Pepper Design Blog

May Odds & Ends

I can’t believe we are already in the summer month of June! This year has flown by and now it’s near half over. I haven’t been great about keeping up my Weekend Fun posts recently and I miss those photo journaling moments (it’s nice foe me to be able to go back and see what we were up to when Liv was six months old or when exactly we took that family road trip). So without further ado here are a few caught-on-camera events from May.

Memorial Day! Our little neighborhood hosts a parade that the kids just adore, we waved flags, collected candy and pointed at all of the cool cars and firetrucks.

Well, I should say some kids collected candy. I was lucky enough for Liv to catch a toothbrush. She was like, ‘what the heck??”.

Later that day we wandered down towards the pick-up basketball tournament just a few streets down from the parade. We enjoyed watermelon on a warm day and watching daddy shoot hoops with his team.

Family came to town just for this big weekend. Liv loves her nana (and papa and grandpa and grammy).

She even learned to smile for pictures! Actually that’s a gritted ‘cheese!’ – her first word beyond mama and dada.

Speaking of, words are tumbling out of Liv these days. We went from just baby sign language to overnight pronouncements of cheese, car, milk, shoes (her favorite!), dog and so many more.

A shot from our beach day! This bathing beauty was ready to go.

In mid May we helped host a surprise 30th 80′s themed birthday for our friend Stephanie! Bring on the leg warmers and sequined headbands.

Yes, Kevin’s interpretation of 80′s was a  fluorescent orange camo snowsuit he found at Goodwill. He was so proud of that purchase.

In early May we took off for the Colorado river (which also runs along the border of California and Arizona) for a few days of lounging, wakeboarding and fireside bbqing.

Anyone notice something unusual? That’s our Bodie who helped himself into a water raft and then couldn’t get back to shore: ‘um, guys…’

He’s quite the water dog.

Sand toys and sunning!

We drive the 3ish hours to the river to camp twice a year, here’s Liv just last October on the right, and seven months older on the left.

Growing so fast.

I have made it a habit to delay the start of my work day every other Thursday morning to spend time with our mama group. We discover new little parks around town or visit the zoo. It’s such a treat and I look forward to it all week. Here we are at the San Diego Zoo and a local park.

Plus this beautiful baby shower (with my dum dum balloon cupcakes), this wonderful Mother’s Day and this birthday weekend! May was a great {and busy!} month.

Happy weekend to you all.

Happy Memorial Day!

Hope you’re enjoying your day off! We are celebrating with trips to the beach, BBQs and and parades. See you tomorrow!

Breakfast with Friends, Ballparks, Farmer’s Markets & Picnics by the Lake

What do these four things have in common? Four awesome events I was lucky enough to enjoy this weekend, the weekend I’m officially stamping as my birthday celebration (even though it’s actually today!).

Our San Diego Padres have the most wonderful little ballpark – it’s downtown, stone’s throw to the bay, part old brick warehouse, part field (for you know, the players) and part huge grassy lawn in the back where you can cozy up with picnic blankets, kids and friends. Afterwards a handful of us went out for a celebratory drink at one of the rooftop lounges nearby (also overlooks the park and the bay) and enjoyed a raspberry champagne mojito!

Oh yes, and that IS a cookie within a cupcake! Two of my favorite desserts combined (I sometimes make cookie dough just to keep in the fridge and eat. All day long.) and one amazing idea. Stephanie shares that the trick is to freeze the cookie dough chunks before adding them to the raw cupcake batter so that as the two bake the cookie dough stays just that – doughy and yummy! Thanks, Steph for the birthday treats!

Earlier on Saturday we wandered upon a bounce house at Pizza Port in Ocean Beach:

and I was completely caught off guard when our awesome neighbors made a cake! Aaron even made those fondant ribbons – and all of the cake decorators out there can appreciate fondant skills.

Sunday morning brought with it a vanilla latte and farmer’s market goodies:

And more eucalyptus branches. Because a house can never have too many…

Last but not least at the end of the day we enjoyed an impromptu picnic at Lake Murray. Very last minute and very wonderful! Liv and her friend Gigi practiced ‘skipping’ rocks:

Michael learning to fish with his dad:

How cute is Michael? He was concentrating so hard…

And then a couple of ducks came along!

He stopped to wave.

For those in the western US, did you catch the eclipse this weekend?

I was not fortunate enough to snap that night shot on the right (source here) but we did have a friendly gentleman stop by our picnic spot to loan us a pair of ‘eclipse glasses’, and that’s exactly what we saw. Amazing!

Today will be a usual day, though I’m taking a Starbucks break this afternoon with a friend and I’m excited for that!

Have a lovely Tuesday!