BrookLyn's First Birthday!
We were all pretty cozy in Mom's place, but it was fun to see most of the kiddos playing together. Of course, seeing sweet little BrookLyn dive into her cake was great, too!
Tia loves you, baby girl!
Harvest Time!
My garden may be small and unconventional, but I always enjoy the bounty and bizarreness that comes out of it! =}
I changed up what I planted this year and was happy with just about everything. We got respectable crops of peas, beans, cherry tomatoes, carrots, and bell peppers. My lettuce, scallions, and radishes tanked - but I was experimenting with them, so it wasn't a big surprise. My strawberries did much better, but they need more room! Our blackberries (yes, we actually like our blackberry bushes) went crazy! Houston got a gallon of berries just from the shoots that have invaded our oak tree out front!
Yes, those carrots are on a full size paper plate!
Go Hurricanes!
Joey enjoyed his second season of football and I only lost my voice once! He grumbles about all the practices (can't say I enjoy all the driving), but LOVES playing at the games! It doesn't even matter if they win or not, he's always grinning ear to ear after every game. (They did get fourth place and the sportsmanship award this season.) I think he also really enjoys seeing who's gonna come cheer him on each game. =}
Get 'em, Killer!
Joey Heads Off to Middle School!
It's a small magnet school (about 270 kids) that focuses on the performing arts. He's still playing bass in the orchestra and I still love to hear him practice! They offer a lot of programs that the junior highs in the district don't and the teachers were hand-picked. I haven't met one yet that I didn't think was great. The principal is wonderful and he seems really happy this year...he practically begged me to let him go to school when he was sick! Craziness!!
There goes my baby ~sniffle~
Pacific Beach - The Dry Run
Our first run to Pacific Beach didn't go exactly as planned (check out the whole story here), but we still had a great time! Which, of course, meant we needed to try again! We gathered most of the original group together with the glaring exception of Brandon and Kristie - they have a little one due in March (woo hoo!) and Kristie is pretty new to riding, so they got a pass this time.
We had great weather, great food, a great night at the Seagate (thanks Aubrey and Mel!), and even met our neighbors! It was so crazy! Another couple showed up on a bike and we were all hanging out together - come to find out they live a few blocks away from us! They're a great couple! We've had the chance to hang out with them since and they even sent over some green tomatoes for us - oh, yeah, baby!
This is going to be a frequent destination!
Time with the Austins
We drove down to see the rest of the local Austin clan in Oregon for Rhiannon's 2nd birthday. Kristie always throws such great parties for the kiddos and it was great to have some time to talk with Tom and Debbie. I also love seeing my boys playing so easily with cousins they rarely see! Rhiannon has gotten so big since we saw her last, but she seemed to warm up to us pretty quickly. She's a beautiful little girl!
The theme this time was "Dog Pound" and Kristie had fun games for the kids to play, fun treat bags, and a dog cake. The poor thing had a few issues, but was very cute and yummy!
Cake Wrecks!!
My friend Julie got me hooked on Cake Wrecks. It's a hilarious blog - you have to check it out!
I've never pre-ordered a book or been to a book signing, but I absolutely luuuurrve Cake Wrecks (as my amazing friend Tiff would say), so when the book came out and Jen (the author) was coming to Seattle, I was all over it!
I spent the night before making my wreckplica (check out the original!) for the contest and we rode Sylvia up to Seattle the next night for the signing. (I even wore my Cake Wrecks apron to the signing and, yes, I know I'm a dork!) Houston doesn't enjoy crowds, but he was great while we watched a slide show/Q&A with Jen and her husband, John, waited for the cupcake wrecks to be judged, had yummy cake, and waited in a loooong line to have my book (& apron) autographed. He's the best!
My entry didn't fare too well after 90 miles on the motorcycle,
but it was one of her favorite entries and even made her blog!
Add all of this fun to craziness at work, kicking off our MOPS year, volunteering with the PTO, church stuff, and regular life...it was a little busy!
So now that I've run a marathon blog to cover the month of September - I'm only a month and a half behind! =}
1 comment:
Wow! that was exhausting. but it's what I do to catch up too. I am jealous of your garden bounty. We got one 3 inch zucchini and, well lots of lettuce. but for everything we planted it really wasn't very productive.
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