Powered By Pierogies!

Last saturday was the Polish festival...we are fortunate enough to be home to the largest Polish festival west of the Mississippi! I think I read in the paper that there were 15,000 pierogies made for this years event- who could resist such temptation of little doughy pockets of cheesy potato goodness swathed in butter? Followed up by some sweet polish dessert treats of merigues or poppy seed cake & the day just doesn't get any better!

We had a "little" village group at the Polish festival, Nurit & Pearl- who will be traveling with me to China came to enjoy the festivities, along with Cindy & Dumpling, and the newest Mom in our group, Marie, with her two little girls, Z & E, and one of the big sisters Aly.

After much pierogie eating, the girls all found the Bouncy House- I remember this fondly as "the moon walk" from Field Days growing up. I remember it with joy, and how dissappointed I was when I was too big to go in anymore. Now I look at the big kids in there with the little ones (particularly the big boys who get kinda wild) and the almost-parent in me thinks "Oh that boy is not being safe! they should have separate times for little ones & big ones!" Ah yes how your perception changes!!!

Here is Pearl enjoying the bouncy house:
Dumpling getting her groove on- While she has only been home 6 months, she is an experienced bouncy house girl...Two weeks ago was Cindy's company picnic, and they had a bouncy house as well...!
The two newest little ones to join the village family, Z on the left, and E on the right, with Pearl in yellow in the background. Z has been home just 1 month less than Dumpling- so she still has quite a bit of her chinese. I tried speaking with her last week in chinese, and I think she was getting at least some of it, but I think she's still shy, so hopefully once she warms up to us all a little, she & I can chat a little! Both the girls are just darling- E is full of energy and on just meeting her the second time, she already was grabbing my hand and saying "come on! come over here!" and wanting to go play! Very very fun, just what we waiting Mamas need!
Dumpling playing with Cindy through the bouncy house "walls".
A week ago friday was also Jim's birthday- he went out on friday with his work friends & the friends he runs with, so we made Saturday Birthday dinner night. A few friends came over for some roast pork, roasted carrots & beets (wow, SO good), and caprese salad, tomatoes & basil from my garden, but did not make the mozzarella this time around! After, of course...was the birthday cake I discussed in my last post. Julie sent me a message saying I was treating him better than his 4 sisters...We have joked that he left his 4 sisters in Pennsylvania and has come to Portland to meet 4 more big sisters from the Village! We've finally stopped calling him "Jimmy", but I'm sure all its going to take is just one more 2 1/2 year old calling him "Jimmy" to get us all started again...! Although, now is the time to point out that in exchange for us calling him "Jimmy" and "houseboy", I get the name "Landlady"...so it's definitely in my best interest to curtail the use of "Jimmy" whenever possible!

So- Happy Birthday to Jim! 25- it's a milestone!
And, because he mentioned he wanted to show his friends the cake, here it is. Peanut butter cake with chocolate peanut butter filling, cream cheese frosting & broken up butterfinger candy on the outside. Even at 3 layers, we did not have a problem working our way through it!