Backyard Fun

We have had some very lovely summer weather lately and our backyard is a great place to hang out. Check out Jason churning the compost and Kathe climbing in the tree.

We are doing lots of urban farming this year. We've had a lot of lettuce, peas, green beans, blueberries and herbs. Now the corn and tomatoes are starting to look edible. When Ike sees the tomatoes he says, "APPLES!" and tries to pick them. Corn on the other hand really does look like corn especially in the photo below. Not quite ready to eat and who knows if it will taste good. We can always turn it into chicken feed.

Our neighbors planted a beautiful trumpet vine on their side of the fence, problem is all of the flowers bloomed on our side. Good for us, bummer for them.

Not wanting to post without including a photo of the boy, here is Ike munching on some cheese...

Keep on bloggin'

I'm trying, really I am! This blogging biz is a lot of work. I don't know how those millions of bloggers out there do it. I mean ya gotta take the photos, ya gotta upload and edit them. Then ya have to think of something snappy to say! And, besides is anybody reading this blog anyway? Sheesh!!!!

Well, the latest news is that Moms is taking a photography class. So she's actually learning how to use that fancy digital camera and even develop her photos on the computer. Her favorite subjects, of course are Kathe and Isaac (see below).

Back on the horse (literally)

We heard you missed us, you really really missed us so we are back by popular demand. We know you can't get enough of us Blumklotz folk, so we are back in the saddle and ready to regale you with the details of our lives. Since you haven't heard from us since the beginning of 2008 there is a lot of catching up to do. How 'bout we just give you the summer highlights. The photo above is of Beth and Kathe in Sunriver, a beautiful resort community in Central Oregon. We spent a week there celebrating Grammy's 70th birthday. One of the highlights, as you can imagine was the horses!!!! If you ever get the chance to talk to Ike on the phone his favorite thing to say is, "Big horsies, Sunriver, black one..." Is pretty cute...

Here we all are in beautiful Sunriver!

After Sunriver we returned to Portland to celebrate two special birthdays - Ike's and America's. Here are Ike, Kathe and Jason getting the cupcakes ready.

Here is the birthday boy enjoying his cake!

Out here in the Wild West it is not only legal for regular folks to set off fireworks, it is encouraged and Monroe St did not want to miss out on the fun. Here are Jason and Jordan getting ready to ignite our arsonal of dangerous and frightening fireworks.

Even small children are allowed to play with fire in Portland! Check out Kathe with her sparklers! She was a little nervous at first (see photo w/ Grammy below), but once she got the hang of it here was no stopping her!

Later on all the neighborhood kiddos (the Monroe St Mafia) came over with glowy sticks. Since it was still pretty light outside, Jason took them all to the bathroom to see if the glowy sticks really worked!

Smiling Ike

Some readers of this blog think that Ike is a sad little guy because there are so few photos of him smiling. "Au contrare," we say. Nothing could be further from the truth! Not only is he the cutest little boy in the world, he is also the happiest as evidenced by the following photos. See for yourself!

Here is Ike yukkin' it up at Kathe's birthday party...





Here's something that always makes Ike happy, BALLOONS!!!!


Finally here he is laughing and smiling with one of his favorite people, Grampy!

See, he really is a happy little guy!

Grammy's Birthday

We ended our holiday season with Grammy Joyce's 70th Birthday Celebration on December 30th. She insisted that she didn't want a party, but we couldn't resist. Here she is on her special day.

Here are Beth, Jordan and Kathe making extra special cornbread to go with Grammy's birthday chili.

Here's is Grammy's beautiful birthday cake!

And finally, here are shots from her rockin' party! Ike really loved Grammy's balloons. He calls them "boons" and he loves to play with them, even while he's eating.


Here's Kathe giving us her superstar smile!

Kathe and Auntie Mel!

The Williams Family!

Happy Birthday Grammy - we love you!!!

Happy Holidays - Part 2

Christmas around here is a VERY big deal. The Blumklotzs (and the Williams) go all out. This year we extended the holiday as long as possible and yet we still managed to get Grammy's decorations put away and her tree recycled just after the New Year. I know much less busy families who still have all their lights up and it's already the 5th!

Here are Jason and the kiddos on Christmas morning. They are dancing and singing because they're so excited to go to Grammy's and open their presents!

After a delicious meal with the whole family we spent most of the day opening presents. As mentioned in our last post we got this fantastic camera. Kathe got a way cool bike. Here she is riding around the neighborhood with Jordan. See it doesn't rain here all the time. In fact we even got a little snow on Christmas!Not to be outdone by big sis, Ike got some cool gifts too. Including a real drum (not a toy one). It turns out that he is a real music lover like his daddy. He often stands next to the stereo and shouts "more, more" meaning, put on some more music so that I can get down and boogie. He loves to bang away on it (so does Kathe as evidenced by the photo below).
A few days after Christmas Bryan and Melissa invited us over for a holiday party.We had lots of fun playing with their Wii , watching Frosty the Snowman, eating, juggling and harrassing the pugs (Ike especially liked that last part).

Here are Jason and his lil' sis Beth enjoying each others' company.

Jeff posing with the nutcrackers.

Grammy and Jordan.

Beth and Jordan, adorable as always!

Maia enjoying Ike's company while he wonders if she is trying to steal his ball.

Kathe decorating the mini tree

Happy Holidays - Part 1

It's 2008 and our first resolution is to keep in touch with you! We hope to keep you posted on all the Blumklotz comings and goings, ups and downs and ins and outs. We just got a brand new teeny camera for Xmas so we've been taking lots of photos. No more excuses, we promise . We had a really great holiday season with family, friends, food and festivites galore. It all started out with a very fun Halloween. Take a look at the two cutie pies below.


Here are Ike and Kathe on their way to a very exclusive Halloween party at ultra hip Black Wagon (our friend Sarah's kids store). Ike is dressed as Duke the Dog (Duke is Kathe's favorite stuffed animal). Kathe, of course is dressed as Lucy the Elephant.

Hannukah
This was the first year that Kathe really got into the spirit of giving - that is us giving gifts to her. She did indeed get lots of cool stuff. Including the pink leotard and tutu she is wearing below. She also enjoyed playing dreidel and collecting gelt. In the photo below she had just annihilated Paul at dreidel as evidenced by the column of gelt displayed on the table. She's our little winner! Don't you go believin' any of Paul's nonsense about that trick dreidel either!

In addition to nightly games of dreidel, we ate nightly piles of latkes. Aryne rivals only her grandmother Jean in latke making. You can tell by Ike's expression that they are delish. Kathe's expression tells another story however....

Perhaps the best Hannukah present of all was a trip to the zoo for Zoo Lights. As is our tradition we went with Oliver and his family. It was loads of fun. It was Ike's first year, but he quickly decided that it was worth staying up late for.