Camp Westwind

Camp Westwind was a great weekend with 150 friends. Some old and many new.

campfire, kitchen duty, cabin sleeping with others, mud mucking, hours and hours in the sand, pirate cave, beach volleyball, good food, Apples to Apples, continually looking for Gray, sandcastles, tide pooling, and walks on the beach


Noah and Gray on their way to the beach.


Visiting the seals with Bryn and Ivy.


Sandcastle Contest. The beach fairies were very happy.


5 minutes after leaving camp.

No pictures of Hunter? He was way to busy with his friends having a great time.

April Showers, May Flowers

This year it's March, April and May showers bring late May flowers. I'm not a huge fan of blog posts that feature flower photos but this past week I think I've gained an appreciation for why they post those pictures. You can't help it. The flowers are so inspiring this time of year and you feel like to have to share that feeling with others. So here are my flowers from this week...

Wisteria outside my kitchen window.


A small snapshot of the 25ft tall rose bush that resides in my backyard. I'm not sure how old this rose bush is but you know it's got history.


Bryn, Hunter, Gray and all the neighborhood kids had a flower store operating from our front porch for about a week. I think they made about $5.00 each. I spent a lot buying flowers from my own yard. They had a great time but abandoned the operation when they found out how much money there was in snow cones.

Speaking of flowers my house is so full of them tonight. Today was my birthday and I received the most gorgeous lilacs, birds of paradise, and a beautiful assortment of flowers from family and friends. My living room and dining room smell so fragrant right now. It was a great day filled with friends, family and good food all day long. We ate dinner at Screen Door and I am in love. Kid friendly, great food, good drinks, perfect chocolate cake and the best customer service I've ever had. Hands down a perfect place with kids or without. If you're in Portland I highly recommend it. Thanks Melissa and Colleen for the recommendation.

More thoughts on loving my early (or early mid) 30s soon.

Happy Birthday to all those I know who celebrated today.
Jeannette
Becki
Dustin
Chris
Slade
Sage
Mafalda's brother
The guy at Screen Door with his family
Mr. T

Sunny day, sweeping the clouds away.

Here in Portland I feel like we had about 5 hours of Spring this year. I'm serious. It was from about 7:00am to noon last Thursday morning. Then a light switch was turned on and summer is here. It was the coldest spring ever (really it was just one looooooong winter) and now we're reaching record high May temperatures. Did someone say "Global Warming?"

While Sean is tired and withering away in this heat I am inspired and energized. So inspired that I've joined the Gift of Green Clothesline Challenge.

I signed up for the intermediate level. While I don't mind a crunchy towel now and then I think my family might. Plus, I'm not really willing to commit to the clothesline full time when I'm in severe distrust of the weather this year.

I just found this photo of me as a kid and was so surprised because I see something from all 3 of my own children in my face.

I've been thinking that life is same ol' same ol' lately. Then I wrote a family update for my mom's family blog and realized how fun life is right now even if I've been feeling like I'm running from one day to the next.

Sean:
*Has a new business partner and is very excited.
*Running almost every day.

Hunter:
*Collecting aluminum foil. Wants to hold the world record for aluminum foil ball. Which is currently 1600 lbs.
*Reading Spiderwick Chronicles and Diary of a Wimpy Kid over and over.
*Enjoying Boy Scouts.
*Playing the Catina song from the original Star Wars movie for his piano recital piece on May 17th.
*Taught himself how to make hand squeezed homemade lemonade and limeade. His family is enjoying it. Especially frozen into popsicles.

Bryn:
*At Tap dance class during free dance time her favorite move is the Bryn created Zombie swizzle.
*Has not decided on a piano recital piece yet.
*Enjoying a boxful of hand me down jewelry. A necklace she wore to school was taken by the teacher because it became a distraction in the class. Luckily, she got it back.
*Preparing to teach her friend Zoe and Meegan proper Hamster care.

Gray:
*Tree climbing.
*Still climbing into mom and dad's bed in the middle of the night.
*Will play Hot Cross Buns at the piano recital.
*Loving baseball season.

Sarah:
*After running a marathon last October I've barely run a mile since until last Saturday.
*Hoping to get back into the running grove.
*Managing it all.
*Having a great time getting to know Mako. A teacher from Japan.
*Hoping for a wonderful MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!

MAKO

Our new house guest arrived last week and yes we already have her packing a gun. Actually, just laser tag at UltraZone. What a great introduction into American family life. It's been so great to get to know her over the past week and we can't wait to show her more of Portland and Oregon.

You can follow Mako's adventures in the United States on her new blog.

WELCOME GUESTS

Our sad basement bedroom September of 2007. It's our international guest bedroom so I've kept it pretty simple so that they can make it their home away from home while they stay with us. However, the red curtains had to go. Which then became a room redo.


Room redo April 2008.


Cream colored curtains I had stored away for some reason. I freezer paper stenciled the bird and branch.


Our local Ikea helped with the Paris prints.

Now onto the upstairs bathroom!

