Happy Birth Day and Birthday.

On May 14th, Maisie Claire Lee was born to my neice Sammie and her husband Austin. As you can see she is a beautiful baby. Truly. What fun to have a girl baby in the fam.

May is also the birthday month for my little pal Sarah. She turns 4 in a couple of days so I took her to Red Robin for dinner. She was thrilled to have a special dinner with a surprise treat for dessert and a couple of presents to open. There were lots of laughs and messy fingers, chocolate milk and an adult hot fudge sundae compliments of Red Robin, balloons and a whole bunch of servers singing and clapping as they celebrated Sarah. Needless to say, I dropped a very hyper 4 year old off at home...right a bedtime. HeeHee.

Yesterday, The Zoo Really Was.

A heads up for next year to all of you who decide to do Mother's Day at the Oregon Zoo; be prepared for rediculous crowds. The gorgeous weather and a Mother's day brunch made for a gigantic crowd. We did have a good time though, even if we didn't get to see all the exhibits. Porter loves the animals and it's a treat to be with him no matter what we're doing. When we got home, Jana and JJ had prepared a lovely meal for us; beef brisket, delicious asparagus and mashed potatoes and carrots. Al made a cake on Saturday so we enjoyed that for dessert. It was so great to be with new mom Jana and old pro mama Maryanne to celebrate the day.

A Fun Couple of Weekends

Happy Birthday!

Key Lime Cake - so good.

Grandpa and his boys.

Grammy & babies r us.

Beautiful flowers and beautiful Porter.

Such a good helper!

Enjoying the gazing balls.

We have been suffering through another typical Oregon Spring...sunny and warm, cloudy and cool, rainy and cold and hailing and really cold, all in the couse of 6 - 8 hours. Twice, Porter and I left the house to take our walk in the glorious sunshine. When we had reached the point of no return at Staats Lake, the rain and wind blew in and drenched us both with cold cold golf ball sized drops. I had thought to bring along a waterproof covering for Porter but it's not recommended that you put a plastic garbage bag over a baby's head and face. So although Porter's body was dry and warm, his little face was wet and cold. It's an interesting study in mental toughness to be a mile away from home, have a crying baby in the stroller, AND have an overwhelming need to pee! But we made it home and after drying off and warming up, all was right again.

Crazy Oregon Spring is also the time when annuals need to be planted. So we packed Porter into the car and headed off to our favorite nursery where we purchased petunias and other wonderful color spots to fill our yard and pots with lovely color all summer long. Al planted 7 huge pots with an asortment of flowers so they should be gorgeous by the time summer shows up.

Last weekend, Jana and Finn, Maryanne and Porter and I met my niece Sammie (Jeff and Kerry's eldest) at Washington Square for lunch and shopping. Sammie is expecting Maisie Claire any day now, so it was fun to squeeze in some girl time with her before her big day. We ate at the Cheesecake Factory then picked up a few things at Pottery Barn for Kids, Jack & Jill's and Baby Gap. Sammie was hoping that walking might get labor going and maybe it did just a little. I got an email from her this morning and she's having some stronger contractions as well as some other indicators that L&D is coming soon. Can't wait to meet you Maisie!

Last night at our family dinner, we celebrated both Corban and Lauren's birthdays. As they will be out of town on their actual b-days, we combined them last night with a taco dinner. AJ made yummy margaritas and we kicked off "taco season". With the Enns' 2 b-days, then JJ's at the end of May and finally AJ's in early June, Thursday night dinners will have a decidedly "Cinco de Mayo" feel for the next couple of weeks. Birthday people get to choose their dinner and they all choose tacos. Ugh! Fortunately they all like different desserts so it's not completely a lost cause.