Standing by...

Only 8 more hours to go. Can't wait to meet you, Lila.

Books...and zombies

For those of you who have been following along with this blog for a while now, you probably found yourself wondering, "Isn't it almost time for Bingham Book Day?" Well, you are right. It is.

If you are wondering, Bingham Book Day is a holiday we invented as an excuse to buy new books. We celebrate on May 5th, because it is easy to remember (the first several years of your marriage we could never remember which day was BBD) and because we are not Mexican and we don't drink margaritas. (Or spell margaritas...is that possibly correct?) Every year, we go to the book store, everyone gets to get WHATEVER book they want (even if it is annoying) and then we go to lunch. Last year was a lovely adventure, riding Portland's light rail to Powell's Books downtown and eating in the city. This year, since we (read: Amy) are moments away from giving birth and we know the local geography a little better, we went to the Powell's books that is 10 min from our house, and next to a 5 Guys. Clever.

It was so PAINFUL for the children to have to stand on those posts for a picture. There was much whining and yelling.

After the shopping, however, there was much sitting on benches and reading...Nice.

Then off to 5 Guys. Have you been here? If you answered "No" then what is wrong with you? In and Out can suck it, if you ask me. Their fries taste like fried paper. 5 Guys fries are the stuff that dreams are made of.

The waiting is the toughest part...but it is so worth it.

Doesn't that look good? And mind you, that is about 2/3rds of the fries. They dump an extra scoop in your bag. And they are toasty and crispy and have lost of those little overcooked fry bits in the bag. They're delightful. Possibly even de-Randolph.

Here is what we scored:
Amy got

Just Breathe by Susan Wiggs. A little light hearted and trashy, perhaps, but are you really going to read Anna Karenina from your hospital bed?

For me:

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith, because I love me some Zombies. His next book is going to be called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer. I love this man. I fell like this will really flesh out (no pun intended) my zombie apocalypse survival skills.

For Jonah:

and

Some surprisingly literary choices. Every year so far Jonah has picked some picture dictionary about trucks or dinosaurs. So these choices I like. We can actually read these at bedtime, which you cannot do with a picture dictionary. If you come to my house around story time, you will likely hear me yelling across the house "No picture dictionaries!" as the kids run to their rooms to choose books.

Noel, on the other hand:

and

I thought we owned every I Spy book on God's green earth, but no. We do not yet have I Spy: Little Bunnies until today. Swing is one of those animated books that I have to restrain myself from cutting apart to see how it works. And yes, I did say that everyone gets one book, but when your kids are begging for two books, can you really say "No?"

And for little Lila

which we apparently do not own. Crazy, I know. And no, she is not born yet. But wouldn't you be mad if you were just born and you found you had missed the book buying holiday by a week? Not fair.

Here's all the loot together:

The strawberries are from the Beaverton Farmer's market and the bread is Caramel Apple Bread from Bungalow Bread, also at the Beaverton Farmer's market. They were not farmer's. Just bread makers, but they let them in anyway, and thank goodness that they did.

Happy Book Day!

Jealous?

In case you had forgotten that this blog is really me raving about how much I love Oregon, I thought today I would rave about how much I love Oregon.

A couple of Saturday's ago, we took a drive down to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Farm for the annual Tulip Festival. And this is what awaited us:
Are you kidding me? It was amazing. And it was one of those sunny and warm spring days that is perfect for traipsing through the tulips.

Allegedly, we grow tulips here as cash crops. And by "we" I mean "Oregonians" not my family. Much like we grow Christmas Trees and berries. So if you are eating berries and looking at the window at tulips in your garden, they may have come from my neck of the woods.

Just in case you missed it the first time:
Our kids were much more interested in climbing around on rusty antique farm equipment because they are boys.
We did force them to pose for a couple of shots for the Grandmas:And my personal fave:
Their favorite part was being dragged around in some rusty barrels painted to look like farm animals behind a tractor.
This thing went FAST and there were no seat belts and it did a lot of swerving and circling through the tulip fields. I refrained from commenting on the lack of safety of the whole enterprise, but mostly because I was trying not to draw attention to myself. Seriously...Fat guy in a little cow.

So after some tire-swinging
Duck racing:

And family tram riding,
we headed home. Jealous?

May Showers

I was going to post about the baby shower that Amy just had, hosted by our loverly friend, Chanel. Then I discovered in addition to hosting the shower, Chanel has already posted a lovely recap - with pictures.

Please do enjoy: here.