Category: Miss Leyba

2010 Birthday Party Preview

It dawned on me that if I started working on my to-do list for Miss Leyba’s second birthday party now, then I might actually get it all done!

We’re planning a very small party: just Miss Leyba and her three closest friends (and their parents too!), and possibly some grandparents.

The theme?

Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, also known as “Happy Caterpillars!” which is how Miss Leyba lovingly refers to it. (Yes, plural; as in there is a caterpillar on each page of the book!)

She is completely obsessed with The Hungry Caterpillar, and with the entire concept of caterpillars turning into butterflies. (We have SO many books, both from the bookstore and the library, on the subject. Life Cycles are a big hit right now.)

We have so many wonderful Very Hungry Caterpillar related items that we can pull into the party too: a handmade caterpillar puppet, puzzles of the caterpillar and the butterfly, the pop-up version of the book, as well as the French translation!

I am planning on serving up the menu in the book, with punched holes in all of the food as well!

Stay tuned as I post more pictures and share more of my ideas. I hope it will be a fun and memorable day and, wow, I have 2 months, 1 week and three days to get cracking.

Curious how the party turned out?

Read these posts:
– Birthday Party Preparations invitations and goody bags
– Party Decorations banners, coloring pages, and snacks
– Party Fun photos from the event!

Busy visiting and eating

We love an excuse to throw caution to the wind and eat at a lot of really good restaurants.


And what better time to not exercise restraint than when family comes to town?!

I mean, who can resist not one but two trips to Screaming Mimi’s for ice cream?!

And an excuse to eat sushi too.

We had a wonderful time this weekend eating great food and hanging with my aunt and cousin.

Thanks for coming, guys!

Now please excuse me; I have some exercising to do. (SO worth it!)

Taking a Walk with Little Miss Riding Hood

We’re entered the rainy season here in Northern California. After months of no rain, the cool foggy mornings have transformed into all-day affairs with bursts of occasional rain showers. The brown grass of summer has been replaced with a green carpet across the hills and our garden is thriving. (Yes, as an East Coast transplant, I find this lush green in November thing SO weird.)

Today we woke up to cold and wet day, so we bundled up and headed out for a walk.

A perfect start to the morning.





However, unlike the last two days of full-on gloom, today was a more typical California Fall day:

Right now it’s so sunny and bright outside that the foliage looks dark in comparison! (I am sitting here squinting at the computer, as light streams in through the window.)

Of course, it arrived just in time for nap time, so Miss Leyba hasn’t seen it yet. (Sorry, love!)

Welcome to Wine Country. We love it here.

* Organic polar fleece by Kee-Ka (bought it on sale for 50% off over a year ago — score!).

* Also, I’ve been tweaking the format of this blog. If you haven’t done so already, please hit refresh!

East Coast Trip Photos

Last month we headed East for some family time and cousin Rachel’s wedding. We took several hundred photos during the two weeks we were in New Jersey, here are some of our favorites. (And, yes, Miss Leyba was the flower girl and, no, she didn’t walk down the aisle (tiny melt down at the last minute). But she was the only person at the wedding to dance for FOUR HOURS STRAIGHT at the reception! Aside from cousin Rachel, Miss Leyba was the belle of the ball!)




























Happy Halloween


As there were so many interesting things to see from Daddy’s shoulders on this All Hallows Eve, our ballerina had absolutely no interest in saying cheese for the camera. (In fact, every photo I took tonight was either with her looking the other direction away from me or completely blurry cause she was on the move, investigating everything.)

Yum, chocolate! We purposely bought her good chocolate from Whole Foods in order to avoid all the crappy ingredients in regular candy and, amazingly, it worked! She was entirely indifferent to the candy that she collected. The chocolate we bought her, however, was quite delicious. As you can clearly tell.

Clearly this pumpkin is for storing rocks. She collected them from several driveways. And then proceeded to dump them out.

All in all, Miss Leyba decided that trick or treating was nice and all, but giving out candy to the kids was way more fun! (Miss Leyba loves to help and share — both essential ingredients to handing out candy, evidently.) We had a blast.