Clover and Eddies Wedding

 September 2013, we headed north to attend Clover and Eddie's 2 day wedding extravaganza. They held the ceremony and festivities on a cute little farm just north of Bellingham WA. Their theme was Circus like, with professional circus performers, a tent of lights, and even a french fry stand. Most of the guests stayed in tents assembled on a field full of grass, making it a weekend full of wonderful socializing activities.  

 Weston, my wonderfully curious-big hearted-helper son, LOVED the french fry stand. And the guy who ran it, River, thought it was awesome Wes wanted to get involved. Wes is a natural giver. Making these french fries for others, watching people enjoy what he made, was priceless. I kid you not, Wes made french fries till the last potato was gone. He would go around the crowd asking people, "Can I make some fries for you?" and when he found a customer, he would race back to make it for them. Ask Wes what the best part of the weekend was, hands down, it was making fries.

 Whats nice about being with lots of people? It's the variety of friends and cousins to play with. And, the aunties who give free wagon rides.

 Nothing like an outdoor movie, especially when its The Princess Bride. My favorite is hearing people mimic the voices, and repeat the famous quotes along with the movie. "Inconceivable!" and "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, now prepare to die."

 ...love is in the air

 What a beautiful day for a wedding. And the big red barn, that was gorgeous.

 Eddie made their arbor. It was beautifully decorated with big vibrant flowers.

 Wouldn't be a circus without the face painting, right? Love my little Timmy the tiger.

 And no wedding is complete without some death defying tricks to terrify the audience. See that crate full of eggs under the guy on the table? Yeah, that's what he was trying not to break. Forget about the board full of nails on his chest, and the two people who are about to stand on it, that's cake, pffft.

And now for a hair raising experience, lets put the bride an groom in the middle of some flame trowing jugglers. Whew, that was crazy close! So much fun! The people were great, the food was outstanding, and the entertainment priceless. We ended the night with a large bonfire and dancing to some awesome music provided by the DJ. We loved it all, and thank Clover an Eddie for letting us take part on their journey as Mr an Mrs Happily Ever After.

Tim's 9th Birthday Party! The Crood's Theme

Like my saber tooth tiger? It took me a while to figure out what kind of cake I was gonna make for Tim. I saw a step by step plan for a shark head cake and thought I could take those ideas and convert it into the Crood's saber tooth tiger. He is 3D. Hard to tell in the picture, but his mouth is wide open, =) I also spent the night before, sowing leopard and zebra print bandannas for the teams. Hahahha, made me feel so domestic.

This group was a hard one to please. We had lots of games planned, but some didn't want to participate, or were not great in supporting their teammates. So, we played, but it was more of a free for all then organized games. We just rolled with it, and all was good.

 They went for the food challenges, well, all accept for one who told me, "I don't like gummy worms." Wow, that was a first for me. Never met a kid who doesn't like gummy worms topped with whip cream!

Tim loved his cake. He was proud of me, =) Even though this party didn't go as smooth as I had planned, we all had a great time. Tim made out like a bandit. 9 Lego sets, huge Nerf gun, books, and almost $100 in cash! He deserved it though. I am proud of you Tim, you are a fabulous kid!

Weston's 10th Birthday! Survivor Theme

 What a great group of kids! This was one of the best birthday parties James and I have done for the kids. We decided to throw Wes a party with a Survivor theme.  James put together challenges with elimination, although, even if you were eliminated, you still participated in every event. The above photo is our two teams getting ready to kick it off with a classic three legged race!

Tim loved the lemon relay race!

 In this challenge, I hid some squares of bubble gum in a mound of whipped cream.  With hands tied behind their backs, we had them search for the gum with their face. The first person to blow a bubble won immunity!

What would survivor be without the nasty food challenge?  On the menu we have smoked mussels, sardines, and canned spinach!

Jacobs face tells it all!

But it paid off! Jacob won the game, and was voted the best survivor player!

The best part...Wes telling me that was the BEST birthday party ever! Not only him, but all  the parents and kids thought so too. We played Kickball, 3 crazy food challenges, 2 different relay races, rubber band shooting, in your neighbors yard game, and ended in a fantastic scavenger hunt.  For the cake, I bought some candy rocks and worms, and tried to make it look like the worms where digging holes through out the  cake. Love you Wes! It's kids like you that make me love being a parent!

