Even more hiking.

This time we took the kids and Lulu on a 4 miler. Hard for Sam, but he did it with only one piggy back ride. Through a forest and over a butte. We had awesome views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Hood.

Another Gorge Hike

side note: the 90$ camera will be $90.58 to repair. Insert Belly Laugh. Guess we are out a new 100$.

Sam's big Party

Sam has been celebrating all month. He had his "real" birthday party with school friends at a huge indoor play area. The kids were dehydrated and exhausted after. Moms were overstimulated by the seizure inducing madness.
The girls chased the boys the whole time and kissed them! Seriously, kissed!.

The First "Real" Day of Summer

Carson and I had a cherry pit spitting contest....I let her win for good measure. Carson made a LoungeMobile out of the bottom of the wagon and our lounge cushions. We let the kids use the new Sidewalk Chalk from Aunt Lenora to graffiti the fence. Given the opportunity, Carson drew peace signs and Sam wrote, "I love my mom". I later saw Carson's "My Life Rocks" tag which makes a mom all warm and fuzzy inside. I am realizing that 9 year old girls are pretty awesome.

Oh Sam. How do we love you? Let me count.

The little man of the house. He is a quiet and thoughtful boy. Sweet and kind. Gentle and loving. He never really asks for anything but your time. He still loves to hold my hand and sit on my lap. He is the one who will take care of his mama's when we are old. Carson will manage our finances or something, but he will bring us cakes and cookies. We love Sam to the moon and back.

Storybook Character Day at school

Sam is the third (and smartest) little pig. Carson.....Harriet the Spy. Sam's tail takes the cake.

ok. finally done. almost

I worked for weeks on the backyard. Shoveling and shoveling the same ton of dirt around. Finally! Three garden boxes built. Level ground. Plants in. Chicken coop gussied up for the little ladies. I exhausted but in better shape than I have been all winter. Next plan.....the area beside the patio that has become a collection of all outside things. The barbeque is going to be front and center and then we are going to get the outside firepit set up there too. Yee haw.

Spring Updates

As you can tell, there isn't much time for blogging around here. I certainly don't know how anyone can have two full time working parents and have kids. We are busy and busy and busy. Summer break can't come soon enough to the Dody house. We are looking forward to camps and sleeping in and lounging together. I am going to teach Carson some cooking skills this summer. I don't know how I am going to do this because I don't really have any myself, but she can at least learn the basics.
School is busy for both kids and Carson continues to have exorbitant amounts of homework. Thank goodness for Yukie, the Japanese tutor, who comes once a week.
Sam's birthday is coming soon. It is hard for me to believe that he will be 6 years old!
I have been trying to get the back yard in some kind of order. After building the coop, the yard has been kind of a disaster. I have moved a ton (literally) of dirt and built some garden boxes. I want to get some yummy veggies planted and add another garden box. My goal is to get an asparagus patch going too. Here are some pictures of the coop and garden area so far. I took out the rose bush that is in the garden picture and am going to put another big garden box in it's place.

We are preparing for Shelby to move in. Shelby is my brother Steve's daughter. She is 21 and is coming to Portland to move in with the Aunties. We hope she finds lots of opportunities here. It is that kind of town! Who knows. Maybe she will open a "street cart" of some kind. A hair design cart just moved in up the street across from the Grilled Cheese Grill double decker bus!
We don't really have a vacation planned for the summer. The deal is......you don't leave Portland in the summer because it is so beautiful here then. I am hoping to plan a trip to Hawaii next fall during the rainy season.

Seattle Spring Break

long time no see

It has been a long time since the Dodyrollers have had time to blog about life. Our life gets busier and busier and it seems to go faster and faster. Our kids are growing up so fast I can't keep up.
This spring my newest nephew (21 year old Brad) came to visit for a week after he completed Cosmetology school. We had a great time and indulged a little too much whilst he was here.
Gramma Judy came for spring break and we went to Seattle for 5 days. The weather was great and we walked around everyday and found some fun stuff to do.
Ayumi has moved back to Japan and is living with her parents for a few months before she will return to Portland to go to school. She will be living with another family for a while. We have been preparing for my niece to come and live with us for a while. She is coming in June. She has had some trouble in the past and hopefully Portland will provide her some great opportunities to move forward in her life. She will have our family to keep her entertained. Carson and Sam are really excited for her to come. She will take Ayumi's bedroom which Carson has temporarily "taken over".
Plans are in motion for kid camps for the summer. They are gonna have fun!
We are looking forward to Grampa Dody's 80th Birthday party this summer. Sharon's family is coming from all over to celebrate!

Kindergarten Valentines

I love Valentine's Day. Not for the candy and flowers, but for the excitement of passing out valentines at school. This year, Sam finished his Valentines way ahead of schedule. They painted watercolor paper and then cut out hearts. So cute. I invited myself to the Valentine's Day Party in his class and watched the kids reading their cute little cards. Carson is an old pro at V Day, but it was new and exciting for Sam..... This is Sam and his friend, Cady. They are buds.

Temaki Party

The kids decorated the table and made everyone origami! We had temaki and soba. The Dodys, The Nickles, and The Kleins + Ayumi.

Temaki starts with a small sheet of nori. A scoop of sushi rice is added and then you add your favorite fillings (neta). We use carrots, cucumber, daikon radish, pickled daikon, avocado, enoki mushrooms, radish sprouts, sashimi salmon, tuna, and tofu. Then roll it up into a small burrito-like roll. Yum.

I am also getting good at soba and inari.

If you want to come to a Temaki Party.....Let me know. It is now my favorite dinner party to host.

PS. The last photo of the temaki roll was stolen from some web site since we didn't actually take pictures of ours.

New Year's Wishes

I am a little late on the New Years Resolutions and wishes gig, but life is busy with all 5 of us.

Some of my plans for 2011:

Less screen time (should be easy since Carson is always wanting the one computer in the house). I don't need to check my email 17 times per day.

Read at least 2 books per month.

Dinners with friends at least once per week.

Give up cheese. 17 days into January and I am not really noticing that I have given up cheese. Haven't had a craving for pizza yet though.

Listen more. Talk less.


Which one do you think will be the hardest for me?