Memorial Day Winery Tour

We headed out into the country yesterday to visit wineries. Paul left early on the bike and we picked him up, then went into the Adelsheim vineyard. The Shea winery and a local cheese company were also giving out samples there. We discovered we could buy a large chunk of cheese for a dollar and eat it with the free bread. It was great fun, but we somehow managed to get hungry anyway. We got directions for the shortcut over the mountain to Dundee and ate at the Dundee Bistro. The weather was great so we ate outside, but the sun was very bright for us Oregonians, especially after the very dark weekend. Pablo showed us the Uruguayan soccer hat, which you can see behind the picture below.

The pool is open!

The weather has been cool and wet all weekend, but Andrew still went to the pool yesterday with Kyle's family. He spent last night at their house.
We had the usual neighbors over for dinner last night. I grilled a tri-tip steak, and people brought sausages and salads. Alana even made chimichurri. Susy tried out Paul and Nancy's new Honda Pilot after dinner when she and Paul went out and bought pies for our dessert. Then we all watched Casanova, a cute and fairly mindless comedy.

More news from Europe

OregonKid's Grandma and Grandpa are still taking in Europe. Stockholm now, from Bergen and Oslo. Iceland is next. They went to the Ice Bar in Stockholm.
Flickr helps out again with a visual. Thanks for this shot from Anna & Paul's Travels:

Andrew's Toe

Andrew had his toe surgery this morning. He lounged around all day, watching TV and playing on the computer. He did get to watch A League of Their Own, which is somewhat educational, in my opinion. "There's no crying in baseball!"
He went to soccer practice tonight to watch, and played a very small amount, carefully avoiding his big cartoon toe. Here's a picture of his nurse-wrapped toe. Click to see his smiley addition.

First soccer practice

Andrew had his first soccer practice last night. It was uneventful - they just did drills. It rained hard for about half an hour of it. Before the rain Mali and I kicked a ball around a little on the sidelines. I also talked with Andrew's teammate Jordan's mom and met his little sister, Faith, aka Farth, aka Farthignugen, or as I will call her from now on: Punch Bug.
Susy showed up for the last half-hour of practice, just as the rains stopped. We trekked to Subway for dinner, where the high/lowlight was watching my sandwich roll out of the bag and it's wrapper onto the floor.

Photo from Saturday Night

Here's a sample of what Mali, Zoë, and Hannah were up to while we were at Elk Cove Saturday night.

Chicago Stuffed Pizza

Susy took Zoë and Mali shopping yesterday at the new Kohl's. She said the girls had great fun trying everything on, and they came home with new clothes, shoes, and Zoë got some new earrings.
Andrew had William, Matias, and Kyle over for an extended period of Halo2 and then actual outdoor soccer up at the school. I set out random food at them for lunch and got rid of some leftovers. Yardwork kept me busy until I got tired around 4:00 and went to see Pablo for some mate'. We played Scrabble and the games kept growing and changing as Rocio, then Andrew, than Paul joined us, while the kids watched The Simpsons on DVD. We ordered pizza and had a small festival with the 6 adults and 5 kids of us. The adults loved our first ever Papa Murphy's Chicago Stuffed pizza. Pablo shared a bottle of wine from Elk Cove, and we tried to guess the vineyard, since we'd tried all their offerings the night before. We got that it was a red, but our eyes were open.

Saturday with Zoë and Hannah

Andrew went to the doctor for his toe yesterday, and goes in again to get his (half) toenail chopped off on Wednesday. It is not bothering him much now, since the infection is gone. He's ready and eager to start soccer practice Monday.
Tonight we're headed to the Elk Cove Winery for their Roosevelt Club Spring Dinner, with Pablo, Rocio, Paul, and Nancy.
We have Zoë and Hannah for the day. They're outside with Mali now, playing badminton. I'm headed out to plant the mini dahlias I got with Mali at the Beaverton Farmer's Market last Saturday. Now they're blooming.

Andrew's Birthday!

Andrew poses before blowing out his birthday donut:

Monday News: Andrew's Toe

Monday news: Andrew's toe is still a mess, and he's back on antibiotics. We we will be scheduling surgery soon.
Also just added photos to Andrew's birthday post below.

Mother's Day - Oregon

OregonMom got to spend much of today in bed. I enjoyed working in the yard (really) as temperatures rose to the mid-80's. I planted snow peas, tomatoes, and basil, and trimmed a tree to let more sunlight into the garden. I also worked in a little badminton with Mali and Andrew. They played more while I worked. Afterwards I shared a mate' with Pablo out on his driveway while we attempted to read our books. I'm finally reading The Da Vinci Code. Andrew just finished it. The weather is beautiful here. It is predicted to hit the mid-90's Tuesday, before cooling off again.

After mate', we (us plus PR&M) went to our (Susy and my) favorite Thai restaurant, the nearby Thai Flavor. The kids loved the chicken wontons, and Mali loved their sweet and sour chicken. Susy and I could eat their lettuce wraps every day. We all staggered home, overfull of yummy food.

