Dayzdtomato: Aaarggg, Another One Bites the Dust!!

So I have a couple weeks to catch up since I devoted last weeks post to the PWCL Safety in Numbers event (and rightly so). Last Saturday, we partook in our first official Pirate festival. This is an annual festival held in a park beneith the St. John's bridge. It was great! Lots of stuff for kids, including hundreds of people dressed as pirates. Dressed in our shorts, t-shirts, and sneakers, we were the exception.

Despite the coats and cold-looking weather, it actually wasn't too bad. The kids even had ice cream.

Course Siena had ice cream...on her coat.

Here's a shot of the St. John's bridge from the Pirate festival, as well as some fun facts about the St. John's bridge (for the maybe one of you that enjoys my history lessons):

The bridge was built within 21 months and one million dollars under budget. At the time of its completion, the bridge had-
--the highest clearance in the nation,
--the longest prefabricated steel cable rope strands,
--the tallest steel frame piers of reinforced concrete,
--the first application of aviation clearance lights to the towers, and
--longest suspension span west of Detroit, Michigan.

It has also recently been renovated and a couple of my Kinney ancestors had a hand in its initial construction.

There were many blow-up pirate themed jumpy areas for kids. Course, only Siena was brave enough to go jump in them. She LOVES these things!!

There was an area of juggle balls, foam swordes, and ribbons for kids to try out. These guys had fun with those.

Here's Siena trying to figure out how the swirling ribbon works.

Daddy was able to provide the necessary hula hoop lessons for the kids. Shake those hips Honey!

And of course, Rogue was the sponsor. For anyone unfamiliar, Rogue is BY FAR my favorite brewery, and trust me, I've tried a lot. For any beer lovers, I highly suggest trying this establishment. There are restaurants in Newport, OR and downtown Portland. My personal favorite is the Shakespeare stout.

Last Sunday, we also attended a neighborhood end of summer party hosted by my carpooling buddy Robert. We got to meet a lot of neighbors and plan a couple tentative play dates for the kids. I was also invited to join the Oak Grove Girls (OGG) which, as I understand it, is a group of neighborhood ladies who meet for potluck monthly.

As a financial gal, of course all of the financial news of the last couple weeks has been fascinating. I have followed it closely. Nothing like watching a historical institution like Lehman Bros. close up shop while others like AIG get bailed out. I think many of us saw something brewing a couple years back with all the loans and subprime boom. It was obvious that a bubble was bound to burst. However, I don't think anyone expected this big of a burst. And yes, the new house next to us is still unsold and is the property of WaMu...

or is it...as of Friday it looks to be the property of JP Morgan...

In happier news...HOW ABOUT THEM BEAVERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And if the Beavers unexpected victory wasn't enough of a Thursday bliss...SURVIVOR STARTED!!!!

This weekend was quiet. By quiet I mean that we only had like 5 outings. I took the kids to Party City yesterday so Siena could choose the theme for her upcoming 3rd birthday party. There were lots of lovely little girl party themes to choose from.

Would it be Disney princesses?