Happy Valentine's Day

Baking

I love to bake!
I have never been a big fan of cooking, but baking takes on a whole different experience. It is usually done with joy, and less out of necessity. I love that baking gives me a sense of accomplishment. I get to start something and see it finished all the way through. I also love to see other people find joy in what I serve. When someone smiles and says they like it... it validates me in a way that I crave during my daily clean-up of trains, messy plates, spills, and bed making. I cannot bake often or else it would ruin my kitchen and my work-out routines effectiveness. But, the bonus in baking is that I get to sleuth into blogs, books, and recipe boxes to find something that excites me. Once I have the urge, it is hard to stop me... and a friend of mine started a blog that completely inspires me to bake cupcakes! Lizzy is doing fantastic with her blog, and she told me to try out her Chocolate Cherry Cupcakes with Almond Buttercream. WOWIE! I may not be able to take the pictures that she does of her works of art, but I had to take a photo of it because I think I LOVE it!

I am trying to pass along my joy of baking to my kids, so we made some Father's Day cookies and I let them decorate them (most of them) and I think they were really enjoying it. I forgot to take pictures as they decorated, but here are their masterpieces.

Who's in town?

Not just Santa!!! But Lee and Sarah too!!
On Christmas day, they made it into town to open presents and spend the week with us!! It wasn't as warm here, so there first gifts were something warm to wear.

They give the BEST gifts around...look at that smile. He smiles just like that every time I give him permission to play on his Leapster.

I realized there were no pictures of me...so here is one for the record. I was present on Christmas day!

Christmas

Who doesn't love Christmas morning? The boys were excited to see that Santa ate their cookies and left them a note and presents! We had a full day of fun and were spoiled rotten!!
Here are just a few photos.

This picture was kinda precious to me because Uncle Emile/Dad is one cool cat if you ask me! He captured all of kids attention with a book when there were gifts to open, food to eat, and stories to tell!!!
What a wonderful Christmas!

These pictures don't belong on Christmas morning, but it was a highlight of my holiday! The primary children that I work with recreated the Nativity scene while singing a song. They were wonderful.. and they even had a baby to go along with it all.
(It wasn't my idea, and the credit belongs to my friend Robin who can pull these things together without even worrying about it!!!)

We made it just in time

Thank goodness we made it back in time to see the big man!!! The boys were so excited and made Santa laugh pretty hard when they started asking for guns and aircraft carriers that could "kill"!
To kill? Really... what about the sweet loving boys that want to play with shovels and trains?
At least everyone in the room was laughing and the photographer said that he hadn't seen Santa laugh that hard all year.

Feliz Navidad

We are headed home.

Our skin might look a little different and we might add a few vowels at the end our words but we are still the same gringos.

We'll see you soon!

Paradisio

We're just getting ready for the holidays.

We'll be ready for Santa soon.

To be Continued...

Pumpkin Smash from Jamba Juice.

Pumpkins. I normally don't spend a lot of time thinking about pumpkins, but this season with our trips to all the pumpkin patches, I am left with a few thoughts.

These gourd-like squashes are kind of annoying! They are massive to wrap your arms around, heavy, not always the most attractive, and somewhat rude with prickly stems. This is just what I think of the outside of them. On the inside they are totally disgusting. They are stringy and slimy and have lots of thin seeds that slip out of my hands when trying to grab them out. I know you can roast them, or plant them, but why? My boys won't even touch the insides. They make the most awefull faces at the sight of their guts.
But around Halloween, this useless gourd-like squash starts popping up in the most exciting places. Cookies, smoothies, pies, candies, and more! So, on my errand the other day, I saw a sign that seemed like it just might interest me. "Creamy Cool"... yes please.

I hopped in line at Jamba Juice and discovered something that MUST be shared! The flavor was.. pumpkiny, the sweetness was... rich, and the spices... made my palette come alive. I will be back for more. Have YOU tasted it? Did you like it? You should go get one... and tell me if you liked it as much as I did.
Enjoy!

Pumpkin patches

We've been to the pumpkin patch!

Here is what we saw...
2,000,000,000 acorns
765,000 pumpkins
13,832 hay bails
150 candied apples
23 baby chics
7 goats
2 pigs
1 train
Ok... we didn't just go to one, we went to as many as possible.
I thought I might help you out for next year

Here is a little more detail into where we found these things.. and mostly.. you can enjoy a few pictures.

1. Lee's Farms was fun because the baby chics, the hay slides, and the pigs! They were a little pricey, but what a fun place to just play ... and spend a few dollars.

2. Ryser's farm had a fun hay maze for little ones, and a fun swing set that my kids wouldn't get off of!

3. Fir Point Farms had a goat that climbed on top of a bridge and the boys sent food up via a pulley system. This was entertainment that lasted for.. hours!!! Then they discovered they had these bouncy horse things. Really? They went to bed tired after this one.

4. Baggensto's farm had these hay bails that left my children crawling with dust, dirt, and I'm sure a few mites of some kind or another. They were fun, and the view of those hills kept me singing and thinking I was Julie Andrews for a few moments!

5. Oregon Heritage Farms had this gigantic bounce house in the shape of an apple! We went when there was almost not one there.. so this was a fun afternoon!

6. The Flower Farmer had a super dark and scary pyramid out of hay! This might have traumatized the kids had it not been for the train that was going back and forth to the patch. We refused to pay for the train and just insisted the passengers were royalty to the kids. They wanted $20+ for the four of us to ride a grand total of 100 yards!

We made a few friends along the way, and loved all the sunshine that came out for us.

Here is Simon, Trenton and a new friend in the "Nut House"

The bouncing horses were a huge hit.. even with Emile and I. Good thing there were no pictures of us having a horse fight on these things.

Can't wait for next year!

Christmas

Looking at the mound of gifts only made me feel like we were so spoiled!!

We made birthday cakes for Christmas Eve and after we sang songs,
we dumped all our sprinkles in all the crevices.
The cakes, not so yummy... the sprinkles, PERFECT!

To top off the holiday it snowed!!! It was beautiful, and didn't last too long. The boys were crazy for the sled, our snowman, and they had fun building a snow cave with Emile.

Thanks Shonda for the OMSI pass! We couldn't wait to go see the DINOSAUR (said with a roar)! He was just as big as we imagined.