Mama Said there'd be days like this...

Wonderful birthday with lots of friends and great food! Thanks to all of you who joined in my special day! We spent time up at the Rose Gardens in Portland for a potluck supper follwed by friendly chats and a few introductions...."new" friends & neighbors meet "old" friends and neighbors. A special treat was my childhood friend, Cathy was in town and was able to swing by to celebrate with us! Cathy and her mom were the "oldest" of the friends and neighbor clan.
The day had a bit of a rough start with me being up all night with Gilbert, Gilbert not feeling well, but was going along great as evening approached...then...my mom got sick. She thought she was choking on something, no. Went to the hospital and they said she was allergic to something she ate, no. Ran a myriad of tests, scoped her throat and found out she had a really bad infection in her throat and thought it was strep, no. Ended up she had an allergic reaction to her blood pressure medication and she's now doing much better.

My friend, Cathy and I; childhood friends so fortunate to get to see her!

My friend, Amy and I; college friends.

New neighbor friends from Lausanne Street

The Portland contingent from NE Portland

So, a memorable day to say the least. I'm happy to have spent it with so many friends and family, some days just kind of suck but those you surround yourself with always make it better.

Get thee to the Allison; at least for a few things

We visited the coveted new Allison Hotel in Newberg last night at their "soft" opening for community members, all those who heard about it throught the willamette valley grape vines so to speak, and employees of A-Dec.

My take: go to the spa it is devine, go for breakfast or lunch, sit in the living room with a drink after work.

You'll pay a premium, and I mean PREMIUM for everything there which makes me think...hmmm if I were to go somewhere and spend $10 on a Manhattan I would go downtown where I could find a myriad of other things to do after consuming said beverage.

Rooms start at $295 and go up from there. They are nice, well equipped as any high end room should be and all have either a "garden" view or a "vineyard" view neither of which are very lovely at the moment so you have to close your eyes and imagine what fertile soil and lots of care taking will do in a couple of years. All have balconies, Bose stereo systems, large flat screen tvs; and gas fireplaces.

Enough about the rooms, go for the spa. It is large has lots of service options, a lovely women's lounge and quiet at all times co-ed lounge and outdoor seating options. And we heard use of the spa gives you use of the facility for the day which includes the pool, hot tub, and work out room.

Go for breakfast, or lunch at the Jory Restaurant. The chef actually has his own two acre garden where the produce for the dining room comes from...talk about farm to fork! Dinners are quite pricey so to start I'd go for a less pricey breakfast or lunch option while they are working out all the "kinks." They have something called a "lunch tasting" for $23 which includes three courses followed by dessert; a nice prix fixe menu. When you're ready to dive into dinner there is a special "chef's table" that would be great with a few other couples. You get to sit in the kitchen at a nice dining table, where you have a front row seat to all the goings on of the professionals preparing their masterpieces.

The living room is a great room off the bar where you can sip a drink, visit with friends, and warm up by the fire. You can also order from the dinner menu and have it delivered in the living room. Wine is of course the main draw on the drink menu and is quite expensive to boot. There are tastings, 3 oz. glasses, and 5oz. glasses. I ordered the LEAST expensive Pinot Noir at $11 for a 5oz. glass, so, again, be prepared to drink the cost of what normally is a bottle in our house in a 5oz. glass. OUCH!

Overall, a nice place don't get me wrong. Architecturally, the building is sited nicely, not obtrusive to the landscape and fairly easy to navigate through. They have used quite a few sustainible ideas in their design such as green roofs, recycled water etc. and are going for (at least I heard) a LEED Gold Certification. The interiors seem a bit stuffy, MAC Clubish , and I get the impression I'm walking into a Conference Center instead of a luxury hotel. The spa is the exeption where a bit of modern classicism is thrown in the mix. All of the artwork is from local artists and even some of the spa products are purchased from local vendors.

It's worth a peek. The Jory Restaurant is open now every day from 10 - 7pm and the Hotel isn't set to open for another few weeks.

All in all, it's great if you want to experience the country and hang out in the hotel or go wine tasting for the duration of your vacation. If that's not your thing; which, personally, If I were to spend $300/night on lodging and $11 + for every glass of wine, I'd expect a bit more and certainly wouldn't choose Newberg as my vacation destination.

Tomatoes

We are in the throes of a tomato bounty. These are all from our garden. I've been roasting them and making a sauce to put over different things. Here are photos of the step by step. Yummmy! I've posted the recipe on the Caffe Fratelli blog so take a look if you want it! The finished product used with grilled bread and melted mozzarella cheese.

Here are the tomatoes after they've been roasted
Farm fresh tomatoes!

...a Pirate's Life for me

We enjoyed a little family vacation; the last of the summer last week. We went to Lincoln City and spent a few days lounging, making sand castles, jumping waves, and visiting local tourist hot spots. The weather was fantastic and we escaped the 100 degree weather in the valley so for that it was so worth it to skip out of town.
One of the kids' favorite places is Pirate's Plunder in Newport.
The kids love that place, it's a really thrown together antique and small time "amusement" park feel for kids. You can't miss it; it's on the way to the Aquarium but worth a stop. Afterwards we did our Pilgrimage to Rogue Brewery for a couple of pints....arrrr.


