royalmom

The rain started to pour outside right after they got their costumes on so the best I could do was a photo in the garage. Ack!

It was a thrift store costume kind of year. Isaac pulled out his pirate costume from last year. We should have given that boy a beard too! Xander is a “killer lumberjack,” Lotus is Raggedy Ann and Simon is a “Dark Lord.” That’s what the label read on the costume: Dark Lord. No clue what that means but he liked it.


With their trick-or-treating buddies, ready to head out .

Lotus is enjoying the Japanese language apps on my iPad and I had to capture the adorableness. It’s kinda long and one of those made-for-mom-and-dad videos but I thought I’d put it in the blog because that’s pretty much what my entire blog is. Ha!

We are planning a trip to Japan next spring and Lotus will be our translator.

The kids and I ventured out into the deluge to Portland for a play at the NW Children’s Theater. We saw Sherlock and then stopped by Voodoo Doughnut. The donut shop has become a popular place but we’ve never managed to go before now.

The kids all agree it is above and beyond our usual place, so I guess they are popular for a reason!

Oh, and the play was good too. Although, with no singing and dancing this time, Lotus had a tough time staying focused. Mary Poppins is next and I doubt there will be any trouble paying attention to that one!

Never mind the recycling mess but look at all this chopping Jason did for me! Usually once a week I have a list of food stuffs that need to get prepped: bread, a soup, roasted vegetables and maybe some type of snack/dessert.

The roasted veggies get mixed up into a serving bowl and kept in the fridge for lunches, sides and yumminess to throw into the breakfast eggs.

This week was a buffalo chicken soup recipe. It gets divided up into canning jars so we can grab individual portions out of the fridge throughout the week.

“Breakfast bars” aka granola bars to eat whenever…

Lately I’ve been making eight loaves of bread instead of four and stocking the freezer. Can you believe this only gives me a two week window? My family of six goes through four loaves per week. I use the amish white bread recipe but only 2 TBS of sugar and varying ratios of whole wheat to white flour…sometimes 100% whole wheat. It seems to work out alright.

This is from a couple weeks ago. The littles were rolling spring rolls for us. They like to help knead the bread dough too, my little helpers.

We bought this giant canvas for over the fireplace in the family/game room. Xander is having fun with it and learning a lot!

Isaac is all about the gaming and chatting with gaming friends online. He just finished Batman Arkham City and is now moving on to “I don’t know.”

Today I rode the last two sections of the Banks-Vernonia trail from Top Hill to Vernonia Lake. Now that I have finally ridden all sections of the trail (non-consecutively), I can say that the two sections into Vernonia are my fav!

It was a great, nearly flat ride and a gorgeous view at the end for lunch. Just me and the ducks…

I’d love to do the entire length in one go next, but no way I’m ready for the entire length AND BACK. Not with that 8 miles of incline from Manning to Top Hill.