Family Fall Fun Photo Shoot 2016

The official start to Fall in our household is not when school begins, but when we get together for our annual family portrait.  This year, I especially was not interested in getting my photo taken.  I was restless, tired and just generally in an aggravated mood.  Dad said he was genuinely surprised by how many good photos there were.

You can check out the whole Family Fall Photo Shoot album here (there are a bunch) - but I've pulled a few of my favorites out below

What a fun park this was - there were boardwalks, a grassy field and giant red metal spires - all within a 1 block downtown park!

Peace Out,
Phin

Checkmate

At school my teacher, Ms Natalie, is always trying to teach us new things (that's good, because it's school).  A few of my friends have gotten really into Chess during free time.  Dad has always said that he enjoys chess and that Uncle David is really good at chess.  Still, I never wanted to play chess at school - I did not know how the pieces moved.

In only a few minutes at home and a quick lesson from Dad, I now love chess.  I love the silly names of the pieces (pawn, bishop, rook - what are those things) and playing.  While Dad is a great chess teacher, he's not very good and I was able to beat him twice the first day!

The next day, I wanted a bigger challenge...

 So, via video chat and with the assistance of Dad to move the black pieces, I was able to combat Grandpa even though he was in St Louis.  Grandpa turned out to be a difficult opponent - his slow pace of moving and skill overpowered my King and left me in Checkmate.  A rematch with a clock is in the planning.

Even Amelia liked watching and learning chess (you can see her pink arm in the right side of the pictures above).  Her favorite part: yelling CHECK really loudly.

So, if you want to help tutor the next Grand Master or practice your en passant (although I have no idea what that move is), lets set up a game.

Peace out,
Phin

Happy 10th Anniversary

Happy 10th Anniversary to Mom and Dad.  10 years ago today they were married.  Here are a few videos to catch you up to speed on that date.


Video 1: Here was their video on their lives before the wedding.  only it was a long video, so I sped it up to 4 times the speed (and 4 times less long).

Video 2: A few years back, Dad turned his looooong booooring wedding into just a few minutes.  Now you can watch the best parts.

You'll have to wait a few more years until Dad does the same with the dancing portion of their wedding.  To see what's happened since they've been married, read the blog

Peace Out,
Phin

Fall Fun - Leave the Leaves

It's that time again... time when our Maple Trees out front turn as red as fire and drop pretty leaves.  So far Dad has cleaned up 4 65-gallon toters of leaves for the compost pile of Portland.  Luckily, the bin is full for the week, so we got to sweep up and play in the leaves that didn't fit in the bin.

(View the video here or the picture below)

 

Ever wonder how we got from the backyard to the sidewalk & our leaf pile?  We rode our broom like Harry Potter (whoever he is) or a witch!

Here are a couple of 'buried in the leaves' pictures.

Peace Out,
Phin

School Photos

As you know, Phin & I are at different schools this year.  While I miss my Phinny, it is fun to be all on my own at school.  

In case you were wondering what we look like at school, here are the proofs of our school photos.  Get your orders in now.

 

I guess schools in Portland like to take their pictures outside.  Here is a link to see and download the proofs.

Lots of Love, 
Amelia

Crater Lake - 7 years later

I was so excited to go to Crater Lake. Dad says that if he had not come to work at Crater Lake, we would have never known how awesome Oregon is and we never would have moved here.  So thank you Crater Lake (see Dad, I said thank you). 

Also, I was excited to go see somewhere pretty where Dad worked.  Right now he just works in the garage, anywhere has to be better than that.  I've been to some of his other workplaces like the White House (it's just a big house; I spit-up while we were there), the Post Office (that was pretty cool, but the lines are long) and our old basement.    But, Crater Lake was the coolest place he ever worked.

Thinking about taking a bath in the lake

 For those who have not been, Crater Lake is big - really big.  Really, really blue.  And really windy and cold in September.  But, we had a lot of fun.  We got to drive around the lake, have hot cocoa in rocking chairs by the rim, eat dinner in a fancy restaurant, pee in the woods (pointing away from the lake), and hike and hike and explore.  It was fun to spend the long Labor Day weekend there.

 We also got to do a few fun activities outside of the park, like explore where the Rogue River goes underground into a lava tube and climb on GIANT boulders. 

