Pac NW Vacation - Day 2

Our second day of exploring the beautiful Pacific Northwest took place in downtown Portland. We had lunch at Jake's Grill (their clam chowder is delicious) and then headed to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science & Industry.) It's a neat place but there was really only one area that was geared toward kids K's age and it was really crowded. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy it though.

Little E with Bestie K at OMSI.

K at OMSI

E spent most of her time at OMSI observing everything in her Boba 2G Baby Carrier.

K is a budding geologist, just like Papa. (In fact, last night at dinner she put the two halves of her grape tomato back together and told us it was a geode and it was filled with sparkles.)

After OMSI we perused Powell's Bookstore - an independently owned bookstore that " fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books" and then headed to Voodoo Doughnuts. I've heard about this place not only from our besties but also from other blogs and I knew it was place I had to try. It gets real when it comes to doughnuts. I *LOVE* them. There was a fairly long line that wrapped around outside but it moved quickly. The ordering process reminded me a bit of a certain soup vendor from the Seinfeld show...

There are a ton of doughnuts to chose from and most of them are kinds you would never get from your run of the mill shop. Plus they come in a pretty pink box and as it plainly states, "Good things come in pink boxes." :)

Unfortunately I don't remember the names of any of our doughnuts but I can tell you the two I had were NOMS! The top left one that looks like it has fake poop on it was mine. It was a chocolate doughnut with pink marshmallow covered in coconut and then topped with peanut butter. I also had one of the chocolate iced ones with the two dots on it. I think it was called a Portland (?) and it's a lot like a Boston Cream Filled. A had the two topped with cereal. I can't remember who had the voodoo doll one. The blue one with sprinkles was for K but she didn't care for it so I think I ate that one too. Poor me... ;)

That night we went to a drive through Christmas light display. It was at a race track and it had tons of the large light displays. The most impressive ones were those that spanned the track...

(I like how you can see Bestie K in the side mirror)

They also did each of the 12 Days of Christmas and those were very neat as well.

"Keep Portland Weird" people!

Pac NW Vacation - Day 1

Back in November the JAKES took a vacation to Oregon and Washington; two incredibly beautiful states that I would highly recommend visiting as much as possible. While we were there we stayed with our best buddies and A's brother and his family. It was an awesome time and we're already looking forward to going back there this summer (yay free airline tickets!)

Our first full day there was Thanksgiving and our amazing friends did not fail to deliver! The meal was delicious and the atmosphere was very laid back. K discovered she loves turkey and that (and Apple Jacks) was all she wanted to eat our entire time there.

The next day we headed to the Hood River area to have lunch (nom pizza) and ride on The Polar Express.
The children were encouraged to wear their pajamas and they had a Letters To Santa station set up right when we walked in.

After receiving our special tickets we climbed aboard the top floor of the Observation Car.

It was really cool to have such a great view.

We got our tickets punched...

(E preferred to eat hers)

...had hot cocoa...

...and listened to a story while we waited for The Big Guy to board our train.

K told Santa what she wanted for Christmas (Princess Celestia from My Little Pony) while E played with her silver bell.

E watching Santa from the safety of a cozy snuggle.

Both girls had a wonderful time. There was definitely some magic in the air.

From Our Home to Yours

Merry Christmas to all...

...and to all a good night!

A Birthday Party Blast from the Past

I swear, one of these days I will finish going through all of the pictures from our recent vacations and get a blog posted about them. In the meantime, our baby E just turned 11 months and since I'll begin planning her birthday party as soon as Christmas is over, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at K's first birthday party.

The theme was Cupcake and I chose pink, white and brown for the colors. This is
the invitation I made. Obviously it's been edited to protect our superhero identities.

As is tradition, the birthday girl was able to pick out whatever she wanted to eat for her
birthday breakfast. Waffles and fruit is a whole lot healthier than the sundae she had for
her latest birthday. The cupcake balloon was courtesy of Nana.

Auntie Cousin K came over early to decorate the cupcakes. We had chocolate cakes with
vanilla frosting, strawberry cakes with chocolate frosting, and vanilla cakes with strawberry
frosting. (It's less confusing when you look at the picture below.)

I picked up several of these Wilton Cupcake Stands and topped it with some
carnations and a candle. This can clearly be called a Decorating Fail. I think
I was trying to go for a flower cupcake look and obviously didn't use enough
flowers. I'm trying something like this again for E's party so hopefully I'll have
redemption for this atrocity.

Here is a picture of my table decorations. It's hard to differentiate between the light pink
table cloth and the white streamers in the picture but it was more obvious in person. We
had white, light pink and dark pink plates and napkins.

The Birthday Princess with her Uncle Goofball. She is wearing a tutu that I made using this
tutorial from Paige and Brook.

