Pellegrini Page

We got to spend last weekend and the first half of this week with Grandpa Rick. Everyone had a really nice time hanging out. We ate some good meals, watched some movies and football games, and most importantly, Rick got a lot of quality time in with the girls. As usual his visit flew by and before you knew it he was on his way back home. I’m just glad they were able to do some fun stuff like go to the zoo and get studio photos taken while he was here.

We were paid a visit by Kristy, Mark, Trinity, and Madi on Sunday while Rick was here. Jess and I both really enjoyed meeting Mark and Trinity. As soon as Rick found out Mark was a hunter they struck up conversation and hit it off. Madi wanted nothing more than to hold Elise the entire time, and she did such a great job. She’s a natural with babies and will surely make an excellent mom someday. Ava absolutely loved playing with the girls, and the rest of us hung out and enjoyed watching the Seahawks walk all over the Falcons.

We’re getting really excited for Ava’s birthday party next weekend. There are quite a few guests coming, many of whom haven’t seen each other in a long time. I started cooking today so that I wouldn’t be frantic at the last minute. Today I’m making beef and turkey chili, a marinara sauce for the ravioli, and the filling for the ravioli, which consists of veal, pork, turkey, chantrelle mushrooms, sweet onion, garlic, and spinach. Tomorrow I’m making the pasta from scratch and filling the ravioli. I’ve never made pasta before so I’m a little nervous but I’m sure I’ll be fine as long as I follow my Aunt Norma’s recipe. Since there will most likely be some vegetarian guests at the party, I’m intentionally making the pasta sauce without meat. We will have cheese ravioli available for anyone who doesn’t eat meat. There will also be lots of snacks and sides available, plus a rainbow birthday cake baked by Mom. It’s going to be a great day.

Elise turned 4 months old this week. Even though I see her everyday its easy to tell that she is growing fast. She’s so alert now and she’s developing quite the sense of humor. She enjoys being played with and is pretty easy to get laughing. Her vision is much better; she can make eye contact with you from across the room now. I don’t know what we did to get so lucky but we have two amazing little girls to be thankful for every single day. I’m actually writing this post with 1 hand because Jess is gone at work and Elise doesn’t feel like not being held. Happy to oblige.

We recently received the photos Leon took on their last visit, so combine those with the photos from Rick’s visit, and you’ve got a lot to share. Enjoy.

Elise 4 months

Ava in her car

Ava loves cupcakes

No boots are safe around Ava

Good times with Grandpa

Tonight Rick is arriving for a visit until Wednesday. We’re excited to have him out, and we have no agenda other than to hang out and relax. I’m glad he’s going to get some quality time with the girls, and I have a week off school starting today, so the timing is perfect.

School has been going well lately and I’m starting to learn some pretty cool stuff. It’s been requiring more time than ever, so I’ve been having a babysitter come over once a week just to get some un-interrupted study time. We’ve all been so busy lately and then suddenly you realize its November and Ava’s birthday is only two weeks away. Last year at this time we were getting ready to host Thanksgiving and then move back to Seattle a week later. Can’t believe how quickly this year has passed, but I’m glad because it means I’ve only got 8 more months of school.

Jessica just got approval to take Christmas Eve off so we’re buying plane tickets to go to Colorado that morning. We’re going to hang out at Amy and Tom’s place until the 30th; probably do some snowboarding and enjoy a white Christmas in the mountains. There’s a chance that I’ll be able to take an unofficial vacation the week between Christmas and New Years, which is what they did last year, but worst case scenario I’ve got just enough vacation saved up. Either way we can’t wait to get out there. Joel and Melanie are coming so I’m looking forward our annual night on the town.

I’m sure we’ll have some new pics and updates after Rick’s visit. We’re getting together with Butch and Carol on Tuesday so that should be fun. We’ve also got some pictures of Elise from Leon coming soon. I’m excited that he’ll be taking pictures at Ava’s birthday party. Speaking of the birthday party, I’m going to start cooking next weekend. This will be my first attempt at homemade ravioli; I’ve got to do my Aunt Norma and Gigi proud.

To say that we’ve been busy would be an understatement. Every weekend for the past several weeks has been filled with some kind of special activity, and the weekdays are flying by with both Michael and I working. My schedule seems to be hit or miss with full weeks off at a time but I don’t mind it at all. We found a night nanny that I think will prove to be a perfect fit as needed. She has only come over to the house twice now but it seems to be working out great for Michael and the girls when I am at work. It just makes me feel good to know that everyone is happy and taken care of when I’m away and Michael has time to get work done.

