Happy Birthday Mr. M!

We celebrated Mr. M's birthday this past week-end.  He got quite a bit of celebrating in since it was a holiday week-end but his birthday DAY was packed full of Mr. M fun!

He had a good time opening his gifts.  He got all he wanted and more...books he had been eyeing, a knife given by a very thoughtful big sister, a saddleback wallet so he could have a piece too and a couple miscellaneous gifts thrown in too!

He wanted to try something new for breakfast and picked these eggs cooked in a ham "crust."  They turned out very well and were easy to make and eat.

 

For his birthday lunch he requested sack lunches of granola bars, applesauce, cheese and juice boxes so that we could go to the skate park.  We told him it would be too hot for the skate park, but lucky boy it turned out to be a cooler morning and we did go.

*Oh look, he talked Daddy into letting him have a cherry coke!  He looks like one cool dude with the sunglasses too.

 

After the skate park was the Rock climbing walls.  All of the boys (except Mr. K of course) did the rock climbing.  Daddy was just going to spot, but it looked like so much fun he ended up climbing too!

Miss E did not want to climb and the little girls were a bit too little for this so we had some special girl time including shopping and getting ice cream!

Mr. M requested baked potato soup for his birthday dinner.  He had also requested squirrel cup cakes so we decided that watching Over the Hedge would be fun since his cup cakes ended up looking more like "crazy rabid squirrels".

The heat does not combine well with frosting and constructed cupcakes.  These were falling apart as we put them together.  We barely got one picture of one looking partly decent.  

A Beast feast!

We finally recieved The Beast that I won recently. We were so exicted to get it, that Daddy declaired a "feast day."

It was really just a good excuse to go to Pinacle Peak at Traildust town. Rob has been wanting to take everyone to Pinacle Peak since we moved here. We've been driving by it regularly and even stopped there to check it out with Grandpa and Grandma. The kids were so excited to get to go. The first thing we did was stop in the shooting gallery.

Oh, did you notice the ties that everyone is wearing? Well, it seems that Pinacle Peak has one rule, and that is NO TIES! If you are a "law breaker" and wear a tie they will cut it off. Yea, fun!

Everyone but me and Mr. K was wearing a tie, so they all got in "trouble" and had their ties cut off.

 

Dinner was steak for mom and dad.  The kids had hot dogs, chicken, quesadillas, and beans.  Everyone seemed happy with their meals, though the real appeal was all of the fun was already had, and that we were about to have!

After dinner we wandered around Trail Dust town a bit and went for a train ride.

Then we headed over to the out door theater for the stunt show. Most of the kids had a great time at the stunt show. Mr. K was not so sure about all of the gun shots and even an explosion, but he didn't seem to mind cuddling up close with mommy, so he decided to just sit still and quietly with my hand over his ear.

The have a little farris wheel there too. Four of the older kids went for a ride on it. Mr. R decided to hang out with Mom and Dad on solid ground. I think he is a smart guy. ;)

On our way out it happened to be time for the second stunt show. All of the kids asked if we could please watch the second showing. With that much excitement we figured we may as well stay.

Mother daughter brunch and Mother's Day

This week-end was a wonderful one.  Our church put on a ladies brunch, on Saturday.  I took all of the girls and Mr. K.  Since we were still coming off of the trip to Oregon my little ones were a bit fussy and clingy.  I spent most of the devotional/prayer time on the floor with the little ones each trying to get as much cuddling as they could.

The food was wonderful and beautifully presented as well. One of the young ladies chose the foods/recipes and we each signed up to bring one or two things.

 

We all had a great time of fellowship.  It was fun to see the the young ladies and little girls enjoying time with their friends.

 

My two little munchkins enjoyed being close to me, and I was thrilled to have them contained so that I could enjoy some fellowship time too!

For Mother's day Rob and Miss E made a lovely breakfast of sausage, mini German pancakes and fruit.  I was given some very sweet cards and Rob surprised me with a tote from Saddleback leather! Woo Hoo!  I don't usually get quite this spoiled, but I think that winning The Beast may have influenced this.

After church we made our way over to the base where we had a special Mother's Day brunch.  They really did that one up well.  Champaign and caviar were on the menu, but everyone seemed to enjoy the french toast, sausage, fruit, cheese, crackers and desserts more.  The kids were great and I had so much fun with them.

Simple Scrubs review and giveaway

Head on over to my other blog for my review on Simple scrubs to make and give, and a chance to win an e-book full of recipes so that you can make your own too!

Portland visit Day 5

Our last day in Portland was spent with my Grandma (Dad's mom), Aunt, and cousins.  They all drove a long way for a short visit, but it was so good to see them.  We don't see them often enough and I appreciated their effort to make it down while my family was in town.

I'm always so happy to be able to see my kids with my Grandma.  It has always been very important to me that my kids know their Grandparents and Great Grandparents.

Cousins had a good time playing together.

