Delicious Fall Colors

10/25/1940

On Monday Matt's mom, Barbra, will be celebrating her 70th birthday. I thought that instead of a usual cake it would be fun to give her a cookie bouquet with autum leaves and fall colors. I haven't ever decorated sugar cookies with royal icing before so this is my first attempt. I'm pleased with the way it turned out. It has been complete torture on Keegan to look at the cookies and not be able to eat them. One of the things I love about sugar cookies is the delicious butter cream frosting that melts in your mouth with the flaky cookie. However, butter cream frosting doesn't decorate like royal icing. Royal icing works best for decorating because it dries hard, but you lose some of that deliciousness. Keegan and Matt might disagree. Once they got to bite into one of these little beauties they didn't care if it was hard or soft frosting. It was a cookie and it was great. I guess a light finally turned on for me realizing that I could combine creativity and baking. I love it. Happy 70th Birthday Grandma Dallmann. We love you!

Check it out on TicketWeb - Blake Lewis featuring Savannah / Jessica Lerner / Shelby Marie at Hillsboro Stadium on 09/11/10

Check it out on TicketWeb - Blake Lewis featuring Savannah / Jessica Lerner / Shelby Marie at Hillsboro Stadium on 09/11/10

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I'm So Tired...

Tonight Keegan was sitting quietly at the counter coloring. Matt and I were watching a program on T.V. what we didn't realize is that Keegan was coloring himself. When we turned around to check on him he jumped off the chair and hid under the table. That is the clue that he is doing something that he shouldn't be. So when we finally talked him into coming out he displayed his brightly colored arms. When I asked him "Why did you color on yourself, is that naughty" Keegan replied by yawning really big and saying "Ahhh, I'm tired"Luckily it was washable markers. Silly kid.

On the boat

This has been the best weekend for us. We have had so much fun already and then today we got a phone call from Damon asking if we wanted to go boating. Fabulous! The kids haven't ever been on a boat and it has been a long time for me. The last time I went boating with Damon and family Abby was about 2 years old. I have to laugh remembering because she had just potty trained and had to go poop. Well there aren't many choices of what to do when you are on a boat so she sat on a bucket. Cracks me up remembering. Anyone reading this might not find it so hilarious, but this is my blog and my memory so I can write it if I want to.Anyway about today. Keegan was really excited. The scariest part for me was the drive there. I am terrified to drive highways and I have lived in Portland for 13 years and not once have I driven on Portland roads, until today. I was following Damon so it wasn't a matter of getting lost. But Brock rode with me and the kids and he had a GPS on his phone just incase we didn't missed a quick turn that Damon suddenly takes. His tail lights weren't working quite right and I couldn't tell when he was going to switch lanes or turn. We made it there fine and the boat ride was such a delite. The kids in their life jackets were so cute. We rode up the Willamete river and Keegan even got to drive. He loved it. Myles sat quietly most of the time and let the wind blow through his hair. Mason enjoyed sitting in the back of the boat shaded by an umbrella. Brock and Alec took a tube ride. Mason was secretly hoping they would fall off. Well they did fall off once at the very beginning and it is a good thing they were wearing their life jackets because the current was so strong that they were swimming and swimming and not moving. They finally figure out that swimming side ways could get them back to the tube. They rode that tube the rest of the way down the river. I don't know how many miles it was, but it was a lot. They both were worn out by the time we stopped the boat. All in all it was a fabulous day spent with a fabulous family. The sun was shining and everyone was smiling. We couldn't ask for more. We loved it.

Is that a horse?

Last night after Matt got off work we decided to take the kids to the Washington County Fair. Admission is free, so why not. We had fun walking around. Keegan loved seeing the animals. We went to look at the horses and found this little guy. We couldn't resist a picture. The funny thing is that our great dane Silver is about the same size. I am on a diet right now so walking through the fair and smelling all the delicious fair food was complete torture. Really at my age what to do you go the fair for but food. **Sigh** Oh those hand dipped corndogs and curley fries were calling for me. But I resisted and still enjoyed our time there. I happened to be wearing my Cure JM shirt last night as I was walking up to a booth some guy was looking at me and looking at me and in my head I was like "WHAT" finally he talked to me and said "is that a real disease?" Um, duh! So I happily stood there and told him about JM and invited him to the auction/dinner and benefit concert. But seriously guy, why would I make up a fake disease and put it on a shirt, again DUH! Keegan was tall enough for the rides this year but we didn't take him on any. Usually he says he wants to ride but then chickens out in the end. I didn't want to get stuck with tickets. So next year he is looking forward to the dragon kiddie roller coaster. We haven't been to a fair in years so we were happy to get the chance to go this year.

An evening at the beach

Since Matt started working in sales our family doesn't have much time to spend together. Matt and I work opposite days so that we can keep the kids home and not in daycare. Daycare cost is crazy expensive so for now we have to make this work. We like to try and find fun things to do when we have a few hours to spend together. Matt gets off around 4pm on Fridays and I have that day off with the kids. We wanted to something fun as a family so what can be more fun than a trip to the beach. Yes it is a long drive about 1.5 hrs. So it was a little after 6pm when we got there and it was a bit chilly. Ok quite a bit chilly. Luckily I grabbed jammie pants and jackets for the kids as I ran out the door because we were all dressed in shorts. None the less we had a fantastic time. The kids absolutely love playing at the beach. They rolled and crawled and dug and shoveled and ran and played and just had so much fun. We all took our shoes off and let our toes play in the sand. We packed a picnic dinner and tailgated. It was an awesome night and we loved being together.