Busy Saturday, Slow Sunday

It seems this family lives for the weekend. For us, Saturday was rockin!. Ranen had a trumpet lesson and Blake had her first swim class of the summer.


She is a goldfish, a beginner and the oldest in her class. This was a new pool for us and it was quite loud and busy. But Blake did great. I'm hoping she will gain more confidence with this class so we can put her into the next stage of classes. I would love to have a swimmer by next summer!

After we were done with the swim and trumpet lesson, we stuck around the neighborhood for the MLK parade. There seems to be a parade every weekend in Portland! But this parade had low riders...


...groups of kids performing step routines....


...and percussion groups...


We took Noro. It's funny how he gets more attention then our cute kids! We spent the rest of the day listening to Michael Jackson and teaching the kids to moon walk.

Here's blake's version :-)



Seriously folks...you can't help but smile!

Wool, Wheels and Balls

We've had a busy few days. So long in fact that I'm ready to zone out in front of the tube. But before I do...here is what we did!

Black Sheep Gathering:

On Saturday a few friends and I traveled to Eugene to attend a fiber festival.


I bought raw fiber and a spindle. We saw sheep, touched yarn and wool and overall had a great time.


You wouldn't think it, but knitters can get wild!

Sunday Parkways:
On Sunday miles of roads were closed in North Portland to promote bike riding in the city. We made a day out of the event. Chris volunteered to set up booths then later we rode from park to park checking out the activities. There was a cool bike obstacle course that ranen couldn't get enough of.


Awesome food. And even a circus area set up. Ranen was killer at the hulu hoop and chris wowed us with his juggling skills.


But the true star was Blake. On Wednesday night she asked if we could take her training wheels off. By Thursday night she was balancing while striding. By Sunday she could ride. She did relatively well considering. She did ride into a parked truck...but besides that! LOL. She was okay. She just needs more confidence that the brakes will work!



Last but not least...Trailer Trash:

I joined the softball team at work and tonight was the first game. I really don't know what I was thinking. They put me in the catchers spot. Luckily I didn't hit any batters. I did made contact with the ball so overall the blister and the jammed finger were worth it. It was fun, but man...do I need more practice!

Cirque Du Cycling and other fun.

Sorry it's been so long since I've last written.

The last two weeks have been difficult. Work stress has been following me home. Bad. I know.

But at least the kids and Chris have been keeping me busy. Constant motion keeps me from stopping long enough to think...which eventually leads to crying.

So yesterday the family checked out Laughing Planet's Cirque Du Cycling on Mississippi. This was our first so we didn't know what to expect. What we saw made us all smile.


The parade was awesome. So many cool one of a kind bikes!


People in fun costumes!


I want one of these....


The one section of the parade I wasn't prepared for was the last bit when about 100+ NAKED bike riders went past. I tried to cover Blake's eyes...but I realized it was a mute point. A snippet of the day's conversation:

B: Hey Ranen! Did you see all the nu-nu's? (giggle)
R: Yeah, some were even painted...did you see those? (giggle)

Later that day, as Chris and I were taking a nap, we were woken up to a puppet show staring these two characters.

Sadly, the orange M&M was attacked and killed by the sock monkey.

And Noro, well, he let this happen as long as we gave him a back scratch. And luckily for us, Chris found something that worked...