Blueberry farm

Today's adventure destination was the blueberry farm on Sauvie Island with our dear friends Heather, Alex, and Tucker.  Heather and I like to consider it our summer berry picking tradition, except the last time we went I had no tag alongs and Tucker was in the baby sling!  Time flies.  

Aren't these two the sweetest and cutest "big kids"?  They took great care, shepherding my boys around the rows of berry bushes, trying to encourage berry picking more than eating.  A tough lesson for toddlers.  We may have some serious tummy aches around here tonight from the obscene volume consumed.  Everyone was pretty muddy, but we came home with plenty of giant Oregon blueberries for weekend pancakes.

Small town parade

We went to the Camas Days Parade last weekend and it was a lot of fun!  This small town parade was the perfect size for our first time parade goers.  Old fashioned fire engines (and new ones too), car clubs, clowns, dancing kids, horses, and soldiers were all on hand to entertain the crowd.  The parade participants threw lots of candy and toilet paper rolls (Georgia Pacific paper plant located in Camas), passed out political fliers, flags, and balloons.  Good old fashioned fun for a sunny Saturday morning!  

{this moment}

{this moment} - Joining Soulemama's Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  

Children's Literature

 Wally and I were reading one of the Olivia books the other day and came upon this page:

His unprompted response..."That's you, mom."  Pretty astute observation!

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{this moment} - Joining Soulemama's Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  

peas, please.

This post is about two weeks delayed due to the birthday festivities and general craziness of life with two toddlers.  Last night we actually ate the last of the fresh peas, prepared my favorite way.  A quick dunk into boiling water for 30-60 seconds, butter, salt and pepper, chopped chives and mint.  So good.  Although there has hardly been two days of sunshine here, I managed to harvest 30 plus pounds of sugar snap and shelling peas in my first year attempt.  (Feeling kinda proud!)

We had "Spring Thanksgiving" one night to celebrate the harvest and used as many local foods as possible.  Pastaworks fresh herb fettuccine, Juniper Grove Pyramid raw goat's milk cheese, shrimp, and our garden peas.  Garden salad greens and Grilled garden artichoke.  Didn't stay local on the wine, had to break open a a favorite Italian Chardonnay, Alois Lageder.  Matt was a huge fan of the whole dinner, but to be honest the pasta did not turn out as I had hoped.  Probably because I still think the peas, mint and butter just can't be improved upon.

The hands down winner of pea preparation this year has been the pickled sugar snap peas, from the Smitten Kitchen blog.  Everyone agrees, they are divine.  I'll probably have to plant more next year so that I will have enough to can and put away.  But the 8 pounds that went into the vinegar this year will be gone before making it to the Kerr jars.

In other pea news, Fritz is a pea shelling expert!  Wally watched Dinosaur Train (Fritz really could live without tv, Walter really could watch it all day if given the chance) while Fritz and I shelled peas for 45 minutes.  He was totally focused and determined.  Such a beautiful moment with my son.

{this moment}

{this moment} - Joining Soulemama's Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.  

Happy Birthday, Boys!

Monday night we had our first "real" birthday party for the boys.  It was a lot of fun to celebrate with our friends and family and a lot of work!  I hope Wally and Fritz know how much they are loved and cherished.  

Here is the run down of the night...

Decorations & Food:

I stayed up LATE the night before making birthday shirts, crowns, flag buntings, balloon sculpture, and cupcake flags.  With the exception of the felt, all of the fabric is from our family company, Connecting Threads.  For dinner we had grilled veggie salad, summer fruit salad, pasta salad with garden peas, artichoke hearts, and parmesan, pickled sugar snap peas, baguette sandwiches and sangria.  I was not motivated (nor did I have the time) to make my own cake.  This was the perfect excuse to have my very favorite confections from Saint Cupcake a wonderful cupcake bakery in Portland.  Yum, Yum, Yum!  

Guest List:

All of our best little (and big!) friends were here to celebrate with us!  Olivia, Lily, Henry, Ryan, Turner,  Jaylyn, Luke, Lillian, and Elizabeth.  They all brought one or both of their parents, of course!  We had Cassie, Uncle Adam, Uncle Steve, Grandmere, and Great Grandma Irene (still partying at 95!).  And we were so blessed by our Auntie Ali, who was on photog duty capturing beautiful pictures of the day with her new Nikon.  We were missing some other very important Aunties, Uncles, and Grandparents and thinking of them with lots of love.

Moments:

Our very favorite babysitter and friend, Cassie, entertaining the masses!

Parents with drinks, kiddos with bubbles; fun on the patio.

Sweet Grandmere teaching Cousin Ryan about bubbles. 

Future babysitter in training, neighbor Olivia.

Grand and Great Grandmothers.

The inevitable melt down.

Turning two, but still needs those fingers when tired.  

Walter's response when asked "What does your shirt say?":

"It says I'm two, almost three."  

Lovely Ali and Ryan.

A family photo, where cake trumps smiling and saying cheese.  

Dinner #2 after everyone had left, starving because they hadn't really eaten the first time, totally whipped up, and very late to bed.

  

Happy Birthday Dear Wally and Fritz, Happy Birthday to you!  

Late night preparations

Oh, such grand plans I have in my head for events.  Would I think to get things done ahead of time?  No, no, why not just stay up all night sewing, cooking, cleaning...  When will I learn?

I must press on in the preparations, because tomorrow evening I get the privilege of celebrating my two sweet sons' birthdays with family and friends.  What an amazing, life changing, awe inspiring gift I was given 2 and 3 years ago!

Wally and Fritz; I love you both SO, SO, SO much!  You make me a proud Mommy each day.