A Very Circus Birthday

A few weeks ago our good friends (Monique and Chris) threw their daughter, Adeline, her second birthday party. The party had a circus theme, and the kids looked super cute in their costumes.  I tried to take a good range of pictures, but unfortunately I don't have one of the birthday girl (doh!).  And she looked really beautiful, too, trust me. 

I've had kid birthday parties on the brain lately - Hank's first birthday is coming up in just a few weeks.....we almost survived the first year!

Here's the circus birthday cake.

Our friend, Amanda, provided her face painting services.  Julian's getting a "Hank" tattoo in preparation for the real one he was getting (since gotten).

Hank (right) with his friend, Elsa.  Hank wore his costume, aka clown jammies.  We thought his polka-dot camouflage was pretty darn awesome.

Our friend, Manijeh, with her little strong man (Oren), getting another tattoo.

Check out this amazing strong man.

Hank thought Oren was pretty cool.

And boy, was he strong!

Now Hank's getting a tattoo, a mustache!

Here I am with Hank, and the mirrored shades befitting his awesome mustache.

Elsa with her dad, Jamey.

One more picture of us.  I can't get enough of those clown polka dot jammies.

Summer in the city

It's been a few weeks since my last post.  The summer's flying by, and it seems like there's a lot going on.  By the time Hank's in bed I only have an hour or so before I also have to go to bed, so it leaves little time to update my blog (or for anything else, like relaxing with some wine and catching up on my TV shows). 

We're currently off from work for a week of vacation (staycation), so I'm able to make this post while kind of watching the Today show and drinking coffee - heaven!

So I thought I'd do a catch-up post with some pics from the past few weeks, dating back to when we took our last week of vacation in July.  We had gone to Camp Sherman earlier in the week, then we had some friends over for a bbq, and had our garage sale. 

We had a lot of competition that weekend, so we had a pretty light turn-out for the sale, but Julian and I did sell over $200 worth of stuff.  We also set up a cupcake and lemonade stand so my sister (Emily) could make some money since she still, a year after her brain surgery, has no source of income.  She only made about $40'ish from the cupcakes & lemonade, but it's more than she had at the beginning of the day.

Here are some pics of our bbq:

Our good friends Jim, and Krystin

Jim and Krystin's daughter, Josie, in our backyard

Our (also) very good friends, Susan and Andy, with Hank

Susan with Emily

 Here are some garage sale pics:


All our crap piled up in back at the beginning of the day, ready to be hauled out front.

Here's our set up before the sale got started.

Our friend, and neighbor, Holly with her daughter Emma, stopped by for a visit.

Me (and Hank) with our friends Grant, Yumi and their daughter Meyu, came and bought some stuff.



Em with the boxing Balboa (aka Rocky) puppet.  She had to buy it from our other sister, Anne, before the sale even started.



Em with Scarlett (our niece) at the cupcake & lemonade stand.

Scarlett modeling the goods.

Our friend Amanda holding Hank after the sale was finally over.

  

"Glamping" at Camp Sherman

Julian, Hank and I went on our very first family vacation (just us three) a few weeks ago.  We spent three nights at Lake Creek Lodge (www.lakecreeklodge.com), which is in Camp Sherman.  Camp Sherman is a small area on the Metolius River in Central Oregon, located very close to Black Butte Lodge, about 8 miles west of Sisters, Oregon. 

Lake Creek Lodge is on "Lake Creek", a small creek that runs through the grounds.  There were a lot of mosquitoes, but the creek was really beautiful.  The lodge has a number of cabins for rent, which are all really nice.  Ours was one of the smallest, most basic ones and it still had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and a wrap-around porch.  On the ground they have a really nice outside swimming pool, a tennis court, a swingset, and a trout pond you can fish from.  There is also a main lodge with a recreation room, a big screen tv (there are no tv's in the cabins, although there is wi-fi) and a restaurant.  Most nights of the week they serve a fixed price dinner, which we did one of the nights we were there.  They usually serve it on their back deck, but eventhough the weather had been 95 degrees that day we had a thunder and hail storm that evening and they had to serve it in the dining room (crowded, but fun).

We explored Camp Sherman, including the Metolius and the Camp Sherman General Store.  We went into Sisters a few times, and also spent a day in Bend.  Of course, with a baby there wasn't a lot we could do other than sightseeing, but we still had a really nice time and would love to go back when Hank's a little older and we can do more with him.

Hank and I after swimming.

Julian swimming with Hank.

Here we are at the Camp Sherman General Store.

Here's a view of the Metolius behind Hank.

This was the hail from the crazy storm.

One of the bridges that runs through the Lodge grounds.

Hank and I swinging.  You can tell how much he loves it.

Our cabin at Lake Creek Lodge.

Camp Sherman is lousy with deer.

Me and little buddy at Drake Park in Bend (Deschutes in background).

The main lodge at Lake Creek Lodge.

Another view of our cabin, which is on the right.

Yard Sale - come one, come all!

Tomorrow (Saturday, July 14th), we'll have a yard sale from 9am-4pm at my house.  It'll be a big family sale (lots of stuff from several of my siblings too).  We'll be selling cupcakes and lemonade, too.

Here's the Craigslist ad, in case you are interested.....I'll post pics of the event in the next few weeks...it's sure to be fun, hope you can stop by!

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/gms/3137095111.html