I have finally finished my alphabet project for Elise. You can see a picture of the final piece below hanging above Elise’s crib. The final motivation to finish was an at home photo shoot of her with one of our good friends. I really wanted to make sure that it was complete just in case we had it pictured in the background. I never expected it to take this long to complete but I am so thankful to everyone that helped with a letter. I love the final product and I know that Elise will too. I can already say that she loves to lay in bed and stare at it.

We were able to celebrate the Halloween season more this year than ever before. We started out with a visit to Remlinger Farm with some family members at the beginning of the month. Then, my Friend, Laurel and I took the girls out to Two Brothers Pumpkin Patch to run around the pumpkin field and purchase our pumpkins. It was a week day outing and we had the entire place to ourselves. They even had an honor pay system so there wasn’t even any employees. It was kind of cool to just poke around the place, I’m not sure if I have ever actually been out in a pumpkin field before. The weekend before Halloween we got the girls dressed up in costumes and headed to the Woodland Park Zoo for Pumpkin Bash. Ava was a giraffe and Elise a kitten. They were both adorable. Ava’s 2T giraffe costume was hilariously small on her. So much so that we couldn’t button most of the snaps and it was about 2 inches too short on her. She did not care one bit and paraded around the zoo making people laugh. We let her take the lead and just followed her around, we didn’t manage to see very many animals but we had a great time.

On the afternoon of Halloween we visited Michael at work for the first time. Amazon allows all family to come in and visit and everyone has candy or treats to hand out. It was cool to finally see where Michael spends all of his time away from us. We didn’t see too many other trick or treaters because we came a little earlier than most families but we didn’t let that stop us from enjoying ourselves. Ava was content to walk around the offices and she loved running around out on the roof top of the building. She was not a big fan of trick or treating itself. I made her a new costume since the giraffe was so small, she went dressed up as a fortune teller complete with her own set of tarot cards. The idea was that since she likes to carry things around, especially paper, that she could hand out fortunes to everyone. She, however, was not up for the fun. She was much too intimidated by all the new people and didn’t enjoy visiting each office. Instead we made laps around the floor and stopped by different offices for quick intros and hellos before rushing off to avoid a meltdown. All in all it was a fun afternoon and I’m sure that as they get older both Ava and Elise will look forward to trick or treating at Daddy’s work.

Halloween night at home was our only disappointment for the season. I bought 3 large bags of candy in anticipation of all the little visitors we would likely have that night. We did not have one single trick or treater. NOT ONE SINGLE KID. I was crushed. For two years in a row now I have looked forward to having dozens of cute little visitors come take candy from us and for two years in a row now I have been let down. Ugh. We have so many young neighbors that I was sure this year would be different. I guess no one goes door to door anymore. I’m still baffled. I will definitely have to plan on a different event for the night of next year.

Friday night, Elise and I met up with a big group of family members to help celebrate Auntie Carol’s birthday. She opted for a bowling party this year so we all met up at Tech City Bowl in Kirkland. Michael had a ton of homework to get done so he and Ava stayed home. As always, it was nice to see everyone. It was a bit different for me than usual since I didn’t have Ava to run after. Elise spent most of the time asleep in her car seat so I was actually able to have some nice conversation with everyone. My bowling game was a complete embarrassment, I didn’t even break 100. It’s to be expected honestly, I have always been an awful bowler. I remember getting so frustrated at my Dad as a kid when he would try to help me throw the ball straight.

Last night we had a couple friends and their 4 month old son over for dinner. I had not met their little guy yet and they had never seen Elise so it was nice to get to reconnect with them. It’s so much easier to have people over to the house as apposed to going out. Aside from having to do the dishes its a perfect, family friendly night. We were lucky enough to have some pics taken of Elise as well. We will make sure to post some once we get them back. She has been changing so much. She has started laughing a lot more often and loves when I tickle her face with the ends of my hair. It’s adorable and melts a little bit of your heart each time you hear it. I have been trying to capture a voice recording of it and I swear she can tell when I click the record button and stops making any sound. I love the sound of baby giggles and the first few months of giggles have a softer, sweeter sound than the more developed sound that follows.

We are getting ready for Ava’s 2nd birthday. Since her birthday falls at the end of November it is likely that many years we will celebrate both her birthday and Thanksgiving on the same day. This year Thanksgiving is pretty late so we have the opportunity to celebrate the weekend before. It’s nice to have a little something to look forward to before we get into full blown holiday mode.

