Japanese Gardens, Portland

We had a nearly perfect Portland weekend.  The temperatures soared into the 80's, the sky remained bright blue and everything is blooming.  Gorgeous.

My wonderful friend Kelly flew in from Minnesota and we played tourist for the entire weekend.  Most of my photos are i-phone shots, but on Friday I did manage to bring the nice camera over to the Japanese Gardens in Washington park.  It is one of my favorite places.

  

Kelly is seven months pregnant with another baby girl - she and Ken make really cute baby girls.

Stunning no?

Easter Egg Hunt and Hike

On the Saturday before Easter, I organized a mid-singles hike and Easter Egg hunt.  The mid-singles are traditionally ages 30-45 ish single members of the church.  It is a really diverse group of people - some with kids and some without.  We started the hike in Lower MacLeay Park and hiked 2.5 miles up to the Pittock Mansion in Washington Park.  Some of the singles without kids ran ahead on the trail and hid eggs for the kids to find.  We had a ton of eggs and a beautiful, sunny day to be outside!

We stopped for a big hunt around the old stone house along the trail.  Lots of kids!

 

When we got up to the Pittock Mansion and stopped for lunch, I noticed Calvin was not wearing his new (Christmas gift) backpack.  When I asked him wear it was, he told me it was making his back sweaty so he took it off and left it on the trail!!  Stinker.

On the way back down, we looked for Calvin's backpack but could not find it.  Finally someone suggested we look at the Nature Conservancy Center which I was not even aware was near the trail.  I sent Max over and sure enough someone had turned it in.  Phew!

 Some of our new friends here in Oregon.

Straight

This little girl now has braces.  It has been a little over a week and I can already see a huge difference.  No wonder she cried the first day because of pain.  These braces are only on her top teeth where they will remain for 8 months or so.  Once her permanent teeth are all in, she will get full mouth braces for another year or two. You should know: her bands are alternating blue and purple these days.  Pretty cute.

Color the Eggs

This year we managed to actually dye Easter Eggs.  It is one of those messy traditions that I've sort of skipped over the past few years (carving pumpkins is another one).  On Sunday after church I let the kids color warm eggs freshly boiled 5 minutes before.  Even Max who is teetering on that edge of being too old for such things, got involved with the fun.

You should know: those daffodils from Trader Joe's make me happy.  They are less that $2 a bunch and just look at how gorgeous they are!  I am spoiled this week as I also have beautiful tulips in the house.

As soon as the kids colored the eggs and we snapped a few photos, I peeled them and chopped them up for potato salad.  My kids are not huge fans of hard-boiled eggs.  Sophie and Calvin will eat the white part with a little salt, but they prefer their eggs scrambled.

 

Easter Greetings

 

 I love Easter weekend.  Friends and sun, Easter egg hunts and time outside in the beautiful sunshine.  Portland obliged us with clear, warm sunny weather the entire weekend and we took advantage of it with a morning brunch and long hike on Saturday.  On Sunday we enjoyed church and a wonderful message on the resurrection of Christ and then headed up to Washington for a potluck Easter dinner with friends.  It was a lovely weekend.

This is the cake I brought to the potluck - a lemon pound cake.  I've made it before and it is just a good as it was last time.  The recipe is in Luscious Lemon Desserts.  I also made a potato salad that I'll post the recipe for soon.

 

I am also grateful Cadbury Mini Egg season is over.  Those things are evil . . . and delicious.

Sweet Little Terror

Don't let that angelic little face fool you - my nephew Ollie is completely crazy.  He is one of those kids that if you take your eyes off of him for a second, he has thrown the garbage out of the garbage can, tossed your cell phone down the heater duct, rammed three DVDs into the Wii and filled the toilet with dog food.  He is exhausting and the kid just turned two.  

Yikes.

Heather had a little birthday party for him while my parents were in town and the only gifts allowed were balls and balloons.   They were a huge hit as was the birthday card that barked the happy birthday song.  That's a gift that just keeps on giving.

Grandpa helped him blow out the candle after he tried to put it out with his finger.

Cute family huh?

In my opinion, Ollie's sweetest trait of the moment is his ability to say my name really well.  "Bye-bye Stacey!"  He calls all adults Stacey right now much to the annoyance of his Auntie Kirstin.

Happy Birthday crazy kid!