Thirtysomething

So I turned 36 last weekend.  I almost kept it a secret, because for the first time in my life, I kind of felt like I was getting a bit old.  But rather than stare at my skin in the mirror and think "I've really got to up my moisturizing game", I headed to the beach with my boys, just outside of Pt.Reyes, away from our little town into the middle of nowhere. We had a picnic and the kids played in the sand while Adam and I laid in the sun and added to our freckle collection.  We hiked down the coastline and searched for shells and other beach curiosities- I found a dozen or so egg-shaped pieces of rock (pictured above) just coated with dried up tiny barnacles.  I don't know what I'll do with them, but I'm sure you will see them again. And on our way back we stopped at Hog Island and picked up a couple of dozen oysters to take home. It was a good day...and then we feasted, first on oysters (both of my boys are slurpers), then on a slow cooked meatloaf ragout that had been stewing all day while we were gone, and then on cupcakes. I had to lie down after all that eating.  Here are some pictures from the day, and the recipe for our delicious supper.  I think 36 is going to be just fine...

 

Meatloaf Ragout

2 lbs meatloaf (from the meat counter)
1 32oz can San Marzono whole plum tomatoes
1 32oz can San Marzono crushed tomatoes
1 onion, chopped
3 carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil 
1 tbsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper

This is really quite simple.  Form the meatloaf into golf-ball sized rounds, and brown on all sides over medium heat.  Transfer them with a slatted spoon to a slow cooker.  Add the remaining ingredients, breaking the whole tomatoes open while as you put them in, and cook on low for 3 hours.  We ate ours over Riccia pasta drizzled with olive oil.  Decadent and delicious.

Wild Man

Another year, another animal party!  This year instead of the farm we explored the wild side at our local wildlife museum, which happens to be just blocks from our house.  A parade of preschoolers marched, then ran through the exhibits of amazing taxidermy, pet tarantulas, and learned the difference between turtles and tortoises.  After our tour we headed back to our house for some pizza and cake, and playroom destroying mischief.  For decor I decided to go simple, using Wylie's animals as the main attraction.  I borrowed this idea for party hats from Oh Happy Day, subbing tinsel pom-poms for crepe paper, hanging some parachute style from paper lanterns over the buffet.  I also tried my hand at the cake arts this year, making a "Tortuga" in honor of Wylie's favorite show Wild Kratts. After a collective three year old meltdown at the conclusion of cake time, the kids headed home with birdseed ornaments to feed the wildlife in their own back yards. Done!
 

You Are My Fave

Here are some pictures of the "Favorite Things" party we held this weekend at Little Farm.  The weather was beautiful and the cows were hungry. Our adult guests were treated to a delicious picnic lunch complete with fried chicken, potato salad, coleslaw and biscuits.  The kids snacked on prepacked lunches including peanut butter and honey sandwiches with the crusts cut off which I wrapped in wax paper and sealed with a quick custom masking tape.  The hit of the party was the kids table which I decorated with kraft paper and a few of Wylie's favorite things like trains, dinosaurs and a bag of costumes (including capes).  It also housed the cupcakes, vanilla with vanilla frosting, which were topped with miniature figurines of zoo and farm animals, and more dinosaurs.  I made an animal food station packed in the boys Ikat Easter Baskets, which we used to bag portions of food to feed the cows, goats, sheep and chickens. At the end of the day, the kids took home their W favor bags filled with animal crackers.    

Thank you to Jennifer Daily for providing some of the pictures for this post!

Party Animal

This Saturday is my baby's 2nd birthday Party.  For his first we hired a singing cowboy and had a spaghetti western.  This year we'd planned on a party at small farm located in Tilden Park.  He's obsessed with animals.  We've been talking about his birthday a lot over the last few weeks and he's had some things to say about what he wants (including a dinosaur cake and a choo choo train).  I thought it would be kind of fun to morph this into a "Few Of My Favorite Things" theme. I'm trying to keep it simple, and it's staying at the farm, but I'll be incorporating some of his requests into the day.  I made the favor bags today.  They are a nod to his love of animals, but between us, he gets a box of animal crackers every Monday when we do our weekly grocery shopping trip.  I made the bags from mill cloth sacks and block printed them using a simple stamp handmade from some craft foam glued to cardboard. I also printed brown bags for pre-packed lunches for the kids and and to hold the celery and lettuce they'll feed the animals.