Getting ready for Halloween

Only two weeks left until Halloween, so we figured it was time for us to ensure that we got into the swing. We already had our pumpkins sitting near the front door, so it was time to get some spooky spiders webs up and happening, just to scare off those who want to trick or treat!

Anyhow - here is our albeit simple attempt at putting up some spiders webs. Cynfor appears to be scared ...

October already?!

Well, another year heading toward the end in a real hurry. We are not quite sure what happened to summer, but it did appear to sneak past in a hurry. Here we are in Autumn, and getting ready for Halloween - again! 

This will be our 3rd Halloween, so we are pretty much aware of what happens now. The kids still enjoy it, as do we getting prepared for it. This weekend just gone, we headed out to the pumpkin patch and got ourselves two nice pumpkins to carve in preparation for the one night where we trick or treat. 

Here are some pictures of our day. 

Some pictures from things that have happened in the past few months...

Unfortunately we have not been too good at making sure we uploaded all our pictures of things we have been doing. So, below are a few pictures of things we have been up to.




We had a BBQ at our house, with friends from Seattle and other friends from Portland. Here are some pictures from that night - which ended up also being a little bit of a surprise for Darren to help celebrate his birthday!




Autumn has arrived here in the pacific northwest, and here is Jessie outside of the school they have Chinese lessons in just showing off the colour. 


This was at Jenny's 40th Birthday Party. The birthday girl and Tara! (Like the tiara?) 

Although the boys did not win their soccer game, they still had a lot of fun eating Pizza and hanging around after the game! GO IRON! 

Our ripened tomatoes.

So, previously we had pictures of our GREEN TOMATOES, but here we have the ripened version, and lots of them. They are very sweet, and full of flavor. Nice job by Kylie planing them with the kids when they were here, and look at them now. Grown from SEED!

Cynfor's 11th Birthday

Cynfor chose to head out to Skyline Restaurant - which is an old American style "burger" Diner. It is something he has wanted to do for a while, but Jessie was not very happy when she heard. Anyhow, we ended up having a great night - even Jessie enjoyed it. Below are the pictures of our food, and check out the Burger's they were 6 inches (13.5cm) big! Huge! They were great, and we definitely enjoyed them. 

Tuesday was Cynfor's actual Birthday - which as you can see below, he was quite spoiled! The gifts came from everyone. He is still very excited about getting his new stuff out so he can play. He has already used his new boots - and looks forward to using his other things!

Check out out plants...

The plants below started from SEED and are now fully grown tomato plants. We are waiting for the fruit to ripen, but they are close. We have had one ripen already, and they are nice and sweet. Hopefully the rest are just as good. With the warmer weather staying a little longer, it has meant that the fruit has begun to ripen more. Sadly because the plants are not in the ideal position for the afternoon sun - they have taken longer than normal. We are looking forward to trying them out. (I think we will have more tomatoes that we will know what to do with!)

The travellers return...

Cynfor and Jessie have returned home safely after a long stay (all Summer) in China. They were both excited to be home, as well as enjoying their while they were away.



Here is a couple of pictures of them (after a shower!)

Showing off the new TV

Our trip to Vegas

Tara and I have just returned from Las Vegas. We left Portland on Monday night August 4th, and returned back to Portland the night of August 9th. We had a great time, and below are the pictures we took.

We stayed at "Treasure Island" which was very central to the things we wanted to do in the strip. We had tickets to both Blue Man Group and Love - the Cirque du Soleil tribute show to the Beatles. Both were amazing shows, and our hotel was next to both of the hotels where the shows were on. (So no need to walk to far in the Las Vegas summer heat! - YES it get's HOT!)

We spent a day at the Grand Canyon and seeing Hoover Dam on the way. This was pretty spectacular, and walked the Sky Walk - which is pretty amazing. Sadly, we were not alowed to take cameras onto the Sky Walk - so we did not get any pictures that we were able to post on the blog. (I will scan the picture that we had taken of us on the walkway though - and post it later.)

We tried our luck on the tables, we won some, and lost some - but all in all we had a great time. Both Tara and I did not want to return to Portland - but sadly all trips must come to an end at some point - and if we had stayed - we would have probably run out of money pretty quickly.

The buffets were amazing - most times we only ate once during the day - we would head out around 10am - 11am, stuff ourselves with the food from the buffets, and never need to eat again that day. Worked out well. The best buffet would have to have been The Wynn, Treasure Island was a close second, and the Mirage a strong third. We had also tried the MGM Grand buffet - but sadly that was not as good as the others.

