Baby it's cold outside

Frazier Park has a few things going for it.

1. Snow. In Southern California. Every winter.

2. Houses within or in direct proximity to national forests. Trees. Clean air. Crystal clear skies (does not apply during annoying and increasingly more common summer wildfires).

3. Feta mozzarella breadsticks

Sure, yes, of course there are childhood memories and small community elements that are cool as well but the aforementioned highlights top my What I Love About My Hometown list.

Young Harrison, sporting his snow clothes and giant boots, explored Mt. Pinos with Papa Jim and Matt this weekend. I knew he'd love it given the fact that he was already sprinting through the house doing belly slides to test out the gear - and that was before he actually stepped foot in the snow!

Donut + snow play + fun with grandparents = pretty lucky, happy, exhausted 2 year old!

Suenbabies

Tyler, Briana, H and Riley

The first of many slide rides (and attempts by the moms to

get a good pic)

Lunch at the Wilsons - Kelly really had all of these amazing tools and seats

right there at her house to put on a great kid feast!

One

Two (Luke)

Three!

Three of the four Suenbros (our buddy Beckett is

taking a hiatus from California to enjoy Brooklyn for a while). The

boys were all born in a six month span and for a few months

four of us were pregnant at the same time!

After running miles with Riley's soccer ball, the boys were delighted to do

many, many rounds of Ring Around the Rosie

And they all fall down (or in H's case, fell asleep in the car)

Suenho \swayne-hoe\ , noun ; 1. female resident of 6670 Sueno Rd. in Isla Vista, Ca between 1997 and 2000

Suenbaby or Suenbro \swayne-bay-bee or swayne-broh\ , noun ; 1. male child born to a Suenho mom

The three years post-dorm living that I spent in lovely, clean, safe, quiet Isla Vista, my roommates and I resided on Sueno Road in a special little yellow house with an amazing yard. Home to various themed college parties (highlighted by an ice luge or bathtub full of 40s or bedroom full of half pajama clad Gauchos), flaming shopping carts flying off the roof, kitchen floor hookups, late night sliding door visitors (including a skunk, homeless person with dog and a few boyfriends), a bleach infused washing machine, infamous sofa bed, that house also fostered many lifelong friendships and served as the inspiration for the term "suenho". Collectively my roommates and I became known as The Suenhos and during the Spring of 2008 when 4 of us had recently become moms to boys, someone started referring to Riley, Harrison, Beckett and Luke as Suenbros or Suenbabies or Suenboys in some form or another.

It is always such a treat to visit everyone and Harrison adores playing with his buddies. While we were sad to miss a weekend visiting Grammy and Papa, we made up for it by spending the day with some of my favorite college friends and their kids. We started the morning in Dublin with the Wilsons where Supermom Kelly had extra strollers, TONS of cool toys and surplus dining chairs to make for an awesome play date. We took a great walk to the park right down the street from their new house and enjoyed the crazy warm fall morning. After H and Riley took a much-needed nap in the car, we met up at another park in Walnut Creek with Kaitie and Luke, Bree, Lindsay and Sara. The only thing missing from the pics is our spread from Sonoma Market with my all-time favorites: chicken salad, red pepper dip, carrots, bread and Orangina.

Thanks friends for a GREAT day!

Apple Hill = the ultimate Fall adventure

Harrison rockin this year's woodsman hat...not sure exactly how

the trend started but we always seem to find really adorable little man

hats for him and have amassed a whole collection of sizes

Mmmm, real apple cider is so good

When in Apple Hill...

Jen, Kate and Kris

Beating on things with sticks...following the footsteps of my

brother and so many boys before him!

One lovely Fall day, Harrison and I left Matt home working (sorry Daddy!) and joined our friends the Klimas for fun in Apple Hill. It really is a fairly quick drive up the 50 to find amazing orchards and now hills of vines. The kids enjoyed a train ride before hitting the ultimate stop for all-food-apple-related. Unfortunately for my waistline I had to eat an entire fritter and a warm apple wine but it was worth it! The season was in full effect with gorgeous colors and leaves at every turn. So much fun.

Happy Birthday Mom

Harrison and I had such a fun day in Frazier Park for Grammy Shelly's birthday! She spent time in the warm fall sun, we had a great dinner with some of her pals and most importantly she felt good and enjoyed the day. Here's to a healthy, happy, positive and entirely better year Mom!

