Sunday Parkways with Lily

Audrey and Kate rode in another Sunday Parkways today, this time with their cousin Lily. They took in the sights in North Portland and collected samples and swag given out by vendors and community groups promoting their wares or causes (the most popular being some rather loud whistles given out by a group promoting trails and bikeways).

Garden volunteering

Audrey and Kate helped out at the Oregon Food Bank's Learning Garden today as part of a family volunteer outing organized by their church. They picked tomatoes (what few were ripe enough, anyway), beans, and a couple of eggplants; plucked some weeds; and helped box up and label the vegetables for storage in the walk-in refrigerator, which they got to tour.

Pasaporte a Guatemala

After a weekend to recharge from Grace Art Camp, Audrey headed off to another summer camp this week. It was a Spanish camp at a synagogue in Northwest Portland. Her friends Hannah and Lilah did the camp with her. It was an immersion camp, with most instructions given in Spanish. It was challenging for Audrey at first, but by the end of the week she had picked up some vocabulary and simple phrases. She also learned a bit about the art and culture of Guatemala and other Central American countries, making a pyramid, a colorful serpent (snake), and Guatemalan "worry dolls". One day after Dada picked them up, Audrey and Hannah enjoyed some gelato on NW 23rd.

"A princess . . . can have any job that she wants"

There was a new toy ship in the block area at Kate's preschool today. Amy wrote in Kate's journal that Kate was excited to see it and played with it with her friends Niko, Xander, and Felix. She said that she was "Princess Sofia, a singing girl that can have any job that she wants on the ship."

Zoo with Lily and Cora

Audrey and Kate went to the Oregon Zoo with their cousins Lily and Cora today.

Grace Art Camp

Audrey had her first summer-camp experience this week. She participated in the Grace Art Camp at Grace Memorial Episcopal Church. She got to try out many different styles of arts and crafts -- music, dance, glass-making, painting, etc. -- centered around the theme of the Yangtze River and Chinese culture. Her friends Hannah, Cecily, Lilah, and Jackson did the camp with her. This evening the campers performed some of the songs and dances they learned during the week, including the Grace Art Camp theme song, which everyone, including Mama and Dada, had stuck in their heads all week. As a treat, after the performance Audrey and Kate and Hannah went out for frozen yogurt.

Active sleeper

When Kate moved upstairs into her new room and into her new bed, Mama installed a safety gate so that she wouldn't fall out of bed when sleeping. Looks like it's working.

Park concert with Lily

Lily invited Audrey and Kate to join her for a concert this evening at Willamette Park. The girls enjoyed making pirate hats and eating snow cones Grandpa Dave bought for them.

Heartwood happy birthday

Since Kate wasn't at school on her actual birthday, her friends celebrated her fourth birthday upon her return from Camp Sherman and Sunriver.

Sunriver 2013

On Wednesday, Audrey and Kate packed up their stuff at Camp Sherman and headed further southeast to Sunriver for part two of their family vacation in Central Oregon. They shared a big house with Jill and Lily and Cora and GG and Michael. They walked or biked just about everywhere they wanted to go, which was usually either the North Pool or the SHARC (aquatic center). They also took a train ride and got ice cream in the Sunriver village and took a trip with their cousins to a nature center, where they learned about owls and checked in on some other injured birds of prey.

The girls enjoyed having lots of time to play with their cousins, making up games and performances with them (which Kate usually appointed herself the director of). On the last day of the trip, the girls went with GG to Maverick's where, after a handful of tries, Audrey climbed to the top of a climbing wall. (Click here if the slideshow below doesn't appear or doesn't work.)

Camp Sherman 2013

Audrey and Kate spent several days in Camp Sherman for the first part of a week-long family vacation in Central Oregon. They had a lot of fun playing with their cousins, eating lots of yummy food prepared by Mark and Sharon, staying up late, and spending lots of time at the swimming pool. Audrey ventured out on a bike ride to the Camp Sherman store with Mama, and the girls and their cousins were entertained with a piñata Mark and Sharon brought, looking for frogs, and an interactive story told by Grandpa Dave. The kids also spent a lot of time playing with a hammock and digging in a dirt "bakery." (Click here if the slide show below doesn't appear or doesn't work.")

Kate's birthday, take 3

After her two rounds of birthday celebrations at home, Kate got to party in style with friends and family at Bella Organic Farm on Sauvie Island. All of the grandparents and cousins were in attendance, as well as most of the aunts and uncles and several of Kate's friends from preschool. Kate was not feeling well in the beginning -- we suspected car-sickness from the ride out to Sauvie Island as well as on the bouncy hayride -- but by the end was feeling well enough to eat some Cheetos and a cupcake she helped make, play with her friends and cousins, and open some gifts. An unexpected and fun surprise was a birthday serenade by a blues band that was playing a concert at the farm. (Click here if the slide show below doesn't appear or doesn't work.)

Bed upgrade

With the shuffling of beds due to Kate's move upstairs yesterday, Audrey needed a new mattress to go with her new adult-sized bed (actually, a conversion of Kate's crib/toddler bed).  The full-sized mattress and box spring the family went shopping for yesterday arrived this afternoon. We knew it would be tight fit getting the box spring upstairs, so we selected a "low-profile" version. It was still a tight squeeze, with Dada helping the delivery crew wedge it through the narrow stairway. Audrey and Kate's neighbor and friend Olivia helped the girls test out the new mattress and put on a new sheet set.

Fourth of July Fireworks

After having some cake to celebrate Kate's birthday, the girls went outside to celebrate the country's birthday with some sparklers, pop-its, and a small fountain purchased from a neighborhood fireworks stand. Rather than throw the pop-its, the girls preferred to put them on the ground and stomp on them.

Kate's birthday, take 2

Recovered enough from the bug that made her sick yesterday on her actual birthday, Kate finally got to enjoy her birthday cake.

Kate moves upstairs

Kate got a new bedroom today, moving from her downstairs room she's been in since she was a baby to the other pink room upstairs next to Audrey's room. She had helped Mama and Dada get the room ready over the last week or so, decorating the room with stickers with Audrey and Honey Grandma and helping haul her stuff upstairs. Today was the big move, which involved some moving around of beds: Kate got Audrey's current bed and Audrey got Kate's crib-turned-toddler bed, a gift from GG Audrey had also used as a baby that Dada converted again, this time into an adult bed (necessitating some shopping on the Fourth of July holiday to get a new mattress to fit the converted bed). It also meant that the butterflies that have hung in the downstairs nursery/bedroom before Audrey was born came down and were relocated upstairs.

Tent Time

Audrey and Dada spent the night in a tent (borrowed from Aunt Marie) in the back yard last night. The plan was to have both girls "camp," but with Kate not feeling well we thought it best for her to sleep in her own bed. There was a lot of noise as our neighbors practiced firing off their fireworks to get ready for the Fourth of July, but Audrey, our "sleep champ," slept through all of it (including sleeping through a few bursts of shells that were so loud they startled Dada).

Kate's Birthday, take 1

Kate's birthday today featured hot weather, presents from Mama and Dada, a visit and gifts from Honey and Honey Grandpa and, unfortunately, some kind of bug that knocked her out with a fever and fatigue most of the day. She did manage to make a trip to Baskin Robbins to pick out her birthday cake and eat macaroni and cheese, one of her favorite foods prepared for the occasion, but we decided we'd wait until she felt better before having the cake.