As a side, I'd like to thank my neighbor and fellow designer, Janell Beals who has a fabulous blog about design Isabella & Max Rooms and has helped and inspired me to create better blogs! Take a look if you get a chance.

Uncle "Apple" Alex's Nonna Doris' and Patrick's Birthday

We celebrated my these birthdays with a Greek Feast. It was a lot of fun to get together and cook and eat and visit. Of course we had way too much food but people were able to take left overs for the next few days....

Alex in his new "throw" for his apartment
And learning to drive a stick!
Sibling love
Nonna Doris opening her birthday gift
Father and son "bonding" at the bbq

New Kindergarten Teacher

Evelyne standing next to Ms. Jenke in the game circle. We went to a potluck to meet the other students and new teacher.
The fateful "duck-duck-goose" game that made a couple boys cry. Oh so sad and a bit funny, they were embarrased they couldn't "catch" Ms. Jenke.

Soon to be kindergarteners!

What it means to have a Boy

7 kids + 6 adults = crazy chaotic fun

Our dinner last Friday night with the Peppmeiers and Hovdes was GREAT! So good to see old friends again and share a summer meal. We had everyone over, ate pulled pork sandwiches (thanks for the fabulous recipe Lindsey), salad with vegetables from the Hovdes' garden, noshed on yummy peach cobbler and ice cream, and sipped coffee into the evening hours. Maybe it was just that we had a few drinks, but the kids seemed to do surprisingly well. They watched movies, played upstairs, played outside, we went to the park with them....they were all pretty content and easy! Have we passed the threshold of meals with mayhem???? I'm starting to say yes.

Here's Doug and Annemarie, what a cutie! (doug i'm talking about the one in the green shirt here)

Evelyne, Luke, and Jonah

Playing at the park!

The boys, Doug, Nathan and Ryan...

Will, Jack & Gilbert

Pepps, we love you and miss you and look forward to our next trip to Montana! Hovdes, we need to do this more often and I'll keep my eyes open for a house for you.....p.s. gilbert says thank you for the jeans!div>

The girls: Dina, Dianne, & Kelly

Farm Visit with Maca

Last Monday we visited Bauman Farms in Woodburn; such a fabulous place! We went with "maca" or grandma to most of us. Gilbert has called her maca since he could barely talk and it has stuck.

The farm has goats, rabbits, chickens for the kids to see and pet, a great nursury with wonderful plants, an outdoor play structure with little tractors to ride on, and a nice grocery store with farm fresh produce and a bakery on site! www.baumanfarms.com

We packed a picnic lunch and sat in the gazebo, listened to the bubbling water below and enjoyed ice cream at the end of our jaunt.

J&J Wedding

We went to Jenny Rhodes and Jay Sullivan's wedding last weekend in Boring, OR. It was a fabulous wedding, simple, endearing and generally fun. They really paid attention to detail and made it their own....here's a couple of special things they did.

The RSVP cards were on vintage postcards. They collected them and displayed them at the wedding then gave them to the guests as favors. They also had lots of glass bottles displayed on the tables, some empty and some with flowers in them. They were in remembrance of Nathan's grandmother who collected them.

Dancing was a highlight especially for the kids! Here are Gilbert (in blue shirt), Evelyne (in pink dress) and I (in brown floral dress) breakin' down....

They had a vintage typewriter for guests to type messages to the happy couple. Some of the youngest of the crowd didn't know how to put the paper in....wow, first time I felt "mature."

The cake with a pile of italian cookies for guests. Lovely.

Here are the kids having tons of fun on the dance floor. Brantley was clearly the star of the evening.

Emma Tang Fashions

So, dad took the kids shopping, nice, give mom a break. The intent was to find some good soccer shoes at a reasonable price. That usually means shop at goodwill to said dad in question. Instead of shoes he came home with a new coat for Gilbert, a nice quality winter coat at a decent price. Too bad it is a girls' coat with a girl's name on the inside. Said father in question said he didn't see the name inside...yeah, he's right, it is hard to see (hmmmmm.....). AND the purple color of the coat obviously didn't give it away either.

Conclusion: in another couple of years Evelyne can take dad shopping.

Beaver Car...What a HIT!

These photos say it all, any true Beaver Fan, which all my nephews TOTALLY are, this is car nirvanah...carvanah...

I went to visit Lindsey and her kids yesterday afternoon, of course Evelyne and Gilbert were already having a blast then uncle Mat came home with this car and gave them all rides around the neighborhood. As Evelyne said "we even got to listen to loud music!"

Mat's boss owns the car but I'm sure he has access to it often...GO BEAVS!

Fun in the Park 2009!

Gilbert getting ready to climb the rock wall
Evelyne holding the large bird....I don't know what kind it was.

Gilbert just wanted to pet him.

Evelyne loved climbing the rock wall, she's definitely her father's daughter!

A nice trolley ride around town, great break from walking in the heat!

Today we were at the Fun in the Park Festival in Wilsonville, a great time for families. So much to do, lots of games, food, prizes, face painting, hair painting...just about everything. We stayed all day...well, went to a local air conditioned hang out for some lunch and a break from the heat for a bit. Anyway, lots of fun only wish lines were shorter for some things and that it wasn't quite so hot.

The best part about it was it was FREE for every bounce house, every ride and experience such a great thing!
We will definitely be back again.