petite provence

Petite Provence just opened in my hood. Do I really need words?

camp out

We set up the tent for camping out over the weekend. I slept out with E the first night and Jonesie had the honor the second night (with the rain).

We also watched The Princess Bride outside in our own outdoor theater. Very fun! except for the five mosquitoes that live in Oregon - all found me and feasted. It must have been the mongo glass of white wine I was sipping that attracted them.

big day

Today was a big day for E. Jonesie taught him how to ride his bike without his training wheels. Even though he's tall and looks older than he is, E is, by nature, super cautious. But for this he was ready. The whole family went to the park tonight to watch his progress.


Nana and Jonesie in action with E below.

knitting projects

My knitting has been slow going this summer. Little Miss just needs a lot of attention and watching so I've only had time for a few small projects. A recent finished object is a head scarf for Em, matching her knit dress.

She keeps it on for maybe 20 minutes at a time. I'll take what I can get for this cuteness.

sweet bath baby

popsicle playdate

Our family hosted a popsicle play date at E's new elementary school over the weekend and invited all of the families in his class. We had a great turnout with 20 of the 27 kids coming, along with parents, siblings and some grandparents.


Even E's new teacher came (she's below in the cute melon-colored capris and white tee). She seems quite lovely, experienced and friendly.
E bonded right away with his classmate Audrey. I am excited that on the first day of school E will be able to recognize some new friends in the classroom.

guess who is here?

Yeah! It's Nana & Jonesie - in town for their annual end of summer fling. E is very excited to spend the week at home with his grandparents. Lots of projects and outings are planned. Tall House, Double Cup and I celebrated four extra hands to help take care of Em - she is all over the place these day.

a break in the heat

FINALLY - relief from the heat. It started with dinner out with the Cedros clan to air conditioning. The kids cooled off with milkshakes.

And then this morning a big rainstorm came through and made the world liveable again. Lightning and thunder (a rarity in pdx) accompanied the storm - we were glued to the window.

camp kallie

We had such a good time with cousin Kallie in town. Tall House, Double Cup was off in Costa Rica for the week and I don't know how I would have managed without her. She and E spent their days together playing, watching Spongebob and going to the park. When I would ask E at night how his day was, he would sigh and say, "perfect." He had never had a whole week at home - no preschool, no camp, no structured activities - and he loved it. I am so glad he got to do it with Kallie.
Em gave Kallie a hard time - giving her the evil eye for two or three days but about half way into Kallie's stay, she let up and decided Kallie was lovely and well worth sharing books with.
We love you Kallie and are so happy you spent your week with us!

housekeeper update

So that's it. Former housekeeper is cut off. She returned my key to my coworker (who also let her go) but she absconded (I love that word) with our check. I can sort of live with that because when she did clean, it was above and beyond her hourly rate - I was really getting a great deal for the past two years. But it is a sad way for our relationship to end, especially when I think about all of E's hand me downs in clothes and toys I passed on to her . . . but oh well, pishposh, right?
In the meantime, I decided to go with a local service that Marfie uses. They are at my house as I write this - cleaning the hell out of every nook and cranny. I have two people scheduled to be there for 4 hours - almost nothing can make me as happy as this. I can't wait to walk in the door tonight.
And Tall House, Double Cup returns from Costa Rica tonight - hurrah!

a little cheesecake

I haven't posted a good cheesecake picture of Emme lately.
Her latest phrase is "kitty cat" and something approximating "doggie". At the symphony concert in the park last weekend, she spent the evening following every dog that walked by. As soon as the dog stopped and she got within three feet of it, she turned and ran. Dog love from afar.

daredevil

Daredevil tried out his new toys today. E's been eyeing a skateboard for while and I thought the scooter would be cool when we go places but can't take the bike along. Just to be safe, I decked him out in pads on every joint I could find at Target.

Daredevil videos below:

grace art camp

E spent a week at Grace Art Camp - it was SO fabulous! The theme this year was Scandinavian folktales - which as perfect for my little Scandi boy. E had some lasting doubts about his ability to create art. Part of his personality is wanting to do something really well right away. Writing has been a challenge because he wants to do it perfectly the first time. It's similar with creating - he wants it to look just so. I can already tell his week at art camp has given him tons of creative confidence.
This week he initiated creating a mouse house to put out in the yard. He gathered up bark and wood shavings. Then he asked his cousin Kallie (visiting for the week) to make a sign-up sheet on his blackboard for other kids to take a class from him in mouse house building. They hung out on the front steps for about an hour and got our dear next door neighbor to sign up. It was very sweet.
We went out for celebratory gelato about his camp celebration. You can see the camp t-shirt, flower crown and necklace - all things he made during his week at camp. He can also sing Mary Had a Little Lamb in Finnish!

September book group reads

Fiction
Diamond Willow (Frost)
Madapple (Meldrum)
Keeping Score (Park)
Trouble (Schmidt)

Nonfiction
Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West (Fleischman)


Depending on when the library gets these . . .
The Hunger Games (Collins)
The Porcupine Year (Erdrich)
Brooklyn Bridge (Hesse)
My One Hundred Adventures (Horvath)
Knife of Never Letting Go (Ness)
Wonder Bear (Nyeu)
Impossible (Werlin)

housekeeper, housekeeper, where art thou?

Housekeeper drama continues. She came and cleaned the hell out of the house last week so I was sure we were back on track . . .
Yesterday, while we were at work, she came over, took the check, and left. No cleaning, no note, no voicemail.

wtf?

Currently emailing EVERYONE in the hood to interview for someone new.

blackberry baby

I wrangled the family into blackberry picking with me. What a haul we made. I need to stop dreaming and start making:

• bella cocktails
• blackberry peach cobbler
• blackberry cornmeal cake
  
  

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!