Great Mail Days

In today's mail....(drum roll please)...Tyler's new scooter! It's quite a big deal, because it's his reward for finally becoming a big boy and ditching those diapers! His friend that lives up the street has a pink scooter and Tyler has been envious of hers for a while now. The mailman brought it to our door this morning, and of course we had to set it up immediately, so Tyler could ride it right away. The assembly should have been so simple...it was just a matter of attaching the base of the scooter to the handlebars, using a clamp and bolt. But leave it up to me, to take...uhhh, let's just say, a while to put it together!

Yesterday, a surprise package came for Tyler from Grandma...a brand new book. How cool is that! In the Night Kitchen...I remember that book from when I was a kid. But, uhhh, Rick has never heard of it! How is that possible!! Anyway, we had to read it as soon as it came out of the box and Tyler loved it. We'll have to slide this one right into our nighttime reading rotation.

Keeping Up With The Joneses...

and by Joneses, I mean everyone else in our development. We have been living here for over a year, but we have been slow to decorate/liven up the exterior of our house. Our cement patio...well, not so much patio, but walkway or entrance to the house is kind of large and looks really plain with nothing on it. Almost everyone else in our development has some sort of patio furniture, and now we will fit in a little better, as we picked up a set yesterday. It's a converstion set that includes a love seat, two chairs, and a coffee table (we haven't set that part up yet). We also bought an outdoor rug that matches the set...it was a really great deal, we got it on clearance.


Now, all we need are some flowers or something to brighten it up a bit.

Say It Aint So

I can't believe 6 weeks have come and gone by so quickly. This is the last week of the Summer Art Van program and now we'll have to wait until next year for the program to start up again. I tried telling Tyler that this is the last Tuesday art in the park for the rest of the summer, but he didn't want to believe me. The family night art van will still be going to Franklin park on Thursday nights for 3 more weeks, so maybe we'll try to catch some of those. Anyway, the project for today was called Climate Zone Collage...Tyler made a picture of the ocean. He glued brown sand on the page and blue sand to make ocean waves. He cut out fish using orange craft foam and a star fish out of white craft foam.


Rick came with us to the park because he and Tyler both had appointments to see the dentist this morning, which is right across the street from the park. Tyler has grown up so much in the past year, he is such a big boy now! Last time he came to see the dentist, he cried...but not today! He got to wear cool glasses, have his teeth polished, and even got a goodie bag with a brand new toothbrush. He was super excited because the dentist told him that his teeth were A-Okay!

It tastes like you.....semillas!

We just finished up with dinner; I made a ham and cheese quiche based on a recipe I found on the allrecipes website. I ended up adding broccoli, an extra egg, and a little bit more milk than the recipe called for. As a side dish, I served some hashbrown potatoes and slices of melon.

I must have had a bit of a brain lapse last week when I was preparing my meal plan/grocery shopping list for the week. This morning I looked at my meal plan to see what I was making for dinner, and I realized that I had forgotten to buy several ingredients I needed. Not so much that I forgot to buy them, but that I forgot to put them on my shopping list in the first place! So, I had to make a special trip to the grocery store today, which I try to avoid. However, it did give me an excuse to get my hair cut while I was out.

Tyler is so funny, he is such a dork! He is currently mindlessly "singing" bits of a song by Fallout Boy. The lyrics go, "Thanks, for the memories.....It tastes like you, but sweeter". Tyler's version goes a little something like this..."Thanks, for the memories....It tastes like you semillas (spanish for seeds)". Oh, he makes me laugh!

The UPS man came by this evening and brought me some much awaited scrapbooking paper that I won on Ebay. It was the slowest shipping on the planet (two weeks before it even shipped), but so worth the wait. It was BasicGrey paper that usually sells for .75 cents a sheet or more, and I got it all for 1/3 of its retail value! Yeah, I just love a good bargain.

My Sunday Finds

You know me, just the typical Sunday grocery shopping today...I really should think about changing it to Monday though, when the stores aren't such a madhouse! Now that Rick has Sundays off, he keeps trying to crash my grocery shopping, adding random stuff to the cart...doesn't he know I work off of a list?

We made a detour to Michael's because they have a super good deal on Cricut cartridges this week, and I am such a sucker for a good deal! I got the Going Places cartridge, which should come in handy on vacation scrapbooking pages. Speaking of good deals, we also stopped at Costco today and I stopped in mid-step when I saw stacks and rows of Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks...all for $9.99. I couldn't take it, it's impossible for me to pass up a new Gooseberry Patch Cookbook when it is less than $10.00.

Well, it's just about time for me to go and get dinner started. We are having Bruschetta Chicken, which is grilled chicken breasts topped with tomato, basil, and mozzarella cheese. I picked up some corn on the cob at the grocery store today, so we'll have that as a side dish.

