The other day, Ellie and I went to this charity event. Ellie got her face painted and the venue was so beautiful that I had to snap a picture of the two of us and it came out so nicely.
Continue reading “I’m a beautiful butterfly!”Category: Smiling
The smile that melts hearts
Looking more and more grown-up every day
As Ellie continues to grow, she’s looking more and more like a young girl every day. This was especially true when Ellie put on this new outfit and she just looks like a small version of a teenager.
Continue reading “Looking more and more grown-up every day”Ellie trying on her Halloween outfit
Ellie got her Halloween outfit the other day and she settled on being a mermaid (again). She found this dress at Costco that she fell in love with and she can’t wait for Halloween now.
Continue reading “Ellie trying on her Halloween outfit”Ellie starts 1st grade
Ellie had an amazing first year at school. She learned so much and it’s astounding how well she can read and write now.
She had a great summer of relaxing, while keeping her skills up to scratch.
Now she’s back at it and having a great time. She’s got a wonderful teacher, excellent classmates and is loving getting back to learning.
Continue reading “Ellie starts 1st grade”Our first family camping trip
This summer, we finally had the equipment and the support to do what we’ve wanted to do since moving to Portland: go camping.
We were invited by some friends to go car camping with a whole bunch of families, which sounded ideal because there would be plenty of confident hands assisting us, and lots of other children for the kids to play with.
So, off we went. We went to Barview Jetty Campground on the Oregon coast, which was flush with the amenities that would make Marti in particular comfortable, such as running water, flush toilets and hot showers.
Continue reading “Our first family camping trip”Ellie lost her first tooth
Ellie held on to her baby teeth longer than most of her peers. Today, she lost her first tooth, and it was quite an eventful affair.
After a week or two of it being really quite wobbly, to the point of even being able to lay down on its side, we went to Starbucks, as we do on the first Saturday of every month before our Home Depot Workshop, and Ellie ordered a bagel as usual.
At the conclusion of the meal, Marti stared at Ellie confused and asked Ellie where her tooth was. She reached into her mouth and was equally confused.
Yep, she had swallowed it.
Continue reading “Ellie lost her first tooth”Ellie’s first year at school complete
And just like that, Ellie is no longer a kindergartner. Today is Ellie’s last day at school before the summer break, and they had a school assembly where parents were invited to come along, so I broke away from work to attend.
Each grade sang us a song, and several groups were highlighted and praised for their efforts and achievements during the year. This included the top two boys and girls in each grade from Running Club, where the kids are allowed to voluntarily run around the track at recess and have their laps recorded by a teacher. Apparently, Ellie was one of the top two girl kindergartners (out of ~40) that ran the most laps throughout the year, so she got a gift card and recognition for that.
Continue reading “Ellie’s first year at school complete”Visiting the Cherry Blossoms in Portland
We live in the PNW because we love everything about it, and we live that reality out. At every opportunity, we’re out seeing all of the beautiful sites around us.
For whatever reason, in the first two springs here, we didn’t get a chance to make it down to Tom McCall Waterfront Park to see the cherry blossom trees blooming in early spring, but we didn’t make that mistake this year.
We have a lot of cherry blossom trees here in Portland and they’re just a beautiful adornment to an already beautiful city.
Continue reading “Visiting the Cherry Blossoms in Portland”Building a snowman up on Mt Hood
Since we went up to Mt Hood a few times this winter to go sledding and tubing, we also took the opportunity to build ourselves a snowman. It was actually quite hard to build, because the snow was very dry and pwdery, so it didn’t hold together too well (which is why he looks so emaciated!).
Ellie’s first science fair project
Ellie’s school invited students of all ages to produce a project for their science fair this year, including kindergartners. With Ellie having such a verve for science and me being right there with her, we decided to do one together.
Ellie’s school district provided a list of over 150 suggested topics, so after scanning the list together, we settled on the question “What affects how much sunlight we get in a day?“.
Continue reading “Ellie’s first science fair project”