Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Today was Daddy's birthday. Lon helped me wrap up Daddy's presents, he picked out most of them. As soon as they were wrapped, Lon wanted to unwrap them. He wanted to unwrap them NOW. He waited till Daddy came home and helped Daddy open his presents.

Lon picked out the Roman Playmobils. There is a Gladiator and Lion, and a Roman Chariot. These are toys for Daddy and Lon. Lon was very excited about them.

hohum, clothes.

Do you like the card I picked out for you Dad? It plays music. I like the cards that play music.

I wonder what is in here

Oh! Yea! Lanjager. Mommy and I went to the German Deli today, I got little ladybug chocolates. and a chocolate car. I like that place.

This is interesting, Dad. There are lots of little parts, but it looks like it will be very fun. Happy Birthday Daddy!

Evergreen State Fair

Today started out with nice weather. We went up to the Evergreen State Fair. 100 years of Fair Fun! One of the first things we saw was a giant sand sculpture. Very cool.

We watched some of the horse competition. That was fun, but none of my photos really turned out well.

Then we took Lon to the pony ride. That was the best spent money at the Fair.

After the pony ride it was time to get something to eat! Daddy got a smoked turkey leg that was really good, I shared some! Lon got his cob on the corn.

That was followed up by a blue bunny ice cream sandwich! And he ate all of that too!

Goats!

Lon remembered this from last year. He really wanted to make sure we knew he wanted to ride a tractor. He had lots of fun! We put his name in for the drawing of a new pedal tractor. Everyone think good thoughts!

Mommy got an onion burger and some onion rings. Lon liked them. Walla Walla Sweet Onion Rings. Yummy! It was starting to rain. Not a light drizzle, but real rain. No, we did not go home at this point.

We went to the petting zoo. On the way into the animal section, they have a place to help kids learn where food really comes from. The child picks up a basket, gets a fake egg from under a fabric chicken, "picks" an apple off the tree, milks a cow, then digs up a potato, and then sorts his basket (this *milk* stays in the bucket under the *cow*) into other baskets to go to the store. This is all Lon wanted to do for the longest time.

The animal part of the petting zoo. They moved the animals into their resting pens, as it was under a tin roof. I like this shot, reminds me of my sister's shirt getting eaten at the Alabama State Fair. Lon only got sniffed, his Curious George shirt is still intact.

The miniature horse is not so sure about this whole petting thing.

Petting the seven day old calves, Butch and Sundance.

Lon is telling Gracie the donkey, about his friend named Gracie and what a great party he missed. He really should have come.

Back to picking and sorting. He really did have alot of fun with that. Lon had a great time at the Evergreen State Fair.

It was a really fun weekend for all of us!

Birthday Party

Saturday we celebrated Mommy and Daddy's birthday. It was very fun!

Grandma Phis sent us a wonderful fruit basket (which is now 99% gone) The chocolate dipped strawberries went first! They were very good. Yes, that is a tray of baklava in front. I wanted some baklava, so I made it. I am glad I shared it with everyone.

Miss Victoria brought her parents. She and Lon played in the pool, it was in the 80s today! The slide into the pool is such a great idea. We just set up the little pool last night thinking it might not be warm enough for the big pool.

More of our spread. We had a DIY kabob bar. A tray of veggies, separate trays of beef, chicken and shrimp. Everyone was in charge of their own kabobs and they could put whatever they wanted on it and have as many as they wanted. As for other food, we had deviled eggs, potato salad, cucumber yogurt, veggies and ranch, my favorite black bean salad and our cupcakes. No one left hungry. Which is always part of my plan.

Baby Chaitanya! Lon really thinks he is a great little guy. And he is. We are so glad they could come!

Lon and Brian playing trains. Brian is getting so big! He is so cute!

All of Mommy's flowers! How nice is that? Very pretty!

Birthday Cupcakes

Today is my birthday! yes, I am still 26....

Tomorrow is the party celebrating both Lon's parent's birthdays. I did not want to make a cake. ( no one ever wants to cut the cakes I bake.) I made my favorite orange cake into cupcakes, and even used the orange curd on the top! Yummy.

These are Mark's cupcakes. Last year he wanted a spice cake, so I found one with cayenne pepper in the batter. A carmel frosting. These cupcakes kick. More on the celebrations as they continue!

Tiny Harvest

This is the harvest from our garden, I am hoping for more!

There are some green tomatoes....

Weekend In Westport

After our super fun time at Jump Planet, we went home, packed up the car, picked up Daddy and we were on our way to the beach!

This is the Westport Light. Yes, it is in the woods. 100 years ago the light was on the ocean, but with the building of the jetty, building up silt, the lighthouse is now a light in the woods.

Yes, it was over 100 degrees on our way down, but when we got to the beach it was foggy and just barely 60. We did not think the fog was promising.

The view from our hotel room.

Watching the 'lympics with Daddy in the hotel room. It was a small room, but it met our needs.

Some beauty shots of Westport. We woke up to still foggy conditions, but it was burning off. It looked like it will be a good day.

Walking with Dad.

Looking at the water. There were fisherman trying to get crab and one of them caught a baby shark. He showed Lon before he threw it back in.

We got the stroller to walk into town (it was not far). Lon got a doughnut, it was yummy. We looked at the community art show. There were some pretty nice things! Not much in fabric, alot of beads, and glass. We did not see anything we really wanted to take home, with the exception of a wooden lighthouse for the end of the driveway, but it was way too big to fit in the car. (Well, I did have a fleeting thought of leaving the stroller or having it in Lon's lap, but it was only a fleeting thought)

This was after Lon had his hot dog for lunch, not right after his doughnut. Looking at art booths is tough work!

After making the boys look at every single art booth, twice, we went to the beach. Lon was thrilled. We were there for over four hours. It was in the middle 60s with a breeze. Lon got some sun, Daddy got sunburned and even though Mommy forgot sunscreen on everyone, Mom still has no color.

This bucket of rocks is heavy. I think Lon will have a serious interest in geology. Rocks are very fun, and we had to take some home. Mommy was collecting rocks on the beach too. Lon found a discarded pringles can, and we filled that up with pretty little rocks.

Lon also finds digging holes very fun. Which it really is.

Lon got a hold of my camera and took this photo.

This beach stuff can be serious business.

A hug from Mom.

Digging with Dad!

I think I will keep digging!

Where did he go?

There he is! Yes, he is standing up in the hole.

After we were done at the beach, we went back, shook all the sand out of us and got ready to go get something to eat. We saw a total of 5 deer on the way to the restaurant.

We went to the Original House of Pizza for dinner. It was not bad pizza. Lon had fun. (Mommy and Daddy are looking forward to Illianos pizza in CT) Lon did not stay up to watch the 'lympics. He was very tired.

The next morning, Sunday, we got everything packed up and went to breakfast at the Fogcutter, across from the lighthouse of the woods. Breakfast was good. Lon had a pancake with ears!

I am looking for the beach.

Yeah! We found it!

The tide was going out, we found a starfish. We also found lots more rocks.

It was still foggy. Lon was on the beach having fun.

I am bringing you a rock Mom! Did you see the waves almost catch me? Lon was not so sure that going back home was a good idea. He wanted to stay at the beach. Once we told him he had 5 minutes left, he was good. We had fun in Westport. The main thing is that Lon got to spend time at the beach.