 

Miss J enjoyed being read to.  Grandma and Auntie K enjoyed being read to also!

We all had a great time on the trip, but we were all tired and ready to head home by the end of day 5.

*Miss C found a quiet place to go play and read.  Next time I checked on her I found her sleeping on the floor.

My family is cool

As I was talking to a cousin about our plans for our visit in Portland I realized just how cool my family is.

"Tomorrow we are going to Tillamook to see Dad's art in the gallery" Yep, my Dad was an artist and becoming fairly successful at this second career.

"No "C" will not be able to join us then, he will be doing a phone interview with a Formula 1 group in the UK"  Yes, my youngest brother is hoping to continue the work he started while getting his PhD at OSU by working in designing Formula 1 cars.

"On Thursday we will be going to Nike to visit L" My other brother works at Nike designing shoes.  He can't even show us his desk...security.

*My hubby is cool too.  He has had some interesting jobs in the military....there's the bomb testing unit, teaching at the AirForce Academy, Oh and the masters work with UAV's and a PhD in virtual reality.


For a family of nerdy Engineers we're doing ok!

Thanks for the bragging moment; and now back to the regular blogging...;)

Portland trip day 4 (Nike campus and employee store)

One of my brothers works for Nike.  In the inovation department.  Yep, he designs Nike shoes!  How cool!

*Thank you Aunt K for joining us.  It is always great to see you too!

We had lunch in the Nike cafe and then Uncle L showed us around the Nike campus a bit. It was a cool rainy day (what else would you expect in Portland, in May?) so we didn't spent too much time wandering around.

 

Then we were off to the Nike Employee store.  We decided to let each of the kids pick a pair of shoes.  My mom was with us so we decided to divide and conquer, each adult taking a size range.  Rob did great with the big kids.  I took the little ones; I got to pick out Mr. K's shoes and Miss C picked some sweet white and pink ones.  My mom took Mr. S and Miss J.  Mr. S picked a great pair of blue shoes.  As I rounded the corner to check on how my mom was fairing with them the first thing I saw was a pair of highlighter yellow shoes of Miss J.  It seems that those were the ones she insisted on so my mom left it to me and Rob to break the news to her.  No, those are not everyday shoes; you will need to pick something else.  The next pick was bright watermelon pink patten leather high tops.  Um, no again.  She was thrilled with the sweet white and pink one we ended up agreeing on, so it was a fun shopping trip and we loved seeing what she liked.

While we did not go overboard we still ended up with a cart full.  When everyone in a family of 9 gets a pair of shoes and mom throws in an extra pair or two, well....yea, we purchased 11 pairs of shoes.  We would not normally do this, it was a special treat on a special visit.

Portland trip day 3

We spent the morning hanging around with Auntie E who brought doughnuts and fruit over for breakfast. It was great to get to see her and spend some time with her.  Oops, I guess we were having too much fun! No pictures with Auntie E this time. :(


Cousin A had to work that day so we went to visit her at the Vietnamese sandwich shop she works at. Lunch was yummy, and we had a great visit.

 

We were so glad we got to meet "Purple Cat's" friend Miss L.  We really enjoyed spending time with her.

That evening we went out for dinner at the old Spaghetti factory on the water. We had a great time visiting with everyone.

Miss J fell in love with cousin purple cat. It was so cute to watch her talk to him and interact with him.  He has always been great with children, but it was extra fun to see him with Miss J.

Wild Rain gallery, ken kinetic, tillamook

My Dad had retired five years ago from a career as a mechanical engineer, to pursue his dream of being an artist. His dream came true, and his second career was really taking off when he passed away leaving us to wonder what else he had swimming around in his creative brain.

We are fortunate that the owner of Wild Rain Gallery (where my Dad's art was being sold) has been very generous to hold the art there for us, but not sell it. It was such a treat to be able to take my kids to the gallery to see Grandpa's art. They are used to seeing it in his home, but a gallery gives it a whole other feeling.

I loved getting to see my Dad's art in the sort of gallery that we spent much time in over the years, he had dreamed of some day having his art in just this sort of gallery. It was hard too though, to be there without him.

My dad loved watching kids watch the motion of his art. It was mesmorizing. It was great to be able to share this special time with the kids and to know that they will have this special memory of Grandpa's art.

He had been designing jewelry as well, and my step-mom put many of the pieces together (and she is continuing to make some wonderful pieces). I'm so thankful that I was able to take some of the pieces with me. I had not seen any of these pieces before as this was a new venture for them. I had not been expecting to find mini pieces of my Dad's art (though I don't know what else I should have expected), I just love being able to wear these special pieces.

 

He built this contraption in a matter of hours to display the jewelery 

 

Miss J fell in love with one of the pieces too, so we brought that one home as well.

After our visit to the gallery we went out to lunch at a place my dad had gone to a couple of times.

 

We also made a stop at the Tillamook cheese factory.