Happy Thanksgiving

Here we are, cooking away. Turkey went in the oven at 9am....its name this year is Whitey....

Here are a few pictures of our day so far....Lucy took most of these.

Puerto Rican Cooking

Yesterday, Norma and I, (Marshall's Mom) made a Puerto Rican feast. We made Alcapurrias and Pastellios. The Alcapurrias are ground up green bananas and root vegetables with meat stuffing, fried in Olive oil. And the Pastellios are like a turn over, thin dough with meat or cheese in side, then fried in Olive Oil. So good. We made a ton and froze a bunch.

This has been a great bonding time for Norma and I, her sharing what she learned as a little girl living in Puerto Rico. It brought back memories of her mom and grandmother for her. This is a tradition that I want to carry on with my children, for them to remember the smells and togetherness of cooking with their grandmother and mother. And for them to learn how to cook great Puerto Rican food.

Thank you Norma for a great day!

Wrestling...Pictures!

OK enough about wrestling right? I know, but we are a wrestling family, that's what we do. We had practice last night and we got some pictures of all of us in action. Marshall and I were not planning on coaching this year, we just wanted to be parents....yeah right. So here we are, coaching. This time with no real responsibility of running the program. Thank goodness! So far the kids are doing great, they love it. Caymus has found kids his size to work with, this is a down side to being the youngest. And Lucy has a few girls to work with, they support woman's wrestling here at Cascade! Finally.

Nothing like being the center of attention! Thats me in the Red incase you cold not tell!

Chickens

On Saturday we added to our farm....we got chickens! (I know we are hardly a farm...but really we have lived in the city for the last 10 years so this feels like a farm!) We got 8 chicks, they are about 7 weeks old now. They are so cute and fun. They kids love them and in about 5 more months we should have eggs!

And here is an updated picture of our piggy! He is the big white and black one looking up a the camera! So messy and gross. Hope he tastes good!

Tree Farm Field Trip

Today Lucy's class went on a field trip to a Christmas tree farm. We are not talking little 2000 tree farm, (like ours) we are talking 250,000 tree farm.....oh my gosh! So cool. It was pouring down rain the entire time (it is November in Oregon after all), but we ended up being inside the work shop most of the time.

They showed us how they measure and mark the trees, how they shake them, bale them, stack and load onto trucks to be shipped all over. The farthest they go is to Guatemala! We then got to go out in the piles of cut trees and put little tags that the kids made on the trees. The tags have a little note saying that they were made by a kindergartner at *blank* school. And asking if the person who got the tree could send a note and or a picture of the tree. What a cool idea!

We also saw how they shear the trees, flock them and how they make wreaths. Then we all got hot chocolate and a candy cane. This was a super fun field trip and I can't wait to go next year!

Shaking the tree

Wrapping the tree in the bailer

So wet!The class

Wrestling

Today was our first wrestling practice of the year. Both Lucy and Caymus are doing it this year. They are so awesome! I think Caymus is the youngest on the team and Lucy is one of 2 girls. There were 45 kids there tonight. We will have practice Mondays and Wednesday for the next several months.
Our kids have been in the wrestling room and around wrestling since they were both babies, we never wanted to force wrestling on them and this year they both decided on their own that they wanted to wrestle.
Marshall and I are not coaching, just helping parents....we just cant help ourselves. This is a very well run program geared towards the little kids, it looks like it will be a perfect fit for us.

Last Game of the Season

Yesterday was the last home game of the season for the Ducks. It was a beautiful fall day. Cold and crisp, but clear. We made it to Eugene a few hours early and walked over to the Moshofsky center, loaded up on food and beer. Marshall is part of the Order of the O, (the association for athletic letter winners). They have a section of the hall partitioned off and have sandwiches, cookies and beer tickets. We filled up and headed out to the game. It was a great game against Arizona; we won 55-45.