making the most of his clean room...

by making the most amazing mess!!! here he is innocently reading a
mother goose book shortly after acting like a tornado in his room.
cleaning up has become a daily chore. we sing, "clean up! clean up!
everybody do your share!"

giddy up, ladybug!!

I get to spend my days with this little bug now!!!!

the graduate

a few fridays ago, i noticed a fb post by cold shot, our favorite davis band... they were going to be playing at the grad for an all ages night!!!

i asked my two favorite men to accompany me, through friday traffic, to davis to eat grad grub and dance, dance, dance!

jack was interested in this place - one day (like, when he's 60) we'll tell him the details of his parents' first meeting, but for now, it was just a place mommy and daddy used to hang out.

and i found myself doing something i never thought i'd do at the grad...play a video game...with my son...who is peter green's son...who i met one crazy friday evening many, many years ago...

Downtown Fairfield Tomato Festival

>
> Jack and I rose early on Saturday to spend some time at the tomato festival in downtown ff. We saw gran at hamilton house and walked the street vendors. We were both pretty sleepy from having the girls over the night before, so we pretty much ate lunch and visited. It was a beautiful day! Please bare with my pictures, I had an issue with our little camera and forgot the big one! These are iPhone pics...

leslie & jamie!! this one's for you!!

hey cupcakes! new hampsh may not be sf, or austin, or irvine, but i hear there are some okay food spots to check out. you may not find an airstream with delicious delectables, but you can get some decent grub at the hanover inn! i met an amazing young woman from the bay area that works for a company my company just 'partnered' with - she's starting here 2nd yr at dartmouth this fall. she's from the bay, and i thought who else but her to get some hanover advice from?!? i spent more time talking about hanover food and what fun 'tuckies' have than work... here's her advice:

In terms of Hanover restaurant recommendations, the best by far is Yamas. It's a delicious Korean/Japanese place. My recommendations are Pork Bulgogi if she likes spicy food (spelled wrong...it's #58 on the menu) and the Lebanon Roll, but everything is amazing. For a nicer dinner out, the choices are Canoe Club and Murphys on the Green. I'm not a huge fan of Canoe Club, but a lot of people prefer it. The Steak Tips at Murphys are really great. Zidans, the restaurant in the Hanover Inn, is also very good.
In terms of less nice dinners out, I'm a big fan of the Orient. For someone from the Bay Area, it is not good Asian food. However, given the limitations of Hanover, you learn to love it. I recommend the Hot and Sour Soup and Hunan Lamb. They should give up on good Mexican food for the next few years. Boloccos makes quasi-burritos, and Gusanoz delivers but is physically incapable of not putting cheese in a burrito. Only drunk college students eat at EBAs. C/A's Pizza and Ramnutos are both solid pizza places, I really like Ramuntos but it's a matter of personal taste.
Outside of Hanover, the options are a little better. A friend who's a huge foodie recommends Tip Top in White River, Simon Pierce (strongly) and Farmers' Diner in Quechee, and most restaurants in Woodstock. These are all a little more expensive, but worth the upgrade.

i hope you find these recommendations from a very young college student helpful. she told me her goal while home this summer was to eat at Zachary's as many times as possible - somehow, this gave her enough street-cred to recommend food to my over-30 newlywed friends. the gushing about how much fun 'tuckies' have was soooo cute - like so cute. my research (google 'tuckies' get this and this <2nd one not cool, but first one is oh-so-cool!) suggests she's correct. nod to her street-cred, #2.

love and miss you, kantahara's!

ah, summer.

we cannot drive by the strawberry stand without Jack asking to stop.
we've gone through sooooo many $5 bills picking up quarter flats this
summer. we picked up this gorgeous flat minutes ago to enjoy with the
girls this evening!!

troublesome trucks

Jack totally digs Thomas & Friends. He loves his trains so much - and
I am equally obsessed with making sure we know where they all are at
any given moment. I couldn't find the Troublesome Trucks... Voilà!
Here they are in the pantry chilling on the rice cooker...always
getting into trouble, these trucks.