Coolin' Off

We spent the afternoon at the public pool today...Tyler LOVED it!! They have a pretty good size toddler pool that is only 1 1/2 ft deep, so it is just perfect for Tyler. Too bad, he didn't want to stay in it! The bigger pool is 5 - 5 1/2 ft deep and that is where we ended up spending most of our time. They also have a giant slide that we went down a countless number of times...Tyler couldn't get enough of that! Maybe next year we will have to look into getting him started on swimming lessons. After getting out of the pool, we went to the old fashioned soda shop next door and got some ice cream cones...mountain huckleberry for me and chocolate/mint chocolate chip for the boys.



We are about to head out now to go to dinner at a co-worker's house....BBQ, sounds yummy! We are bringing dessert...brownies and chocolate chip cookies. We didn't have time to make anything from scratch, so we whipped up some Marie Callender's instant mixes and baked them up.

Movie in the Park

We were so excited that the movie in the park program finally started up again for this year....it runs for about a month, showing two movies per week. The program is put on by Yakima Allied Arts, the same group that does the Art in the Park. The best part is that it is FREE...they just request a donation of canned food. The movie last night was The Bee Movie and Tyler and I both enjoyed it. We brought blankets, pillows and some microwave popcorn that we popped up ahead of time. The ants must have enjoyed the popcorn too, I ended up bring some home with us in our bag...it was so dark, I didn't even know they were there! The next movie will be The Neverending Story, but I don't plan on attending that one...I never did like that flying dog thing.

No really, I'm not pretending...

...I really do scrapbook. Lately, I've been feeling that my intake of new scrapbooking supplies has been much higher than my output of pages, cards, etc. So, with a guilty conscious I headed up to my scrapbooking room with the determination to get something done and here is the result...a page about a recent trip to the Farmer's Market.

Gasp! Do my eyes deceive me?

Not one, but two zucchini growing in my garden! Finally....I was starting to feel bad after seeing mountains of zucchini and squash for sale at the Farmer's Market last Sunday! Tyler and I came home and begged our zucchini plants with cherries on top to please grow something (I think that's what did the trick). We love eating sliced, sauteed zucchini with dinner, but hopefully I can grow enough to make a loaf of zucchini bread, or two. Mmmmm, the anticipation!

My banana peppers are doing great....the irony is that I don't even know what these are for or what to do with them. Rick grabbed them and put them in our basket back when we were buying vegetables to plant in the garden.

A few bell peppers...not quite big enough to stuff, but still usable.

Oh, how my basil plants runneth over...now please, I'm desperate...I need some recipes!!

Out on the town

Today, Tyler and I went to the library and borrowed some new books to read. We got a book called "Eight Animals Play Ball", which incorporates Spanish words into the story. There is another book by the same author called "Eight Animals on the Town", which we checked out before and really enjoyed. It's great because we both learn new Spanish words with the repetition of reading the book over and over again. From the last book we learned the word "Semillas", which is the Spanish word for seeds...now Tyler is always asking Max and Marceau if they are hungry for semillas! Hopefully next year I can get Tyler started on the summer reading program at the library. I just know he'll be excited to keep track of all the books we read, putting stickers on a chart, getting prizes and stuff like that.

Scrapbook Central, the local scrapbooking store is just up the street from the library, so a trip to the library usually also means a trip to Scrapbook Central. We try to go on Wednesdays because they always have a free make and take on that day...today it was a really cute card. The owner had a good sale going on, so I also bought a few new sheets of paper and a few cuts of ribbon.

It's movie night...yeah, man!

Yesterday, Tyler got a new movie in the mail from his papa...the Jungle Book 2. Soooo, of course we had to hurry up and schedule movie night. While we were out today, we picked up some popcorn for the occasion. I'm usually not much of a fan of those straight to video sequels, but I have to admit, this one was kind of cute. The casting was great...John Goodman as the voice of Baloo (who knew, he has the perfect Baloo voice), Haley Joel Osment as Mowgli, and Jim Cummings (also the voice of Winnie the Pooh/Tigger) as Kaa the snake. The movie was pretty short...only 72 minutes, but that's good because Tyler's attention span doesn't last forever. I think I might actually like this movie better than the original because it is a little more up to date, but it still incorporated several of the original songs like "I Wanna Be Like You" and "The Bare Necessities".

Garden stakes and blueberry waffles

Another Tuesday, another day at the park. Today, Tyler and I worked on the craft project together because it used craft foam and that can be some tricky stuff to cut. We made a garden stake and in case you can't tell, those circles are red, green and orange tomatoes. The weather is really nice today...a little windy, but only in the low 80's so far.

