Beautiful rainbow

The other night....





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Market day

The Hillsboro Saturday Market opened it's 30th season today! Even with a MIA husband (paintball camping adventure) I knew I couldn't miss opening day. So we called up the reserves (grammae, Auntie Meghan, and crew) since everyone knows "the more the merrier" (or is it "misery loves company?") and off we went in the big silver van. With my hands full I knew I couldn't really do any shopping but we wanted to see the sights anyway.


A stop at the toy store:


And a final stop at the booth of my favorite bakery, where everyone got a treat:


Crinkle-Oreos, so good:


His dad's favorite, a Mindy bun:


Peanut butter cookies with chocolate ganache:


And another crinkle-Oreo:


I chose a pistachio macaroon and also managed to buy some quinoa bagels and chicken/cheese sausages. Sounds like dinner to me. Yum!!

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Lukie Fun Day

For Lukie's birthday (last year!) we gave him a certificate good for Lukie Fun Day. Scheduling has been slow...sometimes we would be busy, most of the times I forgot, but finally we did it! The kids were thrilled to treat Lukie like a king for the afternoon.

First stop was the toy store where he had some FunBux to spend:


James and Bunny helped him pick out the perfect gifts and were the chief accountants to help him manage his money. Lukie chose a Dalmatian stuffed dog, an activity book, some play money, and 2 rocks:


Afterwards we walked to Subway and enjoyed Lukie's favorite meal:


This day was meant for Lukie but I think my kids had just as much fun! Happy Birthday Lucas!

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A big help

An oldie but a goodie, from a few months ago....

Gemma was instrumental in the fixing of our dishwasher.


Apparently you need a lot of bowls out when you are fixing appliances:


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Househusband

I've decided that Marcus should be a househusband. Look what I woke up to the other day:


I asked him what inspired him to just wake up and make cinnamon rolls. He said, "Well, we had all that leftover cream cheese frosting...."


(when we have leftover cream cheese frosting, MY first thought is to eat it off a spoon, or maybe smear it on a graham cracker...not make cinnamon rolls! Just goes to show what a great, ambitious, talented guy he is.). :o)


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Bunny's new tooth

Bunny re-chipped one of her front teeth the day before Easter, and today was the day of her appointment. The "before" shot:


"during":


(Bunny was none too pleased at Dr. Miller's perfectionism and attention to detail. She was expecting a quick easy visit but instead she got the full treatment, which is, of course, excellent, but time-consuming and included a shot in her upper gum.)


"after":



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Beast brunch

To kick off Marcus' week-long stay-cation we took a much-anticipated trip on Sunday to a great Portland establishment, Beast.



Beast has a prix-fix menu which I love because it forces me to eat great, inventive dishes that I may not've chosen off a menu on my own. $35 per person for a 4-course brunch plus an optional $20 for wine pairings with each course.


We thought this grafitti was pretty funny (sorry Erica and Mary):


First course, rhubarb clafoutis with soft whipped cream and maple-glazed bacon:


Open kitchen:


Second/main course, oops, forgot to take a pic before I dug in. "Beast Hash"-- braised pork shoulder with market potatoes, heirloom carrots, maitake mushrooms & kale raab topped with a poached duck egg and Hollandaise:


Third course, oops again. This WAS a selection of cheese from the cheese bar and greens with aged sherry vinaigrette:


So pretty:


Fourth course, chocolate truffle cake with whipped cream and crushed candied pink peppercorns.


Many many many thanks to Brian and Nicole for watching the kid's for us!!! Gotta get these dates in before the baby comes in June!

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Easter dinner

Look what Nicole made!


The kids' table:


Look at this spread! So much good food! There was ham, prime rib, carrots, scalloped potatoes, 2 kinds of asparagus with Hollandaise sauce, ambrosia, chopped salad, corn and wine.


For dessert we had Marcus' famous lamb cake (pound cake, cream cheese frosting, decorated this year by Fr. Peter), grammae's famous coconut cake, and chocolate pudding cake. Oh, and delicious homemade Limoncello.


Dessert was a big hit. Happy Easter!


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Easter morning

We started the morning with our own egg/basket hunt. The baskets had flip-flops, a t-shirt, and an activity book in each.


Gemma was pretty happy just finding her basket because it also had candy in it. The other kids moved on to the eggs, and we encouraged Gemma to do the same:


We went to Mass and got there early to get our normal seats. I stayed outside to play with Gemma on the playground until Mass started. Afterwards we drove to Shane & Meghan's for a lovely Easter brunch, complete with mimosas and homemade cinnamon rolls:


I think James might be drinking a mimosa in that picture. ;o) jk


Burning off some of those calories:



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Easter preparations

Last Saturday:


Annual St. Matthew Easter egg hunt, on the pavement this year because of soggy field conditions. Bunny helped Gemma with the 2/3/4 year olds and I think they both had fun. Mariposa is in the teal jacket and pink skirt:


At home we dyed eggs and learned more about primary and secondary colors (a lesson we started with a cute book called "Mouse Paint"):





We let Gemma join us for an egg or two:


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Last day in Colorado

On Tuesday morning (last week) we woke up to snow!


Done with our walk--Erica's house in the background:


We left at lunchtime and stopped for Japanese food:


Dad wasn't so sure about this plan but it turned out ok:


I don't think I had ever eaten Japanese food/sushi so I was a little unsure, too. But it turned out to be delicious! I got the bento box/tray to try a little of everything. It was way too much food. And I thought I would go away hungry....


A fun end to a fun trip, many thanks to my family for good memories.

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Mani/pedi

The day before I left for Colorado, Marcus set Gemma down for a nap. Now, usually I lay down with her but I had to run into town that afternoon, and she IS "trained" to go to bed on her own (just I usually want a nap, too!). So all seemed well when she stayed in bed all afternoon and then woke up later in the early evening.

I was home when she woke up. She called me from the stairs and she seemed upset about something. I walked up to get her and noticed that her feet were all red! I wondered if it was blood, even though it didn't quite look like blood, so I rushed her downstairs in the light when I realized it was....nail polish! She got into my nail polish collection and had given herself a mani/pedi in bed before falling asleep, and now she felt really ashamed and probably scared that she would get in trouble.


We were too tired to yell; all we could do was shrug our shoulders and try to clean her up. She said she had a headache, probably from the fumes. We were glad that it wasn't blood (although the bed sheets did look like a murder scene). Only Ding Dong.....

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