Photo shoot with Priscilla

My former colleague Priscilla has found her calling as a photographer and asked if H could help her out with a class project. We had a great time visiting the Sacramento City College photo studio, learning about setup and lighting and of course getting some great shots of Harrison! He was SUCH a good subject - looked in the right direction on command, smiled, played, talked and was super patient.

Most importantly, I learned the ultimate trick to get Harrison to crack up/smile very naturally. Since the day of our photo shoot, I've tried it on numerous occasions and it works like a charm every single time!

Mom: "Harrison, what do you say to Gidget [Gidget is Grandma Barbara's little dog] when she jumps?"

Harrison, with pointer finger wagging : "No dumping Didget... ha ha ha Didget cazy"

Why are my pics blurry?

I am having issues with Blogger apparently...stay tuned while I do a few tests to figure out what I am doing wrong all of a sudden to get blurry uploads on the blog? Kind of annoying...

Trick-or-treat

H and Kate at the pumpkin patch - it was literally about 99 degrees (in the middle of October!) so we lasted about 20 minutes...but still got this great pic!

H and Madeline on their field trip to the pumpkin patch. Again, a sweltering hot day so I mistakenly wore flip flops, not realizing that I would have to climb through dirt trenches and spiky pumpkin leaves in search of small, cute, round, orange pumpkins. Not so easy!

Boy fun with pumpkins and knives

Inside the lives of Manhattan's elite...XOXO, Gossip Girl

Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass

Happy 2nd Birthday Harrison!

More time with Gimmy in FP

Choo-choo

We had such an awesome train trip along the river with Kate and Jen!  The kids totally did their job, keeping their conductor hats on, choo-chooing the whole time and of course posing for many photo ops.  We will definitely be embarking on this adventure again soon! 

Frazier Park, Ca 93225

Harrison and Papa had an adventure this morning and came back with some cool, new shoes!  Apparently H selected them and started jumping up and down in the store when he tried them on - and he has been wearing them for about 10 hours so far.

Papa's #1 helper

Still helping with a little lawn mowing

Wait, whose kid is that?

Party crasher does his stuff in the empty bounce house

The party and people who likely paid for the bounce house Harrison so enjoyed

 "Wait, whose kid is that?  The little one in the orange?", says mother of party guest (who is now enjoying the bounce house after leaving it completely empty for H to take over)

Scene:  Mom, Dad, Kid and Dog take a walk in the neighborhood and wind up in the local park.  Among other activities, the family comes upon a drum circle, makeshift rope swing, AA graduation picnic, cap gun fight and numerous birthday parties.  One party stands out in particular for the completely empty bounce house set away from the celebration..the only way one would know it's connected to a party (and not a free fun gift from the City for park users to enjoy) is the Cars theme of the bounce house matching the myriad Cars theme tablecloths, gift bags and balloons at one of the birthday parties.  

Dad to random person at a picnic table, possibly part of a birthday party : "Do you mind if my son takes a quick jump in the bounce house over there?"

Man at picnic table :  "Sure, at least I'd get my money's worth if someone uses it!"

Dad :  "Cool, thanks."

Harrison proceeds to go insane in his own personal jump house.  Crashing into walls, catching serious air, laughing hysterically, refusing to come out.

In the distance Mom sees a pinata smashing session and hears shouts of joy as the candy hits the ground.  Mom soon realizes these kids are running towards the bounce house Harrison is enjoying.

Mom :  "Hun, don't you think we should grab him so these kids can enjoy their bounce house?  Plus they seem way bigger than H and I don't want him to get a bloody nose or something."

Dad :  "Good call.  Hey, Harrison, come one, let's go see the ducks.  Come on out."

Harrison :  "No.  More jump.  I want more jump.  Harrison jump.  Jump."

About seven kids proceed to jam into the jumper and go almost as nuts as H did initially.  H, the smallest by about a foot and two years, just continues to jump away, laughing, screeching and calling for mom and dad to check out his moves.

Harrison :  "Mommy, Harrison jump.  Daddy jump?  Harrison jump.  Jump, jump."

Mom : "Hun, I think you should just go in there and grab him.  I seriously will flash all of those strangers if I try to crawl in there in such a short skirt.  Just reach in and grab his leg when he comes close to the side."

Random stranger : ""Wait, whose kid is that?  The little one in the orange?"