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I admit that I've been a little attached to my herb garden lately.  I'm constantly thinking of new ways to use fresh herbs!  So I recently saw this blog about infused water and really wanted to try it.  The whole idea of serving ice cold flavored water sounded so refreshing for summer that I decided to throw a whole dinner party around this concept!  I even decided to feature the infused water as my table centerpiece!  I was able to find three glass pitchers to use for my three different flavors of water.  I decided to use mint and basil from my garden to flavor one pitcher.  Since it's summer, we have tons of fruits in the fridge, I decide to infuse strawberries and watermelon into the other pitcher.  For the third pitcher, I used a lemon from our lemon tree.  I simply throw the ingredients into a glass pitcher, filled the pitcher with some ice and water and put them into the fridge overnight.  

The result?  I like the mint and basil infused water the best!  It was very refreshing to me.  My friend Bernie liked the strawberry-watermelon infused water the best because it's got a hint of sweetness.  The lemon water was too "ordinary" as we've all had lemon water from restaurants before!  Plus, I discovered that you don't really need to infuse the lemon ahead of time because the lemon water got to be too strong! :-)  Haha, I ended up just refilling that pitcher with fresh water to cut the tartness.   But overall, I love infused water and will do it again at our next party.  

What did we serve for the party besides water?  We had a BBQ chicken pizza, goat cheese with walnuts and honey (served with crackers), and a mango/strawberry/mozzarella salad for appetizers.  For the meal, we served a Caesar salad (yes, Mr. BAW even made his own dressing with anchovies,) Cioppino (which I made,) and pork ribs.  For dessert, Mr. BAW made a wonderful flourless chocolate cake and we served it with ice cream.  Good food, good friends, and good times were had by all.  The kids were great, I fed them dinner before our guests arrived and they went to bed before we served dessert.  :-)  
  





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Posted July 25, 2013


One of the activities we did over the 4th of July weekend was to take a little day trip up to Big Bear Lake for a hike.  I hadn't been up to Big Bear for years, I mean since I went with my parents when I was in high school!  So we thought we'd grab the kids for a little local adventure.   It was about a two-hour drive from LA.  Of course, I had forgotten how long of a drive that is, let alone with two toddlers!  I had also forgotten how winding the mountain road leading to the lake is, both Buzz and I suffered car-sickness on the way there!  Poor kid kept saying, "My tummy hurts, eeek!"  The car-sickness was exacerbated by the fact that we were all hungry!  We got out of the house later than anticpated, usual for having two kids, and traffic was worse than expected.  

Once we got to Big Bear Village and got food into our tummies, we all felt much better and were excited to hit the trail!  Thankfully, the weather was not too hot that day, as you can see from the pictures below that it was overcasted.  We decided to take the Alpine Pedal Path Trail so that we can once again use the stroller for the entire hike.  Mr. BAW took Buzz on his backpack one leg of the trail and then switched kid with me on the hike back.  He said that it was a relieve with Ahgoo because she weighs a lot less than Buzz!  The trail is about 5 miles round trip with almost no elevation change.  It circles Big Bear Lake and even has the view of an observatory!  Turns out that it is the Big Bear Solar Observatory that was orignally built by Caltech and now operated by New Jersey Institute of Technology.  They study activities of the Sun at the observatory, something close to my heart!  :-)

Overall, it's worth a day trip, including spending a little touristy time in Big Bear Village.  But it's not a fantastic hike if you are a serious hiker.  And be prepared for a very long drive if you have kids.  Enjoy pics from our hike below.

Alpine Pedal Path trail head.  Buzz was in the backpack for the first leg of the hike.

I was blown away by the beautiful wild orchids along the trail!!


Yours truly.


View of the Solar Observatory along the hike.


Ahgoo's very first ride in the hiking backpack!  She did great and even waved at me.


Lakefront view.
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Posted July 22, 2013


We want to send all of our love to TNK and her family for the birth of their second baby!!  Welcome to the world Baby Alex!! I'm sure they will thrive as a family of 5, including their little dog Jack.  We can't wait to meet the little guy later this year!

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Posted July 21, 2013


Did you know that cilantros run?  In fact, they bolt!  If you were looking at my garden pictures closely below, you probably would've picked up that some of my cilantros have bolted.  I had suspected that when my cilantros flowered that it was not a good thing.  The leaves have changed into what looked more like those cheezy plastic plants one puts into their home aquarium from the sixties and have entirely lost the cilantro aroma.  So I tried plucking off the flowers to see if that would help.  It did not, as this website told me later.  It looks like the only thing one can do after their cilantros have bolted is to replant new cilantro seeds!  Maybe I'll plant some rosemary instead...

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Posted July 17, 2013


When Ahgoo was born she had a head of dark curly hair.  A few months later, all that dark hair fell off and she was pretty bald for a long time.  We have never given her a haircut before.  So the few strands of hair she had grew long but she was still pretty bald in front.  So for a while, Mr. BAW described her as sporting a Ben-Franklin hairdo!  But now, at 15 months old, her hair is finally growing full.  Her hair has also gotten softer, the tight curls have given way to waves and the color have gotten lighter.  So a few weeks ago I was finally able to put her hair up into her very first ponytail!  Doesn't she look adorable??  Oh, how I love this little girl!  