Today, today we are relaxing at home as a family. It’s our favorite Sunday pastime.

3 month comparison

Elise’s Alphabet

At the pumpkin patch

Halloween on the rooftop

Our little giraffe

Elise’s 1st Halloween

Our little kitty

Collecting leaves on a walk

It’s been another really busy week around here. Elise just turned 3 months and is growing fast. She smiles a lot now and is showing more and more personality all the time. She enjoys sitting upright and has quickly taken to the Bumbo chair (see below). Ava continues to surprise me with new vocabulary and knowledge. Her new favorite thing to say is “Lets do it!” and says it when you ask her just about any question. Jessica has been working 3-4 nights a week and I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t difficult not having her around. School is actually challenging now that I’m in my final year, and Elise simply doesn’t like giving me any time to get my assignments done. She’s generally fine as long as you’re holding her, but writing papers and computer programs while holding a baby is basically impossible, so I end up working in 3-5 minute stretches.

Luckily Ava is surprisingly self sufficient for being so young. She’s very aware of Elise and understands that she’s supposed to be quiet when the baby is sleeping. We’re still working on the actual application of that rule however. In other news, this is the busiest time of year at work so things have been crazy lately. I’ll be traveling to Southern California at the end of the month to help conduct a simulation of a new version of software I’m working on. I was very excited to see that there’s a new Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu school opening one block from my office. I spoke to the owner and found out they’re hoping to open in the next month; just waiting on permits from the city. I’m definitely going to check it out. Hopefully I’ll have a situation like San Diego where I can go to a couple classes a week on my lunch break.

Last weekend I got a chance to meet Adam Carolla at the BevMo in Bellevue. I’ve been a fan of his for a long time and regularly listen to his podcast at work. It was just a quick photo but he was cool and I ended up making some friends in the line. Ava’s second birthday is only about a month away and we’re looking forward to having everyone out for a visit. That’s about it for now. Here’s a few recent pics.

Elise in her Bumbo

Elise at 3 months

Ava watching the flying pumpkins at Remlinger Farms

With Adam Carolla

Its been a crazy last few weeks. We have all been keeping very busy with various activities. I started back to work two weeks ago and had 4 shifts back to back. It was a big adjustment for us all. I think Michael now has a better understanding of what life can be like trapped in a house with two small children. It was rough on us all but we survived and have had the past week at home together. It seems like we are all still trying to get back into our normal routine since everyone was sick. Ava’s sleep habits have improved the past few nights but we have been having frequent late night episodes with her. She either wants to get up and play or she just wakes up and cries. Either way it’s tough on everyone because we all have bedrooms so close to each other. Since she is normally such an awesome sleeper even a few nights with interrupted sleep feels like a lot.

We have been embracing fall by collecting leaves in the front yard, visiting the pumpkin patch and farm, making plans for Halloween and taking every opportunity we can to enjoy the beautiful fall colors of the Northwest. I have to admit I have already been finding myself preparing for the up coming holiday season. One thing at a time though. First we have Halloween to enjoy; both girls already have their costumes and Michael and I have decided that we are going to pass on costumes for ourselves this year. I figure we will have plenty of opportunities to dress up with the girls in the years to come.

This past Saturday we spent the morning with some family at Remlinger Farm. It’s about 30 minutes away from us out in Carnation, WA. They have a fall harvest all October long. Its a celebration with hundreds of pumpkins, scarecrow, fall foods and lots of fun rides and activities for all ages. The highlights of the day were the Flying Pumpkins ride and the mini train. Ava loved both. She rode the pumpkins with both Michael and I separately and both times she rode with a huge smile plastered across her face yelling “weee”, “so cool” and laughing. I thoroughly enjoyed riding with her. Her least favorite attraction was the mini pony. We tried to get her to go for a pony ride but she wanted no part in it. She also had a strange aversion to the hay maze. It was a fun trip for everyone. I’m sure we will visit again in the future. We may even try to check out another pumpkin patch this season since we never bought one at the farm.

Today, Elise turned 3 months old. We had a great day to mark the occasion. Both of the girls, myself and my friend Laurel went the the Woodland Park Zoo. It was pretty busy because it’s Columbus Day but that just made it more fun for Ava. More kids running around meant more excitement for her which was the whole point so I was happy. We walked around almost all of the zoo and stopped a few times to feed some animals and run off some energy. The zoo is having a pumpkin bash coming up the weekend of the 26th. We are entertaining the idea of checking that out and giving the girls another opportunity to dress up in their costumes.

