Another Beautiful Summer Wedding

We attended another summer wedding last weekend. I feel really bad, but I honestly don't remember the names of the bride or groom. The bride is the niece of our good friend Dan. Armando also knows the bride from childhood. They are a young beautiful couple and you could feel that they are deeply in love. The ceremony and reception was held in a beautiful garden setting in Oregon.

Here are the newly weds just after exchanging vowsElaina (flower girl) with Esperanza Oh my, she's actually posing for a picture! Bride and her father. Look at that womans dress! Stunning!
This is quite possibly the best family picture of us ever!Tracy and I spent a good part of the ceremony chasing our kids around

Twins, Esperanza and Gavn (when e's hair is down, they really do look like siblings!)

Esperanza loves her daddy

Dan, Tracy and family (two of their kids are missing but we replaced one with Esperanza)

Feeling Crafty

Typically, my hands are kept busy during the summer months by diggin' in the dirt, planting fall crops, weeding, or just sitting in the middle of my garden watching it grow and munching on things as they ripen...by this point in the year I'm usually picking the fruit of all my labor and cooking it up in the kitchen. I don't like to dwell on the reality of my garden this year, so I will simply say that my garden and I have not treated each other well lately. So, to keep my hands busy elsewhere, I've been working on various crafty project over the past couple months. Here's a peak at some of my little projects...

Lots of knitted wash cloths and a stack of napkins I sew up Curtains for the playhouse Bean bags! I sewed up about 30 of these and included one in each of the gift bags for kids that came to Esperanza's birthday party last month. They are pretty cool!
Mini-muffin size melted crayons. Also added these to the party gift bags. Great for the little toddler hands. Green & purple knit headband fits Anycia like a glove!
A hat I knit for a friends new baby girl (looks good on my childhood doll my mom made me)
A fun red wool hat
This was my first felting project. I knit it, felted it in the washing mashine, sewed up the sides and put a button on it. Turned out amazing and is my go everywhere purse now! This is still in the works...a computer bag for George's laptop. I'm second guessing my handle so it's still sitting around waiting for inspiration.
I'm also back to knitting 'the sweater'. I took a break from it because I thought I had made a huge mistake. Thinking I had to undo a huge part of it to fix it, I set it aside. After taking it in to the knitting shop last week for help, turns out there's no mistake at all, so I'm back at it. There are also a few other random knitting project I'm working on, but they might be gifts (as are some of these) so maybe I should keep some things a surprise.

Sandy Beaches

We took a last minute, end of summer trip to the beach the other day. Because our last beach camping trip wasn't as comfortable or enjoyable as we all had hoped for, we got a room. We stayed in a nice little condo unit Mando found for really cheap. It was right on the beach and within walking distance to everything we wanted...food, the horse carousel Esperanza LOVES, a mini-train ride, the swing set on the beach, window shopping, and of course people watching. If we leaned far enough over our balcony, we even had a sweet view of the ocean. After a full day and night at that beach (Seaside), we drove to Longbeach/Illwaco to attend the kite festival. It was really windy there, which was good for obvious reasons. Thankfully, the sun was out, making our visit to the beach that much better.

I know the kid looks pretty darn cute, but check out the sky!

A Day At The River

One recent 90+ degree day we met a bunch of family up at Armando's Uncle Rafael's property to relax by the river. The property has private access to part of the Lewis River with a really nice swimming hole. We only made a small handful of trips to the river this summer, mostly to the Washougal River. And when we have, neither Esperanza nor I have felt like actually getting in the water. I had thought the same would be true for this day so I didn't even think twice about putting a swim suit on or even packing one. Good thing Esperanza's swim suit was already in the car from one of the last river trips. As it turned out, Esperanza warmed up to the freezing water step by little step and eventually got to the point where she didn't want to get out.
We had a really nice afternoon in the water, in the sun, eating good food and visiting with family.

You want me to get in that cold water? Yeah right!

Ok, maybe I'll play next to the water...but I'm keeping my dress on. Mama got half the swim suit on me, but I'm not going in the water until Zeke does. I've decided the only way I'm going in is if I'm naked.

Ha, ha! I'm naked & mama's got all her clothes on.

Blueberry Picking

A few weeks ago we went blueberry picking. Geneva's kids, Armando, Esperanza and I all enjoyed eating about as many blueberries as we brought home. Unfortunately, it was close to the end of the season so the blueberries weren't huge or overly plentiful. We still managed to get some good ones and had fun at the same time. My freezer is stocked for the winter and I'm back to adding blueberries to pancakes, hot cereals, yogurt parfaits, or just a nice snack of frozen blueberries on hot summer days...mmmm. As usual, the older kids, Angelica & Antonio managed to disappear every time my camera came into view...so no pictures of them. Here is our day in the blueberry field.

Anycia reaching for the good onesHmm, should I pick the blue ones or the green ones? I say green!

Esperanza's Birthday Party

A couple weekends ago, a group of our friends and family gathered at our house to celebrate Esperanza's 2nd birthday. We spent a lot of time preparing for her party and it was all completely worth it. Armando's mom Angelina stayed the night before the party and spent all the next day making tamales. It's a lot of work! I wish I could say I helped her, but I didn't. I was cleaning, baking a cake, helping watch babies, and doing last minute stuff for the party. Esperanza took a nap and got up with just the perfect amount of time left to get ready and greet her guests as they arrived. She had a ton of fun and enjoyed every last bit of the celebration.

Birthday girl happy and excited about her party!

Long skirt dragging and looking oh so Princessy

Attempt at a family photo

Anycia, Celeste, Giselle and Lily

2 mama made birthday cakes with 2 pretty candles

Opening gifts

Her first 2-wheeler!Snuggle time with Elaina

Pinata Time!

Esperanza and all the kids had fun hitting the pinata and picking up all the candy

Mando got Esperanza her very own mini-pinata also...here it is hitting her in the face
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate. Thank you to all that helped, to those who endulged Esperanza with gifts and to all that love her, near and far. It means so much to us and to Esperanza to have such amazing friends and family.
Oh, and don't be surpised if she is wearing this same outfit at her 3rd birthday party - I LOVE IT!!!! Thankfully, she does too.