Spring Break getaway

Spring break, Seattle style......brrrrr! We all wore our puffy vests. Quite a rainbow of colors! Chris, Nate and I went to Seattle for the weekend to hang with Aunt Susie and the cousins. We had lofty plans of a ferry ride and other Seattle excursions, but we due to the awful weather we spent most of our time at the Cotter household....which was perfectly fine! We ate lots of yummy meals and the cousins played together.

We did squeeze in a quick trip to the zoo on Sunday morning and the best part was watching the gorilla mama and her baby. Seriously...it was about the cutest thing I've seen in a long time. I could have stood there all day watching them and their human-like qualities. Cute, cute, cute.

Cousins cruising at the zoo.

Dance party!! Now I know what life is like for all of those households with 'tweens and their love for High School Musical soundtrack. Oh my.

6 years

Today is our 6 year wedding anniversary. As they say, time sure flies when you're having fun! Dan had a good idea for how to spend the day, so we took the boys for a drive to Forest Grove to show them where we got married, and have lunch at McMenamins Grand Lodge. They thought it was cool. They ran around in the room where our ceremony was. They liked the ramp to the upstairs of the main building. It was our first time back there since that very perfectly fun weekend.
Happy Anniversary, Daniel! Here's to many more. :)

Welcome, Little Mezmur!

We're getting a new neighbor tonight! Her name is Mezmur and she is about 8 months old. She is coming here all the way from Ethiopia. Our neighbors Autumn and Dan (and Rhett!) have been gone for the past few weeks on a trip to Ethiopia to adopt her. The boys and I made this welcome home banner for their door, because as you can imagine, we are giddy with excitement to meet this child. Welcome to your new family, Mezmur. They will love you more than you can ever imagine! You can read more about her, and their travels, here.

T-Ball has started!

Tonight the boys had their first t-ball practice of the season. They have been waiting ALL year to play ball and be on a team. Several of their friends from preschool are playing with them, so that makes it even more fun.

Meeting Coach Carl and some of the other players. It was a rainy and cold practice, so they used the covered area at Faubion. Hopefully, next time they can get on the field.

posting the easy way

I am going to take the lazy way out of doing a posting of our visit with Aunt Leann and Uncle Frank. You can check out what we did here on their blog. Thanks, Leann!

(K)night Rider

Dan made a deal at dinner tonight that if Chris ate 3 broccoli bites, he could go outside and ride his new bike in the DARK at NIGHT. Somehow, Chris rose to the occasion, and his reward was granted. He rode up and down the sidewalk to 'old jeeps' and '2 rocks' by the light of the moon....and a quickly attached flashlight.

5 year olds sure know how to par-tay!

Chae, Tyree, Luka, Esiah, Chris, Aidan, and Nate.

Turning 5 was lots of fun. Chris and Nate chose 5 of their best buddies from pre-k to celebrate with at Out of This World. They played hard, ate pizza and cupcakes, and were completely sweaty and exhausted when the party was over. This picture captures them all in a calm state of being....which was a rare moment. Blow, Nate!

Keeping with tradition, Nate and Chris made their own cakes for the birthday celebration that we had with family. Frank and Leann (they traveled all the way from Tampa to be here), Andrea, Allison, G'ma, and G'pa all came over to eat lunch and celebrate.

Chris made a beautiful cake with 5 red candles.

What were YOU doing 5 years ago today?

We were welcoming some new members to our family.

Nate in all his glory...all 3 lbs., 11oz. worth!
Chris looking not quite sure what to think of this new gig.
Happy Birthday guys. We love you more than you can possibly imagine.

meals on wheels on bikes

This scene out of our dining room window today at lunchtime made me smile...it's so very Portland. Our neighbor, Jack, lives across the street and gets his lunch meal delivered every day by Meals on Wheels volunteers. The duo that worked today delivered his hot meal on their bikes. How cool is that?

Nate reads

Here's Nate reading the book Ted and Fred Go Camping. Great story...but even better reading!

Chris reads

Christopher reads The Gingerbread Man.....first time through with no practice beforehand with these books for each boy. Needless to say, we're really proud of them.