Saturday doings

Hmmm....this is the way my day ended. Mark and I went out for dinner. Oh so good!

It was lovely weather, so we decided to get our butts out of the house and enjoy it.

Doesn't Mark look like he's enjoying himself? Oh yes, some Mexican food and a beer and all is right with the world.

My day started off at a christening party at a local park. Look at this cutie!

Mom and Dad are so happy to welcome Ellie into their lives, and the pastor of their church blesses her adoption. Ellie is a very lucky girl: her parents are wonderful people and adore her. In fact a lot of people adore her!!

Ah, the days of youth

Yesterday Tigard played Grant HS. The game was at 4. Why? Because they don't have lights on their field (they play their conference games at PGE Park, but for non-conference games they go ahead and play on their home field). As you can tell it's pretty basic. And there aren't any stands in the visitor's side. Just a small grassy hill. Most of the Tigard parents came prepared, and brought our own chairs. Man, it felt like a youth football game.

It was a good game, with Tigard winning the whole way. And I didn't want to climb on the baseball dugout to film, so my loving husband did it for me. You can barely see him up on the dugout roof. What a good husband.

Then we met Steven at home and took him out to dinner at John Barleycorns. We had to wait a LONG time for our food, the boys were HUNGRY, and thank goodness the food finally came and it was good. Thank goodness for that. Now if Steven will just open his eyes......

Doings

Been working on my cupcake skills. Playing around. Having some fun. Made some cupcakes at the Ronald McDonald House yesterday, just like the one above. I baked up some cupcakes, some brownies, and some sugar cookies. It was fun, and they showed me the stores available to me (sugar, flour, etc). Excellent! Looking through my books, dreaming of sweet baked goods.

And the funny thing? I don't really want to eat them at the house, and since I leave the baked goods there, it's the best thing ever!!

Okay, so I'm baking some cupcakes tonight to take to dinner tomorrow night. All the coaches go to the 'Head Coach's House' after every game to look at tape and eat a little something. And since tomorrow's game starts at 4, rather than 7, we'll get everything rolling so much earlier. Loving that. Go Tigard!

Oh yeah, and a x-ray of Doug's hand. Dork.

Living for the weekend

TGIF. Well, at least it was Friday. And Fridays around our house involve Tigard Football. Mark coaches, and I videotape for the team. Friday was a home game against West Salem.

I LOVE it when the team runs out, with the band playing the Tigard fight song. Always love that. Probably always will.

Here's Mark at the sidelines, waiting for the game to begin. And this was a tough game, with Tigard coming back at the end of the game, two overtimes, and Tigard losing by one point. Very exciting, and while hard to lose, the boys hung in there and everyone got their money's worth at this game!

Saturday morning I went to a cupcake decorating class at JoAnns. It was fun, and we learned how to make four different cupcakes. Above is one of them, with a cute little baby sleeping. One mistake I made was to keep my cupcakes in a baggie: they were soft on the top and difficult to frost. Yuck. But lucky for me we weren't graded on looks, and basically were there to learn. Kseniya and I decided we're going to practice some different techniques, and have some fun with this. I can take decorated cupcakes to the Ronald McDonald House with me, and that will be a kick. Like my kids care about decorated cupcakes....sigh.....

Around 3:3 on Saturday, Doug comes and asks if I can make him a doctor appointment. He broke a bone in his hand! So we went to the emergancy care and got him taken care of. Seems to be a trend of this going on around here.

While Doug and I were at the doctors (about 2 and a half hours, thank you very much), Mark worked on breaking down film for Coach Mitch. Kept him busy, and as you can see he got hungry as well. Working hard. That's my boy.

And of course, we didn't have enough football for the week, so we went to a youth football game at around 7. Eight grade team playing against Southridge. I wasn't able to exercise earlier due to taking Doug to the doctor, so I walked around the campus for a while (it was nice and cool, a perfect evening for a walk), but I made it back for the end of the game. Our friend's son was announcing the game (he's a senior in HS and he was a crack up! Great commentary (was driving Mark nuts), and it was a whole different side of Jeff that I hadn't seen. When one of the kids dropped a ball Jeff loudly announces, "Oh......ball...... fall down!" You had to be there. Really.

Happy Birthday to ME!

I had my birthday last week (our computer is acting up lately, so not having much luck with updating my blog). Mark got me a really cute penguin card. Aren't they cute?

Heck, Mary Jo got me a really cute card. I LOVE IT. Penguins in top hats. How could you not love that?

My mother and father-in-law sent me a little doggie card. How could you resist that face? And they sent me some birthday money and I bought myself a ticket to go see Phantom of the Opera. AMAZING. I loved it, and what a lovely gift. Not only got to see a wonderful play, but got to spend time with Cari. I always love that.

Steven took me out to lunch on my birthday. I loved that. Just me and him. How lucky am I?

My mom, dad, and sister called me (mom and dad were back visiting her in Ohio) and they sang that old refrain, 'Happy Birthday'. I loved it. I really did. Made me so home sick. I adore my parents, and my little sister (you crazy kid ya!).

BUT, my amazing gift, the one you'd never guess I would get:


A sting ray bike! YES!!! I was looking for a pedal brake bike, Cari's roommate's boyfriend is really into bikes, he came up with this one for Cari to use due to her broken wrist (no hand brakes baby), and so now she gave it to me. I love it. It made me so happy. I'm looking forward to Sunday morning rides, nice and easy. FUN!

Happy Birthday to me. Your fifties are sure fun, if you do em right.

Sweet cupycakes and kittens. Where are the rainbows?

Last night Mark and I headed on over to Cari's. Why? To take some cupy cakes, AND to see some very cute kittens. Who can resist kittens? As you can tell, not Mark. He was sitting in their favorite chair, and all three ended up snuggling up in his lap.

How cute is this?

Kittens and a nice warm lap: a perfect combination.

And some sweet cupycakes (as Cookie Monster would say). I have a new book, "Hello Cupcake" and I found a great recipe for cupcakes, with a cake mix as the base. I'll share it here later, with some variations. I'm going to start going to the Ronald McDonald House in Portland, and baking, every Wednesday. So trying out some fun ideas to bake while I'm there. Looking forward to it big time! Ah, sweet, devils food cupycakes. An idea whose time has come.