 cheese fest! My sister emailed me the link for the new Eclipse trailer, & I'm getting exctied! The first trailer for the movie was so boring & disappointing, so I was much happier when I saw this one!

15 April - lunch w/ Uncle Rick & Aunt Betsy

Last week, Uncle Rick & Aunt Betsy (my mom's sister) came out to visit the family in California. One of the days they were here, Will & I drove with my mom to meet them in St. Helena for lunch - there's nothing quite like Taylor's Refresher (I guess they've just recently changed the name to Gotts Curbside, but it will always be Taylor's to me)! We ordered fish tacos, sweet potato fries, & milkshakes. The weather was beautiful & the food was great, as usual.

Uncle Rick & Will waiting in line to order food.

my mom, William, & Betsy (I'm so proud to be named after her - she's one incredible lady!)

Will loved the milkshake, & I don't blame him!

Rick & Betsy

One thing I love about this restaurant is that you get to sit at a picnic table in the middle of a grassy lawn to eat. It's so casual & family friendly. When Will was done eating, we let him down to run around in the grass & make friends with some other kids who were still waiting for their food to arrive. It was really funny & surprising to see him take charge of the group, even though the other kids were 3, 5, & 7 years old. He's was most definitely the ring leader, & he knew it.

If anyone is ever up for the drive to Taylor's, just let me know! I'm always game.

12 April - bricks can really mess up your face

Last week, we went to my parents' during Scott's "one-week-out-of-the-month" Stanford stay.  While Will was watching Disney's Cars one morning, he slipped on a cushion he'd put on the floor & flew forward into the brick fireplace face first. The poor kid was screaming so loud, & I was trying not to panic. At first, the scrape on his face was really white, but then the blood started surfacing & rolling down his face. I cleaned Will up as best as I could & gave him some milk to help him calm down. It could have been so much worse (thank goodness he didn't hit his eye, although he came close).  

It amazes me how quickly children get up & going again after being hurt. It was almost like nothing had even happened just minutes before. It didn't hurt that my parents' cat decided to pay a visit, so Will was quickly distracted with watching it through the window.

The following day: Will ended up with a black eye, & the left side of his face was really swollen for a couple days.

Playing with the cars that the Easter Bunny brought.

6 April - The Forgotten Garden completed

I've finished two books besides this one since reading Jane Eyre, but wasn't all that crazy about them - A Reliable Wife, by Robert Goolrick (3 stars - semi-interesting, but also disturbing enough that I wouldn't reccommend it) & The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fford (2 stars). 

This one, however, was incredible!

The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! It was so beautifully written! I loved the flow of the story & the way it shifted back & forth from one moment in time to another (over the span of about 100 years), revealing bits & pieces of a secret/mystery along the way. I highly recommend this book!

24 March - New Moon Party!

Last Wednesday, my friend - Shana - & I threw a New Moon Party! We were so happy to realize that we weren't alone in loving super cheesy themed parties.  She got to my house early the morning of the party, & we spent over six hours getting things ready for that night! Everything was red, white, & black: the decorations, the food. 

We hung red "curtains" (really cheap plastic tablecloths that looked like fruit leather) to lead to the feast (looks just like Volterra, right? haha).

We also had a surprise visitor - who other than Jacob Black! Edward couldn't be in the picture - he was too busy giving the guests piggyback rides through the nearby woods :)

me & Shana - go Team Jacob!

the setup: we had tons of popcorn: regular & kettle corn, candy, red velvet & chocolate cupcakes, jam thumbprint & chocolate cookies, red punch, crackers w/ cream cheese & raspberry/chipotle sauce, chocolate covered strawberries - the food was seriously so good! I was literally shaky the next day from all the sugar I had (especially since I couldn't stop eating all the leftovers). 

Connie brought beautiful Calla Lilies from her yard to add to the decor. They were gorgeous!

Shana is so talented at decorating food - the berries looked like they were professionally done. And her cupcakes were incredible - and I'm usually not much of a cupcake person. 

It was so fun to have so many ladies over for our "cheese fest" (as Shana calls it). Who would have thought married women, all with children, would be waving "Book Edward" "Movie Jacob" banners throughout the movie (Laurie, you're hilarious!), & cheesily swooning over a vampire & werewolf! Haha - it was such a blast! Thanks for coming ladies!