Winter Work Day

A neighbor boy raked every single leaf off our yard on Tuesday. Today we got 26 lawn-mower-grass-catcher's-worth of leaves in the can before we had to dispose of leaves elsewhere. By the way Amelia, we need you to drop by and climb up on the leaves in the can to compress them.

Impromptu Fall Baking Day

It didn't start off to be a baking day....but it is. I made the batter for spicy pumpkin pancakes and Paul cooked them. Here are the leftovers....they are delicious.

Then I made Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cookies with the leftover pumpkin. (We love pumpkin, can you tell?). Paul baked those while I cleaned out some teacher file drawers.

Then, since the oven was hot, Paul made baked savory garbanzo beans to snack on.

I had really only planned to make peppermint biscotti today and that is what is in the oven now. It's safe to say that if you stop by we can offer you some homemade goodies

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Little Blue Eyes

If you haven't been checking Alli and Ben's blog then you missed this cutie.

Isn't he great!!
(Double click on the image to make it bigger)

Positively Possum Cute

We woke up to visitors in our backyard. They didn't stay long after this picture.

Portland Tour Day

Alli, Ben, Paul and I started the day with a visit to Sanborn's, which was a neighborhood restaurant in the Hollywood section of Portland. Their specialty is homemade everything from the sausage to yummy biscuits. Not to overshadow the biscuits but we had to choose from 4 homemade jams too: blackberry, strawberry, blueberry and yes, raspberry!

Sanborn's

After that we visited OMSI to check out the submarine exhibit. We got there too late for a tour so we will return on another trip but we did get to walk around and know it will be a fun visit. Next we went to the Japanese Garden for a walk in this peaceful setting that reminded all of us of our trip to the orient three years ago. Then we walked down to the rose garden which although fading after the rose festival last month, was still beautiful and a great walk. Next we drove the area looking at houses and visiting an area Alli and Ben like in either Beaverton or Hillsboro, I don't know which. We picked up some Oregon blueberries to have with pound cake and cream for dessert. Paul and Ben bicycled to Blockbuster for a movie and we were set.

The Japanese Garden

P.S. Bicycling is HUGE up here with lots of trails, routes, clubs and signs. One must be very aware of bicyclists when driving as they are everywhere. The weather has been very nice so I guess everyone pulls out their bike. I didn't know that when I took up cycling with Paul that we were apparently in training to be Oregonians.