Seattle in the summer + weekly dinner menu for week of august 8th

The buzz around Seattle is that this summer's weather is completely out of the norm...al fresco dining temperatures are fading in and out so you don't know whether to wear a tank top or a sweater. Truth truth be told, throughout the day you will want to go between both as the temperature is completely sun dependent swinging between the low 50s and the high 70s all day long. It's pretty exciting for us, having never experienced a summer that wasn't stifling hot and full of mosquitos (the summer that SO many of you are experiencing...yikes!), yet many Seattlites are complaining that this is the worst summer they have ever had! We are taking advantage of the long days (the sun doesn't go down until after 9:30!) and mild temperatures and doing some of what Seattle has to offer plus making a lot of our own fun in our new home. Here are a few photos of how we spent our week:

oh my...those blue eyes! Be still my heart.

Jack loves crawling under the table and saying "bye-bye." I like to think he's going on a pretend adventure so I ask him where he's going and who he's going to see. Almost always his answer is "Nonna" who is my mom:)

We love that Jack is keeping his sun hat on! It was a bit of a struggle at first, but now he will keep it on all day!

Jack just got his first rain jacket and he picked it out himself! We were looking at the kidorables site and I had a few in mind that I thought were cute....he was completely uninterested in my choices, but when he saw the fireman coat his eyes widened as he screamed "fi-ah!"

loving my little fireman!

Friday night reggae concert, Hyah Vision, and playground time at Magnuson community center...Jack was busy and certainly jammin' to the music! And, we enjoyed a lovely picnic dinner from pasta and co with rice pudding as a special desert treat (Jessica, that choice was for you!).

Fort building on a rainy Sunday...this was Jack and Sadie's first fort experience!

And, as an end to our fun weekend, we met a friend for dinner at boom noodle which was yummy...Jack had his first bento box! and I had two small plates of miso broiled rice cakes (mixed grain rice topped with caramelized miso and sesame vegetable slaw, with a creamy tofu sauce) and salmon tataki (flash seared sashimi with olive oil and lime, with ponzu, shoestring vegetables, scallions, and natural sea salt). Following dinner, we used our Scoutmob coupon for ice cream at blue bird . I chose horchata, a vegan ice cream made with coconut milk...so cinnamony and delicious! Our after dinner walk was through Cal Anderson park.

and, of course, Jack has 2 fistfuls of pebbles! Saying he loves pebbles and throwing things is quite an under statement.

And, here is this week's menu: Tuesday: slow cooked black beans for a black bean bowl

Wednesday: grilled salmon, buttered turnips, and strawberry arugala salad

Thursday: our first Seattle picnic...black bean salad

Friday: pizza, pizza!

Enjoy!