Happy Easter!

I hope that all of you are having a great Easter! We are taking it easy and keeping it simple today. They boys woke up to a few chocolate eggs scattered and hidden throughout the living room and a pile of goodies from us and Grandma Ricki. My mom (Gammy) left for Texas on April 5, for another stint with FEMA. She sent the boys' Easter stuff over before leaving so they got to open those goodies early.

This bunny lives in our backyard.

Stuff from Gammy.

Thanks for the movie Gammy!
By the way, Bolt is a GREAT movie.

Bakugan!
(Yeah, I don't know much about them either.)

Easter morning loot from the Easter Bunny and Grandma Ricki.
The "Easter Bunny" hid a few eggs in spots that were a bit more difficult for an 8 year old to find. I had fun watching the "Easter Bunny" hide them last night and fun watching the boys find them this morning.
Oliver's been asking for this one for quite a while now!
Noah got a ton of Bakugan stuff this morning. He is shocked and happy!
This boy can't seem to get enough cars and trucks.

Knowledge to the Test

For my birthday, Joel and I took a Sushi class at Sur LaTable. We finally went shopping for a few things today and put our knowledge to the test. I am so excited to be making sushi at home. After learning a few tricks and getting a few tips, we found out that making sushi really isn't that hard. The sushi rice is probably the most important item, from there the choices are endless and all up to you! For our first sushi session at home we kept it simple.

Sushi rice, high quality soy sauce, rice vinegar, Miran, wasabi paste, carrots, red bell peppers, avocado, cucumber, smoked salmon, nori and a rolling mat. After a couple of rolls we also made up a quick spicy sauce and added chopped cucumbers and tomatoes.

Nori splashed with a bit or Miran and sushi rice, a good start.

The filling, Joel decided to start with a bit of wasabi, cucumber, carrots, red pepper and salmon.

Roll tightly, we covered the mat with plastic wrap for easy clean up.

Delicious!

Then look at what happened! Noah asked if he could try making sushi. His first sushi roll was carrots and salmon.

Then he ate it, and he liked it! That's my boy!

Oliver made one too, he didn't try his but he had fun making it.

P.S. Be sure to check out our latest garden post.

Coming to an End

Grandma Ricki came in on March 12 to help me and to visit with her grand boys. Even though we didn't do much due to my recovery and the rain we still had a great time. I will have to say she did a stellar job of staying behind the camera BUT I really can't say much since I hardly come out from the behind the camera myself. I did manage to capture this quick shot before Noah ran out to the bus though. It will be hard to say goodbye later today, lets hope for another visit in the near future.

What could be more precious than
Grandma's special love?
She always seems to know the things
That we are fondest of.
She's always ready with a smile
Or a loving word of praise,
Her laughter always brightens up
The cloudiest of days...
She has an understanding heart
that encourages and cheers.
The love she gives so freely
Grows deeper with the years.
Her wisdom and devotion
are blessings from above-
Nothing could be more precious
than Grandma's special love.

Face Plant

I didn't blog about it but we had a little accident last week, long story short, Oliver burned his lips and tongue. Well, they were all healed and looking great again and exactly one week later he did this! He was out front playing with brother and the neighbor kids, he was running as fast as he could and then he tripped. He landed hard and on his face - splat! They were playing soccer in the street so when he went down, he went down on the asphalt and left a LOT of skin behind. He didn't want his picture taken so it was difficult to get a really good shot but he scratched his head (can't see it in the picture, it's just out of the frame), his nose (ouch!), his upper lip (that one bled a lot), his chin and his arms (didn't even notice the arms at first). He also managed to split that lower lip open and scrape his upper gums a little. I know he is a rough and tumble kind of kid but I could use a break. Bubble wrap anyone?

Lacamas Heritage Trail

There is this sign that I/we have driven by quite a few times in our 13 years of living in this area and I never once read it, until a couple weeks ago. It said, "Lacamas Heritage Trail" and that excited me. It is just minutes from our house and I am always looking for a new place to take the boys for a walk/hike. It turned out to be a great trail! We went yesterday for a walk in the beautiful and warm sunshine and, of course, I snapped lots of pictures...

The trail head and the path was wide and well manicured for the entire walk. You could walk, jog, bring your strollers or bikes.

The path follows Lacamas Creek so there are bridges along the path. This is one of the streams that we crossed over.

Off of another bridge we saw a pair of geese, they too were enjoying the sunshine.

I think this was the view from the same bridge we saw the geese from, if not, it's the next bridge up the trail.

The salamanders were aplenty and very easy to spot.

Grandma Ricki and Ollie enjoying the view.

The snakes were also out in full force. I'm sure the first truly warm days of the season brought them out in droves. Although it's a bit blurry, this was Oliver's favorite picture because you can see the snakes head. Can you see it? They were moving fast and I got lots of snake bodies in my pictures but this was the only face.

Oliver was practicing his shadow puppets. His doggie was barking!

