I'll take my cake and eat it too!

Happy birthday, babe! The kids and I love and adore you and hope that you had a great birthday. Thanks for sharing your cake with us.



Jeff requested a homemade German chocolate cake after his birthday dinner of Navajo Tacos...de-lish!

Jeff had a birthday...shout hooray!!

Last night Jeff and I went to a Maroon 5 concert to celebrate his big 34th birthday. I really, really like Maroon 5 so when I heard about this concert being the night before Jeff's birthday it was perfect! The concert was a lot of fun and we enjoyed being there even though we weren't wearing skinny jeans! :) Me and my honey enjoying the show Maroon 5 LIVE! Adam Levine, the lead singer, wearing his skinny jeans!

Never too young

Somewhere there is a picture of me when I was about 4 and I am trying to push around a huge Kirby vacuum. I have used that picture many times to tell my siblings that I was doing chores way before they had to. Where is that picture? Today Stratton didn't want to do his usual job of dusting, so I asked him if he wanted to vacuum. His enthusiastic "YES!" made me smile. Out came the Dyson and the camera to document the fantastic occasion. My hope is that down the road a few years, Stratton will be having a conversation with his sisters about how they think he never had to do anything around the house and he can pull out a picture to prove them wrong! The girls take out the garbage and sooner than later Stratton will be helping with the dishes. At our house we are equal opportunity chore providers!

Lights out! Well, sort of.

There is a story to be told with these two pictures. It goes like this...a few weeks ago we had company and Cascia got booted out of her room and onto the couch in the bonus room. She was fine sleeping there, but that room has an arched window that doesn't have a blind covering it and as a result the summer sun came into that room really early waking Cas from her slumber. I jokingly told her that she should use the eye mask that Jeff was given on one of his trips across the Pacific. She thought that my idea was brilliant and started to wear the eye mask which helped her to sleep longer in the early morning illuminated bonus room.

Well our company left and Cas returned to her own room and her own bed--with her newly acquired eye mask. Since then she has worn the eye mask every night even though her room doesn't get the morning sun! A couple of nights ago Jeff and I were checking on the kids before we went to bed and this is what we found in Cascia's room...



That darn eye mask doesn't always stay where it is suppose to! Jeff readjusted it so that it work as intended. We wouldn't want Cas to wake up before she had to!

Stratton's got a new job!

Most afternoons (while the weather holds out) the kids spend in the cul-de-sac playing, riding bikes, racing their scooters or like today--delivering newspapers. We had several newspapers in the garage that hadn't gone out in the recycle bin yet and Stratton decided that he would load them up into the back of his dumptruck and go deliever them to the neighbors. He would throw them onto the drive-way, move to the next house, throw another and so on until all five houses had their Wall Street Journals for the day. The fun wasn't over though. He would then go retrieve all of the papers and repeat the process. He spent a long time playing newspaper delivery boy. I can see a future here!

The well used Tonka dump truck full of newspapers waiting to be delivered

Stratton making a delivery at our house

He got really upset with me because I kept getting in his way to take pictures...this was the last one that I took!

Gimme a P-I-C-N-I-C!!

The weather here in Portland has been unseasonably nice, so after I picked Stratton up from preschool today we headed over to Tualatin to have a picnic with Jeff. Every month or so, Stratton and I will pick Jeff up from work and go to lunch. It was especially fun today because we had a picnic at the park and enjoyed the wonderful sunshine. Stratton had a blast and didn't want to leave--not a big surprise there. It was great to be able to spend some time with my boys!

Stratton and Jeff enjoying a little lunch together

They climbed and climbed all the way to the top!

Hey, Stratton!

Me and my Stratt-boy

It's time for a shower...a baby shower!

This past Saturday I gave my friend Julie a baby shower. It was a lot of fun to have everyone over and enjoy their company. We didn't play one single silly baby shower game but we ate a lot! I decided to do something a little different with the food and made fondue. There was dark chocolate, caramel, and triple cheese. Let's just say that it was de-lish and I ate way too much! Julie's baby boy is due within the next week so we are all anxious to meet the little guy. Maybe we could have another fondue party to celebrate his birth!

Me and a very ready-to-be done-with-this-pregnancy Julie

A group shot of most of the friends that came to the shower

Let the School Year Begin!

It really is disappointing that Summer has come to an end. I never feel like Summer is long enough. There is so much to do in such a short time. The kids were excited to head back to school, I think. Cascia is in 5th grade this year (crazy!) and Presley is in 2nd grade. The girls are in a brand new school this year which is really nice. The old school was torn down during the summer and we've anxiously watched as the finishing touches were put on the new school--and continue to be still. Stratton is back for another year of preschool at New Hope Preschool. It is a Christian based preschool and he loves it because they have train tables there! He really doesn't ask for much. It's been a busy week with school starting, piano lessons (Presley had her first one this week) and also fall soccer getting started. I'm not sure that I am ready for all of the running around and playing taxi driver. Ready or not...here it all comes.

Cascia-a big 5th grader

Presley-an adorable 2nd grader

Stratton-a very cool preschooler

One last summer day

Today is the last day of summer for the Kersten kids. Tomorrow it will be back to school so we just had to spend the morning riding the Willamettet Jet Boats. These jet boats seat about 50 people and take you for a great ride up and down the Willamette River-which runs through downtown Portland. We rode the jetboats last summer and the kids liked it so much they wanted to do it again. Today's weather wasn't as warm as we had hoped for riding in a boat. It was a balmy 62 degrees! I thought that since it wasn't so warm the driver of the boat would be kind and wouldn't get us wet. That wasn't the case at all. He took no mercy and we walked off the boat very wet and quite chilly. Eventhough we had wished for a warmer day, we still had a lot of fun and will certainly put the jetboats on the list of things we have to do again next summer!

Hold kids--it's going to be a fast and wet ride!

Presley said that she felt like a turtle because she had to wear a life jacket

This is going to be my next home here in Oregon. It is 15,000 sq. feet and sits right on the river. It has an indoor pool and and outdoor pool, five levels and has never been lived in! Sign me up!

This is Willamette Falls and is where the tour ends because to get above the falls you have to go through a series of locks. The falls aren't too big but the kids liked them.

The Fruit Loop

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day here in Oregon so we decided to get out of Portland and head to The Fruit Loop. The Fruit Loop starts in Hood River, which is about an hour away from our house. There is a road that makes a loop around the Hood River Valley and on that road there are numerous fruit stands--hence the name--the Fruit Loop. It was great to be outside, stopping at fruit stands, buying deliscious fresh peaches, and enjoying the day together. We will have to go back in a few more weeks when all of the apples and pears start to come off.

Presley and a HUGE sunflower

Cas hanging out--being cool

One of the fruit stands had these little ride-on tractors so we all grabbed one and raced around the parking lot. The kids thought that it was super fun and didn't want to leave.

The day ended with a stop in Odell for icecream!