My 35th Birthday!

Last Thursday was my 35th birthday and I thought it would be fun to go downtown and have lunch at Todai in Pioneer Place.

Here I am practicing my chopstick skills!

This is the REAL reason why I love Todai. Don't get me wrong, the other food is great, but these tiny desserts are a real treat. They even had green tea icecream!

I was also served a mini birthay cake which I shared with everyone. It was just the right size considering how full we were already.

Me and my family on my birthday.

Crazy girls trying to immitate the sea creatures in the window display.

On Friday I had an 80's themed party. My pictures are posted on my Paper Caper's blog if you are interested. Here is the direct link to the 80's party post.

Dan's "Surprise" Party

I almost pulled it off...except I made the mistake of including the kids in the surprise party plans. How else could I explain all the fun things we were putting in our cart at the party supply store. I had no choice really...

Just days before the party, which was to be held a few days after Dan's actual birthday, we were all sitting in Dan's new hammock. Without thinking it through all the way, I told Zander that this is the new hammock we got Daddy for his birthday. To which he replied... "I thought we were having a surprise party!"

Well the cat was most definitely out of the bag now and instantly Dan and I just turned to each other and started laughing...well actually we were laughing so hard we had tears coming out of our eyes...then we looked at Zander and could tell it was hurting Zander's feelings, so we had to comfort him and let him know we weren't laughing at him.

Okay, so that brings us to the party. Our friend Scott came over to go "golfing" with Dan, but they actually went to the gym and met up with 3 of Dan's other friends to play basketball for 3 hours. When they were done playing, they got their goody bags which included Gatorade, a protein bar and a gym towel my mom personalized with their name and a basketball.

Then they all headed back to our house where more friends and family were waiting to eat dinner. I cooked up some chicken in the slow cooker and made rice and everyone else brought sides and salads.

Surprise! Here is Dan walking in wearing his old high school basketball jersey. I snuck it in the gym bag I dropped off with Scott the night before. (On a side note, I finished the painting in the hallway finally!!! This is the new lighter color.)

I made this poster to look like a high school poster and hung it up right as you walk in the door.
Then around the corner was this faux Blazer jersey...doctored up by Scott and Debbie.

Here's Dan with his Letterman's jacket on.

And here I am wearing Anne's high school cheer leading skirt. She and Dan went to the same high school, so it was perfect!

Many of our friends came dressed up in athletic gear too. (Scott and Debbie)

Here are the Parkers in their UofO gear.

Angel wore his high school jersey too...he and Dan were treating us all to a "gun" show!

Hanging out...
Watching the NBA finals.

And let's not forget the cake. This time I decided to serve Dan's favorite donuts instead of making a cake...he loved the idea!

Dig in!

Happy Birthday 35th Dan!

Happy Easter

The Gish family, visiting from Idaho.

It was so nice to spend Easter services at church with our long-time friends. My sister Toni and her husband Chucky also surprised us by attending Easter service with us. It was a great and very moving service.

After church we hosted Easter lunch with my family. Mom and dad were both sick, as was John and Brandon, but everyone else was able to make it...even my preggo sister Andrea.

Here's Aaron and his crew. The girls were so cute with their curls, and you can see Becca's missing bottom tooth

Here is the Ernst family in our new Easter attire.

Becca and Alexis brought thier cute bunny, Cocoa and all the kids took turns holding him.




My parents bought the ham and potatoes (for potato salad) and I turned it into lunch!

Our pretty Easter table

That's it for now. I have more photos, but my hard drive is so full, I can't import them into iphoto...to be continued!

Catching up with the kids

On Wednesday, Natalie was invited to a Japanese themed birthday sleepover at our neighbors.

Natalie thought I was weird for putting chop sticks in her hair, but I could tell she was relieved when she opened the door at the party and all the other girls had chop sticks in their hair as well. I was surprised to learn after the party that Natalie was teaching her friends how to hold and use the chopsticks. I guess she did really well in a game where you have to pick up Kix with chopsticks, so they all wanted to know her tricks!

Here are all the neighbor girls (minus one who arrived after we took the picture)

Here is Zander at his Preschool spring program. His class was singing that monkey song that goes "five little monkeys swinging from a tree...teasing Mr. alligator, can't catch me..."

His class all dressed up in monkey hats and tails and looked so cute! Here you can see Zander doing the hand motions for "along came Mr. Alligator quite as can be...SNAP!"

A week filled with friends and family

On Tuesday Dan and I hosted a dinner for his former boss and co-workers from Portland Advertising and Design. This is a really great group of guys...and some serious story tellers in this bunch.

Dan, Stan (former boss), Mo and Ben.

I've been camping with Mo and Ben (and Dan of course!) and they are super funny. Stan loves to talk and we would always yak on the phone when I called for Dan. Sometimes I would talk with Stan longer than with Dan! Anyway, it has been years since we have all seen each other and it was so great to catch up. I was still recovering from my cold, so Dan even made the dinner...well, most of it anyway! For the past (I'm guessing 6-7 years) Dan has designed and updated Mo's website for his door and window company. You can check it out here...and be sure to call Mo if you ever need windows. Mo will be flying to Egypt (where he was from originally) to get married in a week or so. As it turns out Ben is a very talented painter and has some of his paintings here. I think they're great, you should check them out.

Last night we had our friends Shawn and Katie over with their 3 kids. It was great catching up with them and having their kids over to play too. Sadly, I left my camera in the car and don't have any pictures.

Today was my nephew Brandon's first birthday party so in keeping with the Roush family first birthday tradition, my sister borrowed my lamb cake mold and made Brandon a lamb cake! I bought it at an antique store, but it's the same cake mold my mom used for our first birthdays and I think even my grandma used one for my dad and siblings.

"...and he saw that it was good!"

Brandon got lots of goodies for his birthday, so I'm sure he will have plenty of fun playing with everything.

...but really...who needs toys, when you've got grandpa?

Brandon couldn't get enough!

...and it looks like grandpa was having fun too!!!

Not long after we got home from Brandon's party, we were out the door again to a surprise 50th birthday party for our friend and neighbor, David.

His wife had him pick up his brother at the airport and David had no idea that we were all waiting for him when he arrived home.

The kids, especially Zander, were drawn to the live music (mandolin and guitar). These musicians were top notch and really set the mood.


A big ol' piece of cake (angel food I think) for the birthday boy! It was a fun party and Dan and I got to mingle and meet lots of great people.

Okay, this is totally off topic, but I'm noticing that my photos look a little grainy on my monitor...Do they look that way to anyone else? Last weekend, my display stopped working on my digital camera, so I can't see the photos until I upload them and for some reason, they seem a little lower res than I am used to. Let me know what you think.