Second class

Tonight I got the uniform picture that I was hoping to get earlier this week!

Emma enjoyed the stretching/warm-up part at the beginning of class.  Tonight she learned some different techniques, mostly kicking related.  I just love how she skips away with a smile after her turn!

 .

Tae Kwon Do

Tonight Emma had her first trial class of TKD. She was on and off again with her excitement over the past few days, but thankfully after a good nap today she was ready to go. She had a good time tonight!

Counting to ten with punches. They also counted in Korean!

This was probably the most fun part of the class!


I would call her Karate Cutie, but karate is a different type of martial arts so instead I'll just say that she is darn cute in her uniform!!

.

Balloon Festival

On Friday night we went to see the Night Glow at the hot air balloon festival. After setting up about five balloons, the wind was proving to be too much. These balloons were bonking into each other! Within 10-15 minutes they had to take them all down as it was too much to keep them standing up in the wind.

On Saturday we went back to check out the rest of the festival. Emma completed the Safety Safari and came home with some prizes. Then we saw a local Tae Kwon Do booth. We had just checked into this a month ago! So I talked with one of the instructors while another took Emma aside to teach her some basics. First thing I heard was "YES M'AM!" Then she practiced kicking some pads.

Finally she was ready to break a board with her foot. They showed her how to kick with the bottom of her foot (not her toes!) right in the center of the logo on the board. Crack! She broke it in half. She got to keep the pieces, and after we got home on Saturday she taped it back together so she could try again!!

She will begin the first of four trial classes on Tuesday night. We're not sure if she will want to continue after that, but she got a free uniform for trying and we'll just see how it goes at the end!

Emma was able to ride most of the rides this year and play a couple of games to win prizes.

She even saw a few of her friends there on Saturday!

I rode a few of the "wild" rides with Miranda. Here we are upside down (what a lovely view of the park!) on the Inverter.

I'll tell you something lousy about getting older though. After going on "The Orbiter," my brain and stomach were so scrambled. Combine that with the sun beating down and I felt miserable on Saturday afternoon and was only saved by sitting in the shade. I hate to think that my fast ride days are over!! I guess this is what those few sprouting gray hairs on my head have been trying to tell me :)
.

Portland on the go

Today we went for a scenic tram ride with PapaGrammyCuz. It was a semi-clear day, but there were still too many clouds to see the mountains!

The streetcar stops at the base of the tram, so we decided to hop aboard and take it for a ride to downtown for lunch. It just started to sprinkle before the streetcar came, but Cuz had her panda umbrella!

.

Painted bird feeder

Emma was looking forward to painting the bird feeder that she made with Daddy on Sunday. She wanted to use many colors! Towards the end, the colors began to run together...

It came out quite colorful! Come and knock on our door, birdies!

.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

This morning after church, Emma and Daddy put together a bird feeder that Emma got for him. It's a "build it with me" project. She was very involved in piecing it together, as she's in the "I do it by myself" stage.


Finished! Tomorrow Emma can paint it for the birdies.


This afternoon we went for a family bike ride. We rode by a creek and it was a great day to be out.


Emma is so funny, she will stop her bike and says she needs to get some exercise (what is biking?) and she'll jump rope for a while. Sometimes when we're out for a ride around the neighborhood, she will stop and do stretches on the sidewalk!


We then realized if we just went up one big hill, we could pop in and say hello to some friends. Well, the hill was too steep for Emma to ride up, so Ed attached her jumprope to the handlebars and we "towed" it up the hill while Emma walked! The hill was REALLY fun coming back down though!!


Finally, the day has just about come to an end with some ice cream sandwiches :)
/

Just because

I just wanted to get a picture of Emma wearing this cute little necklace. A friend of Miranda's made it for her - it's a bowl of chocolate ice cream!


.

Your move

Learning how to play checkers. She was more interested in the chess pieces on the other side of the board (horses!), but I told her Daddy was going to have to teach her that one!

.

Cool in the pool

Today's weather is in the 70s, but it is quite warm out in the sun! We got Emma's kiddie pool out and she wanted to go down a water slide.

3, 2, 1, splash down!

Swimsuits even work for keeping you cool while gardening!!

.

Junior Parade

Today we went to the Rose Festival Junior Parade. We got there an hour early and were just barely able to snag a spot on the curb! Emma and Dacia got horns before the parade. Emma's trumpet sounded more like a party horn and she played it all afternoon! And still is...


We knew Fred Bear was going to be there and Emma was very excited. Much to her delight, he even blew a kiss!


She was very tired today and needed a rest in the street. Then she engaged in a battle of the trumpets with our neighbor!


Emma attempts to join in the band:


.

Evening stroll

I had to bring a camera tonight to record Emma's fireman slide. She found a stop sign that she could easily get up high on, thanks to a basketball hoop base!


Look at this poor deprived child. How could we deny her having a kitty (or two!) of her own!

(These cats are not very afraid of Zoe. I have to keep her at least 5-10 feet back!)
.

Weekend camping

On Friday afternoon we headed for the coast. This was our first camping trip this year, and it was the perfect weekend for it!

One of the best little parts of camping are glow sticks! You can get them so cheap at the dollar store. Emma wants to crack them open even before it gets dark! They are the perfect night lights too, as demonstrated here.

Beach girls! Saturday morning we drove down to Seaside. Emma and Zoe had a lot of fun playing in the waves. We had shorts with us, but instead chose to roll up our pants. Zoe's belly got wet of course! Later that night Emma said she still felt like she was floating in the waves!

Emma got to fly her Penguins of Madagascar kite which she had really been looking forward to. It was a windy day - in fact when we arrived we had to chase a couple of things that got away from us, including the kite!

She loved chasing it when Daddy flew it as well. It was pretty funny when it would come crashing down in the sand!

S'mores time! Emma chose to eat her components individually. We actually had this snack before dinner on Saturday night, which led to us eating dinner around 8:30! That didn't matter, it was still plenty light out then. We couldn't wait and Emma had been anxious to start a campfire :)

On Sunday morning I took Emma and Zoe down to the beach (near camp) so Daddy could rest a little more before we had to pack up. It was a much colder day on the beach in comparison to Saturday! We still built sand castles, flew the kite and touched our toes in the ocean. Brr!!

It was hotter in town when we returned, but that quickly changed as the rain came down and we heard thunder!
.