Family Outings

While some days I like to laze around the house, never even bothering to get out of my pajamas, I know that our family gets a little restless if we don't leave the house on the weekends.  This weekend, I found lots for us to do.  We started on Saturday morning at the Portland Farmer's Market.  I seriously love this place.  It is by far the very best market I have even seen.  There are millions (or a hundred-ish) vendors selling the most beautiful produce, fabulous flowers (the dahlias are unbelievable right now), and delicious food.  To be honest, we really go for the prepared food.  We have a favorite vegan/gluten-free bakery that only sells their product at the market... so we can only get our fix once a week.  Now, if I am declaring love for a vegan/GF bakery, you know it must be great.  I usually only endorse full gluten-containing products with lots of butter in them, but Petunia's really knows what they are doing.  Delish.  Carter surprised us by finally having a decent trip to the market.  I totally get that it isn't his favorite place.  There are lots of things he can't/shouldn't touch, it is super busy and he has to stay close to us at all time - not his favorite things.  But, I'm a firm believer that even though he doesn't love it, he still has to come and behave - we shouldn't have to skip our favorite weekly outing just because the dictator 5-year old says so.   He was rewarded by a lengthy visit to the adjacent playground, which was full of kids that had been dragged to the market by their parents.

On Sunday, we all went to a street fair.  Portland is so much fun.  Every weekend there are a huge number of great family-friendly activities to choose from, and one of my very favorites are the street fairs around town.  This weekend, the Hawthorne neighborhood had an incredible street fair - complete with kids' activities like face painting and rock-wall climbing, good food, bands, and businesses displaying some cool stuff.  Charlie was amazing - he had an awesome power nap... for 3 HOURS while we walked around.  Didn't wake up once!  Carter rode his new razor scooter around, chatting up every person he saw, and even attempted to climb the rock-wall.

It was a great family weekend.  Now, back to single parenting, as Chris gets ready to head out of town tomorrow morning until Thursday night.  4 days with my 2 boys - and no more summer camp.  Uh-oh!  At least it'll probably give me something good to blog about!