Besides her first ponytail, she also experienced her very first knee scrape while walking outside her brother's school!  Her brother got his very first kne scrape at 19 months old so Ahgoo is much more adventurous.  That or Mr. BAW likes to tell me that I'm much less coddling of her than I was with Buzz.  Hm...I don't know which is true!





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Posted July 10, 2013


Remember Grandma and Buzz's little gardening adventure?  Well, I've taken that and turned it into quite a nice little garden, one that my kids affectionately call "Mama's Garden."  Grandma and Buzz inspired me to start an herb garden on the east side of our house.  We had some loose wooden boards just piled up on the side of the house from a shelving unit we had removed from the garage.  So I decided to organize the planks into a nice little platform for the garden.  Since it's on the east side of the house, I knew the plants will be getting lots of sun in the morning.  I don't use any pesticides, so I've been keeping a close eye on bugs.  I've had to evict a couple of caterpillars and their eggs from my pots.  They seem to really like mint and strawberries.

Buzz and Ahgoo have also been enjoying the herb garden.  The two will fight to help me water the plants each day.  I'll let Buzz help me do the actual watering of the plants and then let Ahgoo hold the empty watering can.  She will then mimic us by tipping the spout into each pot.  I just have to make sure she doesn't harm the plants accidentally.  Buzz has also collected some rocks to put into my garden.  I let him put the rocks next to the pots.  It's way better than keeping rocks in his bed! :-)  

So what do I have in the garden?  I've got some mint (thanks to Aunt Janice), beef steak tomatoes,  cilantro, several basil plants, Alpine strawberries, and miniature sunflowers.  The basil plants are growing beautifully!  The mint is also doing well.  We have yet to see any tomatoes or strawberries yet but the plants are doing well.  I've gotten two sunflower blossoms already.  The cilantro is doing well.  Besides my little herb garden, we also have a couple of fruit trees in the yard that have yielded some nice fruits, including our peach tree.  I've been using the basil and mint in tons of dishes, including the two shown below.  Nothing like fresh herbs to liven up dinner!  :-)  

My little garden on the east side of our house!


Making up for years of killing basil plants!


Alpine strawberries. No fruits yet, but growing nicely.


Peach caprese using peaches from our tree and basil from the garden.


Refreshing watermelon salad with mint and basil.
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Posted July 8, 2013


As we were approaching Father's Day last month, I asked Mr. BAW what he wanted to do.  His reply was "I want to go hiking."  Since the weather had been cool due to a bout of June Gloom, I agreed to do some research and find a nice place for the whole family to go hiking.  That means the trail has to be stroller friendly because Buzz was getting to be too big to ride on daddy's backpack for a long time but was still to young to go on a long hike.  So after some Google search, I decided to take Mr. BAW and the kids to Will Roger's State Park.  Shamefully, I lived only a few miles from this place for years and have never visited!

The park is actually the home of Will Rogers.  At his peak, he owned land from Beverly Hills to the ocean!  Now, his home is opened to the public and what a home it is!  It has his house (which is rather humble compared to other famous people), a polo field, horse stables, a small golf course, and horse and hiking trails.  There is even a polo field and the day we were there, they had a polo match.  The game is free to watch if you bring your own seat.  The house is now a museum and there's a free tour every hour during the day.  The small golf course is not used as an active course.  Guests of the park are free to hang out on the green.  Even dogs are allowed, though we did not bring Toby.  

The Inspiration Point Trail is only 2 miles with a 300ft elevation change.  I was able to hike the entire trail carrying Ahgoo in the Ergo sling.  Mr. BAW pushed Buzz in the jogging stroller the entire trail.  Both kids ended up taking a nice nap during the hike.  Of course we made sure to tire them out during the picnic before our hike.  Overall, we had a wonderful time!  Neither the park nor the trail was crowded, only the locals seem to frequent the park.  We will definitely go back when the weather is cool.



Toddler heaven!


Ahgoo was free to explore, fall, and toddle all she wanted!


Mr. BAW and the kids in front of the Will Rogers' residence, now opened to the public for tours.


I like to pretend that this is our house.


Will Rogers loved riding horses so much that he even had a hitching post installed by his house.


What can be more relaxing than a picnic in the shade while your 3 year-old runs around expending energy?


Buzz "falling with style."


There is a horse stable in the park and lots of riders.


I hiked the entire trail with the Ergo Baby while Ahgoo took a nice long nap.


At the end of the trail you are rewarded with a bench and an incredible view of the ocean and LA.


I enjoyed the views of beautiful multi-million-dollar mansions along the hike.


Welcoming shade along the trail.


Scenic trail.


We even took in a game of polo.
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Posted July 1, 2013


















































































































































































































































































































































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