Birthday Breakfast

After having gone out to eat for lunch on my birthday I wasn't that hungry at dinner time to go out for birthday dinner.  Jim had a Cub Scout meeting at 6 p.m. and Tessa was in a One Act play at school at 7:30 p.m. so there really wasn't time any way.  So I picked up some chinese food and ate it on my bed watching TV while Jim had his meeting downstairs - and loved it! 

I told Jim since we didn't go out for birthday dinner he could take me out for birthday breakfast on Saturday.  We went downtown to Mother's Bistro.

 The place was packed but we only had to wait about 5 minutes for a table since there were just 3 of us.  I guess they knew it was my birthday!

The food was delicious.

 I had the Belgian waffle with gingered pear compote and whip cream - yum!

Tessa had the blueberry pancakes which were delicious and huge - as big as the plate!  Jim had a yummy egg scramble with basil, tomato and proscuitto.

And there was a message for the college kids on the mugs!

Maybe we can stretch my birthday out a little bit more.....

Birthday Lunch

A group of friends treated me to lunch on my birthday.  I chose to go to a new restaurant I hadn't been to before, Paragon, down in the Pearl District.

Thank you to all my sweet friends who joined me!

Jeannena brought me her Queen Bee crown from her birthday party and insisted I was now the Queen Bee!

For lunch I had an amazing grilled cheese sandwhich and tomato soup - it's the restaurant's speciality!

I just thought the waterbottle looked so pretty with the sunlight!

After lunch we wandered around the Pearl a bit and into a few shops.  We also got a yummy red velvet cupcake at Cupcake Jones for dessert!

It was a perfect way to spend part of my birthday - great food and friends!

50th Birthday

You have probably already seen these photos either on my Facebook page or on my other blog but I wanted to share them here too because this blog is our family history and I wanted it included.

On the Saturday before the kids went back to school we were going out to dinner for my birthday.  Instead we ended up at my friend Shauna's house!

Except we weren't the only ones invited!  About 50 of my friends were waiting for us!!

Jim, the kids and my Beach Babe friends had planned an amazing 50th birthday celebration for me!

We were greeted by this life size menu.  Dinner was delicious thanks to the help of a lot of my friends!

A real Italian feast!!

My Beach Babes and a few other friends worked hard in the kitchen.

There were so many of my wonderful friends there to celebrate with me.

Jeanette, Daurie and April

My parents were there and neighbor Debbie and Hannah Osborne

Friends from church - Cherilyn, Pam and Tracy

and several of my CM friends too - Debby, Lee and Dustin Lazarone and friend AMy

Sweet friend Cathy and her husband Tom came to celebrate too.

I was so surprised to see Anne Vingelen, the boy's first grade teacher and her husband John there too - I was so excited!

The kids put on a great program.  Logan and Cali did the 12 hours of mom's day.

On the first hour of mom’s day her to do list said….

One ten mile walk in a weighted vest

Two Webinars

Three Scrapbooks

Four care packages

Five diet cokes

Six grocery store visits

Seven trips to Anthropologie

Eight million pictures

Nine books to read

Ten recipes to cook

Eleven phone calls to kids

Twelve new blog posts

Their actions and words were hilarious.

Clark and Tessa entertained us with a skit about Jim and I in another 50 years!  They had us pretty much pegged!  Jim was complete with his plaid shirt, mustache and baseball cap and I looked very stylish in my pink satin robe and fur and 3 pairs of glasses!

Jim and my mom had a list of facts about Leigh Anne to share with everyone.

and Merrill sang the song Impossible Dream with some new words!

“To write the unwritable blog, to bake the unbakeable bread, to live in the Garden of Eden…..

Logan made everyone cry when he sang a sweet song from Fiddler on the Roof called “Mama, a Rainbow.” The words start out, “What do you give to the lady who has given all her life and love to you? …..What can I give you, what will your present be? Mama young and beautiful, always young and beautiful. That’s the Mama I’ll always see. That’s for Mama with love from me.”

After the entertainment Jim gave me his birthday gift for me.

A total surprise!  A 10 day trip to England!!

