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JULIE & JULIA!

-at home in the kitchen with Erin and Si.

From our gourmet tables to yours-

I love writing -from our gourmet tables to yours-. It's so pretentious and lumps me in with Si.

Day 2: Fresh Corn and Tomato Salad

This was perfect. It's so fresh and screams summer. I don't want to let summer go. Maybe I won't have to here. It will be interesting to see how summery the winters are. Julianne, who grew up in La Canada, said that the fall here lasts forever. I guess that makes sense. In Utah, the leaves are gorgeous for about a week until a wind hits, or a super cold night and then it's all gone. So fleeting, but beautiful. Julianne said that the plethora of trees here all stay beautiful for a really long long time. I'm excited to see it.

This salad was so good. I'm also still thinking about how good the pear flatbreads were. I'm going to have to make these again and see if now that I know how to make them, I can cut the prep time down.

Brett is off of work today!! Kate and I get him all to ourselves all day. We're celebrating his 43rd b-day. Oh and I made the best peach pie that I've ever made last night. Not to brag, but it was the best. I complimented myself about 6 times. Flaky crust, juicy peaches, vanilla bean ice cream. mmm. I knew he'd want that over cake.

We walked Sydney to school together this morning. All parents walk their kids to school here. I have yet to see one child walking alone or with other kids to school. All families are out walking and each one also has a dog. The dogs stop and socialize (which the parents take very seriously.) Brett and I joke about how if we go out and about with Kate, we get stopped constantly as people ooh and ahh over her. People love babies here, maybe because they don't see them a ton. However, if we have Kate and Rudy together, Rudy trumps Kate. People love dogs even more than babies. We laugh at that.

Kate won't let me even near Brett today. (He's been gone since Monday.) She wants nothing to do with me and pushes me away if I try to hug Brett in front of her (which I do just to get her to push me.) I say, "Hey! Cut that out!" and she laughs. He's in there singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her right now while watching the 'Baby Can Read' dvd. I wish every day could be like this.

The girls are still struggling trying to adjust to the increased workload at their schools here. So much more is expected of these kids here, I can't believe it. When I think about how Spencer glided through his senior year and how that would never happen here. It's good and bad. Not as fun for sure and my girls are hating it. However, they will actually learn more and be better prepared for college which is good. If they survive :)