Fun for Mom

For our anniversary, Jeremy bought me this beautiful necklace from Lisa Leonard Designs.

And I recently got my 2009 Gratton Family Photo Album from Blurb. I finally took a couple pictures of the book to show:

The Griswalds go to Wally World

It's been a year since our last visit to Disneyland and things have certainly changed for Drew. This year Drew was tall enough to go on all the rides except for Indiana Jones and she wanted to go on everything. She also is now old enough to recognize when things are "scary." We rode Space Mountain, the Matterhorn, Thunder Mountain and her favorite was....It's a Small World.

Most of the rides that scared her, she leaned in to her riding partner with her eyes closed and said she was "going to sleep." Even the Buzz Lightyear ride was too dark and loud for her. As you can see, Sharpshooter Gratton had some help from Crocodile Dundee and Annika Sorenstam to defeat Emperor Zurg.

Adding a little culture....

On Saturday Jeremy took Drew to the Natural History Museum in LA with his partner at Farmer's and his 5-year-old son, Logan. Logan is very in to dinosaurs and Drew is very in to doing anything with other kids.

The kids got along fairly well, sharing in their love for The Upside Down Show, holding hands and singing in the car...or, more accurately, trying to outsing each other. Thanks to the Dads for giving the Moms a little break!

Kamikaze

Since Drew has figured out she can swim to the steps from anywhere in the pool. She has gone crazy.

Summer Lovin'

August 13 marked Jeremy and my 5th anniversary. We had a late dinner last Friday night at Vine in San Clemente, which was delicious, and saw the extremely romantic Dinner For Schmucks.

3 years old going on 10!

Drew's friend, Meghan, turned 3 last weekend and we all attended The Little Mermaid birthday party. Oh the torture of watching your friend open presents you would like...

Thankfully Meghan shared her presents with Drew. We thought we were super creative in getting Meghan a princess dress with a crown and earrings...in total, Meghan got 10 princess dresses. I think there were, like 3 gifts that weren't dresses at the party! Drew will be in heaven when she goes to play.

Drew's favorite movie is The Princess and the Frog and one day asked Daddy if he could make some "man-catching beignets." Being such a good Daddy and cook, Jeremy mixed the ingredients the night before and then fried a big 'ol batch the next morning for his little girl.

I don't know how he did it, but they were perfect on his first try! Now Drew has been making Tiana's Gumbo with her toys: pieces of her puzzles get put in a basket and she mixes it all up with a sword. 

The OC Fair

We finally made our annual trip to the OC Fair. Being a bit taller Drew was able to ride a few more rides. Luckily Kelsey was there to take her on anything Mommy couldn't handle (read: anything that spins).

Iron Chef Laguna Niguel

Last month we held an amateur Iron Chef competition at our house. David and Craig Jones came over to compete against Dad and Jeremy (every man for himself). They each had to make an entree and a side, plus either an appetizer or a dessert. The 2 secret ingredients that were used were mangoes and nuts.

Jeremy and Craig, hard at work. 

The two appetizers: bruschetta by Craig and a spicy crab cashew dip by Dad:

The 4 entrees: pork tenderloin and mango salsa macadamia fried rice by Jeremy, chicken in mango salsa marinade by Dad, fish and mango guacamole by Craig, and macadamia-nut crusted chicken with red sauce salad by David. Seriously, it was all delicious and very difficult to pick a favorite.

 

For dessert: thai sticky-rice pudding with fresh mango and coconut milk by Jeremy and glazed macadamia nut ice cream by David. Those bowls didn't stay full for long.

Some happy campers...there were lots of leftovers. And a ton of messy dishes, someone should've taken a picture of that!

Duck Hunt

"The duck hunter creeps up behind her prey, careful not to disturb the other wildlife.You'll notice her clothing blends into the background in order to camouflage her appearance in the wild.

 

She is relentless. Until.... she runs out of breath.

Drew is in summer school!

This post is a little late...she's going into her 4th week of school. Our favorite story so far is: during naptime one day, Zachary was still sleeping after two and a half hours. The teachers were going over to wake him up and Drew followed. She started rubbing his back and whispered: "Rise and Shine, Sleeping Beauty."

The word on the street is that she is very helpful and friendly, she listens to her teachers and is well-liked. Yay!