Mother's Day - Helsinki

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
Happy Day to mothers everywhere, but especially to OregonDad's Mother, who is off across the water as half of the travelling WashingtonGrandparents. They are out of Russia and the ancient land of Borscht, and now are in the clean bright lines of Helsinki.
OregonDad'sMom (aka GrandmaSue) describes a church blasted out of granite. From the internet, I learn it is called The Temppeliaukion and has amazing acoustics. Thanks to the wonder of Flickr, I can find pictures. Here's a nice one of the interior, from Mr Lo. Apparently (no pictures) the outside is not so much to look at, except for a huge copper dome, which you can see from the inside here:

Andrew's Birthday Party

Andrew's birthday party was a great success. It began with bowling and pizza with:
Carly, Jonathan, Kyle, Marcus, Matias, Tiana, William, and OregonDadMom&Sister, and Tsulan hung out with us for awhile too. PostPizza there was a Cold-Stone ice cream cake, chocolate of course. PostBowling there was air-hockey and DDR.
PostBowlingAlley the party continued with Matias, Kyle, and William at OregonHome and the badminton set William gave Andrew. Pablo and Rocio came over and we started up the new chiminaya. PostParty Andrew and I played Scrabble at Pablo and Rocio's while Matias played DJ for us with his iPod.

Pictures!
Andrew Works the Machine:


Serious Gunplay:


Andrew Opens, Marcus and Carly watch.

Friday

Andrew's toe is bad again. We'll check it tonight. The Oregon Relays are tomorrow, followed by his birthday party - Bowling and pizza.

Soccer Update

Andrew and Matias both made the team. We got the call last night.

Soccer Tryouts II

The weather was better last night for the second day of classic soccer tryouts. Andrew and Matias did okay, but not as well as Sunday. We should know by tonight if they've made the team.

Mali had Sara over after school yesterday. They started working on Mali's video project for school: A Day in the Life of Mali.
Here they are reviewing footage:

Soccer Tryouts

U-14 tryouts for Aloha classic soccer were yesterday. Andrew and Matias did well. Matias was a bit gimpy still from his Italian car accident. I was worried about Andrew's play after watching his sister repeatedly pick him clean up at the school Saturday.
BUT: They both came through, Andrew back to his standard quick-footed steals, sprints, and classy passes; and Matias partnering with the ball in their old dance, throwing in a couple of nice headers as well. Now, I am fairly confident they'll make the team. There is one more day of tryouts tomorrow night.

Hopefully the weather will improve. Yesterday was wet and windy, and no one was warm. Andrew found a hot shower immediately after the Mom-update on our return, and I crossed the street to drink mate' and play Scrabble at Pablo's while the rains fell.

Note: Mali's been updating her blog: http://www.xanga.com/pinkypox

DinnersDoneRight, And: Our Canadians Return

I returned from Redmond/Kirkland and work and my monthly poker game at 10:00 Saturday. Everyone was still hanging out in the big bed. Andrew didn't want to go to the Sandy track meet - over an hour away and he was only going to run the 200, so we called Pablo and he made an appointment for us all to go to DinnersDoneRight. This is a new business that offers frozen dinners: You go and select some amount of dinners (each serving 4-6 people) from their May menu and create them there. We went in together on their package of 12 dinners for $170 so that we each only have to hide 6 meals in our freezer.

Each dish has a station where the ingredients are all layed out with easy instructions. Some are easier than others: The Maple-Mustard Glazed Balsamic Flank steak was simple. The Dijon pork chops were difficult because they were frozen, so didn't take to the breading easily. The Sicilian Meat Roll was messy, but Mali loved it. That was the last one, and Mali said, "I don't want to be done!" She had a great time. Andrew missed out and stayed home.
It was almost like a cooking class, in that we made things we don't normally do, with people there to help out. Pablo's favorite part is that they come around and clean up after you make each dish. Mine is that it is relatively inexpensive and that we don't mess up our own kitchen. Now we've got plenty of meals in the freezer to supplement our weekday standards of pizza, storebought rotisserie chicken, and Subway.

Last night we had dinner at Pablo's, where we tried out one of our two Sicilian Meat Rolls and their Roast Bacon Wrapped Pork, since they weren't already frozen. Nancy brought a salad, Susy made a blueberry pie, Mali made a small strawberry pie, and Alana brought cheese enchiladas and Lemondrops. Everything was great, though I did not get to taste Mali's delicious-looking strawberry mini-pie. The event was just a typical Saturday get together, enhanced by Wednesday's return from Ontario of a still slightly jet-lagged Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah.

Portland Farmer's Market

We went to the Portland Farmer's Market Saturday with Pablo and Rocio. I ate too much - lots of almond paste tasties. We also bought two dwarf blueberry bushes that have yet to be planted.
Here's some pictures: One posed (with another behind it), and one of Andrew and Mali tearing the place up.