Yummy, Spaghetti Salad

Years ago there was a restaurant on my college town that made the most amazing spaghetti salad. The restaurant was called Jacobis which is where my bro-in-law went on a date with the cute girl who is now his wife, which is why they have a cute girlie with the middle name Jacobi, which is why I remember the name of the said restaurant for this blog post. Whew! Anyway, SPAGHETTI SALAD is an amazing concoction of noddles (rope noodles as Wylie calls them), Italian dressing and any veggies you have on hand to toss in. A big bowl of it is chilling in my fridge right now getting ready for steaks to be grilled. I can't wait.

If my kids hear a movement in the kitchen they come running. They needed a bit of a snack!

Exploring

The family and I just spent a few days on the coast of Oregon and Washington. Todd and I have been learning about Lewis and Clark and we were looking forward to visiting the National Park near Astoria devoted to their stay in Oregon (check out Todd getting his badges and taking his NP oath). We also checked out the area's lighthouses, great restaurants, military forts, beaches and places that The Goonies were filmed. Astoria is one of our new favorite ocean side towns. Our next stop was Ocean Shores, not a new favorite town, but we still had fun. The highlight was a great trip to the beach this morning to play.

Things That Make Me Happy

If you look to the left you will see my ever growing list of things that make me happy. One of the items on the list is planning a vacation, love it. Jacy and are eagerly planning and anticipating a weekend trip with the boys. It's a small road trip, but one that should be a hoot for me and my history loving kiddo, Todd. Look for upcoming pictures, there will be tons of them.

Ruffled Up

I enjoyed a great cooking class with my friend Jenn and Mom yesterday. We followed our lesson up with a trip through the mall and I fell in love with these adorable shirts from JCREW.


I was not so fond of the $80 price tag so I will watch for a sale rack at the end of summer and see what I can snag. In the mean time I remembered a great blog I visited last week, www.katiedid.squarespace.com, and bloglifted an idea from there for my own "ruffly" shirt. I am amazed by that blogging mamas sewing skills and creativity. If you want to see the adorable ruffle dresses she made look up the flower collar tutorial.
My intentions for a large ruffled area were stopped by bed time and a 2 year old in the need of a cozy so my shirt ended up with a lot less of a collar and more of a corsage. Not bad though for some left over fabric and a shirt that I wasn't thrilled about wearing any more.

All Aboard

The boys and I had the chance to visit the Snoqualmie Train Museum two weeks ago and we had so much fun. I have to admit that I love taking Todd out of school early. It makes us both so happy to be loading up the car and leaving while everyone else is hard at work. I try to keep the gleefulness of this to myself, I don't want to be a bad influence.

Yeah, It's Book Club

I love my book club! I meant to take my camera and take a picture of all my mama friends at book club, but that will have to wait until next month. I love how the group has welcomed new members while keeping the cozy and safe atmosphere needed to have a great conversation. This month we read the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Pie Peel Society. If you haven't read it (you being the 8 people who actually read this blog) PLEASE do and call me or email me and let's chat. It is one of those books I want to make everyone I know read. It's that good.

Mother's Day

Mother's day is always special around here. I am lucky to be the mama in a family of boys who like to make me feel special and loved.

Couched

I mentioned in an earlier post that Jacy and I ordered a new couch. I am so excited and am having a hard time keeping the couch I have in the house. I would like to toss it out even though the new couch doesn't arrive for about 8 more weeks. I put up a picture of our new one above. We chose a different color (blue) but it doesn't look as good on the computer as it does in real life. I also put up some fabric that I bought today for pillows. I love the green and will choose one of the other colors in the fabric shown and find a stripe as well.

Carded

Toddo has been asking for his own library card for months and was so excited when we went to get one yesterday. He proudly filled out his paperwork and chose just the card he wanted. Oh, the joy a little piece of plastic and several thousand books can give.

Alki

Wylie has been feeling under the weather this week. He has had a bit of a fever and grumpiness. He was in desperate need of a trip out. You know when you are sick enough to stay home, but not sick enough to stay in bed? That's W this week. Jacy and I needed to help them burn off some energy so we headed to a wide open, empty beach where boys with runny noses and coughs can play without casting their germs on others.