I’m about to start another busy week of work for Seattle Restaurant Week. I’m sure it will be incredibly hectic and I’m totally looking forward to it. It’s so much easier to tackle that kind of craziness after juggling two kids. Work feels more like social time to me now than anything. Although it’s not always easy to leave Michael and the girls at home I am glad to be working again. I did cry a few tears when leaving the first week. I always feel like I am going to miss out on something hugely important while I’m gone. Or I feel like I need to be home to help make everyones’ night easier and therefore better. I’m sure all working parents feel like this to some extent. Ava did take her first steps while I was at work so my fears aren’t completely irrational.

Here are a few recent pictures of Ava and Elise. We will post more this week as well.

Elise all wrapped up

Ava throwing a bedtime fit

Having fun at the park

On our way to the park

Today I’m excited to announce that our Family Recipes website/webapp is now live! It’s been a fun project that I’ve been obsessing over for the last few weeks. I must say that I have a very loving and understanding wife because she’s had to deal with me working on this constantly lately. I’m very appreciative of that because this has been a really cool project.

During the course of developing this project I’ve been thinking a lot about family, food, and the connection between the two. It’s brought a lot of good memories and stories to mind. Hopefully these recipes will re-kindle some nice memories for everyone that visits this site, as well as present some great new dishes for everyone to try.

The part of this app that I’m most proud of is the search functionality. For every recipe that I’ve added, I’ve created an extensive list of keywords associated with the dish. Everything from the list of ingredients, the title, and the person that submitted or created it is included. This means that you can search for names, titles, and ingredients. Want to know every dish on the site that contains garlic? Just search for garlic. Want to see every dish associated with Jessica? Type in Jessica and hit enter. The results are paginated by course type, just like they are on the home page.

I wanted the interface to be really clean, simple, colorful, and easy to use. Although I’m not a designer by trade, I work with several great designers and hear them talk about design all the time. One of the most popular new trends in graphic design is something called ‘flat design.’ What this means is that there is no concept of depth or dimension in the design. No shadows, no bubble or button textures, just flat clean shapes and colors. This style can be found most notably in the new iOS 7. Although my interest in iOS has been waning, I’m still a fan of flat design and wanted to incorporate it into this project.

This project also gave me an opportunity to get some experience with a web development framework called Backbone.js. I’m going to be starting a new project with Backbone at work next week so I’m glad to have some experience before it begins. I’m going to continue to work on the site in terms of features and coding, and I’ll always be adding new recipes to it. All recipe submissions are welcome so keep them coming. Also, if you see something on the site for a recipe that you submitted that you’d like to change, just let me know. Adding a photo, changing a description, updating an ingredients list, anything like that is no problem. Just email me and I’ll take care of it.

All that being said, the site can be found at:

www.PellegriniPage.com/recipes

Hope everyone likes it and gets some use out of it. Any feedback or update requests are welcome. Be sure to check back regularly because new recipes will continue to be added. Enjoy!

Although Jessica has worked a couple private events for El Gaucho in the past month, tonight is her official first night back at work. It’s hard to believe her maternity leave with Elise is complete. Obviously her going back to work has certain benefits, but its more bitter than sweet. I’ve definitely gotten used to having her home every night over the past few months so its going to be a significant adjustment for the girls and I without her here. I’m equal parts happy and nervous; happy that Jess will be able to get out of the house and interact with adults, but nervous that I won’t have as much time for homework due to my Dad duties. I’m sure everything will be fine but right now I can’t help but worry a bit.

Luckily I’m on the tail end of a two week break from school as we transition into the Fall quarter. I just got my grades from Summer quarter and was pleased to see I pulled off straight A’s again. I figure if I can pull off those grades during the busiest summer of my life I should have no problem the rest of the year. Either way I’ve only got three quarters to go. New classes start up on Monday and I’m ready to jump back in.

I haven’t written many posts lately because I’ve been really busy working on the Family Recipes site. For those that don’t already know, my Uncle Jim recently had an idea about doing a Family Recipes website that we could use to share all of our favorite dishes. I immediately thought it was a cool idea, but then when I realized that this was the perfect excuse to develop a project using a JavaScript framework called Backbone.js, I was sold. I’ll spare you of the technical details, but we recently decided at work to use a popular web development framework called Backbone.js for an upcoming project that I’ll be working on. I didn’t want to go into that project with no experience working with Backbone, so I used this project as a way to learn the framework.

