September Shenanagans

Madelyn is officially two years old. I'm quite sure I will say this every year, but I can't believe it. I can't count her age in months anymore. She's looking more and more like a little girl and less and less like a little baby (thank God for night-time--she still looks like a baby when she's sleeping!). The little nuances of her personality are emerging every day. And most amazingly, she decided four days after her birthday that it was time to use the potty...which she has done without accident for three straight days now. Who could've guessed that Mommy and Daddy would get a gift for Madelyn's birthday too?!!

Kurt took her birthday off of work, and the three of us had a fun day together. We visited the playground at Washington Park in the morning and then took our pancake-loving girl to the "Original" Original Pancake House for lunch (even Maddie "mm-mmm'd" when she tasted their pancakes!) Amazing!


A couple days after her birthday, Madelyn got to spend the weekend with Nana and Papa while Kurt and I ventured up to Seattle to see Pink Martini with his parents and sister at the Chateau St. Michelle winery. If you have never had the ear-candy delight of listening to Pink Martini, you must leave your computer immediately and download all of their albums. This post can wait, people :) They are native to Portland, so Kurt and I have had the fortune of seeing them several times. They always put on a marvelous show, but what could be better than sitting on a lawn surrounded by rolling hills covered in grape vines whilst sipping Chardonay and Cabernet Sauvingon? With fabulous company! We had a great time (in spite of the horrifically intoxicated floozie, er, woman sitting next to us who finally staggered out behind her husband mid-way through the second act. Honestly. Why pay all that money for a ticket when you're not even going to remember the event? Whatev.) Kari played quite the hostess, and I left her apartment on Sunday with a list of adorable decorating ideas. Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend for us, and Maddie enjoyed the full attention of her Nana, Papa, and Auntie Kelsie, so she certainly wasn't missing us much (though she did cry for us before bedtime, which, admittedly, made me feel kinda good). We are so blessed to have our parents close by so we can all have little weekends like this--thanks to both of our families! (p.s. We don't have any photos of our trip to the winery because evidently, the winery falls just below Langley on the security scale and we had to take all of our cameras back to the car. Grrr.)

Finally, here are a couple of photos of our house. The first is from April 2008 when we pulled up the front lawn and planted some new plants. The second is from just a week ago. Amazing how things grow, hey? We look forward to planting even more in the front yard next spring, and we're also planning a major overhaul of our backyard. Fun stuff.