Father's Day 2013

My sister and I sent the boys on an adventure this year for Father's Day.  We knew when we announced their gift, it could go one of two ways.  They'd either love us, or hate us.  They ended up being pretty stoked.

We sent them to City Scape, which is a scaled down version of The Amazing Race.  They started downtown with a pencil, some paper, ten dollars each in singles, and some bottled water.  My sister and I made them matching t-shirts with a logo saying PTA Presidents, which stands for Portland Tailgating Association.  (They came up with that ridiculousness during a football game get-together last fall.)  They were allowed to use public transportation only.  And smart phones were allowed for taking required pictures and looking up answers to clues and riddles, that would lead them to the next check point or destination where they'd have a task to complete.  They only sent me one of the required pictures from the excursion.  They had to have a photo on a modern day velocipede.  Aka, bicycle.  Not to be confused with the gay pride parade festivities going on the same day, although, they do make a pretty cute couple.  Gotta love Portland.

The whole thing was five hours.  And according to them, they ran the entire time.  Like, full-on, full speed, running.  There were 150 teams of two.  The buses and Max were filled to capacity any time they tried to catch one.  So they ran.  And ran.  And ran.  LOL

Anywho, while they were off gallivanting around, I hit up our neighborhood farmer's market and got some stuff for our meal. 

For snacks, we did berries and goat cheese with farmer's market honey.  Pea and mint hummus, also from the market (amazing) with snap peas and radishes.  Salami from the market with nectarines and gruyere.  And bread to pile everything on.  Needless to say, they were hungry when they finally stumbled in at 5:00.

The girls drank Moscato and I picked up some fun local beers for the boys.

Dinner was deeeelicious.

 My parents brought a salmon that they bought from the Indians in Cascade Locks that morning.  

Now that's a fresh fishy.  

With dinner, my mom also made a rice pilaf, I brought some garlic scapes, and my sister made a saute of sliced fresh red cabbage and Brussels sprouts (so good) and a salad.

One of these days I'll share the salmon recipe.

For dessert, the kids ate leftover Mario cupcakes.
Well, some of the kids just ate frosting.

 And for the adults, I made cheesecake in a jar.

Uh-huh.

Cheesecake.  

In a jar.

Chocolate and plain.

With fresh picked Oregon strawberries and goat's milk caramel from the farmer's market.

Um, that stuff is so flippin' good, it's hard not to just eat it with a spoon.

And yes, I will be posting the cheesecake recipes.

As if it would last in the house that long.

And what do you do to end a day like that?

Turn Baby into a human turtle pinata, of course.

My niece had to get in on the action.

 I'm totally kidding.

No babies were hurt in the making of this post.

This is what I meant.

Do you think we've scarred her for life?
 

Nah, I hear the third child is pretty tough.

Happy Father's Day, again, to the best daddy ever.

And to the other one who'll do in a pinch.  :)

Oh yeah, and they came in first in a contest where The Dad had to put a wadded up, frozen solid, t-shirt on the BIL.

They won entry tickets to next year's race.

They've already started training.