Tag Archives: Fresno

Real Life :: Kickin’ It In Fresno

Real Life, Real Life : Alix,

A few weekends ago we hit the road for a mini vacation with our pals in Fresno. (“Fresno??”) Yes. Fresno. We love going there—our friends Dan & Lisa are a blast to hang out with and Wolfie adores their two kids Ben and Emmy. They have a really cool house on a cul de sac and I always feel like I’m hundreds of miles away from the crazy city. (Which I guess I actually am, so bad example.) ANYWAY! In addition to swimming and BBQ-ing and chilling, we always end up doing something goofy and fun. This time it was helping Wolfie with his school project….THE EGG DROP.

THE ASSIGNMENT: Create a container in which an egg could be placed and dropped from the roof of the school without breaking.

FUN FACTOR: Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After much consultation we decided we would stuff six zip lock sandwich baggies with recycled plastic bags and tape ’em all together to form a cube. It worked really well and we liked the idea of re-using all those pesky plastic bags laying around.

We need to add a little extra baggie action to make sure the egg fit snuggly….

Kiddos, don’t try this at home! Cousin Ben climbs up on the roof and the egg survives! But we didn’t stop there.

We decided to try one more round….could we beat the zip lock cube? AWolfie had the idea to put the egg in a bag of water, inside another bag of water—his theory being that it would float. Sound crazy? Sure….but we knew it would make an awesome SPLAT as it dropped. The big surprise? THE EGG SURVIVED! But the outer bag did burst and got water everywhere. It was rather spectacular.

So the plastic bag cube was our winner, but because we were having so much fun we decided to give it one last test. We went to the Fresno State campus and did an even higher drop:

SUCCESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then it was time to celebrate, and Ben and his mama Lisa got the champagne ready for the Big Shower.

Whooooo hooooooo! Awesome.

Another successful Fresno Weekend. We’ll be going back for the Fourth of July. And for the record, Wolfie’s egg was one of a select few that survived the drop off the roof of his elementary school!

Real Life :: California Kiddo’s Fresno 4th of July

Real Life, Real Life : Alix, , , ,

San Francisco has crazy weather. It’ll be hot and sunny three days in a row and then on the fourth the wind is so cold you’re wearing a wool scarf. In July. I’m not kidding. So when the Fourth of July rolls around we high tail it outta here and head down south to visit some of our very best friends, Dan & Lisa, who live in Fresno. Now you may be thinking, “Wow, Fresno….pretty posh Alix!” but lemme tell ya, WE LOVE IT THERE! Besides getting to spend quality time relaxin’ with special friends, they live in a terrific neighborhood on this awesome cul de sac. It reminds me of that famous Bill Owens’ photo from his amazing 70s SUBURBIA book. Where this woman is leading a parade down her block, waving a big American flag. Our Fresno getaway is on a very retro cool block. Our friend’s have a pool and we swim and BBQ and just totally relax. (Lisa and I always manage to sneak away for some fun girlie time…either a pedicure or some high quality movie viewing involving something classy like, you know, vampires) One of my favorite parts is how the whole neighborhood gets involved on the Fourth of July—there is a kid’s parade, bouncey house, and of course fireworks and sparklers at night. Here are some pictures of our crazy fun weekend:

We forgot about the bike parade and had to do some quickie SUPER DOWN AND DIRTY homemade decorations for Wolfie’s bike.

I feel like I should make a joke about my hubbie’s bangin’ booty. Pop pop pop!

Oh my god it was over 100 degrees and I looked like a HOT MESS (literally)  the entire day. This is a testament to how I luv ya—I’m showing you me in all my beet-faced glory. Hewww….of course Wolfie looks rosey cheeked and cute. Damn kids.

Of course there’s always a cakewalk. Greg and Lisa both won on their first try.

The liddle kiddle parade is my fave though….it’s super cute and the kids really get into it. Our friend Flo is down there on the right pushing her lil man Alastair. She made homemade ice cream sammies with home made peach ice cream and they were DEEEEEE-lishus!!

Aw yeah! The pink Malibu Barbie car was back! Whooo hoo! This little girl is there every year. She almost ran me down, but she’s so fab I forgave her.

Our neighborhood doesn’t really have sidewalks, so we’ve been slow on the bike riding dealie with Wolfie. He finally got a little cruiser with training wheels and he was totally into it! The training wheels have that wibble wobble thing where the bike suddenly leans to one side, making Wolfie shriek (in a manly way) and totally reminded me of being a kid….remember how the training wheels would bobble and you thought for SURE you were gonna wipe out?

So that’s part of our weekend! I’ll spare you photos of us looking awesomely sweaty (but then jumping in the pool a zillion times to cool off). We came back to San Francisco and, as predicted, there was a chill in the air. Oh well, it was nice to get a lil taste of summer—even if it was just for a weekend.

What did you guys do? Did you stay close to home or did you go someplace fun?? Hope you all had a fun time too! (PS UPDATE: Greg is leaving for work and WEARING A SWEATER. I’m seriously contemplating tights with my dress. IT’S JULY SAN FRANCISCO!!! *sigh* Always the rebel….)