Kindergarten open house

Last night we got to meet Emma's Kindergarten teacher, turn in school supplies, and eat hot dogs with all the other families!

It was great to finally know who her teacher was and to see the classroom.  She put on her best "yellow square" face for us:

We walked around the school and figured out where she would go in the mornings when I drop her off.  I can't walk her to her class, all the kids gather in one location and the teachers escort their class to the classroom each morning.

We saw two kids that she went to preschool with, but neither of them are in her class.  She will have a chance to make 21 new friends!  One of the moms pointed out that 2/3 of the class are boys!  I said that wouldn't be a problem for Emma, she always enjoys hanging with the boys :)

She was excited to play on the playground as well, and show Ed her monkey bar moves!















She will be a Tiger once again!

Just monkeying around!

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Roughing it

This weekend Ed and Emma wanted to go camping in a more natural setting, with minimal supplies and a tent to sleep in.  They left Saturday morning while it was raining, so at that time we weren't sure if they would be spending the night somewhere or returning home!

The sun came out, and they found a site near a river.  They set up camp and Emma enjoyed practicing making fire with her fire starter (in the fire pit, of course).  They played many games of Uno before turning in for the night!















One of the neighbors down the way was telling them about marking fungus with your name, arrow, etc. if you (1) need to mark your path so you know how to return, or (2) if you're lost and you think people might be looking for you, put your information down.  He brought Emma her own little fungus from the river area :)

Sure, it may have been a little bit wet, but they had a great back-to-nature experience together!

Me?  This is what I did while the house (and most importantly the kitchen) was quiet!  20 pounds of peaches + 1 flat of raspberries = 28 jars of goodness!










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Tentin'

Emma wanted to camp out in the backyard in the tent one night.  She doesn't get to sleep in a tent all that often!  It's been warm (both day and night) so this is the time of year to do it. 

So, Friday night Ed and Emma set the tent up outside.  (Emma is doing what she calls her "Super Hero" pose!)

Using the pet door...












As it turns out, they slept in there Saturday night too!  They had a great time and slept better the second night.  This was after many games of Uno and listening to music  :)
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Camping near Mt. Hood

We went camping for our longer trip of the summer - for five days, close to Mt. Hood.  We knew that we wanted to take a couple of day trips into the surrounding areas while we were there.

It didn't take Emma long to relax once we got camp set up the first day!  She also practiced tying knots.  She wants Ed to teach her survival skills!

We went to Trillium Lake to take the walk around the lake.  It's close to 2 miles all the way around, but it was a very easy trail to walk on.  You start with a beautiful view of Mt. Hood:















The trail winds through the woods in many places, and we found a little hut that someone built.  We also found this funny seat tree, and naturally stopped to pose and take several pictures on it!

Then full circle!















The place where we camped has group activities each weekend, and this so happened to be "Pirates" weekend.  In the morning they had crafts for the kids to do, and Emma colored a pirate bandana.  We later hung it up at our campsite, but had to take it down when it started raining!  Later in the evening they had root beer floats for everyone, and scavenger hunts where the kids all found little toys and prizes around the main areas.  This was a fun addition to camping!  (Oh, and I better mention they had a pool, so we all went swimming a couple of times.  I think that was Emma's favorite part!!)

Cowgirl Emma, giving us her toughest pose:















For two evenings that we were there, we had great lightning and thunderstorms, and of course plenty of rain.  We hadn't seen rain for a couple of months in the city, so this didn't bother us at all!  We hung out under the awning and then later played several games of Uno in the trailer.  After it rained, the sun was so pretty peeking through.















Ted ziplined through our camp.  You could hear him shouting "Wheeeeeeee" from down the road!  Cowgirl Zoe rested.

Emma enjoyed National S'Mores Day!

I may be weird for taking a picture of signs, but I really liked how they were wood carvings!











We drove up to Timberline Lodge and walked around the premises.  Emma found this amphitheater stage and instantly put on a pirate show for us!  Other guests were watching her and later said "See you in Hollywood!"  I was actually surprised she performed when there were other people around!

That down there is Trillium Lake, where we had been on a previous day!











We camped through Monday, but on Sunday morning Emma saw some kids playing in the woods down from our campsite.  She went down to play hide and seek with them, but they said that's not what they were playing.  They were playing "a serious game" (is what Emma says) and so she joined in with them.  They were very nice.  Ed brought them down a tarp and some ropes, so they could build a little shelter.  At times we could hear them saying they were running from the bad guy, so we still don't really know what the premise was!  But Emma had fun with them and when they had to leave to check out, they wrote Emma this note, rolled it in a stick and gave it to her.  Oh how I wish we had met them sooner in the weekend!!















This was another fun camping trip for the books!
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