Eleanor turns 1 and celebrates with a peach festival!

How did we come up with the theme? Worth (Eleanor's mom) didn't want a prefab birthday party so Ricci suggested doing a color theme. Somewhere along the way we picked up that Sam (Eleanor's dad) likes peaches. Peach is a color. It's peach season. Voila! a peach-colored peach festival.

When I said I'll take you through my party planning process on a previous post, I meant I'll show you the plan and then the finished product. Haha. I really meant to show a little bit more of what goes into it but time just ran away from me and my event co-planner Ricci. It was something of a mad dash to get things done the morning of the party. Shhh, don't tell our "clients." Haha.

Nothing beats a grand setting. I think this peach festival turned out beautifully in large part due to Sam and Worth's gorgeous backyard, which is Sunset Magazine-worthy. Check it out.

I designed the invitation, Sam printed, and Worth mailed them.

Welcome to the party! Here's the sign I made an hour before the party. There's Sam on the grill.

This garland was finished and hung right when the party started. Talk about 'behind schedule.'

newborn, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, 5 months,

6 months, 7 months, 8 months, 9 months, 10 months, 11 months,

12 months old

Sam's grilled shrimp with peach salsa. Peaches and teriyaki chicken on the grill.

Ice cold sparkling juice and peach sangria are perfect for a sunny day.

Worth made peach water for kids and peach sangria for parents. Haha.

the dessert table

The peach filled cupcakes with peach icing were baked by Ricci, iced and decorated minutes before the party.

Happy 1st Birthday!

pretty baby and pretty mom

Eleanor's first cupcake

We think she liked it.

Favors. Please take one. Worth assembled the jellybean-filled popsicles.

Ricci ordered the peach cookies and berry boxes online.

Thanks for coming to the party!


Photo credit: Ricci Sylla

Lunch at Hinoki & the Bird by Chef David Myers lives up to the hype. Every dish was a hit with our group.


 

Kale salad made with crispy and raw kale, curried almonds, pecorino, red wine vinaigrette Hanzo Fix made with yuzu juice, simple syrup, cucumber, orange juice, jalapeno

 

The chili crab toast with spicy cucumber and coriander was my favorite. I could eat a whole platter of this.

Beet salad special

Miso marinated skirt steak, shaved turnips, chili

Scottish salmon, rapini, radish sprouts

Monkfish, yellow curry noodle, eggplant, herbs

Raspberry macaron, rhubarb, yoghurt sorbet oh my!

Hinoki and the Bird
10 Century Dr.
Los Angeles, CA 90067

PESCADERO
Pescadero makes me feel like I'm on a movie set. So quaint and full of small town charm.










PIGEON POINT LIGHTHOUSE
The 115-foot Pigeon Point Lighthouse, one of the tallest lighthouses in America, has been guiding mariners since 1872. Its five-wick lard oil lamp, and first-order Fresnel lens, comprised of 1,008 prisms, was first lit at sunset, November 15, 1872. The lens stands 16 feet tall, 6 feet in diameter, and weighs 8,000 pounds. It sits in a lantern room that had been constructed at the Lighthouse Service's general depot in New York before being shipped around the Horn. Although the original Fresnel lens is no longer in use, the lighthouse is still an active U.S. Coast Guard aid to navigation using a 24 inch Aero Beacon.

Providing a toddler with a variety of foods at every meal is easier with these Spuds plates. First, the plates are made out of reclaimed potatoes. It is manufactured with only organic raw materials, even the packaging. Reading all too often about scary toxins found in common products that we use on a daily basis, I feel better about using natural products for Amelia, especially the ones touching her food.

Additionally, there are 5 compartments that make me come up a balanced meal. I try to fill them with protein, grains, vegetables, fruits and, occasionally, sweets at every meal. Amelia doesn't eat everything. Sometimes she'll eat only the egg or corn, but I can say I tried.

breakfast: pecan raisin bread, avocado, egg, kiwi, mango

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snack: kale puffs, slice of lemon-filled cupcake, panda cookie, raisins, string cheese

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dinner: mango, tilapia, squid ink pasta, artichoke, tomato

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breakfast: apple, blueberry whole wheat waffles with almond butter and strawberry jam, egg, strawberries, tater tots

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lunch: strawberries, mangoes, vegetable roll, buttered corn, chocolate cookie because it's shark week

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Camping should be a fun summertime activity. I don't want to pack up everything in my kitchen, freeze overnight in a tent, or go in the bushes. When my niece Jaya came to visit us from Seattle, my sister Ricci and I thought Costanoa Lodge would be perfect. This is how we camp.

Happy Campers

our douglas fir cabin

it's precipitously close to hoteling :)

thinking about her next move

making s'mores on a fire we (Tom) lit ourselves (himself)

perfect!

dinner time

missed out on those happy hour $1 oysters

clam chowder, seafood risotto, calamari fritti and a lavander cocktail

matching long sleeve tees, vests and jeans with sissy lol

Happy trails!


Costanoa Lodge
2001 Rossi Rd. at Hwy. 1
Pescadero, CA 94060