It’s been a really fun project that I’ve learned a lot from, and I’m actually almost done. My goal is to launch the site this weekend before I get back into school. I wouldn’t have been able to build the site this quickly if I was in school, but with this two week break I’ve been able to crank through just about everything. If you’re thinking about submitting a recipe, please do! This is a site that I’ll be managing for the long–term and there is no cutoff date for submitting recipes. Hopefully over the years it will become an ‘encyclopedia’ of our family’s cooking.

All else is well in our world. Ava is coming up on her second birthday and she’s doing great. I can’t believe how much her vocabulary continues to grow. She loves to count now and can usually count to ten with no problems. Elise is 2.5 months old and going strong. She smiles more and more everyday. I was holding her the other night and Ava came up to talk to her. She got so excited and had the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. It was funny because Ava kept saying “Good morning baby” even though it was 8:00 at night. I think it was their first real interaction and felt pretty special to see.

Keep an eye out for the official announcement of the launch of the recipes site. My goal is Sunday so we’ll see what happens. Keep the recipes coming!

It was kind of a rough week around here. We’ve all been a coughing, sneezing, cold sweaty mess this week. The whole house has been battling the common cold in one form or another. Fortunately for us, it only presented itself as stuffy nose for Elise. Michael and I had mild fevers, sinus headaches, stuffy and runny noses, the whole sha-bang. Poor little Ava, although she took it like a champ, she was down and out for over a week. We decided it was best for all of us that we played it easy all week and rested as much as possible. Plus, we didn’t want to spread our germs to anyone else. It was disappointing that we had to cancel dinner plans with family earlier in the week but it was the best for everyone. Yesterday was the first time that the girls and I had much activity all week.

Ava went shopping with Daddy at Costco in the morning while Elise and I stayed home and cleaned the house and did laundry. After Michael and Ava returned with a load of booty from Costco I headed out to the grocery store to fill in the gaps for our nights dinner and daily needs. We all spent the rest of the day either napping (the girls) or preparing for our evening. I finished cleaning and setting the table and Michael jumped into the kitchen and began his mise en place for dinner. We all hosted our first dinner party since moving back!

It was a “Girls Night In” with Chef MP. Included, by the handsome Chef, was an all night playlist from our favorite artists and a digital menu. Yes, a digital menu. Michael put together the menu that morning and then designed and coded it and sent a link out to each of our guests. It was so cool. Here’s a link if you want to see what we enjoyed: www.pellegrinipage.com/menu It was a delicious seafood feast that everyone loved. It was not an easy task to accommodate all of the dietary needs at the table. Michael did an awesome job making everyone happy.

Our guests for the evening were some old friends that we’ve been wanting to connect with for far too long now. It’s frustrating how easy it is to let life get in the way of making time for good friends. Julianne and Penny two ladies that we love and admire. These woman have been in our lives for longer than the two of us have been together. They are practically the reason that Michael and I became a couple. I could go on and on about both of them but I’ll just say that they are old (in time, not age), dear friends and it was a pleasure hosting them. Our beloved friend, Laurel joined us as well. She has known JJ and Penny for a long time but has not seen either of them since our wedding, more than 3 years ago.

Lucky Michael, spent the night with 4 women, 2 little girls and a female dog. He pretty much hosted the whole event on his own (he did all the hard work). We enjoyed a nice, long, leisurely 3 course dinner at the table. Sharing wine, good memories and stories of recent adventures. We ended the evening with the girls both asleep and all of the adults curled up on the couch enjoying dessert and laughs with Planet Earth playing in the background. It was an awesome night.

Today we are all at home relaxing like we love to do on Sundays. This week I start back to work on Wednesday and will be working 4 nights in a row. Its likely going to be a little rough to work that many nights consecutively after over 3 months off but I’m sure I’ll be fine. I’m not sure what my schedule is going to look like every week but my hope is that it’s usually only 3 nights a week with Sunday and Mondays off. We’ll see. I have mixed feelings about going back but am looking forward to a little time out of the house with some more consistent adult interaction. My reservations are only because I worry that Michael will struggle to get homework done on nights that I’m gone. I know that we will all figure things out and find a routine that works for us, I just find it hard not to worry in the interim.

Michael is off school for one more week. His classes start back up next weekend. I imagine that he will spend as much time as possible on his new project (the recipe site) this week. He is really enjoying putting it together and I love being able to be the middleman and help out a little. We’ve already had some great things sent to us. It will, no doubt, be a great site. Keep all the recipes and stories coming.

