April 25th weekend

What was predicted to be a nice weekend, was not. It wasn't (really) sunny and it wasn't warm. Instead, it rained on and off and never got nice enough for a short-sleeve. So much for the weather reports on the news...

Saturday, as always, started off with a swimming lesson. All the kids are making quite a progress. Gabe was perfecting swimming on his back. Nice form!
The rest of the day was spent cleaning, eating, then watching TV. Why not, it was a perfect weather for it...

On Sunday we had a few options for a family fun event and chose a trip to the Oregon Convention Center for a 2009 Crafts Fair. Local metal, wood, glass, pottery, bead & textile experts had things to sell. I like to attend those for inspiration. Kids like anything hands-on, as was the case with a pottery kids' corner.

Gabe made a monster, Larissa made a birthday cake and a person, and Jon just liked the feeling of a knife cutting through a soft clay.

I didn't buy anything at the show (I am so proud of me!). Mostly because everything was extremely expensive by my budget... but I got a few ideas of what I might make next ;-)

April 18th weekend

I a little behind on my weekly posting and not much to talk about this weekend, since we are almost in the beginning of a next one, I will just list things I learned this week:


1. Darker shades of face paint do not wash off easily

2. Grownup's party + alcohol = a lot of chaos. Stay clear of people with knives!

3. Bugs are ugly when you look at them really close

Diabetes Supplies Art

Diabetes Supplies Art, originally uploaded by Manny Hernandez.

Came across this video. It uses one of my pictures :-)
Enjoy!

Easter 2009

An Easter weekend packed with action. Looking for plastic eggs in the swimming pool, coloring eggs at home and eating (Rose's) sugar cookies!

On Saturday I took an early bike ride, then kids did their Egg Hunt at the pool. It was the first time we did something like this and we all had lots of fun.
Jon's age group went in first in the shallow end of the kiddy pool. We set the limit (as requested by the pool crew) to 10 eggs and once he collected that many, he just had a blast splashing around. That, until we were informed that he required an adult supervision in the pool at that age... Huh? Nothing mentioned in the registration. Oh, well, he was done swimming by that time anyway.

Gabe and Larissa were next. They learned all the lessons from Jon's group and repeatedly discussed their strategy. Too funny! Of course, once all the the kids were let in the water, all that went down the drain (pun intended).
As they were nearing their swim time, I asked them to come out and go "cash in" their prize tickets. What timing! Not a minute later, the pool is evacuated. Some poor boy lost his lunch (and possibly a number of recently consumed candies) in the pool. Gross!
Sunday was an extra wet Oregon day. I don't know if it stopped long enough for us to do anything outside.

No matter! Easter Bunny left kids some excellent sugar cookies, a Star Wars - The Clone Wars movie and a Disney karaoke game for XBox360. After enduring some off-key singing for about an hour, I insisted on the next activity. Egg coloring.

Once we finished coloring the eggs, we all sat down for a movie.

What a great weekend.

April 4th weekend

We knew this weekend will be packed with the outdoor activities, as soon as we heard that it will be sunny and possibly in the record high temps. And we were right!

I ventured out on a 12+ mile morning bike ride at the Sauvie Island on Saturday morning (while kids attended their swimming class). This was a training session for the upcoming Tour de Cure race, so I got to meet some of the fellow bikers. It was great! I only wish I was better prepared for the cold morning (we are talking ~35 degrees). I did end up with a sore throat and achy muscles the next day, but it's all gone now.

Later that day Gabe, Larissa and I went to a Junior Olympics boxing match. We saw a number of young fighters, some as young as 8 years old, going for the medal. I volunteered for the cleaning up afterwards and for taking pictures of the matches. That's where I learned that it is very tricky to take pictures from the stands of someone so small. The ropes kept getting on the way... (oh, and there is no flash photography allowed).
On Sunday Gabe and Tim went on a trail bike ride, which is roughly 10 miles. Gabe was hesitant to go at first, but had a great time.

The rest of us went to a Russian store and loaded up on European delicacies.

...and before we knew it, the weekend was gone...