Mommathon

On Monday we went to the art fair in the Pearl District. Colm was NOT happy about going especially when we got there and all he saw was row after row after row of paintings and the like…not his cup of tea. He quickly changed his tune, however, when we got to the part of the art fair where they had woodworkers, glassblowers and metalsmiths working on projects and talking with the crowd about their trades. I don’t have any pictures of Colm watching the woodworkers because I was too busy watching Colm…he was awestruck…he couldn’t get close enough. 🙂

Shaved ice….yum!

Printmaking

The boys making a piece of art out of clay that will be used to decorate next year’s art fair.

The Lego Games Tour swung through town this weekend so we had to go check it out. Basically, it was a way for them to show off most of the new board games they recently came out with. They had life-size versions of the games, Lego people there to explain how to play them and then had the kids participate.

Project 365-9/4/10

I have been really bad lately about reviewing the books I have been reading. So, thanks to Dana, I have been inspired to get caught up in that department. And as I look at the list of books I need to review, I realize how far behind I am, so I will start from the most recent and work my way backwards…

The Help is awesome!!! I had been on the waiting list at the library for months for this book and it was worth the wait. It was one of those books that you want to keep going after it ends. I read it while we were on vacation and I am glad it worked out that way because NOTHING would have gotten done around the house if I had been reading it at home. I don’t want to give away too much, but it takes place in Mississippi in the 1960’s and focuses on a bunch of housewives and their maids, or help.

Summer People was okay. I think it’s what people refer to as a beach read. It takes place in Maine in a little town inhabited by lots of rich people in their summer homes by the ocean. The main character has been hired to take care of an elderly woman for the summer, but no one tells him about what happened with her last summer when she almost drove her car into the ocean or why she did it. I read a review somewhere that called this a “coming of age” story. I guess there is a little summer romance in there, so maybe that’s where that came from.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky…I really liked the first two-thirds of this book and then it fell apart after that. It was like the author couldn’t figure out how to wrap the story up, so it just kept going and going with no real direction. I would still recommend it though. The main character lives with her grandmother since her mother and siblings are dead and her father isn’t around. There is only one person who saw how her family died and he isn’t telling anyone.

Coop is a really cute non-fiction book about a man and his family trying to live off the land and the trials and tribulations that go along with it. I think one of the main things the author tries to get across to the reader is that living off the land is NOT easy. I would highly recommend this…the stories and anecdotes about the animals they raise and all of the mishaps that go along with it make for a very endearing tale.

The Middle Place…This non-fiction book was so hyped up for me by the people who recommended it to me, that I think I was expecting something more. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good story and you will need your tissues. (If I need tissues, it has to be good.) Kelly, as a young mother, finds out she has breast cancer, (See? Tissues.) but this book isn’t just about that, it’s also about the relationships she has with her daughters, her husband and most importantly, her father.

If you want to know more about these books, you can click on their images on the right under “My Library”.

The boys needed new tennis shoes since they can’t wear flip-flops to school, so off we went to buy some new shoes. Colm and I had a showdown in the shoe aisle at Fred Meyer over shoes, but I won and he did not get the horrendously ugly light-up ones that he wanted. (They were SO ugly.) Liam decided he is tired of velcro, so he will be learning how to tie his shoes this weekend. Yes, I know, it’s ridiculous. He should have that skill down by now.

Our kids have huge feet. What sizes will they be wearing in high school????

I can’t remember what’s happening here. I’ll ask Liam and get back to you. 😉

Colm has been begging to go play mini-golf since we moved here. Sean had one more day of vacation so we headed to the Family Fun Center where they have everything from go-carts to bumper boats to video games to mini-golf and much, much more.

The boys ended up getting a ridiculous number of tickets because they figured out how to play this one game and they just kept feeding it tokens and it kept spitting out tickets.

(Project 365-9/1/10)
How many times did the boys do the bumper boats? I have no idea. I lost track, but they were soaked by the time we left.

While we were at Cannon Beach, we ate at Pig ‘N’ Pancake a couple of times. It’s a cute little breakfast place and the boys fell in love with it. (We would have eaten there more than twice if the boys would have had any say in the matter.) On the last day, it was time to pack up and go and we still hadn’t found a souvenir for Liam….until we saw these socks.

Colm had been wanting to ride beach bikes, so he and Sean went and did that while Liam and I went and explored the sea life at Haystack Rock.

(Project 365-8/30/10)
There was a nature conservancy group there with binoculars and telescopes so that you could look at the birds way up on top of Haystack Rock. There are SOOOO many birds that nest there!

Sean has some really great pictures on his camera of the boys flying kites that I will hopefully get up soon too. I don’t know about most beaches, but Oregon beaches are WINDY and a fantastic place to fly a kite.