A lazy day....

The weather turned to clouds, wind and rain and a chill was in the air, so we all stayed home today and had a lazy day!!!

Tori with our puppies.....She was lying on the floor sketching and Charger decided to come and sit on her sketch pad, and then conveniently closed his eyes to take a nap.  Koda decided to join him as well.

This afternoon I opened the front door to find a plate of cupcakes!!!  Great surprise from our friends (have I mentioned we have the BEST friends????)

With the weather cold and dreary, Tori and I decided it would be a good day to bake so we got into our new FAVORITE cook book "The Cupcake Doctor" and tried out her "Peanut Butter surprise" recipe which was a HUGE HIT!!!

You can see in the photo above the Hershey's kiss that you place on TOP of the batter and they end up baking down into the center.

The finished cupcakes topped with chopped frozen Reeses Peanut butter Cups!!  OHHHHH SO GOOD!!

Fun in the sun.....

Today was another 70 degree blue sky day!!!! 

Ryley hanging out with Charger this morning

Ryan with his new air soft gun....

We headed to Bauman Farms in Gervais this morning to meet up with my parents.  Tori and Sarah tested out the teeter totter.

The girls with the goats

My Dad and Brandon..proof that Brandon isn't taller than him YET!

A new baby goat that the worker let the kids hold.

Flowers to fill the pots out front from Bauman's

This was a new flower they have this year.  LOVED it!!!

We went for a walk this afternoon...view of Mt. Hood today

It was a great day to hit the trails....

We took my parents Geocaching.they found their first cache!!!

Horse in the pasture on our walk back home!

Spring break surprise...... Got Puggle????

A friend of ours needed to find a good home for her 7 month old Puggle (Beagle Pug mix)!!!!  So, I surprised the kids with our new family member "Charger" this afternoon!!!

Meeting Charger

A whole lot of love for this new puppy!!!

I think he's going to be REALLY happy here!!!

Koda (our Shih-Poo) is SO excited to have a friend to play with that doesn't live on the OTHER side of the fence!!!  They have been running and playing all day long!!!

Gotta love that sweet puppy face!!!

Going to the beach......

Yesterday we checked weather.com and it said that Lincoln City would be sunny with temperatures around 64 degrees, so we loaded up the bus and headed to the beach for the day!!!

Road trip to the beach....view from the back of the bus when we were about halfway there!!

On the beach in Lincoln City where it was ACTUALLY cloudy....SUPER windy...and 52 DEGREES

Sarah

Matt and Sarah on the quest for sandcastles

No matter the location....there is never a dull moment in our family

Ryan catching air with a running jump on the beach....

Matt who ALWAYS brings a football with us to the beach....

I think this was the point where Tori said, "Wow Mom, the weather is GREAT and I'm having SO much fun..." -- but I could be mistaken....

 We rechecked the weather on our iphone and it said the weather in Tilamook was SUNNY....so we decided to head 40+ miles north to find the blue sky!!!  This is the view from Cape Lookout!!!

We stopped at "Ryan's Gallery"

Then we stopped at Cape Meares and visited Oregon's SHORTEST Lighthouse

We hiked the .1 mile trail to the Octopus tree (and were thankful after seeing the tree that the trail wasn't any longer)

Unfortunately, the clouds followed us North and it was getting misty, so we decided to head home late in the afternoon!!!  This is the view from the cliff near the Octopus Tree.

Great start to Spring Break.....

Today was the first official day of Spring Break and we got off to a GREAT start.....

This morning, Tyler and a bunch of his friends got together (along with  a few of us moms) to see the movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  The movie was SO much better than I anticipated and I'll be sending the rest of the older kids to see it this upcoming week!!!  

About half of the kids who showed up for the movie today!!!  Tyler's teacher and her husband are also in the photo!!!

While Tyler and I were at the movies, Tori was picked up and headed to a birthday party....apparently I won't be getting her back, as I received the photo below and she was promptly purchased for FREE this afternoon!

Tor is on the far right....closest one to the "FREE KIDS" sign...

Ryan, Ryley, Tyler, Sarah and I then headed to the neighborhood park (I asked Brandon if he'd rather come to the playground or clean my kitchen and he opted for cleaning the kitchen....YEP, he's a teenager....)

While Sarah and Tyler played on the playground, Ryan and Ryley took the opportunity to practice their pitching and batting skills....

Ryan

Ryley

We are very thankful for our great neighborhood baseball fields!!!!

With blue skies and nearing 70 degrees...I'm sure you can guess our next stop......

That's right....DAIRY QUEEN!!!!  

We ended our evening with a barbecue, a lot of outside activity.....Kids are going to sleep well tonight....

WELL, almost all of the kids......I just got a call and Tori and her friends will be summoning spirits on the OUIJA board.......spooooooooookyyyyyyyy!!!!  

Do you VOODOO?

Matt just walked in the door with a box of Voodoo Doughnuts!!  I SO love my man!!!!!

For those of you not familiar with Voodoo Doughnuts,  this doughnut shop claims "The Magic is in the Hole" and has some uncommon toppings...I have dibs on the maple bar topped with bacon...you can see the oreo topped doughnut on the lower left.  In the past we've had captain crunch topped doughnuts and voodoo doll doughnuts with a pretzel spear sticking through him. 

Got wood?????

Our middle school offered an after school woodworking class to students that are in the Talented and Gifted program and those who are "high achievers".  Ryley participated in the class, and came home with his finished bench yesterday!!!!

Ryley LOVED the class!!!

Food carts and art....

Portland is known for its Food Carts, and I have been wanting to dine at them for a VERY long time.  For Matt, standing in line at a mobile trailer unit, getting food and eating on the sidewalk with strangers, didn't sound as appeasing, however he offered to take me to lunch downtown on Saturday. 

Not all of the carts were open for the weekend, but we decided to dine at BBQ fusion.  The pulled pork sandwiches were great...the side dishes (coleslaw and beans) not so great.  We shared our little sidewalk table with a guy from LA who ordered from the Vietnamese food cart and his food looked REALLY good.  He works and lives in Portland now and gave us advice on some of his favorite carts --- so we will definitely be back to try some of the others!!!

After dining we went to Powell's book store....It was interesting to see the "art" on the streets.  I shot this photo with my iphone, so it isn't really clear, but apparently this "art" is a popular attraction.  A vertical pole with tons and tons of bikes piled onto with through their front tires.  Who knew?  I do believe if we did this in the suburbs, we would be fined, along with a few other charges.

Three teens in the house......

Look out world....The Tishendorfs now have THREE teenagers in the house and more to come.....

Happy Birthday Ryan and Ryley!!!!

Ryley

Ryan