baseball season

Our lives have been given over to baseball for the spring. E is rocking the team - playing his heart out and making a couple of incredible plays! His pop fly catch on Saturday is going to be legend in our family.
Here are some shots.

read to the dogs

Read to the Dogs is such a fun program that I've known only as a librarian - but it was such a treat to see E take part in it as a reader! Read to the Dogs is a way to improve reading skills and make a new friend. The therapy dogs are from the Dove Lewis Animal Assistance program.
E read to Copper - a super sweet basset hound with his own trading card! E read to him for almost a half-hour. He chose books about dogs and other animals, thinking that "Copper would like that." E was really comfortable reading to Copper and said he really liked it. Can't wait to try it again. Video below:

kitchen remodel

It's begun. Here are a couple of shots before and one day into the project.

Check out my crew!

tulip farm

Martha and I struck a deal with the kids - if they frolicked in the tulips long enough for us to get some good pictures, they could hit up the trashy carnival ride fun. It worked! I couldn't help but think about all the the times we'd been there before so I added a few shots from 2005-2009 at the end of the post.

sweet friends at the tuplip field

easter love

We had a fun Easter. Ems was talking a mile a minute the entire day and E was happily alternating between his new army men and working on a video game he and his dad are inventing! I was knocked out with a chest cold so I only had to show up for the good parts, shuffling my way back to bed in between photo ops. Hope your day was full of bunny ears and chocolate too!

happy birthday gretchen

We celebrated our friend's birthday at the local Italian haunt. We are getting ready to go to Mexico with them in a few weeks so the kids are getting comfortable and chatty with each other.

Check out this dessert tray. It was happily INSANE! We even licked the chocolate writing off it!

E now eats a double kids meal of pasta - super grower!

she's a star

Em is not the girliest girl on the block but this morning she channeled her inner starlet and made her appearance on the stairs like this . . .







E requested her autograph, and she was happy to oblige. If you click on the picture to blow it up, you'll see E titled the page "V.I.P."

sweet girl

Em loves to get her hands on my ipod. Her most frequent request is Dora or Signing Time (sadly, I have both on there to get through long car rides). But she's
developing her brother's taste in music because of our nightly dance party. Her new request - Brass Monkey a la Beastie Boys.

more girl fun

Ems and Tall House, Double Cup were in heaven over the weekend at our brunch - it was a real girl fest! It was tough competition getting to pry Baby Delia out of Jeff's arms but eventually Ems got her change to hold her. I love how pleased Em looks.

macrina bakery celebration

Our latest cookbook celebration featured the Macrina Bakery Cookbook. Marf, Auntie Brooke, and I literally stumbled upon this clever, sweet, rustic bakery on our George Michael Seattle excursion. Weeks later I ran into their cookbook at Powell's and picked up one for each of us as a remembrance of our weekend. We set out to create a great brunch with each of us making something from their book. Marissa and Ken joined us and the result was fabulous! The menu included:

Roasted Mushroom and Fontina strata

Rocket Muffins

Jammers

Black Forest Ham and Romano biscuits

fresh fruit & bacon

Mimosas, Bloody Marys, Stumptown Coffee

We joked that we should have provided nap beds for all guests. What a meal! I love Marcina's approach to baked goods - lots of use of molasses, whole grains, jam, and fruit. It's a not to be missed stop in Seattle.

Next up, we tackle the Naked Chef.

park time

Just a few shots from our sunny days at the park. Love, love, love Portland in the "spring."

poncho? oh yo!

I found a stash-buster pattern for a poncho in a new knitting book so I hit up my yarn piles for anything blue and whipped this baby out in two days. Now that I see in on Ems I see some adjustments I need to make, but I appreciate her patience in letting me get a photo. She wore it for a total of 35 seconds before throwing it off and announcing she would NOT wear it to school because she wanted to show everyone her shirt. Part of me is happy just getting the photo.

Channeling her inner model.

new friends

My delight in the new year of 2010 is a new friend! yeah! The lovely Marissa, her husband Ken, and their sweet baboo baby Delia. Marissa is a teen services librarian, newly arrived in pdx and an utter soul sister. gemini, reader, mama.
Em is in love with Delia - "my baby" she calls her. We took the girls for a walk this weekend, appropriately swaddled in pink.

knitting projects

I've been working on a handful of knitting projects at the same time in 2010. This was the week for finishing up.

First - a sweet Irish Hiking Scarf in KnitPicks City Tweed. It's a special secret gift for a West Coast cousin.

Next is a chain mail crocheted scarf - Heart and Sole sock yarn. This is a special secret for a Midwest auntie.

pedicures and post-bath time

I've got both E and Em on the pedicure train - all I had to say was "pirate blue" and they were all in. I love time with them right after their bath. They are all fresh and sweet and damp. When they aren't drying their wet toenails, there is lots of jumping, dancing, and cuddling.

And of course, movies.

the princess and the movie

Taking some inspiration from her cousin Addie, I took Ems to her first movie - The Princess and the Frog. We went to our local McMenamins theater pup - so we got to lounge out on a couch. It's the same place that Evan saw his first movie - March of the Penguins. Em even wore a headband for the occasion (she usually won't stand for anything in her hair).
When the popcorn and tootsie roll were all gone, it was time to go. We made it through 90 minutes. Not bad.
Here is Little Miss with her gigantic tootsie roll. She held it all the way to the theater.