Sunset at the Zoo with Grammy Kris

Warm summer nights in Portland are PURE bliss....especially when they are at the zoo. This year, the zoo started these "Sunset at the Zoo" activities that proceed the Weds night concerts. It is awesome. Lots of stuff for the kids (face painting, puppet shows, bands throughout the exhibits). We took Grammy Kris and it was bliss....like one of those moments that you think you are exactly where you are meant to be in your life......until Maggie cried the whole way home as we had over-extended her bed time. Oopsies.

Fourth of July

This fourth of July was pretty much as good as it gets....perfect weather, BFF in town, my parents ended up making it, and spending the time at the beach. The parade was pretty rockin and Frances and Henry mastered the art of catching candy. Frances kept yelling "I'm open", with arms open for a catch. Maggie watched it all...quite intently....and plans to show her "A" game next year. For now, she liked the dogs in the parade the most.  Mark, my dad and I took H and F down to the beach for the fireworks while my mom stayed with a sleeping Maggie.  Henry made Papa throw the football about 100 times (he is worse than a golden retriever) and Frances was really excited....until the noise from the fireworks started. She said they were amazing and special, to plugging her ears, to falling asleep. I ended up carrying her home.  When we got home, Grandma asked how the firework were and she replied "good, and bad". Classic Frances. 

Baby Cuz....

Brookie and sweet Oscar spent time with us at the beach too....the kids and I am love.....he is seriously such an adorable little boy.  Brookie and I are already planting the seed in Maggie and Oscar's brains that they are soul mates.....we will see how it goes.

Beach Babes

After having to work a lot in the last month, I took off work and headed to the beach early with the kids. 100% worth it.

A whole new world...

I gave Maggie cow's milk for the first time...I was a bit nervous as the only thing she has ever had is breastmilk....I think she likes it. She cried when I tried to take the sippy cup away. Hilarious.

Marvelous Maggie is One!

My baby is one years old. I can't believe we will never have another baby in our household. I cannot believe she is already one. Wow. 


It is hard to summarize in words how magical I think Maggie is -- she has brought so much joy to our life and to our family. She has playful curiosity, a beautifully strong will, a tenderness and sweetness that I crave when I am away from her, a sparkle in her eye that elicits sheer joy in another, and she is just a wonderful little human being. She is the perfect youngest sibling -- treasuring the love she gets from her siblings...even if it sometimes is too rough...and she has the courage to explore and follow their lead. She is incredibly loving -- always willing to give you a hug or kiss if you ask. 


She makes me smile every day and she makes me thankful for the gift of her life, every single day. 

Maggie -- You Are Marvelous! Happy Birthday!!

Frances's Twins

My dad came over for Maggie's birthday and brought the American Girl doll presents that Grandma let Frances pick out for her birthday. At preschool, Frances's two best friends are boys...and they play "house" a lot...and Frances is the dad...and they are her babies. So, she picked twin boys who looked like them. Hilarious. I also thought it was hilarious to see Frances and her babies and sweet Oscar (Brookie's baby) with my dad...I think Oscar wins the cute contest by far.

Fathers Day 2012

If I didn't think Mark was a pretty phenomenal dad, he proved it in the days leading up to Father"s Day as I had a meeting back east and he took care of all three kids......by himself. It was the first time Maggie and I were apart and she had an ear infection, so she woke him up a LOT. When I got back, you could tell the kids had fun with their incredible dad.


We had a nice day. Mark got to sleep in and go for a run and then we had a BBQ with Auntie KK and Grandpa Gordon. YUMMY. We love when Auntie KK cooks. We have a "scoreboard" that we write out the activities for the day and today the kids wanted to write all the great things about dad. So cute. 

Family Party for Frances

You may be catching a slight hint that we are REALLY celebrating Frances's birthday.... a lot. Part of the reason is that I have a business trip on her actual birthday. SO....today, I took the day off and we had a "girls date". So fun. Then this afternoon we got to go to the bookstore (family tradition) and Henry insisted on using his gift card from his birthday to buy her a book -- I got teary eyed in Powells. We picked up ice cream cake on the way home, but then had a SERIOUS side trip to the pharmacy to get Maggie antibiotics (another ear infection), so her cake melted and became this hilarious pile of ice cream that Frances LOVED.  Martha Stewart I am not. 

Frances's Fourth Birthday Party

Since school gets out this week on Weds, we decided to have Frances's birthday party the Saturday beforehand. This is the first party Frances has ever had and she had a good time. ....a very good time. She loved jumping with her friends and making silly faces the entire afternoon. The party was typical Frances -- dragon and spiderman jumping house, monkey plates and napkins, and "sports cupcakes". The girl cracks me up.  I was too busy having fun myself to take pictures and then poor Maggie had a melt-down at the end because she was so tired. Her preschool friends are so sweet and Dan and Emily made a special trek from another birthday party to make it -- it meant a ton to us.