At the lookout tower on Watchman Peak - it was beautiful, but we were tired

 One of my favorite things about camping is staying up late and eating marshmallows.  Instead of just having a campfire our second night, Dad insisted we go to one of his favorite spots in the park at sunset.  So, after dinner we hiked (well, Amelia rode on shoulders most of the way and danced the rest of the way) 1 miles straight up hill to Watchman Peak and made it just in time for the sunset (7:30pm - that's way past my bed time).  Our treat for making it up - marshmallows and chocolate (and 40 mph wind gusts - yes it was cold). On the way back to the campsite, Amelia and I got to look at the stars. Loved it.

The next morning, we woke up, packed up, ate up and shimmied up to see a few waterfalls on our way home.  Golly, I sure love camping; although starting school and staying up late makes me very tired.

Check out all of my Crater Lake National Park pictures here (there are a lot).

Peace out,
Phin "the rugged camper"

I'm Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover

I have a few frarovrite songs I like to sing.  Usually, I just start singing as I'm walking around the house or doing whatever I do.  Yesternight, Mom finally recorded me singing.

(or click here to view the video)

So, now I'm wondering, do you ever look over a four leaf clover?

Lots of Love,

Memoo

PS - Phiny, I miss you while you are at school :(

Portlandia Comes To Our Street - Goat Kart riding

I do not get to watch much TV.  During the summer, we have definitely seen a more movies than usual on our TV.  But, Dad says there is something called on TV called TV shows; they are like short movies. 

A couple of weeks ago they were filming one of these TV shows, Portlandia, on our street.  In fact, they were supposed to use our house for one scene; but they did not because they were running late and the crew had to go to bed.  They will be back, maybe they will use our house then. 

Dad says the show is about Portland and a critic of modern/hipster culture.  To celebrate their filming Mom, Dad and the Neighbors wanted to do something truly Portland-hipster (I still have no idea what that phrase means).  We made a sign:

We tried to convince the two 'stars' of the show to take a goat kart ride on our neighbors goats; they never responded.  After hearing nothing, we decided to take our own goat kart ride (it's kind of like Mario Kart, only Amelia is still scared of the goats).

(Click the picture or here to watch)

Peace Out,

Phin

 

Wilderness Hiking - One last big outing before our last big outing before school starts

Hard to believe that I start my first day of kindergarten in a few weeks.  It is even harder to believe that my first time in a really big guy school is in the grade of kindergarten - it is so hard to say and spell!  Who thought of that terrible name.

Yesterday, we went on one last adventure before our last adventure before school really starts - we went hiking out by Mt Hood.  Hiking is great, we get to explore, run around the woods, be silly, kick up dirt while we walk, have a picnic outside and just have fun!

For this hike we went on the Old Salmon River trail, which not surprisingly runs right alongside the Salmon River.  I'm not sure where the new Salmon River trail is, but the old one was great.  There were cool trees to hide in, a lot of old stumps to climb on and really pretty river views. 

If you would like to see all of our photos from our hike, check out our album.  The hike also gave Dad and Amelia a chance to revive their series of hiking videos they started last year.  You should watch their Amelia & Dad Hiking video (or click the picture below). Dad says it is crazy to see how big Memoo has gotten.  I think she's gotten shorter though.

Peace Out,
Phin

Amelia's 4th Birthday!

Can you believe I am 4?  Me, Memoo, turned 4 this past weekend!  

Last year, when I turned 3, we had just moved to Portland and our furniture was just delivered.   Because of all of this change, I did not have a chance to meet too many people or plan too big of a party.  But this year was different.  We are settled into our house and neighborhood and I had a lot of friends from school.  So, my party was great!

When Mom and Dad asked what kind of party we should have, I let them know I wanted a PJ party. I wanted to run around the backyard in my pajamas.

Out from with my birthday banner and pinata

Jumping on my new bounce house - what a great birthday present

We took Grandma, Grandpa, Nana, Papa to the beach.  It was chilly and windy, but fun

In addition to the normal birthday party festivities, we decided to show Grandma, Grandpa, Nana and Papa the beautiful Oregon Coast.  We drove everyone out to Canon Beach and Hug Point.  What a great way to spend your birthday weekend - at the beach.  As you can see from the picture above, it was chilly (65) and windy, but fun.

Happy birthday to me (again).  You can see my birthday weekend pictures here.
Lots of Love, 
Amelia 4

Biker babe

Sorry for the long break in blogs, but we've been busy having fun and learning new tricks.