If we kept eating the way we could for the Buffet we would end up the size of houses. There was A LOT of food. (AND very good selections)

Anyhow - take a look at the pictures.

Out on a Summers Day!

Today we headed out to Hood River to get some fresh cherries, as it is cherry season here now. Sadly the cherries are late this year, but we did get a nice drive in on a day which was around 35C. 

Below are some pictures taken of Mount Hood on the trip, plus some pictures of the flowers in the garden this year. We have been meaning to take pictures, but had not gotten around to it until now. The garden is looking pretty good. We also have several tomato plants that we planted from seed, and hope to have a good number of tomatoes off - so, when they get closer to giving us fruit - we will take more pictures. 

Back from Hawaii...

Well, it has been a great week for us spending time in Hawaii. We were on Oahu, the most common island as part of the grouping of the 8 major islands. There is surprisingly a lot to do there. There is a fantastic Polynesian cultural centre, which was amazing - where we had a Luau, watched a show, and were introduced to six different Polynesian cultures from New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Fiji and Tahiti.

We arrived back this morning to an overcast Portland morning, after being treated to sunshine for the most part in Hawaii - it was a little depressing. We have also confirmed the kids arrived safely in China - where they will spend their summer with their dad, and Tara's mum arrived safely back in Melbourne albeit delayed by 1 hour because of a delay in Hawaii.

Anyhow, below are some pictures from our trip!

Cynfor and Jessie - Piano Recital

On June 1st, 2008 - Cynfor and Jessie performed at their Piano Recital.

Here is the video of that recital.

Kylie, Stuart and Lachlan's visit...

Here are some pictures of the visit we are having at the moment with Stuart, Kylie and Lachlan. Although there are only a few pictures, there are more we will upload later.

Jessie's Glasses

Well, she is excited. She likes her new look. What do you think?

Check out the new furniture...

There is a large furniture company here which is going out of business. Last weekend, we thought we would go take a look - Tara had been looking for a new TV table, and a nice Coffee table. We took a look around at the store going out of business, and liked nothing. We went next door, to another store, and found something we liked. So, we now have a lovely TV stand, and Coffee table - which you can see in the picture below.

Surprise Party!

Thursday April 10th is Tara's 40th Birthday. We planned a "surprise" party for her, Saturday April 5th, 2008. Below are some of the pictures of the night - we all had a great time, and Tara was extremely surprised.

Jessie's Birthday

Today is Jessie's 9th Birthday - above is Jessie excited with her "home made" birthday cake. She helped make it on the weekend.

Below are some other pictures of the presents and her cake, even the new Piano in it's new home. We will upload some video of the kids playing when we can - it sounds lovely!

More evidence that spring is coming...

These have been cut fresh from our garden earlier today - we have more coming up, but the flowers are not showing. Don't they look lovely?!

New addition to the house!

For some time now we have been talking about getting a Piano to allow Cynfor and Jessie to ensure they get the right feel. For several years now they have been practicing on my keyboard that I bought in Hong Kong.

Last night we were invited to a Piano sale at a company which is closing one of its stores. They had many Piano's for sale, we saw a lovely Steinway Grand, which had been rebuilt completely. The original price of the piano would have been around $70,000 new - but it was on sale for $33,000. (It was used, but it sounded fantastic when played.)

We were not interested in buying a grand piano - we don't have enough room in the house for it, so we purchased a smaller upright piano. Below is a picture from the Yamaha web-site, when we have it delivered we will have some pictures of it in the house, and maybe even upload a video of the kids playing it!

Cynfor and Jessie played a lot of piano's to ensure they found the "right one" and obviously Tara and I were conscious of the money side of things. All in all, we got a pretty good deal - we feel. It should be delivered on Wednesday, and we look forward to hearing the kids playing it.

Spring is almost here...

We have found that we have a beautiful Daphne bush in our back yard. Here are some pictures of the flowers - the perfume is terrific, and with a small clipping in a vase in the house - the whole house smells lovely.

Cynfor and Jessie's Flute Recital - February 2008

Below is a video of Jessie and Cynfor performing at their Flute Recital. (Apologies for the spelling error on the title of the video - I did not notice it until it was already on the internet.)

Hope you enjoy!