The Birthday Princess

We celebrated Emily's birthday tonight with our Life Group. She got a new dress when she got home from school so that she would have something new and exciting to wear, and we also let her put on her wings and crown.

Daddy made her birthday cake while she was at school, too - chocolate cake, shaped like a castle, with pink sparkles! It was delicious, and Emily blew the candles out just like a pro.

It was a good celebration, but it was a long night with perhaps with just a little too much excitement (and way too much sugar!) We came home with a cranky little girl, and a very cranky Daddy! So for now Miss Emily is all tucked away in bed, and there will be more surprises tomorrow.

The Story of the Rainbow

Once upon a time there was a beautiful Rainbow that stretched all the way across the sky. A little pink princess saw the Rainbow, and saw that it ended right on top of her house! She ran to tell her mother, the queen, but when they went back to look at it later, it was gone.

"It must have gone home to eat its breakfast," the queen told the princess.

But the princess knew that couldn't be true, because rainbows don't eat breakfast.

"Well, what do they eat?" asked the queen.

"They eat monkeys, and elephants, and tigers."

"Well then, it probably went looking for those things - the Rainbow must be at the Zoo!"

Then the princess explained that rainbows don't really eat animals - they eat animal crackers. The Rainbow went to the Zoo to get some animal crackers to eat, but when she got there she found that the Alligator had eaten all the animal crackers!

The Rainbow told the Alligator that he wasn't allowed to eat all of her animal crackers. She knew that the best way to get someone not to take something away from you is to find something that they like better, and to offer a trade. So the Rainbow went to find some alligator food.

She knew what to look for because alligator food looks like huge tails and huge feet and huge faces and huge backs. And huge feet. The Rainbow looked all over the Zoo. She finally found the alligator food way up on the top shelf in the kitchen. She got some and brought it to the Alligator, but the alligator didn't want to share. The Rainbow told the Alligator "This is your food, and the animal crackers are my food, and you can't have my food!" And of course, the Alligator knew that she was right.

So the Alligator ate his alligator food, and the Rainbow ate all of the animal crackers. She ate all the monkeys first, because they were her favorites. Then she went home and went to sleep.

The end.

Haircut

A while ago, we watched a Sesame Street in which Baby Bear got his first haircut. He was afraid and didn't want to get his hair cut, but his Papa Bear reassured him, and ultimately went with him. Papa Bear started by getting his own hair cut, and when Baby Bear saw that it didn't hurt him, he was willing to get his hair cut as well. Then Elmo showed a clip of another little boy getting his first haircut and having a great time. After that, Emily was very persistent about wanting to go and get her hair cut - so on Saturday morning, we rode the MAX one stop down from our house and Emily got her first professional haircut.

She did a great job of sitting still, and she told the lady exactly what she wanted. She wanted her hair "this short" (with her thumb and finger about a half-inch apart.) She sat very still while the lady combed and sprayed. She giggled when the trimmed hair tickled her face as it fell, and when she climbed down she marveled at all the little red curls on the floor. Then she turned around and told the lady "Thank you!"

When we got home, we took some pictures on the play area at our new apartment.

She looks so cute - and she reminds me a little of Ramona Quimby now. 

I guess that's appropriate, since we live in Portland now,
and Emily really is like Ramona in a lot of ways.

A Day at the Beach

Last year, when we moved to Portland, on the night before my mom arrived here with Emily, Ken and I drove out to the coast and saw the ocean by moonlight. To commemorate our first year here, we decided to go to the beach again, and this time we made a day trip of it. We went to Seaside and let Emily play on the beach.

It started as a beautiful, sunshiny day. We flew our kite and looked for seashells, and kicked Emily's Princess Ball around a bit. Emily built a sand castle, and we all put our feet in the ocean. The water was COLD! And after a while the air started getting a little cool as well, but that was ok because we were getting tired and ready to eat lunch. On the way back up the beach, Emily decided she was ready for a turn on the swing set, and she played for a while with some other kids who were swinging as well.

We found a sand dollar to take home, ate fish and chips and the most delicious clam chowder, and then got a big bag of saltwater taffy (a necessary part of any trip to the beach.)

Odds & Ends

At the PSU Campus, headed to the Farmer's Market

The Carousel at Jantzen Beach

(Ken took this!)

At the Portland Children's Museum

after a little face-painting.

Emily in her new yellow swimsuit

After church
18 April 2010

Easter Dress

Easter 2010

We had a big Easter weekend. We went to the Zoo on Saturday for their "Rabbit Romp." Emily got to hunt for Easter eggs with a bunch of other kids, and we got to see some animals too.

Here is a photo of Emily with her Easter basket, just before we left the house. It was raining of course, so we had to cover all her cute little spring clothes with a hoodie and jacket. Luckily, this is Oregon - and they know around here how to make rainy-weather clothing that's also cute and spring-y.

