get your motor running....

Training wheels have officially been removed and we now have a speed demon on our hands. Well not really since Ethan has not quite figured out how to stop and start yet but he was able to ride around the track by himself which is AWESOME.

And I have to say that learning on a track was so much easier than learning on the concrete. Plus, everyone that is running and walking around the track cheers you on as well.

Thursday thoughts...

"That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old." -Walt Disney

It rained buckets the last few days and I found this little guy out near our front door.

farewell summer...

Well, I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet. I know that there are some sunny warm days still ahead but school starts next week (eek). We have been savoring the last few weekends to do as much as we can to soak this summer up.

cheapest cat toy ever...

What do you do with a cardboard box from Costco? Absolutely nothing if you live at my house. Just leave it out in the open and within a few minutes I guarantee that your cats will be all over it. As you can see from the picture I captured that there was an issue with both not fitting into it but luckily they compromised and shared.

Did you know it was black cat appreciation day on Saturday? I did not either until we went to a local farmers market that had the humane society adoption truck there that was full of black kittens. Luckily we already have two black cats otherwise I think that I would have tried to take them all home.

capturing summer moments...

After our hectic weekend last week today has been a pretty mellow sort of day. Even though the weather wasn't perfect we enjoyed what summer has to offer - farmers markets and blackberries.

what to do with a bunch of roma tomatoes...

Typically I am the type of person that is drawn to convenience and always bought the canned marinara sauce that is on sale that week which my son typically hates. This past weekend I swung by our local veggie and fruit stand to check out what they had to offer and picked up a bunch of fruits and veggies, including a bunch of Roma tomatoes. I am trying to eat a little better (aren't we all) and finally figured out that yes, I do feel better when I don't eat a bunch of junk food. ;)

I took out the ingredients I thought I would need since I didn't really have a recipe available and most included sugar which I am trying to avoid so I kind of winged this one and it is actually one of the best marinara sauces that I think I have had if I do say so myself and this again, was totally by mistake.

Here's what I did...

let's go on a hike up in the mountains...

I meant to post this quite a while ago but unfortunately during our road trip my camera broke and I lost a bunch of pictures from this adventure. Thankfully I had downloaded a few of the photos before this happened. :(

Ethan, my dad, and I were able to head up to Mt. Baker near Bellingham, WA to go and explore since the snow was pretty melted by this point. We picked the perfect day to head up and take in some sunshine, play in the snow which I could not keep Ethan out of, and explore the great beauty of nature.

We are going to sign Ethan up for the ski bus this year so we should be back to pay Mt. Baker a visit in the winter.

fly by weekends...

This past weekend was mostly a blur with Jeff's reunion, Ethan's party, and a concert but we had a lot of fun. It was definitely a weekend that I felt I needed more time to rejuvinate so I'll leave you with a couple of photos to sum it up.

let's jump and sing happy birthday...

Ethan's birthday party was a success but boy am I exhausted.  I was a little worried at the beginning of the party because evite was down so I was worried people may not remember what time it was at.

Ethan had a blast, loved being the center of attention and hanging with friends. And Elevated Sportz cleaned up after we were done. My kind of party! ;-)

cool for back to school...

Back to school is just around the corner for Ethan. He is starting kindergarten at a brand new school this year so it is a very exciting time at our household. We have our new school picnic coming up and he is attending a camp in the next few weeks where he gets to hopefully meet some of his new classmates. Then after labor day he begins his new adventure and is off on his educational journey or something like that. :)

the good old goodie bag...

I am in the midst of getting ready for Ethan's first 'school' party this weekend. Typically his parties have consisted of hanging out with our family in the backyard and having a cookout. It is usually a pretty big ordeal for me since I am a little of a freak about decorating for the occasion and always serve a TON of food. This year will be a little different.

You see, Ethan told us earlier in the year that he wanted to have a kid party. Yes, we have had kids at our party in the past but he wanted to have it at an actual location outside of our house with a bunch of kids from his school. He even had chosen a specific venue for the special occasion, that being Elevated Sportz which is a large trampoline party place close to our home. I was a little hesitant about it but it has worked out pretty well recently considering we have been on vacation for the last week and a half and my husbands (eek) twentieth reunion is this weekend. I have had absolutely no time to get ready for this party besides ordering a cake and picking up goodie bag supplies. Thankfully for us, they take care of the rest so all we have to do is show up and let the kids go crazy and someone else gets to clean up the mess.

Speaking of goodie bags, Target is my new best friend. I actually have a closet full of old goodie bag items that I either have not used or on a few occasions forgot to hand out. Ethan refers to this as my closet full of fun and it indeed is. Let me just put it this way, we never run out of bubbles. My stash was a little low so I made a run to Target and picked up an assortment of fun stuff without blowing up my wallet.

Let's hope that this party goes off without a hitch and we all survive!

cleaning house...

I've had a love/hate relationship with my old blog layout for the past several months and I finally came to the conclusion that we needed a break from each other. So I scoured the web and found a new format that works much better and personally I think looks absolutely fantastic.

I also wanted to share with you one of my favorite pictures I captured from our most recent road trip to Sun Valley. It really makes me want to build a cabin in the forest and have this as my view everyday.

I hope all of you enjoy the new layout and please keep coming back for a visit!

happy birthday ethan...

This past Sunday Ethan turned the big 6. He is just growing up so fast and I wish he could be little forever.
We made it a point to come home in time for Ethan's birthday. We like to make his day special and all about him. Here is a list of what we did.

-ihop for breakfast
-game works (where he won a couple of banana stuffed animals which were actually moons.
-trip to fireworks to pick up an ugly doll.
-lunch at red robin on the waterfront with a sundae and song.
-trip to toys r us to pick out a toy. He got a huge teenage mutant turtle play set.
-dinner at burger master
-cake and presents.

Ethan absolutely loved his day.