Babyup!

Someone is just about to turn Thirteen…

First we stopped by one of the giant Asian markets to pick up some lunch.

Chloe shows off excellence in sign design.

About half of the snacks we bought…

Sellwood Riverfront Park!

I swear she used to be shorter.

Big crowd of seal lions lounging on the floating dock.

Bigfoot sighting

Aqua-wig?

Then we went back into town. That first step is a doozy!

“It’s life Dad, but not as we know it.”

Bigfoot found us again

Chupacabra! “Now with pants!”

The night before, the Author performs a selection from his on-going work:
The Curiously Banal Adventures of Banana Man.

Chloe and I went to downtown to cavort in the city on a rainy June day.

First stop was the Portland Art Museum to take in the exhibit Crafting Pinnochio. All about bringing Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio to life.

Here’s the trailer for the film, if you’re not familiar with it.

…and the making of…

The sets are pretty amazing.

This set is so big, can’t really see any detail from back here.

The detail is astounding. Much of the film was created here in Portland.

Here’s an example of all the crazy, tiny parts that go into each puppet to allow them to move.

Here’s Chloe sitting on the Totoro bench in the shop will all the keen stuff from Japan.

Afterwards we walked down to Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Umbrella guy!

Here we are seeing if I can capture the echo with my camera. Oops, it didn’t work.

Rocket Fizz! The shop with all the candy!

Chloe wanted to try real ramen, so we did. Dang, it was good.

Yum!

Afterwards, Chloe says the ramen was the best part of our ramble.

Lunchtime doodles

Chloe doing the skybridge dance.

We visit an art gallery

Love Monster

“Fish Fingers”

A short tour of Chinatown

…and we ended up in Waterfront Park. All in all we walked a bit over five miles.

Back home with the bunnies.

Chloe and I took the kayaks to Hagg Lake.

Here’s Chloe making with the pump action.

My people call it “lunch.”

Must snack before paddling.

Off she goes!

Live action! I didn’t want to drop my phone in the lake,
so there’s no photographic evidence of us out in the middle of the big lake.
Yes, Chloe had her life preserver on for that.

Back home with the bunnies.

Chloe’s looking forward to summer vacation. Just five days left of school!

Chloe decided she wanted to make manicotti. Here’s the cheese.

She wants you to know how shocked she is by the sheer size of the pasta.

Who’s that bald old guy?

Came out good!

Yesterday we went to Fern Hill and took a long meandering walk…

Still life of Pre-Teen With Peach Twizzlers

Unrelated photo by Lisa. Snooze time.

Every spring Chloe’s school holds a Mayfaire at their farm (kind of a mini-farm). This includes a maypole, snacks and general running-around.

Maypole!

Chloe volunteered to make about 100 shortbread cakes.

And here she is helping serve them up!

Easter was low-key this year. Only two photos!

We did some other fun stuff, though.

Spaghetti Squash for dinner!

Chloe is getting good at our old family game of Punce!

Chloe decided to make cupcakes!

We went to the Portland Art Museum, and made art!

So our latest adventure started with a STEM kit from the Multnomah County Libraries. We used the kit and instructions to turn a lemon into a battery that can light up an LED! How cool is that?

It’s good to have a couple clues about how electricity works. Turning a lemon into a battery is not terribly practical, but is fun to do as an experiment. So, what’s next?

Chloe wanted to make baked potatoes, so I paired that with lamb shoulder chops and the process of cooking was so simple I didn’t get any photos of it, but…

As you can see, we dug into some fine eats, even though we made some mistakes aka “learning opportunities” along the way.

What happens when you eat your lamb with your fingers?

I had the stove turned up too high at first, which created a lot of smoke we had to vent with open windows, so the kid got cold!

Most every year I vow to make fastnachts (a Pennsylvania Dutch treat), then it ends up not happening. This year with Chloe being interested in cooking, I promised we’d make them. Due to scheduling issues, we missed the traditional date. Oh well, we don’t observe Lent anyway. Here’s the recipe we used. (Here’s a PDF you can download)

The biggest difference between a fastnacht and the donuts you’re familiar with is fastnachts are made with potatoes, giving them a different texture and flavor. Here’s Chloe making a funny face while working on the tater.

That’s Day One. Once the dough is mixed, it sits overnight to let the yeast go to work.

Day Two: We split the dough across two bowls, and it rose to the top of each! Here’s Chloe digging in. We think we left the dough a bit too sticky, next time we’ll add more flour.

Chloe shows us how it’s done.

Time to fry!

And they came out good! Pretty much like I remember. Since you can’t get Turkey Syrup off the shelf in Portland, here I’m using regular molasses. The basic idea is you slice them like a bagel and put something sweet on the yummy thing. Honey works, even maple syrup.

We got about 30 fastnachts out of this batch. We put powdered sugar on some. Chloe’s going a step further by bringing them to share with her class at school. I’m sending her off with a couple printouts of PA Dutch Hex signs and a few factoids about the Pennsylvania side of her family. I just got her after-action report. The fastnachts were well received, no leftovers!

And for some more fun, here’s how to translate from Pennsylvania Dutch English to General American English. Git aught, naw!

Here in late Feb we were hit with a sudden snowstorm. It turned out to be the second-most snow in one day in recorded Portland history!

Who’s that old guy?

Snowball fight!

Chloe’s been cooking using the clever stuff from https://www.raddishkids.com. I’d have to say everything’s been coming out great and she’s really been enjoying it!

Making chicken tacos…

Eating chicken tacos!

Soft pretzel bites!

Chloe made gumbo! Then we watched The Princess and the Frog, which opens with a father and daughter making gumbo. How about that?