When we got to the Zoo, they had the little pavillion divided into sections for each age group, and they had LOTS of helpers. Emily has never hunted Easter eggs with a large group of kids before, so it took her a minute to get the system down. She would find something, "ooh" and "ahh" over it for a minute, then drop it to go look for something else! The helpers kept encouraging her and making sure there was lots of stuff for her to find, and eventually she got some treats in her basket. She got some candy and little toys, and two Easter duckies to join her bathtub collection.

 

The Easter bunny was there too, and Emily spotted him right away and ran to him and gave him a big hug! We got him to stick around for a minute and pose for a picture before the Easter egg hunt began.

 

We took the car this time instead of the train, and the drive back was a long one. Ken took us home via Germantown Road, to skip all the traffic on the main road back through downtown. It was a beautiful drive through the West Hills and over the St. John's Bridge. I think Emily crashed before we even got out of the Zoo parking lot!

Before & After

Practicing my Photoshop skills with a photo of Emily by the fountain
at the Peninsula Park Rose Garden.

 

Planting

We just moved to an apartment almost identical to the one we were in, only with a balcony. So when we had finished moving everything we went and got some plants and potting soil, and we all went outside and got our hands good and dirty. Emily had gotten a package for Easter with some jiffy pots and tomato seeds, and garden tools with Elmo on them, and she was very excited about being able to dig with her new scoops!

Ok, so Ken and I ended up doing most of the actual planting - but Emily was right there watching and asking questions, and patting and poking, and pouring potting soil from one container into another.

 

The strawberry plants had some little flowers on them already, and Emily was fascinated when I told her that the flowers were going to turn into strawberries!

When we had finished planting everything - one container of strawberries and mint, and one of herbs and vegetables, plus the little tomato pots - we gave all the plants a drink of water. That was where Emily really got to help. She kept saying "Mama, the plants are going to live and grow!"

She can see them from her bedroom window; this morning she was somewhat concerned because "the wind was getting on them" and she was afraid they were going to blow away. We went out and checked on them, and gave them a little more water, and made sure that all was well in the plant kingdom.

One Little Monkey

...jumping on the couch. Ken was making dinner, and heard a thud followed by a wail. I was out taking a class, and when I got home they were in the bathtub. Of course it was a Friday night, and when we got to the Emergency Room at about 8:30pm, it was packed. We finally got to see a doctor at about 2:00am.

The doctors and nurses were great - the nurse made a "big hand balloon" for Emily to play with. She was a trouper, even though it was so late and her head was still bleeding. She charmed everyone (of course) and wanted to know everybody's name, asked all the doctors and nurses how they were doing.

 

It was a long, long night though. By the time we got into a room with a bed Emily was ready to crash. Luckily, after that we weren't there for very long. They put some topical anesthetic on her head and then used three staples to close up the cut. She cried then, but not for long - I think at that point she was more worn out than hurt.

We finally got home at around 3:30am
...and Emily was up at 9:00 the next morning, ready to go!

Ready to Ride

Emily's 3rd Birthday

Hello, Bananaphone!

Making Music

We were reading one of Emily's books and we came to the page with all kinds of musical instruments. She didn't know what a harmonica was, so I went and got the one I had, from a Blues Traveler concert (played by John Popper himself!)

Before long, not only was she making sounds with the harmonica, but she started singing "Jesus Loves Me" and accompanying herself between lines of the song!

Kitchen Helper

We made homemade pretzels today. Emily helped mix the water and yeast, she helped knead the dough, and she helped roll it out to make the pretzel shapes. While the pretzels were cooking we watched "Princess Beauty" and Emily decided she needed to put Mama's shoes on for a while.

Even More Fun!

I found my colored pencils last night in the bottom of my box of art supplies. I hardly ever use colored pencils, so I took them out for Emily to color with.

Coloring Fun

Tidbits

Emily and I were in her room, playing with all her toy food. (She loves pretending to get things to eat from the box, but she hasn't really got the concept of pretending to cook the food. For her, the food and the kitchen are two completely different sets of toys.) So we were playing with her food, and she gave me a plastic orange to eat; I pretended to peel it, and she protested "No, you don't peel it. You peel a banana!" So I explained to her that you can peel an orange, too. And since I happened to buy some oranges when we were at the market this morning, I went and got one and showed her how to peel it, and we ate it together.

Later, we were in her tent and she got her Peter Pan book for me to read to her. We got to the part where Peter is looking for his shadow, and I asked Emily "Where is your shadow?" She didn't know, so I brought her out into the light, and showed her her shadow on the floor, then on the wall. She was very excited, especially when she waved her hand and the shadow waved back. She had a good time hopping up and down with her shadow on the wall. I tried to take a picture, but the flash made the shadow go away.