big boys, big toys...

The day has arrived. Ethan finally got his big boy bed. We had taken him shopping and had looked all over for a twin bed that would work in his room. I wanted to make sure that the colors and such were just right. After scouring the interwebs and going to a couple of furniture stores we finally found one at Dania right down the street from our house.

I have to tell you, bed shopping was a little hard for Ethan. He was really excited to finally get one but the concept of not taking it home when we bought it was a little hard to take. Ethan did not understand that when you order a bed you have to wait for it to be delivered so it was a long three days for him. But when it finally arrived we had his room set up when he came home from school and he was so excited. The next day when Jeff took him to school he was happy to tell everyone he slept in a big boy bed. Very cute!!

summertime endings...

Summertime is almost coming to an end and my favorite season fall is quickly approaching. To take advantage of the clear nights I put some salmon on the grill and it turned out great. I know that some people are afraid of cooking salmon so I will share my recipe with you to make it turn out perfect every time. All you need is four ingredients, fresh salmon, a lemon, 1/4 cup of brown sugar depending on the size of the salmon, two chopped garlic cloves, and butter.

• Create a "pan" with aluminum foil. Be sure to fold up the sides so that the extra juices do not spill all over the place. This also makes it easier to move on and off the grill and onto your dinner plate.
• Spread a generous amount of butter over the salmon fillets.
• Sprinkle the brown sugar over the top. If you like sweets you will want to be generous with the brown sugar.
• Sprinkle the chopped garlic evenly over the salmon.
• Slice the lemons and place them on top.
• Depending how fast your grill cooks you will want to cook the salmon until the flesh is no longer opaque and is a darker pink.

I love to serve salmon with grilled veggies since this fish is such a hearty meal.

To get into the fall mood I also made a pumpkin cream cheese bread. I had a box of Trader Joes Pumpkin Bread mix in my pantry and whipped up a cream cheese filling to fold into the bread batter and boy did it turn out yummy!

go fly a kite...

For the Labor Day weekend we joined our friends Jeff and Courtney at Seabrook Washington to enjoy the long weekend. Seabrook ended up being a very quaint town where kids were all out riding their bikes and enjoying the fresh air. All of the cottages were centered around the community, in close proximity to the fire pits that were surrounded by neighbors hanging out and having a good time.

If you want a safe place to take your kids on a vacation where everyone will indeed have a fun time I highly recommend Seabrook. You can rent cottages here.

a whirlwind weekend...

While Jeff was off working at PAX Ethan and I headed up to visit some of the grandparents in Anactores and Bellingham. In Anacortes we got to tour an old tug boat used in WWII that was offering tours at the marina.

Ethan also got to go out for a short ride on grandpa's scooter which he loved. After it was over he told me that we needed to get a motorcycle. We'll see about that.

While in Bellingham we visited Hovander Park and then headed to Birch Bay for some fun in the sand and surf. Luckily for Ethan we had a change of clothes in the car since he dived right in.

woodland park zoo...

Jeff has been gearing up for his big work show PAX going on this coming weekend so Ethan and I had a day to ourselves. What better way to hang out than at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

We packed a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and fruit and headed to the zoo to pretend to be silly monkeys for the day. I even talked him into going and seeing their Dinosaur exhibit. He was a little scared at first but seemed to enjoy it. I think his favorite thing about the exhibit was that the dinosaur spit and burped and of course getting ice cream at the end of the day.

(Ethan was a little nervous about getting close to the dinosaur)

(Trying to force a smile while wanting to make a mad dash out of there)

(Ethan tamed the beast by the end of it)

remlinger farms...

The sun decided to make an appearance in full force this weekend so we hopped in the car and headed to Remlinger Farms in Carnation Washington. This place has it all and is fantastic for kids, especially little ones Ethan's age. They had plenty of kid amusement rides and Ethan was able to go on all of them. We met up with his neighbor friend Isaac, his sister Lucy, and their family and they all had a blast.

We were unable to pick berries this time but it is definitely something that we plan to do again in the future.

summer dinner delights...

I have been continuing to experiment with different recipes I find on the Internet to try my hand at getting home cooked meals on the table. I had downloaded the epicurious app on my iPhone over the weekend and had checked out their featured summer dinner recipes. Low and behold I found a pork tonkatsu with watermelon tomato salad that sounded divine. You can find the recipe here. The great thing about their app is that once you pick a recipe it creates a shopping list for you that separates the ingredients into different sections of the grocery store.

It was super easy to make and a great summer treat. In total preparation time it took about 30 minutes total and about five seconds to eat it. This recipe is definitely a keeper and Ethan even liked it.

Look for more yummy dinner ideas in the coming weeks.