Multnomah County Fair

Mom and I took the kids to Multnomah County Fair at Oaks Park the weekend of Memorial Day. I've never been, but was really impressed and it was free! They had a petting zoo, a mamma pig and her piglets, games, music, food, pig races, tractor races for the kids, and a ton of other stuff. We didn't go in, but this was really cool to watch. There was a pet adoption agency with adorable puppies you could hold. Fortunately I know what it takes to train a puppy, otherwise the kids would have loved to bring one home! smoothies! The kids were a little intimidated by this big guy, but they are so cool to look at. Besides the Tiger, they had all sorts of exotic animals, spiders, and snakes that the kids got to see. They were pretty brave actually and got up close to see each one. The alpacas were so cute. This one was very interested in the kids. Piggy Races! Dried corn they could play in I thought she was playing with the water pump and all the sudden I go to look for her and she's over trying to figure out how to milk the cow!

Garden

Brian made two huge planter boxes to go on the side of our house that gets ton of sun. It's a perfect spot and we can't wait to get some yummy veggies growing. This will be the first time we've had a garden, so we're really excited to see how it goes. We also have 4 blueberry bushes we planted this year as well as raspberries and strawberries already planted. Last year the slugs got all the strawberries, so this year we have a few ideas in the place to keep those guys off our fruit! It's been interesting learning about all this stuff.

Camping

We went to our favorite camping spot at one of Clackamas County Parks last weekend with my parents. Brian had a three day weekend from being on call so we packed up and headed out Saturday evening. The plan was to leave a little earlier and take the kids to "Small Fry Lake" for their first fishing experience. They stock the lake with trout and we've been told the kids love it. Isaiah even got his very own fishing pole for the trip, a spider man one that he had to have! Ashley got a princess pole a few years ago, so she's been practicing. Well since we left late on Sat the plan was to go on Sunday. It ended up raining and we left a night early since Monday was predicted to have a greater chance of rain. Even thought the weather didn't hold up like we hoped we still got to play on the playground Sat night, have yummy food around the campfire and go on a hike to the swimming hole to skip rocks in the water.

Brody doesn't quite fit between those two big carseats anymore!

She loves her Papa!

And he loves his Grandpa!

Trouble

Mother's Day

I enjoyed a very special Mother's day. My mom's church has an annual brunch which we went to on Saturday. They do an amazing job with decorations, food, guest speakers and singing. We had little purses at our setting this year which was a highlight for Ashley and the theme was Hope. While we listened to the guest speaker they took all the kids in the back room to make Mother's Day gifts for us, it was really sweet and they turned out great! Steph came for a visit, so she got to go with us this year. Saturday night was Bella's birthday party, so it was fun to see everyone and celebrate. Sunday morning Brian had to work, but Steph and I took the kids and dog for a long walk down to our favorite coffee shop for breakfast. Brian came home with a beautiful bouquet of flowers and we had a nice dinner together. The best part of the day was the kids were on their best behavior. I told them it was the best gift they could give mommy!

Ashley's Mother's Day gift that she made at the brunch

Ashley walking back from putting a flower at Mary's side.

Beach House

We went to the beach house at the end of April to do a little work on the outside. It was the first time we had been there since our new property manager took over and they are doing an amazing job! I was very pleased with how well the house was kept. Brian power washed the entire outside of the house to prep it for when we stain this summer and I got to spend the day at the beach keeping the kids occupied, tough job! He worked really hard and got it all done on Sat so we could enjoy taking the kids to the park and spending time at the beach as a family. It was a gorgeous weekend.

Park

The kids love going to parks and I love finding new one's to take them to. This was at Lents park about a 10 min drive from our house. The nice part about this park is there is a lot of shade for those hot summer days. They also have a bark path to walk the dog and a public garden. It's off of a bike path we like to go on and would be a great stopping point for the kids to get out and play.

Easter

What gorgeous weather we had for Easter this year! The kids daycare had an Easter Egg hunt on Saturday that we invited friends to. Then Easter morning the kids woke up to Easter baskets and a pirate tent! I told them we had to be quiet as we walked downstairs in case the Easter Bunny was still there and maybe we would catch him. The look on their face was precious and they urged me to go first and they would follow closely behind :) Well, we didn't find the Easter Bunny, but we did find the cool stuff he left behind, sunglasses, socks, toys and candy! After naps we went to my parents house where the Easter Bunny left some more eggs! The kids had fun having the whole backyard to themselves and could take their time finding the eggs. They scored big time, each egg had a ton of candy. Thanks Easter Bunny from both the kids and us! Bonnie, Al, Adam and Lucas came over for dinner. Uncle Dan was sick so we didn't get to see him. After dinner we made "resurrection rolls". That was a big hit especially with Ashley since she's learning about the resurrection at school. Our ingredients were marshmallow's, butter, cinnamon, and crescent rolls. White marshmallow's for Jesus pure and without sin, butter for the oil and spices his friends anointed him with when they took him down from the cross and the crescent roll as the tomb in which he was laid to rest. When we took the rolls out of the oven the "tomb" was empty. Jesus had risen!

The pirate tent that the "Easter Grambunny" left for the kids along with Isaiah sporting his new sunnies! The tent has a little lean to it, but the kids LOVE playing in it. What's really cute is they don't think we can hear what they're saying since they can't see us :) A couple nights we got the giggles listening to their conversations.









I got the kids their own bunny shaped egg tongs this year. They couldn't wait to use them! Isaiah was a little aggressive with the "drop in" which helps to explain why he's wearing a smock.

We tried something a little different this year and colored our eggs with Kool-Aid. The colors turned out a lot more vibrant and it was fast!

Easter egg hunt at Grammy and Grandpa's



Aunt Bonnie and Grammy



Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Al

From Pinterest of course! They didn't turn out exactly as planned, I forgot the carrots for a nose and used cheese instead, but the idea was still pretty cute.

Birthday's

That time of year again to celebrate a lot of Birthday's! We went up to the mountain for my birthday, which unfortunately didn't pan out to be a very fun day of skiing. We started out in snow, then freezing rain making it impossible to see, then the weather turned to full on rain soaking through our gear before we called it quits 2 hours later. I was bummed, but we warmed up with lunch around the fire at Paola's and an evening with my family. That weekend my parents had us over for a birthday dinner celebrating all three of our birthday's, which is always something we look forward to every year. Then to top off the week or so of celebrating we went to Cirque du Soleil "Ovo" for Brian's birthday. It was fantastic, the best show I've ever seen! The costumes were incredible and we were 3 rows from the stage thanks to a discount Brian got through Kaiser.

Pancake Breakfast

I get an email every Thursday telling me about events for kids going on that week. I love planning fun stuff for the kids and a lot of things I would have never known about. One of them being West Linn's annual pancake breakfast and carnival. It was a perfect thing for me to take the kids to while Brian was on call a few weekends ago. The Easter Bunny was there and even though we didn't get a picture, Ashley gave him a few hugs and high fives while Isaiah stood a safe distance away and waved to him. He wanted nothing to do with the Easter Bunny this year! The carnival was fun, but the best part was seeing the fire engines and police cars. They let the kids climb in to see where all the action takes place and Ashley was even brave enough to speak her name into the loudspeaker on the police car. She instantly turned red when she heard her voice, but I was proud of her for doing it.