Here she is with her friend Sophia, about to hit the streets for CANDY! It turned out to be a pretty terrible night for it with cold weather and torrential downpours. Oh well, that happens. They had fun anyway.
Here’s how the jack-o-lanterns looked on my porch.
Last year we started a new tradition. I guess you could call it “The Smashing of the Pumpkins”, which we do when they’ve gotten too rotten to really use anymore.
On the side of Mt. Saint Helens, you know, the volcano you may remember from 1980? It’s right up the street, more or less, from Portland. Volcanoes throw out lava, which makes lava tubes, which result in fun caves to explore. Chloe’s 6th grade class just had an overnight camping trip to explore this very thing! The “Ape Caves” – named after the Ape climbing club who discovered them some years ago, and a neat place to visit.
At the very tail end of summer vacation, we managed to squeeze a quick camping trip out to the KOA outside of Astoria, right across the road from Ft. Stevens State Park. So many things didn’t go as planned, we lived a comedy of errors.
Here we are trying to put up my big tent:
Even though we’d practiced this in Portland, somehow we were incapable of assembling it on-site and ended up breaking two tent poles before we gave up. I slept in the back of the truck instead. Both our inflatable mattresses weren’t holding air so no padding. We all had sore bones.
Here’s the thing: it had been so scorching hot in Portland that none of the three of us thought much about cooler weather clothes, and sure enough it was nearly 30 degrees cooler at the beach. We didn’t freeze completely, but we were a little chilly.
Chloe had fun making s’mores over the fire. One thing we didn’t screw up was the food, we got that right. Except for the part where I forgot about the raccoons. They woke Lisa up three times the last night ransacking our camp. I didn’t think to secure my groceries and they made off with a loaf of bread.
At least Lisa and Chloe had better luck with their tent.
The KOA is chock-full of kid activities. An indoor pool, and outdoor pool, game room, mini-golf, movies, bikes other outdoor games and this thing that Chloe’s on. It’s a gigantic jumping pad that usually had 6-10 kids bouncing up and down on it at any time.
We did have a nice time at the beach.
That’s Lisa and Chloe way out there by the surf.
Chloe loves her crabs.
And she loves rolling in the warm sand.
In the end, despite all the things that went wrong we had a good time after all and most importantly, Chloe says she enjoyed it. That’s what we were shooting for.
I recently got to spend two full days with Chloe. Let’s check out some photos, shall we? Here’s Chloe making dinner for us:
This bit of craziness is a draft of the artwork Chloe provided for the flag her group at camp made. Pretty funny, eh?
What the heck, is this? It’s a little helicopter drone that takes off without you… if you’re good at it, you can get it to hover over your hands, but only if you’re good at it. We mostly chased it as it flew off.
Then we drove up the Historic Columbia River Highway for some short hikes to some of the waterfalls.
Waterfall!
We broke out the binoculars at the Vista House.
Here I ask Chloe to show me how bored she is with sitting in the car.
How to hold a birthday. Step one: the kid party. Head to your local outlet of the Birthday Industrial Complex. Unleash the children on the games.
Step 2: Win lots of tickets. Daddio managed to shoot the jellyfish in the spearfishing game and scored 500 tickets for Chloe in one shot!
Step 3: Pizza!
Step 4: Cake!
Candles!
Step 5: Post kid party, some quiet family time at the paint-your-own pottery place. Here’s Chloe covering a cat figurine with “meme” graphics. What will it look like once it’s fired? Tune in next week and find out!
Step 6: A few weeks ago Chloe had been asking about having a grilled steak sometime. Well, why not on her birthday? Why not indeed? So Dad grilled up two big t-bones and we snacked down! Be forewarned, now Chloe knows she likes steak.
What a great party day! How are we going to top this next year?!?!?
Catching up with a sample of the art Chloe’s been working on the last few months…
We are working on some neat “STEM” (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) kits provided from the library. This one is a light-up bug that uses a battery and an LED as a learning experience about electricity.
…and I’ve taught Chloe how to play Punce! She’s pretty good. Better watch your back Cousin Robin….
So, when we go out for tacos I pull out Chloe’s sketchbook and she gets to work. On the right is her rendition of one of the wall hangings at Tacos La Estrella. On the right is… a stuffy she carried along (yeah, it’s hard to see that one).
During a recent sleepover Chloe and friend played “Angels and Devils” which is a cooperative drawing and story game. I forget the whole story, but it started with a pig with terrible allergies, which the chickens insulted him over, but the bear came along and told him it would be all OK.
During the same sleepover Chloe and friend created this Grumpy Cat out of popsicle sticks.
But here is the popsicle stick masterpiece… Yes, it’s a huge fish with legs presented with Chloe Funny Face. This started out with the library STEM kit, was intended to be a model of a bridge. Took a different turn.
Yep, this is Shady Cat, really enjoying that bunny hat.
Here’s another sample of Chloe’s work in her sketchbook.
In honor of Cousin Keiran’s graduation from High School, Chloe drew a llama playing guitar in his card!
