macrina bakery

During our girlfriends' trip to Seattle to see George Michael, we stumbled upon a gem of a bakery - Macrina Bakery and Cafe. Everything was gorgeous and yummy looking. I found the cookbook at Powell's last week and picked three up - one for me, Marfie, and Auntie B. I've started baking out of it right away.
These are the perfecto Cherry Almond Scones - though I made a hazelnut version instead of almond. These are super classic scones - not the Starbucks kind that are sort of soft and muffinish but truly English scone like. The kind you would like to have lemon curd and clotted cream with. We devoured them quite quickly. Next up . . . the rocket muffins.

muffin tin madness

In this edition of Muffin Tin Madness we have pretty pedestrian offerings and yet I still stumped E with the kiwi. He HATES it (his exclamation, not mine). Hate kiwi? So sad. But I have gotten him on the cucumber salad train using the muffin tins.
Check out the cool flickr group that posts their muffin tin madness.

best friends

E on his last day of preschool with his best friends. I hope we can find ways for them to be friends for a long time.

out of the pool

We are done with swimming lessons for the summer. Hurrah! No more rushing from work to the pool, through a daily picnic dinner and changing in the locker room, and then racing home to get everyone wound down and into bed, only to start packing up bags again for the next day. Evenings are going to seem like a luxury this week compared to last.
E had a great session with lots of improvement. I can see the true beginnings of the front crawl.
Em enjoyed class much more than this picture shows. She went completely under at least half a dozen times and came up gulping but not crying. What a girl!

swimming lessons

Just one day left of swimming lessons. E is still underwater more thn above water. He's a little fish - though still working hard on his crawl - that's a lot of coordination to master - video below.



Em loved her swim lessons and went under several times - she didn't love it, but she didn't cry. Her video is all play with Papa.

traveling with kidlets

This picture sums it up, don't you think? Traveling with kidlets is so much more complicated and crazy than I ever thought - and yet kind of fun when you successfully meet the challenge.

crystal cave

I am almost done rehashing our vacation trip. We finally made it to Crystal Cave. I grew up just miles from this tourist attraction - the longest cave in Wisconsin.

The tour was really fun - 70 feet underground. They had a wedding reception there once - but never again. Perfect for the goth couple.

There were hundreds of stalagmites and stalactites growing in the cave so we had to be super careful not to disturb anything. There were a few places where you could touch the walls - E loved it.

cemetery visiting

I hope this doesn't seem to maudlin, but while I was back in Wisconsin we stopped by the the cemetery where my grandparents are buried. E hears a lot of stories about my Papa - most of them about him spoiling me. He was interested in seeing what grave was like - it was his first time at a cemetery.
This one is actually my maternal great-grandparents.
And I LOVE this one - the long-time housekeeper of my grandparents' priest. Click on the picture to see the wording up close - it's well worth it. A tangible reminder of a time going fast, if not already gone.

baseball sunday

We love going to the Beavers baseball games. They are so family friendly and casual. Little Miss goes with the flow in the backpack and E bargains for as many treats and bouncy castle tickets as possible.
We'll celebrate the library with the Summer Reading Day toward the end of August - all of the participants in our program get a free ticket to the game. I love seeing hundreds of kids wearing their Summer Reading shirts at the same event.

finishing Harry Potter

He did it! E finished the first Harry Potter book. We took his picture when he started it and when we finished it - both happened on the hammock. I asked E if he was any different, now that he had read such a momentus book. He thought about it very seriously and said, "I think my voice is deeper." We watched most of the movie as a treat after finishing the book - had to skip some of the super scary parts. Last week at school when I picked up the kids, E was leading his friends in playing "Hedwig's bithday."
We have a plan to read one Harry Potter per summer. We'll finish the series when he is 11 - perfect!

city boy, meet the county fair

We took the kids to their first county fair. E was a bit shocked at the reality of farm animal smells and held his nose through most of the barns.



Ths is a photo of my mom and E in front of the building that was once a one room school house that my great grandmother taught in and that my aunt and uncle went to school at.

I had a bit of a crush on the fancy rooster and loopsy bunny below. I love seeing all of the homemade jam, pickles and wine (homemade wine! hmmmm). E was totally taken with the lego entries. He is torn between getting his own cow to enter next year or building something fabulous to win the lego ribbon. I prefer the legos.

camping out

E slept out in the tent almost every night in Wisconsin. Jonesie was his lucky first choice tent-mate but he let me hang out with him a bit. Anything is more fun in a tent - reading books, making JiffyPop on the propane stove and having long conversations.

