Field trip to the Cheeseboard

Anyone who's visited us here in Berkeley will know that I'm a little obsessed with local bakery/cheese shop/pizza place The Cheeseboard. You'll know this as I've surely dragged you there to try something delicious! If you haven't visited us yet just remember that I will be taking you there when you do.

Well, Ava and Lola are pretty keen on The Cheeseboard too. They know that Thursday is Asiago Schtick Day (our favourite day of the week), that every day is a good day for bialys and zampanos and that you can't have enough garlic olive oil on a pizza. Mmm... I'm making myself hungry just writing about it!

Imagine Ava's surprise when she found out that her Kindergarten class would be going on a field trip to The Cheeseboard. It seems to be field trip season at school at the moment. A few weeks back Ava's class visited the local fire station, they're off to see a performance at a nearby theatre next week, the local library the following week and they have a field trip to Crab Cove on Alameda Island coming up. Ava has been pretty excited about all of these field trips but by far the one she was looking forward to the most was their visit to The Cheeseboard.

Ava's crazy class after their field trip to The Cheeseboard

I left my heart in San Francisco

It has to be one of the most overused sayings about San Francisco, doesn't it? I left my heart in San Francisco.

Well, someone has been leaving hearts in San Francisco and the girls and I have enjoyed spotting them in our time here so far. I'm talking about the large painted hearts that dot the corners of Union Square.

Ava loves the hearts in Union Square

Cherry Blossom Festival

I mentioned earlier that we had a festival filled weekend. We've already seen our Saturday at Cal Day now let's have a look at our Sunday spent in San Francisco's Japantown for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival...

Hello Kitties!

A day at university

This past weekend was another busy one for us. The start of the warmer weather marks the start of the non-stop festival season here in the Bay Area. I swear that this time last year we attended a festival of some sort almost every weekend, sometimes even more than one per weekend. Well, this weekend was no exception with festivals to attend on both days.

Let's start with a look at what we did on Saturday...

This Saturday was Cal Day, the annual open day at University of California Berkeley. Back home in Australia university open days are pretty much just the domain of prospective students and their parents. Here, however, the open day is a festival for the whole community. Sure, there are heaps of stands set up to provide prospective students with information and the whole event is like a giant pep rally of school spirit, but there are also lots of fun hands on kid's activities to keep the little ones entertained. And that, of course was the whole reason we were there!

Ava and Lola at Cal

An afternoon at Lands End

This last weekend was a busy one for us - aren't they all lately?

We spent most of our time this weekend going from open house to open house trying to find a new rental home for our family. Not the most exciting way for kids to spend the weekend - admittedly, it wasn't the most fun for Kim and I either. After looking at all those (mostly unsuitable) apartments and cottages we all needed a break. So Sunday afternoon we jumped in a Zipcar and headed to Lands End in San Francisco; another spot that we hadn't yet made it to.

Ava and Lola at Lands End Lookout

Easter Egg Bunting

I'm getting a little behind with my posts of late so I must apologise for just how late this one is - especially considering it's an Easter post!

We're in the process of looking for a new rental home and it's really eating up all my time. Fingers crossed we get the perfect little home that we found this weekend. More on that later. For now let's have a look back at this Easter post I never finished...

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I really like Easter. No, not just for the chocolates - although the chocolate is one of the highlights. My favourite thing about Easter is the opportunity it gives me for getting creative. A quick look through Pinterest and you'll find all sorts of crafty Easter inspiration. Ok, so there's no such thing as a "quick" look through Pinterest. We all know what a time sapper that site can be!

I had great plans for all of the creative things that I was going to work on this Easter but then life (i.e. suddenly having to look for a new home) got in the way. I did however manage to squeeze in a few little craft activities so here's a look at the first one... Mini Egg Bunting.

Mini Egg Bunting on our front door

April Fool's Day

It's April already. Can you believe it?

Of course, being the first day of April it's also April Fool's Day.

Ava has been so excited about April Fool's Day and has been coming up with all sorts of ways that she wanted to trick Kim. Most of the ideas weren't so great (pretending that she'd been kidnapped overnight was the worst of her ideas) but she did come up with a few little tricks that were kind of funny.

First up this morning she asked Kim and I to help her make breakfast. When I went into the kitchen I discovered that every box of cereal was missing from the pantry. Ava stood next to a large box in the lounge room in which, surprise, surprise, all of the cereal boxes had been hidden. Good one Ava!

The best of her little pranks though was one that needed my help. Ava had been keen to dye Kim's milk a funny colour. As Kim generally only drinks milk in his morning latte I had to assist in the colouring. We frothed the milk for Kim's coffee and added a few drops of blue colouring to the bottom of his latte glass. When we added the frothed milk it magically turned blue! We then added a shot of espresso and presented Kim with his rather disgusting looking coffee!

Mmm... blue and brown coffee

Happy Easter 2013

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely Easter Sunday at home yesterday. The Easter Bunny visited over night leaving treats for the girls, we made a mess throwing confetti eggs at each other, we wore bunny ears, we hunted for eggs in our courtyard, and hunted for even more eggs downstairs at Trader Joe's.

Here's a look at our Easter Sunday for 2013...

As expected the girls both woke up nice and early, eager to see if the Easter Bunny had visited. As soon as they stepped out into the living room they could see that the Easter Bunny had indeed been as he'd left behind a trail of sparkly footprints. That messy bunny!

Following the sparkly bunny footprints