goodies from teacake

I am on vacation this week and I ventured out to Emeryville's Bay Street to have lunch with my three kiddies at California Pizza Kitchen after I ran an errand in Berkeley. (Yes, I went out to a restaurant with three kids by myself. No spills or thrown food either.)

While at Bay Street, we stopped by Teacake Bake Shop and I was overwhelmed with all the sweets they had to offer. While their prices might be a little high ($3 for a regular sized cupcake), I think they're worth it. You can tell that they use quality ingredients - because you can taste the vanilla in the cupcakes. My favorite was the vanilla buttermilk "cupcakie" which is a wide flat cupcake. I also got a white chocolate pistachio and pecan praline cookie. All very good. I would post pictures of the cupcakes, but they got annihilated in the box so they aren't very pretty.

h o t

It's hot. Triple degree weather. It usually doesn't get that hot in the bay area either. We tried to take the kids swimming over the weekend but the line to get into the rec center wrapped around the building because the pool was full! Then I had the bright idea of just getting a kiddie pool for the backyard so we ran over to Toys R Us and we weren't the only ones who thought of that because all the pools were sold out. Ditto for Target and Wal-Mart. After that, we went to Lowes to look into buying a portable air conditioner and when we got there, a big sign was posted outside the door: "We are completely sold out of air conditioners and fans." Ditto for Home Depot.

I resorted to taking the kids to the movies just for the a/c. FYI, Monster House is pretty scary for a kids' movie. Not so much funny. I didn't like the animation either - the characters weren't cute, they had skinny bodies and big heads. I wish I watched Cars instead.

But I am definitely looking forward to watching

i'm back part 2

Back from our "mini-vacation" to Southern California. Our friends got married on Saturday then we took the kids to Disneyland / California Adventure on Sunday and Monday.

The wedding was fun - one of the best weddings I've been to. They got married at Bel Air Presbyterian church which was a really nice church, and the reception was at the Skirball Cultural Center. I scarfed down the hor d'ouerves, my favorite was the garlic portobello mushrooms (so good... I'm trying to figure out how to make them!) Oh and two words for you: CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN.

Disneyland was fun (albeit HOT) - and we got to see Pirates of the Carribean ride. They didn't do anything too drastic to the ride - a couple of things like a fog curtain with the image of one of the ghost pirates and 3 (that I counted) appearances by Johnny Depp. The first 2 appearances looked like him, the third was a little off but that was the one I took a picture of (below) - too much eyeliner me thinks. I also brought my 10 month old son along for the ride - he wasn't the least fazed by that little drop.


I also went to CA Adventure for the first time - I definitely like the Disneyland side better, seems like there's more to do over there. I did however peer pressure my 9 year old son into riding the Maliboomer and Tower of Terror with me. Hopefully he won't give into peer pressure that easily when it comes to other stuff!

Maybe next time I'm in town I'll run into JustJenn during her many trips to Disneyland!

H and G

"... hi and goodbye..." -- Sleepless in Seattle

Now that I'm back, I'm going again. We're packing up the family tomorrow for our road trip to L.A. to attend a wedding. Hmmm... 5 hours in a car with 3 kids, we are planning for 2 stops, but I predict 5.

We're also going to go to Disneyland, we figure we might as well knock that out while we're down there -- pacify the kids for another 2 years.

Happy Thursday! I leave you with this picture... Q is crawling now. :)

i'm baaaaaaaack!

I have no idea where I've been... or what kept me away, but I'm back!

Anyway, some good news inspired me to post. Joyce had a baby girl on Saturday 7/1/2006 - Mommy and Baby Ava are doing great. I haven't seen them yet (thought I'd wait a bit since most of us know how it's like to be barraged with visitors after you have a baby), but pop over her site and send her a note of congrats. I have a feeling she'll be posting on her blog soon...