I took Jasmine and our neighbor John to the downtown dance festival. We watched some great solo acts from modern ballet, native american, to korean.

Poor John got a bit homesick so we headed back home early. Where I found out this was his first time away from his parents with a non-relative. Considering we were gone for an hour and half I think he did pretty good.

But when we got back home, he didn’t want to leave our car until he finished his coloring book page. Kids… its like they have a mind of their own.

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Emily took Jasmine over to her sister Destiny’s home for a get-together. Along with Patty, they had lunch at a waterfront restaurant with a fabulous view. Then they headed to a local lake for some swim time.

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The perfect Portland weather demanded a BBQ and so we did with our friends Kristin, Mac, Eli and Claire. We had chicken with either bbq or satay sauce. Several of the skewers burned up, which we thought was quite funny – I suppose we should have soaked them in water longer but we got impatient. There was also potato salad, sweet potato bake, and assorted raw veggies. And of course smores for the kids and chocolate covered graham crackers for the adults.

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We visited our friends Chris, Lisa, and Andrew tonight. We had a bake potato dinner with various accessories such as sour cream, chili, chives, and even broccoli. Then we shook it up with rockband.

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Emily had many big ideas for this years birthday party. She eventually decided to have a small party with just the neighbor kids at our home. Emily went with a Tinkerbell theme with wispy veils and other fairy decorations in the dinning room. After the pizza and cupcakes, they had a tea party in the living room – with of course a Tinkerbell set. Jasmine loved all her presents – thanks to our generous relatives.

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