it's pathetic, I know

it's pathetic, I know, but I have to admit, I am really run down from our housekeeper going MIA. I've been slowly cleaning the house at night between 8-9pm, after a day at work, swim lessons, dinner, getting kidlets to bed, and getting ready for the next day. It is slow going. I think I've lost that work ethic that used to drive me through cleaning. I know most people do clean their own houses but I have to accept the fact that I just cannot do this. I have to be able to live with some dust on the floor while I wait for our housekeeper to get back on the grid or I get a new one. This picture really sums up my feelings this week.

e's adventure days

E had a week of high adventure in Wisconsin. While the rest of us talked, watched movies, read, napped and played with Little Miss, E was taking Wisconsin by storm - hanging out in his tree house (Jonesie's deer stand), powering Nana and Jonesie's skiff around their pond, sleeping out in the tent nearly every night, panning for gems, and rocketing around the county fair. It was hard to keep up with him. I've got lots of pictures and stories to share about our week in the country - just have to make some time to get all of the pictures organized.

My housekeeper seems to be MIA - we came home to a dirty houe that was supposed to be cleaned while we were away- we haven't heard from her in two weeks. And gasp - I think I'll have to actually clean the house myself this week. yikes! I haven't done that in years - do I even know how anymore? Charging ipod right now! And I am SO going to pay myself for doing it! New shoes here I come!

the wilds of wisconsin

We are off in the wilds of Wisconsin for the week so I am not posting. I did a yahoo image search for Wisconsin and this was the #9 image. hmm. We aren't at dance camp - more like wilderness camp. Playing, reading, talking, knitting, and a tiny bit of sight seeing - all to be documented when I get home and connect my computer.

best year evahhhh - for planters

early May .......................... this week

In the past, I've ordered plants from White Flower Farm or bought pricey plants from Portland Nursery. This year I went the cheapy route and hit up Fred Meyer for my plants. And what a year! This is definitely the best year ever for my planters. I went with all reds (though you'll see some damn purple that creeped in - can't be too picky when paying Fred Meyer prices). I had chives that wintered over from last year's pot that have gone crazy and kept me happily in baked potatoes for dinner this summer. I've watered EVERY day since May and that made all the difference. The pot is happy, full and continually in bloom. The pictures compare when I first planted in late May to this week.

book group reads

Here is what my children's/young adult literature book group is reading for next month. We have a colleague currently chairing the Caldecott Committee so we are heavy into picture books.

Picture books
Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of his Faithful Dog (Carbone)
Tadpole Rex (Cyrus)
Buffalo Music (Fern)
Twenty Heartbeats (Haseley)
Metal Man (Reynolds)
Little Blue Truck (Schertle)
Dog and Bear - Two's Company (Seeger)
The House in the Night (Swanson)
The Pigeon Wants a Puppy (Willems)

Fiction
My Dad's a Birdman (Almond)
The Underneath (Appelt)
Savvy (Law)

Graphic novels
Benny and Penny in Just Pretend (Hayes)

Nonfiction
Nic Bishop Frogs (Bishop)

I am reading The Underneath - and it's glorious. The writing sings and weeps and is so moving. It's too mature for E because of a very cruel adult center to the story but I look forward to sharing it with him when he's older.

muffin tin madness

Inspired by Kirstin's Muffin Tin Mondays, we tried out some Muffin Tin Madness (it wasn't a Monday). 12 little bites put together on the fly. E was TOTALLY into it. He even went for the cucumber salad which until now was avoided like the plague.
Next time I am going to plan a bit more for some more adventures.

afternoon with E

I had a weekday off last week so I spent it much like I would have last year when I was on maternity leave - minus the sweet baby in my arms.
I met a friend for a walk by the river, followed by a coffee and scone at Bakery Bar (the cutest slacker boys are always in there - sorry Tall House, Double Cup!).
I then joined E's school for a picnic and concert in a local park. I love seeing him with his friends. He is really ready to move on to kindergarten and I can't deny that fact when I see how big, how mature, how ready he is to socialize and learn in an older setting.
We skipped out of preschool after the picnic and went to the library to pick up his first Summer Reading prize of the year (a hackey sack) and then went swimming at Grant Park. There is nothing like swimming outside on a warm day, followed by snow cones. When I put E to bed that night, I breathed in that lovely sunscreen/chlorine smell that takes me right back to 1978. It was one of those great summer days, spent with my best boy, that I intend to repeat again in July and August.

trophy cupcakes

On our Seattle pilgrimage to see George Michael, we went to Trophy Cupcakes, which deserves a blogpost all it's own.


The shop (or I should say shoppe - it's such a shoppe) is small but packed with super fun party supplies. They must have a hell of a buyer.

Trophy got some good press when featured on Martha Stewart. That link will take you to the recipe and video segment where s'more cupcakes are made.
I got the vanilla vanilla, triple chocolate and strawberry lemon to bring home and share with the family. I popped them in the fridge where they sat for a day and let me tell you - they were fabulous a day old, nice and cold.