More Birthdays!

Sadie, our little jumping bean having fun at Skylar's party.

This weekend Sadie's friend, Skylar, turned 2. Yep, they are just 8 days apart. I met her mom in birthing class and we became friends, then at 3 weeks old, our little babies had their first play date. Kind of mind blowing that two years later...... they really are close friends who play, laugh, and giggle with each other. Skylar had her party at the Beach Bounce- a place where there were these big inflatable bouncy machines you could go crazy in and jump all around. So much fun- for both the kids and adults! I think next year we'll have her party here, it was such a hit. Sadie was shy when we first got there, and wouldn't go in the bouncy things, but after a little coaxing, I got her to go in with me, then by the end of the party, you couldn't get her out of the bouncers! Of course, she insisted I go with her every time, but to be honest, I didn't mind, it was kind of fun. :)

General shot of the party. One of the bouncers. My camera died before I got a pic of the birthday girl! :(

You should have seen the little kid-sized hole I had to crawl through in order to get in here!

Other than that, the weekend was a lot of the normal things- errands, cleaning, etc. We did get to look at a few apartments too. Nothing wonderful yet. We will be moving somewhere by the end of May. We decided not to renew our lease to our apartment, even though we love it here, because we simply have grown out of it. It was perfect for John and I, but as Sadie has gotten older and taken up more space with toys and needing space to play, the place has gotten cramped and too small for our needs. So..... we've been going through the tedious and oh-so-not fun job of looking for a suitable and reasonably priced apartment in Newport. Which is no easy feat. Unless you are looking to spend a good deal on rent, you aren't going to find the perfect place. You have to give up something to live in a desirable area. Usually parking. Or a yard. Or laundry. You get the point. You ain't gonna get it all. And it gets harder every year to find that apartment that you really like. It's always a gamble — like not knowing who would be living in the house with you or how much hot water the place really has (like we learned here!!). So can everyone send us good apartment hunting vibes and maybe we'll get lucky?!

Sadie helping me prep the sweet potatoes. My sous chef in training.

And lastly, since Spring has sprung, I thought this would be a good weekend to use up the pork tenderloin in the freezer and cook one of our last "winter" meals for awhile. So I made roast pork with crumbled bacon and served with roasted sweet potatoes and steamed broccoli. Mmmm! One of my favorite meals. Oddly enough, I had never bought or cooked bacon in my life. I love it, but never cook with it. I used my new cast iron pan for the first time (Christmas present from my Mom) and cooked it up, then used the same pan to sear the tenderloins, then just stuck the whole thing in the oven to cook, I love it! It was just like what the people on Food Network do! It cooked perfectly and the sweet potatoes were very yum, roasted with butter and brown sugar, my absolute favorite way to eat them.

Onto the week ahead, more apartments to look at tomorrow...