I bought some fresh blueberries at the Farmer's Market on Sunday even though I still had around a 1/3 of a pint left over from last weeks grocery shopping. I even bought a new watermelon at the store even though we still had some at home. Tyler told me that we only had a little left and he didn't want to run out. At any rate, the fruit in the house was starting to gang up on us and I needed to use some of it up. I really wanted to make banana blueberry waffles so that I could kill two birds with one stone, but I couldn't find a recipe. So, I settled for just blueberry waffles. Boy, what a nightmare!!! Not as easy to make as I was hoping. The blueberries burst as soon as I closed the lid and started to burn onto the waffle maker. After the first batch of waffles, it really started to smell like burnt toast in the kitchen! After about 4 rounds of this, I had one crazy, messy burnt up waffle maker, and man did it take me a long time to clean it up. But, thankfully the waffles still came out tasty.

What's going on here....surgery or landscaping?

Nothing too exciting going on for me today...just my usual Sunday grocery shopping, random errands and household chores. This morning Tyler and I went to the farmer's market and they are celebrating the 10 year anniversary this weekend, so there was a big to-do. There was a ton of people there...it was crazy, I've never seen so many people there before! We got a ton of stuff...kettle corn, corn on the cob, green beans, zucchini, rainier cherries, and some blueberries. They were even giving out free pieces of cake and ice cream and Tyler got a free reading book from one of the booths. Apparently, I'm the only bad farmer :( My zucchini plants are not producing anything and all my pepper plants are really small....even my tomatoes are kind of small. Oh well, it's probably my fault for planting the plants so close together in the first place!

Rick stayed home today to work on the sprinkler system in the back yard. Three neighbors across the street had their yards landscaped last week and now we are one of the few remaining houses with unfinished backyards. I think that motivated Rick to make some progress on this ongoing weekend project. So, uhhh....what's with the gloves?

Here's a look at my garden today...a bunch of overcrowded tomato plants, some miniature pepper plants, and a couple of zucchini duds!

Thursday Night at Franklin Park

Tyler and I went over to Franklin Park tonight, which is apparently quite a big deal on Thursday nights...we had never been before. They have the free concert in the park, the family night art in the park, and free swim all going on at the same time. The park is also right next door to a middle school, so there is also a really nice track and tennis courts and things like that.

Here is our art project that we did tonight...Tyler and I worked on it together. It's a collage using pictues cut out of magazines. After we finished the art project, we went over to the pool for the evening session which was from 7:15 - 9:00 p.m. We got in line right as they were letting people in, but the line was so long and the pool capacity is kind of small, so unfortunatley, we didn't get to swim. Tyler was sad about that...we had been looking forward to going for a couple of days now. At least they had so much other stuff going on tonight...he played on the playground for a little while and then ran some laps on the track.

Here is the track, and you can see the middle school in the background...
Cheeeeese....Tyler ran a good mile on the track....4 times around and then some. He fell on his first lap and skinned his knees, but that didn't stop him from "racing" with the other people on the track.

Some recent pages

Here are some scrapbook pages that I finished recently...they are of our trip to Portland.


I think Susan will appreciate this and please excuse the fact that I sound like a 3 year old when I say...see that pagoda at the bottom of the page...I stamped and embossed it all by myself with no help! Doesn't that sound like something Tyler would say? Anyway, I was so excited that I was finally able to emboss...it wasn't that hard after all (with the right embossing powder, that is).

Just another Tuesday afternoon...

Tyler and I hit the park early this morning, so we could do the art project before it started getting too hot. The craft today was a wind sock....Tyler decorated a large piece of construction paper and one of the instructors helped him staple it together and add a string to hang it by and some curly ribbon on the bottom. We are already 4 weeks into the Art Van program, with only 2 more weeks to go....Yikes, I can't believe it'll be over soon! Tyler always has so much fun!

I did my part in stimulating the economy today...I stopped at Joann's, just to take a peek...you know how it is... and look at what I came back with! I used a coupon and got a new cookbook at 40% off and a border punch...also 40% off. Then I got the whole series of the new clear mini alphabet stamps...at least they were only $1 each.

Fresh out of the oven... 4 mini coconut loaves. I finally got around to baking a recipe that I got while attending the Taste of Home Cooking School earlier in the spring. I haven't tasted them yet, but they sure look good! Here is a link to the recipe if anyone is interested.

Weekend Fun

I was a little late this year baking my festive red, white and blue dessert. I had wanted to make some cookies using red, white and blue M&M's, but I was never able to find any at the store. So, we settled for cake instead. We made one of those funfetti cakes that uses red and blue sprinkles that are baked in with the cake. We frosted it with vanilla frosting and topped with more red, white and blue sprinkles. Of course, Tyler loves to help out in the kitchen whenever he gets a chance. Especially when he gets to try out his new Diego apron that his Grandma sent him in the mail.
With a little inspiration from the Day out with Thomas, we came home and the boys spent the majority of the weekend building this massive train track. It takes up most of the floor space next to the table in our formal dining room. It's too bad we can't really find a good place to set up a track permanently...it's going to be sad to see all this hard work be put back in the box!