Underneath her tutu she was wearing this pig diaper cover I made out of terry cloth
based on some instructions in the Baby Stuff book by Aranzi Aronzo. My ears aren't
attached correctly but it still looked cute on her tush.

I think it's totally adorable that Little E looks so much like Big Sis K in this photo. I still
find it hard to believe that E will be a year already. The time just flies by.

Back then K didn't like getting messy and she really didn't eat too many sweets. I remember
that I had to smear some of the frosting on her face so we could get the obligatory "smash
cake all over you" first birthday pictures.

Nana had purchased several huge balloons for the party (remember the cupcake balloon
attached to her highchair a few pictures back?) and they were a huge hit with the girls. Here
you see the gigantic dragonfly that would periodically buzz by her head while she opened
gifts.

The Happy 1st Birthday banner was on loan from my cousin, and on the mantel is a framed
copy of K's first numeral birthday photo taken at the JCPenney Portrait Studio.

And here are the cousins. I love looking back at how little they were and seeing our girls
growing into such lovely young ladies now.

Thanks for taking that trip down memory lane with me. I noticed I was woefully lacking on blog posts in the year 2012 compared to 2011. I hope to be better with it in the coming year.

Merry Christmas to you all and I wish you a joyous and healthy new year surrounded by those you love.

A Photo Session with the Grandkids

Once or twice a year we gather up K, E and their cousin, The Princess, throw them in some matching outfits, and plop them all on my Mom's lap for a photo. Usually from the combined 50 or so photos taken, we *might* get one with all three girls looking in the same direction; not necessarily all smiling but at least all acknowledging the same camera. My sister-in-law affectionately coined the name Nana and the Blurs for these pictures because usually one or more kid is trying to escape this "horrible" torture and ends up looking like a blur in the photo. When we do get a good one it's always a super cute picture but I find the outtakes to be way too amusing to delete.

Princess to E: "Hey kid, since you're new here, I'll help you out. Here's what we'll
do. I'll create a diversion and you can crawl away."

E to Princess: "Won't Nana and K notice I'm gone?"
P to E: "Nah. They're too busy smiling to notice anything."

E to P: "Sounds good."
P to E: "Ok. Let's shake on it then."

Nana to The Princess: "Is something going on here between you girls?"
Princess to Nana: "Who, us? Of course not!"

P to E: "Sorry kid. We'll have to try again next year."

A Picture Dilemma

Hi All!  I have a bit of a dilemma and I'm hoping you can help me out. A few weeks ago we had some family pictures taken for our Christmas cards. While we were there the photographer also took a few pictures of each of the girls.  As you may recall, I just had K's 4 year photos taken so I knew I wasn't going to buy any more of her. However, the photographer captured a couple of really cute ones of E and I'm trying to decide if I should buy any of them. Keep in mind that in two months I'll be having her 1 year photos taken. Since we had these photos done at JcPenney, they are only $4 per sheet (4x6, 5x7, 8x10, or 10x13) so it's not like they are super expensive to order. I just don't know which of the three poses to chose from and if I should have them with the black vignettes or just straight as they were taken.

Choice #1

A                                                                     B

Choice #2

A                                                                  B

Choice #3

A                                                                    B

Ha! I just realized I'm asking for you to vote for a picture on election day. How appropriate :)

Halloween Fun and Deals

Hi! Things are rockin' right along here at JAKES Place. We had a great Halloween and hope you and your family did as well.

A & K carved the pumpkin that K picked out from her preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch. She colored all over it and then she and Daddy drew a face on it together. A helped her by making pilot holes and with a little bit of guidance, K carved the pumpkin mostly all on her own. Previous to that, she decorated another pumpkin with a Hello Kitty kit where she painted it black and then used foam sticker pieces for the face. I think she enjoyed both pumpkins and was proud of her creations.

E really liked her pumpkins too.

K was also in a Halloween parade at her preschool and it was adorable watching her waving to everyone and smiling at every parent who was taking pictures or videos.

I loved seeing all of the kids dressed up together. Poor Mr. Incredible wasn't too happy though.

Like last year, I hit a few stores for After Halloween Deals. I didn't get nearly as much but I did score a few cute things at 50-75% off.

The dragon costume is for E and K decided next year she wants
to be a princess. Not surprisingly, she chose a blue dress.

The cat pajamas and the Happy Halloween shirt are for E for
next year, and the monster vinyl wall decals and monster eggs
are for her third birthday party. Trust me, when I see a deal that
fits into one of my birthday themes, I snatch it up no matter how
far away that birthday is!

Lastly, E is standing constantly. My mom thinks she'll be walking by next month. I'm not so sure but if she keeps this up, she might be right!

Well that's all for now. From our home to yours, we hope you are all doing well and enjoying this hectic but awesome time of year.