Tulip Festival

Last  week we got to enjoy a few days of sunshine before the rains started back up again on Saturday.  So I decided to take Friday off and pull the kids out of school so we could head up to the Tulip Festival.  The last time I went was the first April after I moved here which was 14 years ago!  So needless to say, I had never been with Dave and the kids.  

Unfortunately the kids didn't find it quite as cool as I did.  Probably because there is a whole lot more "tulip" and not a lot of "festival".  So they found it a bit boring.  But we got some great photos!  

Here is the first field we visited before heading into La Conner for some lunch.

Mt. Baker in the background 

We ate lunch at the La Conner Brewing Company and then topped it off with some ice cream!  This was the kids' favorite part of the day.

By the time Jack finished, he was completely covered in chocolate - on his forehead, in his hair, all over his shirt, etc.  He got lots of laughs and comments from people walking by.  It took a long time to clean him up!  

We checked out one more field before heading back home.

You can see a little bit of the chocolate on the top of Jack's shirt.  That doesn't even compare to what the rest of the shirt looks like.  Somehow I missed getting a picture of the whole thing.

Pretty amazing colors!  I'm glad we got a chance to go.  I'm not sure I'll be able to convince my family to take me again anytime soon!  

Panini Party!

I have been part of a Bunko group with a bunch of my girlfriends for 7 years now.  Hard to believe!  We've had some girls drop out and new girls join, but about half of the group of 12 has been together the entire 7 years.  We get together once a month at one of our homes for dinner, drinks and a little dice rolling.  It is always one of my favorite nights of the month.  

April is always my month to host.  It's always hard to decide what to serve for dinner.  I'm not exactly a pro in the kitchen so cooking for 12 is a bit of a stretch for me!  The past 2 years I have been so consumed on a project at work that I've actually ordered catering instead of cooking!  But this year I decided to make up for the lack of effort and try something new.  Thanks to an idea I found on Pinterest (seriously, how did I live without it?), I came up with the idea to have a Panini Party!  See the original inspiration here.  

I loved the chalkboard signs she used so I decided to do the same.  I found this great tutorial (also on Pinterest) on how to create a chalkboard printable.  Once I got started, it was actually pretty easy to do and I loved how all of my signs turned out!

  
I found a few good panini recipes and got all of the fixings plus some extras so people could create their own.  We had lots of fun creating our masterpieces and even more fun devouring them!  Here are some pics from our fun night:

Beautiful ladies creating their Paninis

Time to grill!

For dessert I made a snickerdoodle cake with brown sugar cinnamon buttercream frosting - yum!  The recipe is also from Pinterest of course.  You can find it here.  If you decide to try it, you can probably cut the frosting recipe in half.  It made way more than I needed!

Here is a photo of most of our crew (a couple were unable to make it).  Fun times!  

I will definitely have another Panini party.  Other than shopping, a little bit of slicing, and laying everything out on platters, it was really easy to prepare.  Plus we had leftovers which made for great lunches over the weekend!

Seabrook

Last week was Kate's first official Spring Break now that she is attending elementary school.  So we decided we should try to head out of town for a little bit and have some fun.  I had heard good things about Seabrook, a newer little community that was developed on the Washington coast.  So we decided to check it out.  We found a cute little cottage that was available for a few days that allowed dogs.  

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and I instantly fell in love.  The town sits on a ridge overlooking the ocean and is made up of a bunch of brightly colored cottages, parks, trails and a few shops.  Everyone gets around either on foot or by bike.  

Our cottage wasn't ready yet, so we walked down to the beach to play for a bit.  There are a couple of trails from the town that you can walk down to get to the beach.  The beach is completely flat and was nearly empty.  We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves.

We headed back to check out our cottage and unload the car.  It was a tiny little place, but very cute.  The kids' beds were up in a loft that they had to climb a ladder to get to. They thought it was very cool, but it made us very nervous!  

That evening we had dinner at the only restaurant in town, Mill 109.  And, small world, ran into Dave's Uncle John and his wife Dianne as well as cousins Krista & Jared and their kids Abigail, Jack & Isabel.  Here are Kate & Jack playing with cousin Jack:

When we got back to our cottage, some neighbors were roasting marshmallows & making s'mores at the community fire pit and asked us to join in.  Who would pass up that offer?

The next day we rode our bike to the playground in the morning.

Then we went and played at the community swimming pool.

Then we got cleaned up and walked to the pottery painting studio for some craft time.

More bike riding and fun around town.

Worn out!

After resting, we headed back to the beach.

We had so much fun at Seabrook!  In fact, we have already booked a place for Memorial Day weekend.  And we are taking the Schufreider family along with us.  Can't wait to get back there!