Stumptown Birthday Weekend

This weekend Kevin and I headed to Portland for a kid free birthday celebration. Kevin turns the big 3-5 on Tuesday and for his present this year, we headed back to Portland so he could celebrate with friends!

We started out the weekend with dinner at Bridgeport Brewing in the Pearl. Twelve of us in all met up to toast the birthday boy and have dinner. Afterwards we headed over to Pips and Bounce, a super fun bar outfitted with a ton of ping pong tables. We spent the evening playing, enjoying each other's company and possibly enjoying one to many shots of tequila.

The next day, I was hurting pretty badly, so Kevin met up with his friend Matt, while I napped and tried to feel like a human being again. I met up with the boys and some more of our friends later in the day for dinner and drinks. We hung out for a bit before heading back to our hotel for a much earlier evening.

Sunday we woke up, headed to one of our favorite old brunch spots and spent the afternoon walking through Portland before jumping on the max and heading home to our favorite two year old who was spoiled all weekend by his nana and papa.

The Easter Bunny visited a day late (better late than never!) since we booked the weekend away before realizing it was Easter weekend.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

Lincoln and I do a lot of baking together. Baking and cooking has always been something I really enjoy and I love getting to include him as well. I also might have a pipe dream of turning him into a mini chef one day.

It's not unusual for us to find ourselves in the kitchen on a Sunday afternoon baking up a batch of cookies, muffins or cupcakes. However, I'm trying to find ways to bake without always having the extra sweets around. This weekend, we had bananas that were browning and I immediately decided to whip up some banana bread. This isn't your normal banana bread though....this is double chocolate chocolate chip banana bread. And in an attempt to make it slightly healthier, I made it without sugar!

I adapted the recipe from What's Gaby Cooking. Original recipe is linked below. You can find my modifications below! Toddler tongues not included ;0)

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
adapted from What's Gaby Cooking 

1.5 brown bananas
1/2 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup organic maple syrup

1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips + a few extra to sprinkle on top.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with a nonstick baking spray.
Blend the butter, maple syrup, egg, vanilla extract and bananas in the bowl
Add the flour, baking soda, salt, cocoa powder and all of the chocolate chips. Mix together. Sprinkle the top with a few extra chocolate chips. 

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 55 to 65 minutes.

Easter Eggs and a Backyard Hunt

Happy Monday! Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Kevin and I are out of town on Easter weekend (I accidentally booked us a weekend away for Kevin's birthday without checking when Easter was #momfail) so we planned some fun Easter activities for Lincoln for the weekend.

We started out Sunday morning and decorated Easter eggs. Lincoln had so much fun dipping the eggs into each of the colors and putting stickers on each and every single one. None of the eggs were broken (only a few ended up cracked) and there were lots of died green fingers by the end of it.

Afterwards, we headed outside so Lincoln could search for eggs left by the Easter bunny! Since he's not quite old enough to realize Easter isn't until next weekend, we made a big deal about telling him the eggs came from the bunny this weekend. He was super excited each time he found a new egg filled with treats and would yell out "Nanny" (candy) each and every time.

The rest of the day was spent playing in the park and baking banana bread and getting ready for the return to work and school for the week!

Little Man Says

It's time for another "Little Man Says" post! He is talking more and more every day and the words that come out of his mouth are both hysterical and adorable all at the same time!

Every time he see's an airplane:

Mommy airplane, daddy airplane, me airplane! (He's letting us know it's time for a vacay!) 

When the batteries died on the TV remote and mommy told him she would fix it:

No mama, wait wait wait. Hey Dad! Dad!

Clearly he knows who Mr. Fix it is in our family haha!

While driving home the other day and seeing a helicopter:

(Hand phone to ear): Woooeee woooweeee (fire truck)...ahlicoper (helicopter) help! otay. got it. bye bye. 

And then he hangs up the phone. If you're in need of a 9-1-1 call, L's got you covered. haha.

Anytime he wants to run into the next room.

I'll be back. I'll be back mom. No stay here. I'll be back. 

I wonder  where he gets his bossiness from haha!

Every time we drive home from work/school

Ousside (outside)...walk! downtown!

And my favorite word ever of his becuase it's just so darn cute:

tun-nuh-nuh-hun (construction) haha! It took us forever to figure that one out. ;0p

Staycation

Hello! Hello! It's time for another long overdue post!

Kevin had spring break this past week, so I took the second half of the week off to enjoy some much needed family time. Life has been busy lately and I've been working long hours so a few days at home with my two favorite guys was perfect.

We spent most of Wednesday lounging around the house, playing and baking cookies, before everyone took a long afternoon nap. That evening, we used a guest pass to our local YMCA to check out the facility and see how little man would do in the child care they provide. Kevin got to play a few games of basketball, I got in a much needed workout and Lincoln played his little heart out in childcare. We're thinking about joining and the trip was so successful, it looks like we will be.

Lincoln goes to daycare on Thursdays and Fridays and we kept him on schedule so Kevin and I could have a little day date and some time to clean up around the house. After he was dropped off, we headed off to take a spin class (I finally convinced Kevin to spin with me!) and then after a sweaty workout, we came home, got ready for the day and headed off to brunch. It was AMAZING to sit and enjoy our coffee and food for almost two hours without a busy bee toddler wanting to run all over the place. Anytime we go out to eat as a family, we usually eat as fast as we can because we know L won't last long.  Long story short, it was really nice to just sit and talk and eat slowly. I tell ya, it's the little things in life you learn to appreciate after having kiddos! Thursday ended curled up in our bed for a cozy dinner and a movie in.

Friday was errands day! Kevin and I had a morning meeting that lasted about 45 minutes and after that I met up with a friend for coffee and a walk to the park. The sun was shining and it was almost 60 degrees, so it pretty much felt like summer. After coffee, I picked Kevin back up so we could run a couple of errands before grabbing Lincoln from daycare and heading home for an evening family walk and dinner!

Saturday was another busy day. We had a pre-school tour, gymnastics and then watched our beloved Zags advance to the NCAA championship! And we ended Sunday with a long family walk and lots of laundry!