I will fly over and meet Cali after her study abroad semester and tour around for 10 days - I can't wait!!

We then had birthday cake - my favorite - lemon poppyseed creamcheese from Beaverton Bakery!

And then we had a birthday toast!

It was a perfect evening!  Especially because I got to share it with these people!!

Culinary Adventures

The Saturday before the kids headed back to school Logan, Cali and I decided to have a little Portland Culinary Adventure. Jim, Clark and Tessa were invited along but they said they were busy (later found out they were plotting surprises!!!)

Portland has been getting a lot of press lately (Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and The Oregonian) about their food carts. Food carts are popping up all over town! There is a new area of food carts over on N. Mississippi in Portland so we decided to check them out.  Many culinary school graduates are opting to open food carts instead of restaurants in the Portland area so there is some good eating to be had at food carts!

Because it was the holidays, a slow time of year for them, a few of them weren't open but we managed to find some good eating!

Just like Portland the selection of food was very diversified and eclectic!

The area is great because they have a covered table area so even if it is raining the food carts are open.

We each agreed we would get something different so we could try lots of things.

We started out with some yummy curried potatoes

which we bought from this nice man....

I had read about the Monte Cristo sandwich from the Good Egg so figured I better check it out after it got rave reviews - not only did it have ham and egg on it but blue cheese too!  The coating on the bread was so yummy!!

Logan went for the pizza (can't remember the name of the food cart)

 which was so good - a very thin crust topped with sausage, kalmati olives and onions.

Cali seems to have the most eccentric tastes in our family and she chose the Vegetarian option - the Gravy Bowl.

It was a combo of green onion, rice, soy curls and gravy that was described as "gravy on crack"  The soy curls were actually really good.  They have a good texture and flavor.

Since the food cart with desserts and treats wasn't open we decided to take a little trip on the way home to the Waffle Window over on Hawthorne.

We shared a hot fudge sundae waffle.

Next time we'll explore the food carts in downtown Portland!

Logan thinks when he is rich and famous he will retire and open a food cart!

New Year's Eve 2009

Our New Year's Eve was a little different this year.

Usually we host a Soup's On Party at our house but we decided to "reallocate" funds this year.

Instead we volunteered to help out at the Faith Cafe.  It is a hot meal program that was started by a church in Beaverton.  A hot meal is served to whoever is in need every Sunday eveniing and the last Thursday of the month.  Our stake has adopted it as a service project for the year, each ward taking it's turn to help out.

Our ward's turn was New Year's Eve.  I was the head cook!  In order to help in the kitchen you had to have a food handler's license.  It was an easy process.  I just went online - read the handbook and took the test and paid my ten dollars.  Fortunately I passed.

The Faith Cafe is in a church in Beaverton and fortunately they had a great kitchen.  The Faith Cafe is basically a soup kitchen with dignity.  Tables are set up and decorated with center pieces.  Volunteers not only cook the food but act as greeters and servers, bringing the food to the guests.  The servers then sit down and eat with and visit with the guests.  While I cooked in the kitchen, Jim and the kids were servers.

All the food is donated.  When we showed up there was  a cart full of food and a list of ingredients - no amounts or recipe.  We created a Fiesta Chicken with rice and beans.  It was served with chips and salad.

Attendance was low the night we were there so there was plenty of food for the guests to take home with them in take out containers that were provided.  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun too - a wonderful way to end the year!  I look forward to helping out again!

After we were done at the Faith Cafe Jim and I headed over to our friends the Burks for a game night.  We had fun playing Murder and Whoonu with several other couples in the ward.  Tessa went to a friend's house to party and watch movies and Logan, Clark and Cali headed out to Mt. Hood Community College for a Young Adult New Year's Activity.

Cali went out with some members of the "Crew".  I told them they should not drink and drive!

The boys went out with Grant and his girlfriend and they all had a fun time.  They had all kinds of big inflatable games to play.

 Here are the Sumo wrestlers!

Of course Cali got in on the fun too!

and then there was the mechanical bull...

and then the inflatable rock wall!

Getting all geared up!

and here is Velcro Girl!

and Velcro Boy!

Happy New Year - 2010!!