Here are a few pics of our friends getting a little snuggle time with Elise. I think that she loves to be held more than anything. It’s always a sweet, special moment to witness someone you care about meeting your child for the first time. Simple pleasures.

Julianne and Elise

Penny and Elise

My good, old, sweet Bella turned 9 today. I can’t believe how much has changed in the 9 years for the two of us. She was only 6 weeks old when I met her at a home shelter near Woodinville called Lil Waif. The woman sheltering the litter called me first because she knew that I was thinking about getting another dog. I had recently lost a 6 month old puppy from one of her previous litters to an over aggressive monster trunk in downtown Kirkland (very tragic event that led to Bella). I met all 5 pups at one time and they were a strange looking mix of adorableness.

Bella’s mom was a Labrador Retriever and her Dad was a German Shepard/ Rottweiler mix. I chose Bella because she was to me the cutest, female, and strangely enough she was the only one that didn’t whine when I put her down, she just sat quietly looking at me like she knew she would eventually be coming home with me. It was a weird instant connection. Two weeks later just before Thanksgiving of 2004 I brought her home; my first true responsibility. At one point I would probably have phrased that as I brought home my first “baby” but now that seems strange to say. Bella was however the first living being that depended on only me. Because of this she has changed me in many ways, forced me to grow up and has given me a different perspective on unconditional love. It never fails to amaze me how excited she is to see me each and every time I come home.

Bella truly is a great dog. Not one without her annoying quirks but still a great, loyal, loving and most of the time mellow girl. She has moved from Kirkland to Woodinville to Queen Anne then Ballard next Pacific Beach, San Diego to La Mesa, CA and now Bellevue, WA! In 9 years that’s a lot of adjusting and each time she has proved to be an adaptable family member. She has lived with over 10 different roommates and was affectionately welcomed into the Pellegrini family by Michael when we moved in together in 2008. Although we still refer to her as Bella Rudd (it has a ring to it) she is definitely a Pellegrini. Her favorite thing to do at home is sleep, she loves chasing Ava around the front yard these days and can not resist the urge to swim if within 75 feet of almost any body of water no mater how big or small. Her nicknames include, Bellers, Belle, Bells, Bella Rudd, B, Old Maid and the Fun Hater. She has proved to be a great dog with kids and does not even flinch when Ava pokes and pulls at her. We all love Bella.

Happy Birthday, Bella! You’re a good girl.

The rest of the family is doing ok. Everyone has been a little under the weather the past few days. Thankfully Elise appears to be the only one with no symptoms of illness. She is doing wonderful and attended her first wedding with Michael and I this past weekend on Whidbey Island. She was an amazing wedding guest and didn’t do anything but enjoy herself all afternoon and well into the night.

Ava is continuing to get better every day but is still not her vibrant, unstoppable self these past few days. She has been enjoying a lot more down time than normal which I have to admit is kind of nice. She isn’t usually one to lay down and watch a movie with you but we have been doing a bit of that and enjoying it. She had a great weekend with Grandma while we were out of town and the 3 of us dropped her off at the airport yesterday. It was, of course, another awesome trip. So much so, that I think we are all a bit exhausted from it. Combine that and this little bug and we are all on a little bit of forced downtime.

We have a few dinner parties planned for the week. One with Dana, Brad, Kallan and Anna tomorrow night at their house here in Bellevue. Another planned for Saturday at our house with a few friends. Michael is off school for the week and it’s my last week off before I start back up part time on 10/1. We’ll make the most of it with a good mix of fun, family and down time.

Bella on her 9th birthday

Melissa and Jamie’s wedding on Whidbey Island

Michael has been hard at work on a new project and we would love all of your help with it. He is putting together a family recipe website to share all of ours and hopefully your recipes with each other. It’s a site that is helping him learn a new skill and it’s something that we think will be really nice to expand on over the years. We want to include as much information about the dish as possible. Here’s what you can send us:

Title
About this dish (2-3 sentences about the dish, or the person the dish is inspired by)
Photo (Optional – can be a photo of the dish or the person the dish is inspired by)
List of ingredients
Cooking instructions

The categories of recipes on the site will be: Breakfast, Salads, Soups, Entrees, Sides & Deserts. We’d love any of your contributions as soon as you can, but you can continue to send us more over time as well. Once the site is up and running we will send out another email letting you all know about it. Please send all of your information to me at this email address: jesspelle@gmail.com

We look forward to seeing and trying all of your favorite foods. The more contributions we get the better. Thank you!