A visit to the fish market

We picked up the girls from grandma's house yesterday, where they had spent the night, playing with with the dog and running all around her carpeted house.

On the way home we stopped at the farmers market fruit stand, where we picked up some ripe peaches and plums.  They tried some grapes there and played with the corn too.

After that we went to the Vietnamese fish market which has tanks upon tanks of live, fresh fish.  Ilsa was fascinated by the tank of whiskered catfish, snoozing on top of each other, blissfully unaware of what happened above them.  We selected a nice black striped bass, and had it de-finned and gutted.  When we got home it got a bath in lemon juice, honey, and olive oil along with some Hawaiian sea salt, before charring for 20 minutes on a hot grill.  Delicious and fresh.

Today the girls are getting ready for a pool party.

New Balloons!

Everyone loves playing with new balloons!

Today we are making a summer eggplant tomato sauce for supper; it is quietly stewing. My mom watched the girls overnight so we were able to go out for dinner and watch a movie the other night. It's been a while since we have gone out by ourselves, so thanks mom. The girls love playing with the dog there, and another baby came to visit too.

Eating with chopstix!

Teriyaki chicken yum!!

A visit with NYC friends

Wow Dale and Betsy came to visit us from NYC! We made a leg of lamb, with fresh rosemary sprinkles and had some vintage Meursault and St Emilion to go with it.

We love playing in the pool

Especially with all of our inflatable toys and sunglasses!

messy messy

 

Our new sunglasses!

 

messy spaghetti !!!

The girls ate spaghetti the other night (their grammie's famous sauce). Believe it or not, they actually consumed more than they wore, but it was close.

 

We are having a great time in Orange County, and we are swimming almost every day - its been in the mid-80s, so perfect weather.

 

- the tomato twins

sitting on grandpa

Swings!

If you look carefully, you can see a huge grin on I.'s face. She loves the swing set.

First slurpee

Someone did not like how cold it was, despite it being a very hot day.

New hats!

Also they are playing with water balloons, which they broke all over themselves.

Grilled Snapper

We went to Santa Monica Seafood and invited a pair of lovely red snappers to be our guests of honor at dinner. I stuffed them with lemons and spices then grilled them along with some squash and asparagus. While that was going on we roasted some Russets with marjoram and lemon for a side dish. And for dessert, some friends brought an Oreo cake, which the girls turned into a very messy artwork by smearing it on everything.

Pool time!

It's hot down here in the LA basin, so the girls put on their swim suits, and hopped in their floating fortresses to play in the pool. They love splashing around and throwing their floating toys around so the parents have to fetch them. It was a hot day, so it was good for all of us to get dunked. Today we went back in, but they wore their sun proof shirts and hats, plus some sunscreen.