Puddle Jumping

Last night, I promised Sophie that when she woke up in the morning we'd go outside and eat breakfast and she could ride her bike as we took a walk... Then I woke up to rain. Lots and lots of cold rain. The whole idea sounded a lot less awesome, obviously, but when you promise your kids something, you have to deliver.

Thankfully, her gramma & papa had just gotten brand new rain boots for her, and she's on restriction from wearing dresses and skirts (when she throws tantrums the most effective form of punishment is to require her to wear jeans for a week), so it all panned out perfectly. By the time we were all bundled and outside, the rain had stopped, so it really panned out perfectly. Maggie had some worn-in chucks and she wore them in quite a bit more. She was dancing in an enormous puddle and Sophie took running starts to splash the dirty water everywhere. Perfection. They brought their favorite ducks to swim while they played, of course.

Being a kid is so great.

Love,

Kate

A Post About Football

The 49ers did not pull off the win on Sunday.

The whole thing was a bit strange. When the 49ers go to the Superbowl, they're supposed to win. When I was a child and knew nothing about football except that I liked the niners, my question every year was "who are the 49ers playing in the Superbowl?" never "are they... or will they win?" After they inevitably won, the city would erupt in chaotic joy and horns beeping and crazies sticking flags out their car windows. My brother would be videotaped with his friends singing the 49er rap with their hats, jeans, and shirts backward because it was the 80's/early 90's and kids did things like that. The girls would make up weird little cheers and force the family to watch during get-togethers through the year as we would wave red pompoms & chant in all truthfulness that we're #1 (or maybe "we are the niners, no one can be finer," which only kinda rhymes) at family functions.

So this is how it feels to be the "other" team. I didn't doubt for a second during the first dreadful half of the game that they would come back... they would come back to win, of course. The food and beverages and hosting we did wouldn't be in vain. We'd then run outside with the rest of the city and watch people be crazier than ourselves and take a lot of pictures and post them on every social media we have later that night, and go through the streams and "like" everything anyone says that agrees... (aka everyone I know & associate myself with). The plan was perfect.

Instead, we had four chances to get into that end zone and we didn't. It was convenient for Baltimore that the refs were rooting for them and allowed some serious holding... (I will be having someone else come and teach my children good sportsmanship, because I'm clearly not a good fit).

A hush came over the crowd at our place, and apart from the guests being required by Sophie to sing Happy Birthday to her imaginary friend Sally, the chatter was kept to a minimum as guests filed out. History was made, but instead of it being a dual championship year with the Giants and Niners, it was our first ever superbowl loss.

I'd like to tell you I was one of the finer higher-road types that took to the computer to say a congratulatory "good game," or something...

...instead I retweeted the brilliant girl who said "they still live in Baltimore. We still live in San Francisco. #winning."

At least we have good leftovers.

XO,

Kate

Ps. More later... something that has to do with "style" and "smallers"... ;)

Life

Today I'll get personal for ya... fevers are a total draaag. I thought croup was bad, but a baby that feels like a furnace and is shivering like a leaf 4-5 times throughout the day, and sniffling her little nose and tearing at her red-rimmed eyes is just breaking my heart. This all started Tuesday, and now we're at Friday folks.

Here's the good part about it all... the cold weather has finally escaped us. I have no idea how you dear people who have cold winters handle yourselves! I mean, we've hit low 40's & upper 30's this week, and I've been so stir crazy!! We definitely don't have the clothing for true winters, so perhaps if we did we wouldn't be whining about the cold. But hey, it's back in the 60's today and I'm beside myself with gratitude for the change.

The cold and sickness didn't keep us from getting out and about a little. We had our fair share of walks and drives- yes, I said drives! My parents were on a mini vacation and they let me borrow their car while they're out. It's opens up doors I forgot existed! We drove to the top of hills in the city just to take pictures on this beautiful day "because we can." The girls were giggling in the backseat when I'd pull over, snap a shot, and get back in. We sang "here we go go go go- on an adventure..." (the cat in the hat reference) the whole time. None of us are used to getting from here to there in a matter of minutes, so we kept going to there to there to there. Driving can be very therapeutic when you have no direction and no agenda and you basically have to stay away from people so as not to spread additional germs.

We visited cute little shops and found macaron shaped erasers that made me wish I used pencils on the regular. I couldn't justify that purchase, but I was very (as in waaayyyy too) excited to finally pick up a 2013 calendar that I absolutely LOVE. There's just something about pens to paper that I can't quit, no matter how technology progresses.

To be honest though, all in all, we spent the week in survival mode. At this point we feel basically like we're warriors who fought a hard battle and are coming up on top with (relatively) high morale, and (relatively) good attitudes. To say I'm glad for the weekend is a very big understatement. I love love love having my husband home and there for me.

Lastly, I put up a fancy little post about bibs on The Honest Company blog that I'd love you to head over and see (and give a little love if you'd like)!

Happy Weekend!
Kate

Try it: Smitten Ice Cream

Hayes Valley has always been that area of San Francisco you drive through on your way to almost anywhere, but rarely stop. Through the years, driving through has made it look more and more appealing. A little cafe here, a new little playground there... definitely worth a deeper look. People have been starting to hype it up more too, like "ooh have you tried this or that place? No? Well it's in Hayes Valley" conversations.

Okay. Sunday we pulled in. And in every way we were pulled in. Cafe after boutique after cafe of appealing food and goods. I could spend a few hours perusing the shops, sampling the food, and settling in to read a good book on the grass. Obviously, this didn't happen since it was a family outing for us, but what we did do was stop at the much-loved Smitten Ice Cream. The line was forever with good reason. Visiting the website made me wish I had tried the strawberry, but my chocolate lavender shortbread didn't disappoint. I guess I just have to go back and try more flavors!

The only tricky part was the menu only really being viewable from the cash register. And perhaps not quite as clear as I would like it to be. On the other hand, a huge perk is having the sweet little climbing park across the street to occupy the little ones while my husband waited in the line. 

Similar Dress, Sweater, Toms Shoes