Congratulations are in order......

Tuesday evening we had a family celebration!!!  Matt was offered a promotion and he accepted!!!  We made Matt's favorite dinner and put up some decorations to surprise him when he arrived home!!!!            
The best news of all --- He'll be back working in Oregon!!!

Another fun weekend.....

There weren't a whole lot of photos taken this weekend, but we had a great time with Matt's mom who came up to spend the weekend with us!!!  Below are the few photos we took!!!

 Tori Lynn

Sarah

Every girl should have a feather boa in their closet...

Out to dinner at Claim Jumper Saturday night....Tori's hamburger is almost as large as her face!!!

  Ryan and Ryley's baseball team played against Molalla on Sunday morning and won 12-4.

Unfortunately, since Matt is the coach, I was doing the score book and Tori was running the score board, we didn't get a single picture....

Thanks for coming to spend the weekend with us Omie!!!!

Sarah's first day of Kindergarten

Today is Sarah's official first day of Kindergarten!!!!!  She is SUPER excited!!!!!

She LOVES her Hello Kitty backpack!!!!

The bus comes right to our house to pick her up!!! 

We went jewelry shopping this morning...because every Kindergartner needs a little "bling" on her first day!!!

When she saw the bus turn onto our street she had a smile from ear to ear and announced "Here it comes!!!  Here it comes!!!"  She was SO excited to go on her first school bus ride!!!!

Meanwhile, I held back the tears (as best I could) and wished her a wonderful day....and then once the bus drove off the floodgates opened......

Letting go sure makes my heart hurt........

It is back to school season.....

It is back to school season and all of the kids were looking forward to their first day of school!!

Brandon's first day at the high school relatively well.....he caught the bus (for the first time!!!).....sat through orientation.....for some reason they didn't have his schedule, so after the tour of the school he headed to the counseling office to get his schedule and came home.  The good news...they gave him a schedule...but it was missing his band class, so his schedule had to be redone and he is supposed to receive it today (Wednesday morning).  The bad news...since he didn't have his schedule with him, he has no idea where any of his classes are.  Nothing like an adventure to start out your high school year!!!

Tyler is in 5th grade and still in the Spanish Immersion Program!!!  He spends half of his day learning in Spanish (classes in Spanish are reading and mathematics) and half the day in English (science and social studies I believe...but could be wrong...).  He is thrilled to have several of his good friends in his class this year.  The best news of all.......He has his FAVORITE teacher again this year.  Mrs. Reid (who was his teacher in 3rd grade) who is absolutely phenomenal!!!

Little miss Sarah starts Kindergarten this year and is SO excited to start attending school!!!  She is pictured above on the left with two of her favorite friends!!!

All 3 of her friends from dance class transferred to her school from other schools in the area and they ended up in the same class together!!!  They'll be spending 80% of their class time learning in Spanish!!!  It is going to be a SUPER fun year for these wonderful girlies!!!!

Ryan is starting 8th grade this year!!!  

Tori Lynn is in 7th grade this year!!!!

Ryley is in 8th grade this year!!!!

My THREE middle schoolers on their first day at their new Middle School!!!!  They were all excited to head out the door this morning!!!!

Of course....I had to follow them with the camera this morning as they left the house.....

and down the sidewalk

and past the neighbors as they headed down the street

and it was at about this point this morning when I ran ahead to take some more photos...while I was cheering "Papparazzi!!!  Papparazzi!!!"  That a neighbor across the street (who I didn't see originally)  shouted out "I take it this is the first day of school?????"   

YIKES!!!!  How embarrassing........as I then decided to scurry quickly back home........ and I'm sure my kids were THRILLED that I was no longer on their trail!!!!

Labor Day weekend

A few snippets of how we celebrated our Labor Day weekend......

Matt's cousin Susan sent us a recipe for S'mores Cocktails --- They were delicious!!!!

S'mores Cocktail

2(12-ounce)cans evaporated milk 

4(28-gram) envelopes milk chocolate hot chocolate mix 

1/2 cup chocolate or vanilla vodka 

8 large marshmallows 

1.) In an 8-cup microwave-safe glass ...measuring cup, pour evaporated milk. Microwave on High for 3 to 4 minutes, or until hot. 

2.) Whisk in chocolate mix, whisking until smooth. Stir in vodka. Pour into mugs, and top each with 2 marshmallows and 1 teaspoon chocolate shavings.

 Saturday night we headed into Portland to Helium Comedy Club with several friends where we watched 3 comedians...the headliner for the show was Todd Glass.

 After the show we all headed to Burnside Street in Portland where we stood in line for 40 minutes (after 10pm, the people watching is almost as entertaining as the Comedians at Helium Comedy Club) at Voodoo Doughnuts!!!

What we learned --

1.  One of the couples with  us appeared to be in fear for the lives, while standing in line.  Not sure if it was because the line was 1/2 a block long and rambling (and one groping) transient paced the block, or the fact that there is an adult "business" along that block where ALL SORTS of eclectic people came and went, or the fact that they didn't understand the concept of why people would stand in line for 40 minutes, in the middle of the night, in the seedy part of town for a doughnut.  I do believe I may have to pay for their therapy.

2.  When Brides and Grooms, on their wedding night arrive, people allow them to cut in front of the line.

3.  On 3rd and Ash there was a rocking bucket band!!!!  No tickets needed!!

4.  Either my friend Mechelle and I look really young (which I'm voting for since we were carded at the comedy club) or Mechelle's husband looks really old, since a transient..after asking for one of our doughnuts (and was told NO..per the sign in Voodoo that clearly states not to feed the homeless people that loiter on their sidewalks) asked Mechelle's husband if we were his daughters.

Our 2 dozen doughnuts.... worth every minute we spent in line!!!!

Monday, Matt, Sarah and I spent several hours at Swan Island Dahlias!!!  They had almost 400 floral arrangements showcasing their dahlia varieties!!!

Sarah with her balloon caterpillar

Acres and acres of dahlias

Sarah in the dahlia field

 

My friend Heather teaching a floral arranging class.  She is the 3rd generation at the dahlia farm!!!

 Monday evening we headed to the baseball field for the twins to practice for the upcoming fall ball season.

 Ryan

 Ryley

 

 Tyler

 Sarah and Tori on the playground

Our 2 new favorite chicken recipes

With fall right around the corner, our house is full of energy getting ready for the new school year, and with that comes "oven season" --- or what most people call, "cold weather and casserole dish season".  

In preparation for the season, I have been receiving daily emails from allrecipes.com and of course, making them because....a girl's gotta eat.......and we've found 2 new favorite recipes.  I thought I'd post them below you can try them out in your spare "oven season" time!!!!

Our new favorite enchilada recipe !!

and the big hit from this evening's dinner was

The Chicken and Broccoli Braid (note here, we doubled the cheese...and still thought it could have  used more)

I hope you enjoyed them as much as we did!!!

Sarah's first soccer practice

On Monday Sarah had her first day of Soccer practice!!  Can you tell her daddy was a little excited to have an athletic daughter?  He left the house with Sarah to pick up soccer supplies, and she came back with a huge bag filled with items in pink!!!