Behind the scenes

Thursday was "Take your child to work day." Joseph, being a bright boy, knows that his mom and dad do not have the most kid-exciting jobs. Grandma Robin, however, is a volunteer at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. She's been a volunteer there for more than 10 years and she previously worked there as membership coordinator. Thursday she was helping out with the birds.

Here is Joey in the day room getting ready to start his adventure.


He met a real live sea star that was being moved from one tank to another.
Then he got to look at some of the display tanks from the staff side.


Then he met an octopus that isn't on display at the moment.
Then it was time to go to the kitchen and help Grandma make up bowls of fish to feed to the birds. He was so good at helping in the kitchen that CJ let him (under grandma's watchful eye) come out and feed a few of the birds in the aviary. What a lucky boy!



Joey even had time to measure himself against the giant crab mural. He looks a little like lunch to me.



The fun didn't end there. We toured the lighthouse a few miles away and then saw a bald eagle while driving back from one of our favorite shopping spots. It was a great time!

Busy Easter Weekend

My little family packed up the car and headed to my parent's house at the coast for Easter Weekend. Friday night after we arrived mom and I chatted and knit for a few hours while Joey slept in his very own little fort and Matthew dove into a book that Amanda lent him.

Saturday dad was up early to cook us breakfast. Mom and I were well fortified for our short shopping excursion to the outlet mall in Lincoln city. We were back in time for lunch at Kum Yon's.

While we were gone Joseph put together an entire Indiana Jones Lego set. He's something else with those sets, he can sit for hours pouring over the little books to get them JUST RIGHT. As far as I can tell it was a perfect reproduction of one of the movie sets.

In the afternoon Mom and I took Joseph to purchase a new toy. He wanted Bakugan Brawlers. I do not really "get" these toys, but he sure played with them for the rest of the weekend.

Dad made an incredible souffle for dinner. It was cheesy and had crab and was wonderful. I added some stir-fried kale and Mom made biscuits and a salad. Clearly this was an exceptional Easter feast.

The rest of the evening was quiet and spent in front of the TV watching sports and knitting. Well, except for Matthew, he was so sucked into that book he read the whole thing.

Sunday we drove back to Hillsboro, stopping only to eat at Andaman Thai in Lincoln city. I can't say enough about that little restaurant. It has the BEST Thai food I've had in Oregon, and I've had A LOT of Thai food here.

Amanda came right over when we got home and we played Rock Band until it was time to acknowledge that it really was a work night and we needed to cut it out and turn in. Joseph is getting a lot better a drumming! I was really proud of his efforts last night.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend. I even managed to get a little laundry done!

Now, to tackle the work week with the same energy...

Aww Shucks!

I'm not sure how this happened, but it looks like the beautiful sock that I have been knitting on is too small. It's 72 stitches and it is too small. I am very, very fortunate to have a son who has feet just slightly smaller than mine. He wants the socks. I'll just have to try again with more stitches or bigger needles or both after I finish this first pair. At least Joe will have a super pair of socks!

Afternoon in the Park

Boy, did we ever have a good time! The weather was perfect! The air was sweet and there were so many things blooming I had to catch a few in pictures.

A wild orchid



A lovely azalea

And a tree just begging to show it's new growth.


What a great day.

Little Things

This is my current sock in progress. It is the Escher Socks pattern from Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns. I really think it goes well with our Cinnamon Toast colorway in Flocculent.


I also have a wee finished project, a baby hat that I've made for a coworker who is having her first baby.

This pattern was just improvised. It was a scrap of leftover superwash merino from our last DK batch. I like the little white spots.

Today is a totally gorgeous day so I'm hoping I can convince the boys to go outside and play. I'll post pics later if I succeed.

Who could resist

A Smile and a breakfast like that?

Blazers Win!

Last night LadyDragonfly, my hubby and son and I went to the Trailblazers game. It was exciting, loud and raucous! We ate pizza and nachos and hot dogs. Joey had a snow cone the size of a barn while the adults imbibed their favorite flavors of ambrosia from small breweries in the West.

The Blazers won for us, and even though we had a tough 15 minutes at the end (not because we weren't trouncing the Jazz) because Frog went missing. Many tears were shed but eventually Joey's softie buddy was found and we rescued him and took him home to wash.

I have no pictures today because my camera was at home when we went to the game. Ooops!

I am very much looking forward to going to The Knitting Bee tonight for their 4th anniversary party. This little shop has become very important to me and I certainly want to help Jami celebrate!

My Escher sock is coming along nicely I hope to have the heel well and turned tonight.

Tomorrow we'll be re-skeining the yarn we dyed on Monday so stay tuned for picutures of the new Bamboo blend!