The end of Birthday Season

With Fr. Juan's birthday on St. Patrick's day comes (what I consider to be) the end of birthday season.  We have Lukie's birthday next but that is 2 months away, then Sedric's in June and Marcus' in August...then back to September and the start of the Season again with Bunny/grammae/Emmett right in a row (not to mention all of MY family's September birthdays!).  

I don't know why Fr. Juan is making his own dinner on his
birthday, poor guy... ;o)

It was a FANTASTIC meal of steak, green beans, mashed
potatoes, and grammae's famous salad.

A little TV watching after dinner (I think it's Funniest Home Videos?)

Time for dessert, creme brulee and cupcakes, yum!

Grammae made the BEST cupcakes ever!!!!  They were THAT good!

"Where'd my cupcake go?"

gag gift!!!  (This is from a real drugstore in
Indiana--"Butt Drugs"--the owner's last name
was Butt if you can believe that!) (They serve
great sodas and phosphates by the way, we've
been there and can vouch for that....)

I have a feeling that Fr. Juan will not be wearing that shirt too much in public... (and probably not too much in private either!!)...but it is a pretty funny inside joke!!

Last day with Joe and Steph

Saturday was the last day with Joe and Steph at our house.  :o(  We had so much fun when they were here--such special times!

We took them to the Max station in Hillsboro;
they were planning to spend the day and night
in Portland before flying back to CO on Sunday.

Gemma wanted to go to.  We didn't try to stop her.

Gemma changed her mind and wanted to go to the St. Patrick's
Day parade with her cousins instead.  :o)  It was a beautiful day
for a parade!  (sometimes it's cold and rainy, yuck)

scrambling for candy

Joe and Steph blogged about the GREAT time they had in Portland.  Biking around town, visiting brewpubs, eating a great lunch and dinner and then brunch the next morning...Portland has SO much to offer an adventurous young couple like themselves (maybe they should move here, hmmm??).

Joe's Blog posts:  PORTLAND FOODIES,  PORTLAND-BREWERY BIKE TOURING

Daddy/Daughter Dance night

Friday night when Joe and Steph were here was also the night of St. Matthew School's annual daddy/daughter dance!  (It was rescheduled from February due to snowy weather).  The Bunny and I had gone dress shopping in January and picked out THE perfect dress for her, and found one for Mariposa as well.  :o)  The girls were so excited to have this special time with their dad: 

How lucky were we???  Stephanie is FANTASTIC
at doing hair, especially braids!!!!!

Steph working her magic. 

Marcus bought corsages for the ladies.

After the dance--Bunny always gets "I -heart-
daddy" painted on her face.

This fits Mariposa to a T.

They had a great time with the St. Matthew group but especially with their cousins and uncles, who also went to the dance.  Dancing maniacs!  (and the girls were good dancers too)  ;o)  Next year Gemma gets to go too, so that will make the evening all the more special.

Fun on Friday

On Friday, we went to Hillsboro in the morning to have some adventures:

first we dropped off "some" eggs at St. Vincent
de Paul (24 hens lay a LOT of eggs...)

then a trip to the toy store

Back at home we had Bunny's famous tuna sandwiches (grilled, yum!) and then had free-play time:

 For dinner we went to the Cruise-In Country Diner right down the road (we are SO lucky to have such a great place nearby!).  No burgers for us (Friday=meatless) but the fish sandwich was great, as was the veggie burger.

deciding what to order

car stuff all over--Joe's kind of place!

For more fun pic see Joe's blog post.

Pizza night

After our Portland Fun Day we played a little outside before having our wonderfully yummy pizza:

For more fun pics, see Joe's blog post.

Portland Fun Day with Uncle Joe and Steph

A few weeks ago, my brother Joe and his girlfriend Stephanie came for a visit!!!  For their first day, we thought we would have a Portland Fun Day.

We all got in the Japanese Garden for FREE thanks to the
library's pass (yay!).

walking to the garden

The whole place is SO SO beautiful, just amazing how much
thought is put into planning a Japanese garden, just to make
it look natural.

This is one of the rare moments that Sedric was not running.

We had fun with the seek-and-find.

After the Japanese Garden and then the Rose Garden (the one with the rose bushes, not the basketballs) (roses not in bloom of course, but nice to walk around and see the Portland Skyline) we made our way to NW 23rd and Little Big Burger.

This was the whole reason why I wanted to go
to Portland on THURSDAY and not FRIDAY!
(no meat Fridays during Lent)

Then next door to Salt & Straw. 

A stop at New Seasons--the beer section was a hit.

On our way home with fresh groceries for
homemade pizza night!

For more pics of our Portland Fun Day, see Joe's blog post.

signs of spring

first dandelion in the yard

playing outside lots

rainbows almost every day

first daffodil (we have tons now)

crocuses and other first-bloomers

And...I spent no less than 4 hours outside in the garden on Saturday!  I was in heaven!  I had all sorts of little helpers, of course, and we had a great time.  We transplanted only a small portion of my overgrown strawberry bed...but it was probably 100+ starts that were moved, so it was a lot of work!  Bunny was my biggest helper but Mariposa and Gemma were there, too.  Oh, and Seddy who would pick up worms and say "ssssss."  Then Gemma planted my snap peas for me, and we both worked on dividing and transplanting some overgrown fall aster, black-eyed susans, and shasta daisies.  And I can't forget the lily of the valley that a church-friend dug up for me from his garden!!  I gave them the perfect spot and I am looking forward to their beautiful blooms, hopefully this spring.  A very productive day in the garden.