Our Oregon Summer.

My date tonight! Brycen and Cian have decided lately that it's super fun to drive each other crazy. So if they survive a week of (mostly) getting along and trying to be kind, we have promised them a mommy/daddy date. Tonight, I took Brycen out while Daddy took Cian and next week, we will switch. I love having the one-on-one time! And hey, having kids that get along is a nice bonus too. 

His newest, "cheese!"

When we moved to Oregon, within the first 48 hours--Brycen was invited to his first birthday party. It's for the blue shirt girl (above, behind him) that lives across the street. After waiting over 3 weeks, the day finally came! 

It was a cute Harry Potter themed party (for a 6 year old!) and I volunteered to help; her mom kinda has a 6 week old baby among a few others. My task was doing the Chocolate Frog Molds! It was a learning experience that took multiple, I'm talking, multiple trial runs, and a few chemistry lessons later. Crystallization in chocolate? And how to successfully ruin it and rebuilt it....

I'm SO glad they turned out but I am also so glad it's over. Store bought chocolates? Never looked so good.

And our week couldn't be complete without Grandma Day!

I LOVE this action shot of Cian shooting Brycen with water. Brycen loves to get squirted, Cian loves to do the squirting. It's pretty perfect. Cian, like me, hates! to get splashed.

Brycen had a dental check up on his pulled tooth. I'm all up for naptime but 10 minutes before arrival? It nearly killed me.

Both boys have really started to enjoy books, even when not being read to. I find them sitting in their Lazy Boy in their room, all the time with a book. I seriously can not wait for Brycen to learn to read. He hasn't let me teach him but he does start Kindergarten next week! And I dream of him reading to Cian some day.

With a job, come certain perks! Who know, right? Adidas gave Intel employees a nice 50% discount for the month of August. 

Daddy picked up a few things and Brycen picked up a dream to build a shoe this big to climb in, since they wouldn't let him. We saw some kids climbing, which of course, gave us the idea. Brycen begged and was thus pretty good, through the entire shopping trip to have his turn. Despite there not being any "no climbing" signs, we timed it perfectly for the employee to come out and tell us to not to. The next groups after us? Climbed right in and had a great time. Brycen. was. crushed.

After spending 5 years in Indiana and having a lot of "let's go here sometime..." and then not and instead, trying to cram everything in the last month we were there; I decided to change things up. If it's something we want to do, lets do it! In all honesty, I owe most of the developing and pushing of the idea along, to baby #3 (as well as getting our house unpacked!) but we are doing it! Portland's Saturday Market--full of music, food ,and crafts-- and the famous VooDoo Donuts were our latest adventure.

After the 30 minute baking wait time in the direct sun (it...was... hot!) to get into the VooDoo store, we picked out a few treats. And of course, compared them to the one and only in Indiana, Mary Lou's. If you don't take in account for price because Mary Lou's is just awesome and rather unbeatable in that category, VooDoo Donuts did not (surprisingly/ luckily) disappoint!

This kid has it down. He slept through the line and woke up in time to eat.

A bench in the shade was his request. He sweated very patiently in the line.

Maple Bacon Bar?  Not too bad, at all.