Bed Head

Olivia is less than 3 months older than Ben so they had a great time playing together during the Colorado Bolger visit. Every morning, the kids would wake up and go watch cartoons and slowly get their days started. Ben and Bunster & Olivia and her whale made this routine their morning ritual. Ben and Olivia are so lucky to be so close in age because they really had a blast together.

The Colorado Bolgers come for a visit!

The Colorado Bolgers came for a visit a few days before Thanksgiving. Since they live so far away, we don't get to see them as much as we'd like but we made sure to pack the 4 day visit full of fun activities and good quality time together.

Olive Picking Party

Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, Jeff's aunt and uncle in Aptos host an Olive Picking Party at their house. Jeff's uncle, Nico, is from Italy so once everyone is done picking olives, he feeds everyone amazing lasagna and bruschetta.

Great Grandma Bolger was in town from San Diego for Thanksgiving and the Olive Picking Party so we got to spend some good, quality time with her.

Jeff was put to work making the bruschetta for the hundred or so hungry olive pickers so Ben and I went up and down the hills picking olives and having fun in the mud!



Here, we are very happily eating our bruschetta and playing with the chickens...



Turns out, it was nearly 70 degrees so all the kids jumped in the pool. We weren't expecting such a nice day since it rained the day before but Ben insisted on taking a dip so the diaper-clad dude hopped in the hot tub. Not a bad way to relax after the olive harvest!



Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. In fact, we hosted our very first Thanksgiving EVER! Food was great, family time was awesome and the left overs are the gifts that keep on giving! Of course, I forgot to take a pic of the decor or the food spread so just take our word for it that we did Thanksgiving right! Now on to the holidays...

Spooky Halloween Dinner

This is why I don't read Martha Stewart magazines or attempt her crafts. She had this great mummy meatloaf in her October magazine so I decided to do that for our Halloween dinner. I am not a big meatloaf fan so I made a giant meatball (basically the same thing but my mind told me it wasn't) wrapped in papardelle noodles for the mummy wrap and olives for eyes. To top it off, the pasta in red sauce was supposed to look like guts, for lack of a better word. In my head, this was going to come up amazing. In person, though, not quite. At least it tasted good, right?!

Khloe comes to town!

We got to see the Koontz family a few weekends back which was tons of fun. The kids played in the park, the Dads talked golf and the Moms talked makeup and fashion. Seriously, does it get any better?!? Well, little Khloe Koontz isn't the little baby anymore she is quite the lady in training and Ben sure took a liking to her. So much so that he named our new fish after her!

Fun time with the Goineses

A few weekends back, we went to Gilroy Gardens with the Goines fam. It had been a long  time since we all had played and they had never been to Gilroy Gardens so we took advantage of the amazing weather and went for the day. The boys, of course, had a great time together until Ben's lack of a nap caught up with him. Jake and Ben, though, always get on so well together and we love it because that means we get more Goines time!

Sleepy Baby

The electrical at our new house sometimes makes us scratch our heads. Every now and then, when we turn a fan light off in one room, a fan light in a different room will turn on. Well, that happened over the weekend when we turned our light off, it turned Ben's on... it is a good thing he is a deep sleeper, the little guy didn't even wake up. But, when we went to turn his light off, we saw how cute he was sleeping and had to take a picture!

First real Trick or Treating!

Ben had a great time trick-or-treating for the first time. We practiced what to say for days... 'Trick Or Treat' and then 'Thank you.' He did a great job and had tons of fun. He also got to try a chocolate bar for the first time!

Sunday's Pre-Halloween Party

On Sunday, we went to the annual Halloween party at Pasadera and of course, Ben had a great time. But what kid wouldn't with hay rides, bounce houses, a petting zoo, costume parade, golf carts and sugar?!?