Sara's Birthday Party & Markus is 1 Month Old

Sara blowing out the candles.

... from another angle.

I didn't take any pictures at my party, luckily Erica picked up my camera and took this picture of me blowing out the candles.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of Erica or many of the other guests at my party. Somehow the cameras were only focused on the cake and the babies.

Liesl and Moira

Liesl and her husband Derrick live in our neighborhood. Their daughter Moira was also born on the 31st of Dec, in the same hospital. Moira weighed even more than Markus!

Moira in the bouncy chair

Sopan, Rivka and Keren

Believe it or not, Sopan & Keren had a new baby girl the very morning after this photo was taken.

Sara & Markus - Before he got cranky.

... and after he got cranky

... from another angle

Markus is tired out from the party

Baby Markus Sakari is Born!

Markus Sakari was born at 10:33 PM on Dec. 31st.

He was 9 lbs and 15.5 ounces (4,522 g.) and 22.5 inches (57 cm)

Aaron's Birthday

It was Aaron's Birthday, so we went to Imbrie Hall after work.

Isil brought a beautiful cake from the Beaverton Bakery. The cake was excellent, but there was a draft and the candles had to be relit at the table.

Aaron, Isil, Deholi and Sara

The table including Sami

The outdoor fireplace.

It was a cool evening, but we all enjoyed sitting by the fire. One of the bartenders even came out and split some more wood for the fire while we were sitting there.

Deholi smiles - another view of the fireplace.

Fire is mesmerizing.

Another pic of the fire.

Isil's Birthday

Sami, Sara & Isil at Portland City Grill

Saturday night we went out with Isil, Aaron and Akiko for Isil's birthday. The first stop of the evening was at Portland City Grill.

The restaurant/bar is up on the 30th floor of the Unico US Bank Tower and the views are amazing. Unfortunately it was very crowded and we couldn't get a table near the window. In addition to the great view, there is a very fancy and fairly cheap happy hour menu.

All of us with the "fishbowl" drink at Gypsy

Our second stop of the night was at Gypsy to have one of these crazy giant drinks... definitely the first time I've tried one of those. I also had the macaroni, which was excellent.

The decor in the other half of the bar was shockingly red and yellow and very mid century.

Akiko at Aztec Willies

Our third and final stop of the evening was at Aztec Willies taqueria for Salsa night.

Actually Salsa was extremely popular when we lived in Illinois. I was told the week we moved there that if Sami was an engineer, there was no doubt that we would learn to Salsa while we were there. Somehow it never happened.

Isil and Aaron on the dance floor.

These two were the only ones who actually knew how to Salsa - they did their best to teach us all.

Aaron & Isil dip

Aaron & Akiko

Isil & Akiko

Sami & I

Isil and her brother Ilker

Isil's brother joined us after a while. He was a very good dancer too, and he and Isil impressed everyone around us.

And another picture of Sami and I (and some random people in the background)

It's not often that someone takes a picture of us together - I figured I'd better post it.

Birthday at the Salon

Melissa and Erica had plans to get their hair cut at the salon on Sunday. Since it was my birthday (and I hadn't bothered to cut my hair in like 6 months), they decided to kidnap me and get mine cut too.

Anyway, we took some befores: Me, Melissa, Erica and this one was the after.

After getting our hair done, we wandered around the mall. Erica bought a big clay vase and we cut bamboo from our yard to put in it. Then we had leftover cake and wine from the party.

Happy Birthday to Me

We had my birthday party at our house on Saturday night. I made my favorite German Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing, Sami made 3 kinds of pizza, and we had other assorted snacks.

I was busy being the birthday girl, so I didn't take any pictures during the party. Sami did take this one of me blowing out the candles (we only had to light them 4 times) and another of the cake.

It was a good party. Eric, Aaron, Amanda (in the pink) & her husband Derrick, Sopan & Keren & baby Rivka, Erica & Melissa, and Hyung-Jin were all there. You can't really tell from the photo, but we managed to get our house really clean and everyone was impressed. I even managed to make a cool little flower arrangement with flowers and herbs from the yard.

Sami's Birthday - Observed

Yes, Sami's Official Birthday was April 19th. However, it was inconveniently timed, so like a president Sami's birthday got moved around the calendar to Friday the 20th. We decided to have a barbecue at home and show off our house and backyard now that the weather is getting nicer.

Sunday the 21st was Sami's friend Edris' bithday, so we decided to make it a double celebration. Sami ordered the rhubarb pie shown in the previous post and Edris requested tiramisu. Neither Sami or I had ever made tiramisu before so it was kind of scary. I didn't think lady fingers were supposed to be so hard, they were crumbling everywhere. Anyway, Sami did most of the work for the tiramisu, I just brushed coffee on the lady fingers and put them in layers.

Everyone said the tiramisu was good. Both the rhubarb pies we made and most of the tiramisu was gone.

Sami rolled out the ground beef with a rolling pin and made uniformly round burgers, perfectly sized for the buns. Unfortunately, burgers shrink when they get grilled, so there was a bit of a "where's the beef?" moment.

Anyway, there was a good group of people, some friends from my work with at the library and Sami's usual group from Intel. Edris had requested a "competition", but wasn't specific. I set up the badminton/volleyball net in the yard, but it got dark soon after everyone arrived so we didn't end up playing. We all had a good time and we're looking forward to more get-togethers this summer.