The animal inside you....

Bryn: We need to learn more about our animals.

Mom: What animals?

Bryn: The animals inside us all.

We were led through a guided visualization by Bryn... a lake with softly splashing water sounds, a small path, an animal in the distance that we can't quite see running through the trees and then an old lady holding an animal. What ever animal we see in the old lady's lap is the animal inside us.

Bryn: Wolf. She couldn't be more right on.

Grayson: Frog. I would have guessed Monkey or Elephant.

Hunter: Bird. I think he's really a bear.

Sean: Eagle. Fits him perfect.

Sarah: Prairie Dog. Seriously, that's what I saw.

When I grow up...

Who grows up and says I'm going to an Elvis impersonator? Cathryn and I flew with this Elvis last year and he was actually very impressive. I've been thinking a lot about what I want to be when I grow up.

Here's what Hunter, Bryn and Gray had to say about their futures.....

My favorite Hunter when I grow up moment was when he told us he wanted to be A Doctor in Space for Aliens. Nowadays it's a Video Game Designer or odd jobs until he raises enough money to open a restaurant.

Bryn has said for as long as I can remember that she'll be a teacher and a Rock Star. A Rock Star that teaches kids their ABCs. Today I caught her singing a Bryn original in her scratchy Rock Star voice, "Save the environmenttttt or they'll be no honey beesssss and no pretty floooowersssss." She froze as soon as she saw my upturned smile. Her song reminded me of the 14-year old Bubird Girls here in Portland. But with a lot less controversy and attitude. But still a teaching message.

Gray is going to be a teacher. But only for first graders.

RRR Challenge adding one more R

Smith Rock, Oregon

What I've been thinking about lately...

1. Skin Care products and their effect on the environment.

2. Disposable coffee cups. Yes we have a Starbucks habit.

3. Paper Towels. Also a family addiction.

4. Recycling non-curb side plastics at the Master Recycling event coming up.

5. A new Portland Blog I've started reading.

6. Adding one more R for refuse. We're going to put our backyard compost to work.

BRYN. What it means.

I received the funniest comment today about our DAUGHTER'S name. BRYN. Frankly, he seemed a little upset that BRYN would or could be girl's name (there were a lot of exclamation marks in his email).

I've never really thought to explain Bryn's name to her or anyone else for that matter. But what a great place to let her know where her name came from and how much we love it.

Bryn, Brynn, or Brynne is a gender neutral name. Tracy, Kelly, Hunter, Taylor, Devon, Alex, Drew, Dylan, Jaime... shall I go on? Brynn or Brynne is the traditional girl spelling for Bryn but I grew up in the era of Ashley with an ee instead of a y so I couldn't bear to add the nn or ne (no offense). So it's just plain BRYN.

In Welsh the meaning is "hill" or our favorite "mount." If you are a Brynmor in Wales it means "great mount."

Eleven years ago while pregnant with Hunter we found the name Bryn in a baby name book at Powell's that listed names by categories instead of in alphabetical order. Bryn(ne) was under the category of feminine but dominant girl names. The name Bryn stuck with me through two pregnancies and I knew that our Bryn was definitely a Bryn from the moment she was born and she most definitely still is. Sean and I couldn't have chosen a better name for our daughter. It fits her personality to a t.

I've only ever known through association a boy named Bryn but I meet people all the time that grew up with boy and girl Bryns. So far no one has said anything bad about a Bryn(n)(ne) they knew so we're taking that as a good sign.

So here's to all the big hairy blokes with beards living in Wales named Bryn and all the boy and girl Bryn's in America. Appreciate and love your name! You are you and we love you for it.

5 Completed Projects

My first RRR Challenge to myself this year was to not buy any new crafty item until I had completed 5 projects with items that I already had at home. This even meant craft glue as I soon learned halfway through the Japan shell project.

Here are the 5 completed projects...


Valentine's Day cards for grandparents.


Shells brought back from Japan now displayed in shadow box.


My Dinner Voila cookbook! The binders, books, and protective sleeves have been sitting around for months and I finally finished compiling them. The cookbook is a collection of Sarah and Cathryn recipes from what seems like another lifetime ago. Now that it's finally assembled I'm having so much fun rediscovering recipes that I haven't thought about for years.


Freezer paper stencil baby gift.


2 Cute Skirts.

It was very satisfying to know I could do it especially when it came to coming up with a glue solution for the shells. There were a few moments while browsing through blogland where I almost forget or was tempted. I held strong and since the completion of the projects this sweet bird stamp is the one item I've purchased so far.



The next item to purchase will be a new pair of sewing shears that I will promptly hide from the kids. I caught Hunter cutting duct tape with my sewing scissors the other day.

what i'm listening to right now

china forbes velvety voice has captured my attention and i can't stop listening to her new solo album titled '78. i have loved the forever glamorous lady for years in pink martini and I am so excited that she gets some solo action. the album was just released this past february and you can hear samples of her original songs here. you won't be disappointed. i promise.

what are you listening to this month?