Halloweenies and sickies and such...

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that the central coast has gone ahead and skipped Fall this year.  We've gone straight from summer to winter.  I mean, just a week ago we were having an obnoxious heatwave, and now here we are battling the flu, wearing footy jammies, and blasting the heaters.  What gives, weather?!  Elliott doesn't seem too bothered.  Even with a gross runny nose, and less time outdoors...  Give him a Hot Wheels car and an applesauce crusher, and he's pretty stoked on life.  

We kept ourselves busy throughout the week of plague, by trying on Halloween costumes, baking way too many brownies, and catching up on our Caillou.  But we finally ventured out a few days ago and the kids were SO excited to find the goofy Halloween cutout at Trader Joes...

And of course, they made new friends...

Ohhh, these crazy kidlets.  ♥

Lychee season!

At the insistence urging of fellow local blogger, Paradiso Per Due...  a note on lychees.

As I mentioned on instagram last week, lychees were a staple food in my life until I moved to California, and discovered that they don't grow here.  Between that and the cold weather, I was like...  Oh my gosh, what have I done?!  During lychee season back home, I was content to perch myself on a huge branch and gobble them down for an hour or so- or until I was completely sick and covered in sticky lychee juice.  Ohhh...  the bliss.  THANKFULLY, we make the occasional trip to L.A. where we find them in the Asian market.  And Trader Joes in San Luis has randomly sold them 3 times in 7 years.  I've yet to find them very fresh in California- but a lychee is a lychee is a lychee, right?  You get what you get...  and once you get a lychee, you will pine for them foorrevvverrrr.  *You've been warned.

 (James was thrilled to assist in this by the way)

1. Start by rinsing them, some people like to chill them too...  On my island, kids sell big, cold bags of them out of coolers on the side of the road- like lemonade stands.  :)

2. Gently crack the red, outer layer open with your teeth.  Don't worry, they're not hard.

3. Peel and discard the red skin.  You'll be left with just the little white fruit.  Eat that thing!

4. Watch out for the one big seed in the middle.  James is a master at sucking the fruit off of the seed.

5. Repeat until you feel totally full and sick.

 That's it!  ♥