Rory on the party circuit

Since first birthdays are pretty important, they are also worth celebrating. We most recently attended Eli Whitinger's (lisa truong's son) 1st birthday party. Rory I think has figured out that these events are more then just play dates and particularly likes the singing and the special treat that comes with the candle! As soon as she hears the song and sees the candle, her eyes light up and she starts saying MMMMmmmmm, MMMMMmmmmm. She does love Eli and liked helping him open all his presents. She won the pin the banana on the tree and dug her box of take-home goodies. She is becoming a pro at this stuff and is looking forward to cousin Quincy's birthday in June. Happy Birthday Eli!

OSU Spring game

A couple of weeks ago we headed to corvallis to celebrate Shahni's birthday as well as catch the OSU spring football game. For those of you not familiar, it is the greatest. The Beavers scrimmage each other so no matter what we win, tickets are only $5, you still get to tail gate, and the stadium is open seating so you can sit in great seats. It was super fun b/c this is the first time we got to see rory's reaction to all since last fall she was still fairly little. She of course was a champ and brought new meaning to tailgating. literally sitting on a tail gate but with sippy cup and banana instead of beer and brats. There were several highlights of the day other then the tailgating. my first fav (luckily no one got hurt, so it is just funny) was when pat was carrying rory on his shoulders to the game and ran her directly head first into a overhead pole that hangs the banner- it made my heart stop,but upon rory laughing we were all able to laugh as well. my next fav. was when the announcer yelled "James Rogers scores a touchdown" and Rory instantly threw her hands in the air. It was extra funny, b/c she kept insisting on having her own seat (one of the many reasons she may not attend many games in the fall) but wasn't heavy enough to make the fold-up seat stay down. So as she threw her hands up, she kind of got folded up in the seat- again she laughed, so we laughed. My last fav was our pre-game activity of attending OSU's vet. school pet day. It is essentially all the vet school students out there with all sorts of animals. they had a petting zoo, tiny chicks you could hold, horses you could ride, a million dogs, and a giant blow up slide to ride down. Rory was totally into it all. she loves dogs and usually I-spying just one can cause her to leave bruises on her chest as she does the sign for dog- with all of the dogs there i don't even knew where to start. She got to pet a duck, a goat, a horse, a huge irish wolfhound, and hold tiny chicks. Dad, linda and madi went with us and then brady and owen met us near the end. Owen loved the slide as did rory. she went on madi's lap the first time and then insisted on going alone- I was pretty impressed with her bravery as it was a fairly big slide- but she loved every minute of it. Pet day will definitely be a new spring time tradition! It also totally got me excited for football. soon enough, i don't want to wish away summer.... ~Brittany

Solo SR trip

So Pat and I had a free weekend near the end of April and so we decided to head to Sunriver. It was a weird time b/c it wasn't cold enough to ski, but not warm enough to swim or bike, so that combined with it being just us with no grandparents or visitors made for a very quiet and relaxing trip. We hung out, I went shopping, we cooked all our meals, went to bed early and hung out at the park with Rory. All in all an uneventful trip, but I thought it blog worthy due to these pics from the park. She tried the swing for the first time and was able to "pump" her legs to be a self-sufficient swinger- very cool. She also became obsessed with the slide and made pat send her down it like a million times. All the sudden the choice on the maloney's part to buy the house next to park instead of on the golf course is looking like absolute brilliance. Enjoy the pics. ~Britt

BBQ

I can almost smell our future barbecue adventures. We have taken on the project of putting pavers down in our yard. Home Depot quoted me some ridiculous amount, so in true Sahnow fashion, we decided to give it a go on our own. My family friend and old boss Gary has been helping with the technical aspect and we have called in lots of favors to get helpers. Although it looks at this point like a giant sand box, you can not believe what it has taken to get us to this point. over a 1,000 lbs of debris dug and wheelbarrowed out, over 20,800lbs of gravel and sand wheelbarrowed in and lots of sore muscles have gotten us to the point where we can start to think of what to do with the 4 and 1/2 pallets of pavers. I had no idea the mass amount of just moving heavy objects this was going to entail. the good news is that it should be done (weather permitting) in time to have some great bbq this summer. stay tuned for updates and get ready to help us prove that the work was worth it- we plan on having lots of company! ~Brittany

Zoo Trips

So we have been hitting the zoo a lot lately and I wanted to add some pics from various trips. Rory and I took Mandy with us one time (yeah for mandy being in PDX, and for having some time off! She just graduated from medical school, congrats Dr. Mandy) and another time we went on a Sat (talk about a zoo!) so that Madi and Pat could join us. Anyway, it is super fun to take her these days because not only is she totally thrilled with all the animals, she is getting more signs for animals, so she goes to each exhibit and signs the animal. It is really cool to see her make connections in that little brain of hers as well as be so able to communicate her thoughts. It is also super cool to see the animals respond to her. there have been several times when she will stand by the glass and an animal will come up and check her out as much as she is checking them out. Somehow they are drawn to the babies. I love the zoo in the spring b/c the animals are out when it is a bit overcast, and the crowds are generally lower. Also, Rory is totally growing taller, she is really confident in her walking and so she loves to just cruise all over the zoo, the stroller becomes just storage space. Joanne has been taking her on their days together too, so Rory is also very familiar with the gift shop. I don't think they know her name (I recently took her to a toy store near joanne's house and they recognized Rory and asked who was I and why do I have her.- I guess they have been shopping a lot!) yet, but she acts like she owns the place. It is pretty funny. Later, BrittPS- notice the beads, I am not kidding, they are a permanent fixture these days!

Yeah for the return of farmer's market

So it's not Rory's 1st Farmer's Market, but the first that she was old enough to enjoy. This has once again become a favorite weekend activity. The only down side is since we moved we can no longer walk and now we are one of the people who has to drive into the city and park miles away and be mocked by old us. We did a lot of mocking of those driving/parking when we lived downtown. Anyway, these pics were cute of miss Farmer Rory. ~Britt

Mardi Gras

So I have been terrible about blogging lately, mostly because we are in the 2nd half of the term, so I suddenly have midterms to grade and a final to write, and actual work to do while at home. I will try to get caught up as well as be better from now on. So recently we were at our new home away from home HUB (Hopworks Urban Brewery). It is super close to our house, is totally green, serves great organic food (pizza, burgers, etc) and really yummy original organic beers, and best of all is totally kid friendly- so you can see why we basically live there. Anyway, we were there for dinner and Rory was totally flirting with this table of 30 something guys. Well of course she was wearing an assortment of accessories (she will not leave home w/o beads, glasses, hats, or some combination on her person) so they started calling her Mardi Gras. "uhoh here comes mardi gras again." they were really nice to her, but Pat was less then thrilled with the nickname or the bead wearing for that matter. (wait til he sees that I put up naked mardi gras pictures!!) I think this story lost it's point somewhere, so I will just add the pictures. THese are all from april and demonstrate her new love of accessories. sorry for the rambling... ps- I especially like that her beads frame her tummy- I am sure that this picture will torment her

someday!