Last Weekend in September

It started with this, way back in April.Over the next five months we've slowly kept working on Missy's little back bedroom, evenings and weekends, whenever we had the time, the money and the energy - the latter not a given with two fractious youths leaping about the place...Just in time for autumn, we completed the exterior of her room this weekend.Mojo wanted something a little dressier than the plain rectangular mouldings built on the rest of the house (remember this was the Gimcrack Tract House of 1922 - while it's practically Street-of-Dreams quality for 2008, it was the cheapest and quickest means and methods at the time it was built) hence the crown moulding at the top and the trick ledge moulding at the bottom. Fiddling little bit of woodworking and not anywhere near cabinetry standards, but then, it's also outside the house.Peeper and I stopped at Portland Nursery on Saturday and picked up the beautiful chain downspout and the workmanlike black plastic rainbarrel.We all are pretty happy with the finished product!The interior drywalling is pretty much complete, too, so this fll we can pick away at things like the wood ceiling, taping and plastering, fixtures, flooring and painting. Still LOTS to do!One more look before we go.But that wasn't all we did on this busy last weekend of the summerhere's Missy in the car going to dim sum with our friends Brent and Janelle - yay, we love Brent and Janelle! (the Peeper has got a little crush on Janelle and a little man-crush on Brent.)

And we ALL loved Janelle's "No War on Myrack" T-shirt. We're convinced, Janelle; an attack on your rack would be a Boob-boo that would Live in Infamy!

And the dim sum was, as always, mighty tasty.

We were multiethnic this weekend - on Saturday Peeper and I (and our friend M, along with the endlesly adaptible Brent and Janelle!!!) went to North Portland's annual Polish Festival.

This was along the way of going to Laurelhurst Park to play, Portland Nursery (described above), Happy Valley (because I was @!#!%%^! working AGAIN this weekend), Oregon City (to put my work equipment up), "Toys R Us" in Clackamas (for a present for Peeper-friend Harry's birthday) and then back to NoPo for the Polish...

We had a pleasant brief Polish visit. Once you've seen a polka and had a pieroge and a cabbage roll you've pretty much done Poland (charging tanks with lances, while all very cultural, isn't the sort of thing you can really do for entertainment).

So we played with the wooden zloty for a bit, had a roll in the grass or three, said goodbye to M (always cheerful and fin despite the fact that her inamorata was laid out by the Horrible Creeping Crud that we all got this spring - ugh!) and rolled on home to get ready for Harry's birthday party!

We found little Missy cuddling in the laundry!(Seriously, this is from Friday night - what a cutie!

But we had a great time at the party.

Missy discovered Smarties.

Peeper puffed out his birthday puffer repeatedly.

We all swam (we were the only parents who did save one. Are we dorks, or what?) d had fun in the pool - Missy even swam a little!

And we all had cake and ice cream - yay!

Here's the Peeper as he was all evening - blowing on his party puffer.

He's going through the difficult, awkward five-year-old time, half devil and half child. Old enough to know that there's a lot he isn't allowed to do but too young to understand why he can't. He gets very angry and frustrated a lot, and we've been doing a lot of "NO, Peeper!". It gets wearing, I think, for all of us. I'm hoping that six will be better, but he's a dominant Peep, not a submissive one, and I'm not sure.But these two sure look happy, don't they?

The summer continues to wane, with the last roses forcing out against the cooling nights.

I'm starting to see fallen leaves on all the side streets. The mornings are crisp, even after a hot day like yesterday.

But out tomatoes are still going like mad. Lovely to have them, and we keep putting off uprooting the plant (which got so lush it knocked the tomato frame over) because it seems like we get little bit more garden bounty each week.

Here's the cutting board last night - a crisp summery weitzen and the tangy red explosion of flavor beside it.

Mmmmmmm.

I stuggled a bit - between the work and the play there was little chance to have time to myself this weekend. But overall it was good. We grew a little more as a family. We all had time together: Mojo and I, Peeper and I, Peeper and Missy, Mojo and each of the kids.

And there was even a little time for me and my Baby Girl.And we even got to see Thor and her Mommy and Daddy!

But that's another post.