Summer round-up Part 2

Tis the season for birthday parties. It does not rain here in the summer. Really. This is kind of disappointing to a Florida girl who loves thunderstorms but the benefits are all the outdoor birthday parties you can handle. Here's Silas sitting between the two birthday girls, Zimry in tiger paint and police uniform, Jasper in a lovely party dress. These two recently moved from half a block away to San Francisco, bummer. But we still see them quite often since we love them and Silas seems to consider himself part of the family, at least when cupcakes are involved.

And they do have this cool climbing tree in their SF backyard, and this nifty hike near their house. We drove over on the same day as our other neighbors Ali, Gwen and Eddie to form a huge horde of kids and moms roaming the SF hills.

Those are the moms, Penny and Ali, and those are our kids running ahead of us while we admire the view...

We have let our Habitot museum membership expire - it seems like the end of an era. But we have added a new membership to our role: UC Botanical Garden. Why would a 5 year old enjoy a botanical garden you ask?...

Silas was in full shark face paint that day. Terrifying to garter snakes...

Silas has started writing much more than just his name. When I updated the fridge calendar he added a few things (sorry the photo is sideways): Saturday the 30th will be for Knock Knock Games.

Our dahlias and scabiosa are blooming.

The CSA from Fully Belly was overwhelming us with eggplant, squash, tomatoes and peppers. So I made a filling and stuffed peppers and calzones, mmmm

After 3 years of practice Silas is mastering the climbing wall in downtown Berkeley. Here he is with his long time friend Amelia (a master climber from way back). But in these photos they are tigers.

And the fuel of our summer has been the fruits: grapes, berries, melons, but most of all the stone fruit. The plan is to eat as much as you can while they are locally in season. Kashiwase Farm's market stand is supporting our goal with the most awesome Spice Zee nectaplums, August Glo nectarines and Flavor King pluots. We go into such a frenzy at the market, even the farmer noticed that Papa and Aunt Karen make the annual pilgrimage to eat some California fruit. I guess Karen and I were so busy looking for pluots during her visit that we didn't take any photos on my camera. Just trust me when I say we had a great time with Aunt Cookie and it looked a lot like this...

naked yogurt and fruit dessert