Smiling Archives - Ellie Clements

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.

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.

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.

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?“.

Ellie building a Lego yacht

One of Ellie’s main Christmas presents was a big Lego yacht: a 600-piece kit aimed at 9-14 year-olds.

Once again though, she proved just how skilled she is at abstract thinking. She did require a little bit of help with this one, mainly to correct a mistake, but aside from that, she built the bulk of this with very little input from any adults.

Family pictures 2018

After we discovered Jess and Jon at Cascade Photography last year and fell in love with the great job they did on our family photos last year, we asked them to come back and do some more photos for us this year.

Fall is a perfect time for family photos in Portland because the leaves are beautiful and colourful and of course we can include those pictures on our Christmas cards.

Ellie’s kindergarten photo

Since starting school, Ellie has been thriving. She loves to learn and is really in her element in this learning environment.

They’ve already done their photos for the school year, so the other day we got back her kindergarten photo. She looks adorable and so very grown up! Continue reading “Ellie’s kindergarten photo”

July – September 2018

While we didn’t explore quite as much as I would have liked this summer, we certainly got out and saw some new places. We did a few hikes, explored some new places and did a few activities like riding the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad.

With Ellie starting school, she participated in fun run at school. We also got a new addition to the family: our first dog, Miles, whom Ellie has fallen in love with. Continue reading “July – September 2018”

April – June 2018

As the weather cleared up and Ellie completed her fifth trip around the sun, her personality just keeps coming out more and more.

These photos help to show how much she’s coming out of her shell and that she isn’t afraid to be her, which I love. I don’t want her to ever apologise for being who she is.

She upgraded from her balance bike to her first real bike at Christmas and once the weather cleared up, she was able to start riding around and she’s getting pretty good at operating the bike by herself. She’s still got training wheels / stabilisers on for now, but those’ll come off soon enough with how well she’s progressing. Continue reading “April – June 2018”