Gadgets

I have limited space in my kitchen and really try hard not to have gadgets that I don't need. Over the past few years I've really cleaned out my cupboards and gave away a ton of stuff. However, we took a sushi class on Sunday for my birthday and during the break I found something that I HAD to have! My Grandma Murphy used to have this egg poacher and she would make me yummy poached eggs with it. I am not sure what happened to that poacher but I always wanted it. I've tried to make poached eggs in the simmering water with a bit of vinegar but it just wasn't the same. Joel asked if there was something there that I wanted for my birthday and I showed him these...

Flower shaped silicone egg poachers! Are they not adorable?
A little bit of butter, an egg and float them in simmering water.

Yummy and fun!

Cake Pops?

My sister, Stephanie and I all met at my mom's house on Saturday night to make cake pops. If you haven't heard of cake pops you NEED to check out Bakerella's blog and admire her creative handy work! Seriously, she does some seriously cute stuff and I now appreciate her talent even more! We messed stuff up, then we read the directions and got going a little bit better. We made lots of little mistakes but learned a lot. We also laughed a lot Saturday, scroll down and you'll see why....

This is what we were TRYING to make...
Click on this picture from Bakerella's site and it will take you to the post at her blog.

This little Shrek like bunny is very special (snorting with laughter)! The one ear had to be glued back on, his/her head is shaped like who knows what and look at that poor sad mouth!

This one is quite a bit better, a little too much glue for her sweet heart nose but I can overlook that!

This chick is cute in a, looks like he was wrapped with yellow candy gauze sort of way. And who knows what that poor chick did to deserve that goose egg of a bump on his head.
My sister did break her finger this weekend, maybe they were kindred spirits?

This one turned out pretty good though, peep-peep!
This little guy gives me hope for future attempts at cake pops.

(laughing hard now) Not really sure how to describe this poor wreck! Looks like Oliver when he has a cold and sneezes out a load of fun for me to clean. And lets not forget the massive crack up the side of this poor guy. Can you see why we laughed a lot? And we didn't even attempt to decorate the Easter eggs!

At least someone appreciates our sad attempt at cake pops.

Fungus Among Us!

While up at the garden I started to notice a lot of mushrooms and other fungus type things growing. I was having fun trying to find as many different types as I could then I realized that I could be documenting my personal treasure hunt. Here are my favorite pictures, yes I know that they are fungus but come on, give these "fun guys" a chance!

Garden and More

We went out to the garden plot on Saturday so that Joel could meet Chris and head out to get more fertilizer and also so the boys could see where we would be gardening this year. In addition, I wanted to show the boys and Grandma Ricki the great setup that Richard has out there - it's incredible and what I dream of when I am dreaming big!

Chris, Joel and Noah standing at the garden I almost got all of it in this picture. That big line of dirt leading out to them means that we now have running water all the way around the garden!

Richard also has some ponds on his property that he stocks with trout. We walked around them and even tried to feed them, but, as they say, the fish weren't biting that day. We'll have to get a fishing pole so the boys can fish some this summer.

Another one of the ponds and by the way, it was a beautiful day!

Just up from the ponds is a gazebo, outside the gazebo is this huge tree with a little rope swing.

Just behind the house is this huge play structure that the kids can play on while we garden. This would NOT fit in my backyard. I couldn't get it all in the picture from where I was standing. The boys had a great time checking it all out.

She Was Almost An April Fool

Today is my sister's birthday! I love her very much - Happy Birthday little sister! I've always been fascinated by the fact that her birthday is 4-2-1976 and mine is 4-6-1972 just swap the 2 and the 6. I hope you are having a great birthday today. Here is a little video from Noah, it started as just a practice goofy little video and we were going to something else later but I love what he says at the very end so you're stuck with this one. I also asked Oliver if he wanted to say happy birthday to you on video and he said, "I can't say happy birthday, my lips hurt."

No Memory Card?!?

We went to the train park this weekend. A quick trip between rain showers to get out of the house. I, of course, took my camera with me but when I got there realized that I had forgotten to put the memory card back into my camera. The really sad part is that I have TWO memory cards and did not have either of them! So I did what I had to do and stole Grandma Ricki's card our of her camera! Don't worry, I only kept it for a little while then gave it right back. Here are some pictures from that day...

Beautiful signs of spring!

I was talking with Ricki and she mentioned that there really aren't a lot of daffodils down in AZ. I can understand but I would certainly miss them.

This one looks like it is made of tissue paper.

Daddy helping Oliver look for ducks.

Boys walking down the path, we never get to lead the way.

Always happy to see the big freight trains.

This is from Ricki, I've been showing her the different settings on her camera and how they work. I think she is catching on quickly!

There is a tree at the entrance to the park that is perfect for perching the boys in and snapping a picture or two. I've done this so much that they just automatically go there now.

The Number-bet

I have tried for three years now to convince Oliver that things like A, B, C, X, Y, Z are the alphabet and indeed letters and not numbers. The kid is stubborn, however, and insists that they are all numbers! So here is a picture of the two of us practicing his "number-bet" and "numbers".
Oliver is learning to write his name. I had written his name on the upper half of this paper and he copied it, the best he could, down below.