Apple Cider TIme!

 James' Grandpa lives way out in north Pasco area.  This is where all the different varieties of farms reside.  Luckily for us, grandpa lives next to a cherry and Golden Delicious apple orchard.  After the Apples are harvested, we go in and glean them to make apple cider. This is an all day event.  I think this year we did well over 40 jugs of cider. I volunteered to be in the kitchen with the help of Ian's mom to make the food for all the hard workers.  Lunch was butternut squash soup with coconut-ginger, and summer sausage potato soup with kale. Rissa made 6 loaves of delicious home made bread. There were no left overs, and we both got rave reviews. I then put together 3 large apple crisps with whip cream, and hot apple cider to top it off.  It was a fabulous day.  One I look forward to every year.

 I love it when they get the kids involved!

And here's our HAPPY BUNCH!

Halloween 2012

 So this year I got the kids dressed a little scary. Went to the good will and found some cute Halloween costumes.  I got brave too, and decided I could paint their faces.  The good part is, they all loved it.  This photo was taken just before we left to a cub scout meeting. Tim won the silver gourd award for his costume. He was pretty thrilled.

 Tim an I worked on this pumpkin.  I like the serious road rash this scary pumpkin has. Tim is adding his special touch.

 I decided to make a drag queen pumpkin. I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of it all lite up. Those eye lashes and lips were awesome!

 I think Ian's sail boat pumpkin is really cool. And James did a great job on his giant Aztec pumpkin carving.

What is not shown here is the caramel apples and home made caramel popcorn.  They were so good, I guess I didn't get a chance to take pictures in between stuffing my face.

On Halloween we got to share this event with the neighbors who through a large get together at their home.  We had a fabulous potluck. Afterwards husbands took the kids trick-r-treating while the wives stayed and partied it up. When the kids returned, they set up all their candy and swapped amongst each other.  They say that's their favorite part. ...it was all my favorite

Paradise, Mt Rainier

We saved the best for last. There is a reason they call this part of the park Paradise. It is a well known hike where thousands come to take in its beauty. We are all looking a little rough as we hadn't taken a shower in 4 days, but who is looking at us? There is so much to see, I found myself often saying, "This is so amazing."  Mt Rainier from this tail is so huge, massive, majestic. If you only make it once to Rainier, this is the trail I recommend.

From one of the look outs, you can see Adams and Mt Saint Helen's.  It is such an awesome experience.  We did a little over 4 miles this day, and there were no complaints. 

Gotta take the time to play in the snow.

Love the waterfall off to the left of the picture on the mountain.  The glaciers were huge and mesmerizing.


The fields of flowers made it feel like you were in a story book. Like these 3 puffy cream colored flowers below.  We all called them mini Truffala trees from the Dr. Seuss book The Lorax.  Oh to be a honey bee in these fields. Pure heaven.

 See those cute little kids on the trail.  Yep, those are mine, =)

The trail ended with this beautiful waterfall.  Perfect way to end such a glorious experience.  I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to have experienced this with the ones I love the most. And even though I was sore, dirty, and tired, I wouldn't have changed a thing. Looking forward to doing it all over again. Maybe in five years or so. Rowan will be 5 and I will have teenagers. Time sure does fly when your having fun. I'm definitely enjoying these precious moments.

Grove of the Patriarchs and Silver falls Mt. Rainier

This day we decided to give our kids a little break, hehee. We hiked two different trails for a total of 4.3 miles. Definitely a must see at Rainer. The Grove of the Patriarchs is a island of really big trees that the park has worked hard to preserve. All along the trail were places to stop and explore. We all enjoyed it.

This was one of the big trees that fell in the 70's and you can climb into the trunk from the root end making this awesome photo prop. The kids thought it was super cool. I thought the photo turned out awesome.

The park did an awesome job of making a wood bridge/path through the trees.

 I looked at Rowan who was squealing with glee and saw a little inch worm crawling across his head. Super cute. He also is sporting some mosquito bites. I have to say, the bugs were not that bad. In the 4 nights we were there we only put bug spray on once. This was one of those times we should have done it back at the trail head. Poor little guy. He survived though.

Weston the mighty explorer

Silver Falls. There are a series of little falls to see before you reach the big one. Just beautiful.