For example, I learned to ride a bicycle.  Check out the video and picture

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AlfXhfeI4owEgTr2Ye-o7L0gkV6-

Lots of love,

Amelia

Happy Tu BiShvat 2016 - We Planted a New Tree in Our Yard

Tu BiShvat is the Jewish holiday celebrating trees!  Happy Birthday trees.

Instead of baking a cake (although we did make cookies), you are supposed to celebrate trees by planting a tree.  Now that we finally have a yard (instead of a brick patio) we can celebrate in style.  Luckily, we also had a dead tree that came with our house.  So we also had the perfect spot to plant our tree!

Using our muscles and clippers (Amelia, my friend Kelon and I actually got to use the clippers), we took out the old tree (it was small and rotted).  Then, Dad dug a big hole.  Finally, we planted our tree. 

Amelia named the tree, "Our New Family Apple Tree That Lives Outside."  Yup, that's what she actually named the tree.  I'm glad I was born first, otherwise she might have named me "Baby" instead of Phin.

Adding some dirt, while Amelia holds the tree up

Standing behind our new tree

Okay, so now you've seen our new tree, you're probably thinking "that's not a tree, it's a branch with 5 twigs."  Okay, that's what I thought at least.  Dad promises me this is an apple tree that will grow 3 kinds of apples: Fuji on the top two branches, honey crisp on the middle layer and Gravenstein on the bottom layer.  Dad also says that we are going to hang wires for the tree to grow on, in order for it to produce more apples; but, not grow tall (so Amelia can always pick them).  

Since we've moved into our new house, we've also planted 13 lavender plants and 5 blueberry bushes.  Now if only we could keep the squirrels and birds from eating everything.

While you wait for the apples to grow, you can look at the rest of our planting pictures here.

Peace Out, 

Phin

Time Machine - What was life like before me

Every now and then we discuss an event that occurred before Amelia and I were born.  Memoo always asks "Where was I?"  She knows that we are all older than her, but is uncertain where she was before she was born.  Likewise, I struggle to understand how Mom & Dad did anything remotely fun before I was born (since I am so much fun).  In fact, did you know that Mom and Dad did not have any matchbox cars or legos in their apartment house before I was born?!  What did they do for fun without us?

Looking back through the blog's archives, I found out (a little bit).  For fun, they went to Florida to visit Grandma and Grandpa (twice). 

7 years ago, they had a great time with Aunt Mimi (before there was an Uncle Wes) and Uncle David (before there was an Aunt Elizabeth).  This trip is so confusing: 1) Grandma used to blog - who knew? 2) it was before the family had fully expanded (no Wes & Elizabeth); 3) Memoo and I were not born; but where were we? 4) Dad has not lost any hair in 7 years

January 2009 in Florida - before we were born

6 years ago today, they visited Florida and posted this ridiculous video; although Memoo likes to dance to the music

Play the video

Still unanswered, did they have fun without us?  Can they?  Why did they not take us to Florida on these two trips?

Peace Out,
Phin

Perler Beads - My New for New Years Side Activity

So before moving to Oregon (on Wednesday we will have been here 6 months), I had never heard of Perler Beads before.  I played a lot of cars, did a lot of miscellaneous arts and crafts and had a lot of fun (don't worry, I still do those things).  But at school, we started making fun creations by putting little beads on pegboards and then having our teachers melt them with an iron.

My very first Perler bead creation - nothing fancy, just a circle

Since that day at school, Dad calls me a 'Perler machine.'  Amelia and I made perler bead creations for Nana, Papa, Grandma & Grandpa for Thanksgiving, and a couple of times a week at home, I sit for hours and make new creations.  Dad says it is great for my coordination, creativity, focus and fine motor skills.

The Snail from my Snail Trail book about Modern Art (& Henri Matisse) - a self creation

Sometimes, I get inspiration for creations from my favorite things (like the photo above).  Other times I tell Mom and Dad what I would like to make and they look online for a pattern that I can follow. Since we were finding all sort of great ideas online, I asked Dad to post my creations online (he's my webmaster) as a way to give back. 

Over the holidays Dad created a new site for me to house all of my Perler bead creations.  The comments and everything on the site is all mine, I told Dad what I want people to know about each creation and he put the information up there.  More will be coming soon, since I love Perler-ing.

Follow this link to check out my repository - I called the site Perler Party:

 

Peace Out,
Phin