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