Rick + planned event involving prepaid tickets = disaster

We had tickets for Friday (yesterday) for the Day out with Thomas in Snoqualmie and the Go Diego Go Live show in Seattle, all for one jam-packed, action filled day. I know, ambitious day for a toddler, huh? This is what was supposed to happen...Rick was working in Colorado last week and had a flight home Thursday night. We were going to leave early Friday morning and drive to Snoqualmie because our train ride was scheduled for 12:45 p.m and you were supposed to arrive an hour early. This is what really happened....Rick missed his flight home on Thursday night and couldn't get another flight out until Friday morning, which put him in Yakima at 11:45 a.m. He had to stay in the airport overnight and got very little sleep. So....Tyler and I went ahead with the schedule and left early Friday morning without Rick. Just as we were arriving at Snoqualmie, Rick was finally home. He had to take a cab home from the airport, but didn't have enough cash to pay. What else, huh? Then he had to drive a separate car and meet up with us around 3:00 in the afternoon. What a mess!!! Tyler didn't notice though...he had a great time!

Here is Thomas the Train in all his glory....
Me and Tyler aboard Thomas...
Check out that tatoo!!
Tyler and Baby Jaguar...oops, I mean Daddy at the Go, Diego Go Live Show...

Wednesday Art and other random stuff

We are planning on taking a trip to Canada in August so we've been trying to get together all the necessary paperwork to get our passports started. We scrounged up our birth certificates and today Tyler and I went to Walgreens and had our passport pictures taken (who knew they did that!). Now all we have to do is fill out the applications and head over to the Post Office ASAP.

We went to the West Valley Park today to do the art project and boy was it hot outside!! It's about 95 degrees today...look at Tyler's poor little red face! We didn't stick around too much to play on the playground because the equipment was just too hot. The project today was texture rubbings. The kids put texture plates under their paper and rubbed with crayon until a design appeared. Then they cut shapes out of the texturized paper and glued them onto construction paper, making a scene. Tyler made a house, tree, sun/star, purple flower and a red bush. You can't really tell in the picture, but each object has it's own texture pattern.

Loose Lips Tyler strikes again!

Tyler told me that for my birthday, I would be helping him bake me a cake in the shape of a violin (don't ask me!?!) with pink frosting. He said that he would hide it in his closet because I would never find it there! Then he told me that I was getting 7 books!!! As much as I would love to think that I am really getting 7 books, I have to remember the source....lately Tyler has been telling tales that would make even Pinocchio proud! He is at that stage though, where he is completely unable to keep a secret. He even told Rick what he was getting for his birthday.

It's Tuesday today and usually we go do the Art in the Park, but I decided that this week we'd try a different park, so we'll go do the art thing tomorrow. Instead, we took took a trip to the library today and borrowed three new books to read at bedtime. At the library, they have a computer set up with games for the kids to use, so of course, that is usually how Tyler spends his time...on the computer.


It looks like the city is repaving the main street next to our house (I don't know why...it seemed perfectly fine to me) and they are now working on the section that intersects with the road we live on. So, they have a bunch of rock all over the road and traffic narrowed down to one lane. Grrr....it makes it hard to leave the house and go anywhere! There is only one way out, so it's not like we can take an alternate route to avoid the work zone...GRRR. Tyler and I plan on going out to the park tomorrow and then going to see WALL-E on Thursday.

Pool Time!

It actually wasn't that hot today, I just wanted to pull out Tyler's pool from the garage, clean it off and make sure it was good to go. I used Rick's air compressor to air up the pool...it was a lifesaver. Last year, we blew that thing up using our own hot air...and nearly fainted in the process. Anyway, the temperature today was in the high 80's, but it felt pretty hot after standing in the sun for a while. You know how kids are anyway, they'll jump into a pool of icy cold water without a hesitation!

This week, Rick will be working in Colorado...we'll go drop him off at the airport tomorrow. But when he comes back, we have big plans....we're going to go for a ride on Thomas the Train in Snoqualmie and then head to Seattle to catch the Go, Diego Go Live show! Jealous? Ooooh, we're excited!

Cherry Pickin'

Tis the season...it's U-pick cherries time at Barrett (the big red barn) Orchards here in Yakima. We weren't able to go last year and pick our own cherries and this years crop took a bit of a hit because of the earlier frost....but we still took a pretty good haul! Yummm...the cherries are so tasty, especially the Rainiers. We only picked Bing cherries, but we sampled some Rainiers and some chocolate covered cherries inside the barn. They have about 4 acres of cherry trees, but wouldn't you know it, we found the best trees, full of the ripest cherries right as we were getting ready to leave!! Our bucket was already too full!