the fourth of july

pete and i were pretty beat from our hot dog party on the 3rd, so we cleaned and relaxed all day yesterday. after snacking and a few naps, we gussied up for a bbq on top of twin sisters in the valley - the home we visited overlooks the entire suisun/green valleys, and has clear views to the base fireworks, suisun marina fireworks, and you can even catch views of pittsburg and antioch fireworks! i love fireworks, they are totally my favorite thing, but i'm not so down with the loud booms and the crowds (neither is jack!). hence, the perfect viewing spot:

chilling with grandpa:

snuggling with gran:

gourmet hot dogs & dogs & kids

all week pete and i have been watching the food network - trying to beat the lull of reruns. we happened upon a throwndown with bobby flay featuring HOT DOGS. yes! a plan for a weekend dinner! we created an evite on friday and got a (larger than expected, but so happy!) group together for our gourmet hot dog bbq.we were so excited to have the following join us:

jamie, leslie, and huddy
cory, marley, and riley (timbo was at work - boo valero)
jason, paige, ava, and aunt kerry garben
jimmy and shannon (carrying TWINS)
mike, becca, and berkeley
tara and dexter
jd, stacey, and vixen

we chilled in the grass with our canine friends and the bubble machine:we ate yummy food (though not as gourmet as we originally thought...):
we had the best night! thanks for such a good time family & friends... this may become a green family tradition!! have a happy and safe 4th of July!

July 3rd BBQ

So excited for our little BBQ tonight!!! Doesn't this look absolutely
refreshing?!?!

a wild day at daycare

Little man fell asleep immediately after I started the car this
evening. He has gold fish residue on his little mouth, no shirt
(wet!), or shoes (muddy!). Daycare during summertime=water tables,
farmers tans, and sleepy kids (who wants an afternoon nap with all
that going on?!?!?)...

austin, texas: shootin'

devon gave us a shooting lesson before we left for the range.
watching a preggo with a gun was too cute (and funny! quintessential texas urban legend!)tara LOVES her camo. and that gun. how cute does she look all in pink?!?!
the gang going to get some shootin' on.

austin, texas: decor

devon put me in charge of decorations for the bachelorette-y portion of the weekend. talk about stressful! you've seen the amazing and talented dev in action, and you should've seen the packet in person!! i stepped up to the texas-style and threw a bit together with tara and trish. we surprised les, and her face was priceless!

austin, texas: food

we had yummy food & drink at the casa:

underwear brunch

arrival treats

dev went shopping from the request list in the packet.

i love diet coke, mgd 64, champagne, and fruit. i pretty much requested beverages.

we explored airstreams:

cupcakes!

pies of some sort...can't quite remember...eyes were on the cupcakes the whole time

crepes!

we ate out:

viva la mexicoBAR-B-QUUUUUUEEEEEEfrostys at the bbq joint. they even had na varieties for devon and our bach.

austin, texas

yay! les is getting married! we are celebrating in austin, texas...

okay, so we celebrated. i'm way behind on blogging, and the kanters have actually already returned from their honeymoon. regardless of my tardiness, i'm blogging, as this was a way cool, way fun weekend and i want to share!

only artistic-ish (barely) photos i have. leaving that to devon and les. they're much better at it! not that the posts i linked to show how amazing they are -- surf their blogs, you'll see :). i really just linked to austin weekend pics to supplement my own - i seem to have the only nighttime pictures!!

we stayed at an amazing place and had even more amazing 'packets' preparing us for an EVEN MORE, MORE, MORE AAAAAAHHHMAAAAAAZING time! it was so great to reconnect with....

devon: i don't think i had seen devon since she moved from the golden state--she moved just before my wedding... little jack was a month old when she married patrick, before that i was too preggo to fly to her shower or attend any other festivities. i think i was also preggo when tara and les visited chi-town at a different time. since then, i've had a little boy and very little in travel funds for a visit to her little loft. i love this girl and no matter how long it's been, it feels like it was just yesterday.

ali: we go waaaaay back. back to 2001. we sang in the streets, drank some drank, partied-harty in vegas with dev, l&b, & les for nye. what a great time. we also reunite sometimes (maybe once, but i'm sure it'll happen again) on the corner of the street we BOTH work on in SF. so weird. i saw her earlier this year, and was like, ALI?!?! It's Jen, Les' friend?!?! like she forgot about me singing, "hey al, what up?" the ENITRE vegas trip... (remember that song?)

trish: this was soooo great. i feel like i talk with trish all the time, even though it's totally through les. we connected in sf one year, shortly after camp (which tara and i totally feel like we worked at because of hearing the fab stories and meeting the fab peeps through the years). we ate in the cellar of union square (right?). her texas knowledge was SOOOOO helpful. though she didn't help any of us look less of jackasses when we went to the range. thanks for nothing! :).

tara: i see tara often. usually at her spa, sometimes at dinner with the girls, but rarely for a night out. spending the time with tara was an added bonus with the rest of the girls. i was her 'companion' on southwest, which meant we had all four flights (2 each way) to and from austin to catch up, laugh, and enjoy 2-for-1 drinks from our fab flight attendants. fabulous. (and thanks for the free flight, tk!)


most importantly, i was soooooooo excited to celebrate with this girl: