Yule Tree

Since we are not traveling over the holidays this year, we took the opportunity to get a living yule tree. There's a small business here that delivers potted trees to your house and then picks them up after the holidays to be planted.

Our tree came yesterday and we quickly got around to decorating. Since we don't generally have a yule tree, we don't actually have many decorations. However, that didn't stop Mr. Man from making lego ornaments.

We can't be the only family with Yoda on their holiday tree, right?



He quickly got his presents from his hiding places and put them under the tree.

The Dark Lord

At the last minute, Mr. Man decided he wanted to go Trick or Treating on Halloween Night. Given his Star Wars fanaticism, it wasn't surprising when he quickly mocked up an impressive costume, complete with makeup he did entirely himself.

Off to Camp

In October Mr. Man had his first long trip away from home with his elementary class. He went to Opal Creek for four days and three nights for an intense outdoor educational adventure.

He seemed ambivalent about the trip in the weeks leading up to it, but on the morning of departure, he was ready to go!


There was plenty of time for photo ops with friends as we waited for the bus to arrive to take the kids on the 2-hour drive.


There was much cheering as the tour bus pulled into the parking lot!


The three nights without him seemed so long! By the second night it was hard to adapt to the fact he wasn't coming home.

When we picked him up on Friday, we hugged him and asked him how it was. In a very exasperated voice, he said, "They only fed us three times a day!"

We've heard many stories from him about camp after the fact and these are the things he enjoyed:

• Tending a wood stove in your cabin is really cool. He was apparently the expert fire tender for his cabin. He's convinced we need one in the house we haven't yet bought.


• His entire class could not link arms around a 2000 year old tree. He's amazed by the idea that the ancient trees have been around since Roman times.


• Playing poker is fun. He and the boys in his cabin (18 of them) played poker at rec time, in the evening until lights out at 10pm and from 5-7am in the morning. As you can imagine, there was a lot of Lady Gaga "Pokerface" being sung.


• Despite waterproof boots, it's still possible to walk in the river and get your feet totally soaked. When we picked him up his feet were all wrinkly from being wet and we imagine they were like that most of the week.


• He saw the remains of the old mine that used to exist on the property and enjoyed going inside.

We thought he'd be tired from a long week of wilderness education, but alas, when asked what he wanted to do he opted to go to Multnomah Falls.

We started at the Vista House, which overlooks the Columbia Gorge:


He dorked around in an old rotted out tree:



We saw beautiful waterfalls:


We drove back home and piled our tired boy into bed.

Multnomah Falls on a Hot Day

We got in a car, turned on the air conditioning and got out of town today. We moved to the Pacific Northwest so we wouldn't be hot. Late in the day, when we were grumpy and hot, we drove the 30 minutes to Multnomah Falls, where a waterfall cascades down a sheer rock face. Welcome to the Columbia Gorge.



A quarter mile up a switchback trail is an observation bridge. If you hike a mile up you can get to the top, but Mama was not up for that in flip flops.



This is the view looking up from the observation bridge.



This is the view looking down from the observation bridge.



A snow cone was required, of course.



As was a self portrait in which Mr. Man doesn't smile.



Getting our toes wet in the shallow river at the bottom was essential.





No, he's not pooping in the river. He's sitting on a big rock in the middle of the current.



He was a much mellower kid--at least for a few moments.



Until a freight train came barreling down the tracks and over an exposed bridge that you could look up through. Mr. Man is the orange dot. He's standing under the bridge with his hands over his ears.

Lower Elementary Graduation

The last day of school culminated with graduation ceremonies. First we went out to dinner and gave Tighe a present (Settlers of Cataan).



This is getting ready for the ceremony by playing on the playground.





This is the graduation ceremony. His teacher said lovely things about each student. After her remarks to each student, the student was given a lei and he or she shared with the audience one thing they would miss about lower elementary. Here's Mr. Man on stage getting introduced and what he said. (sorry the video is sideways).







Here is Mr. Man with his lower elementary teacher. Two beautiful souls.

Blue Sash Test

On April 24th, Mr. Man tested for his blue sash in Poekoelan Tjiminde Tulen. His test lasted three-and-a-half hours.

The 9th Birthday Party

A few days after the actual birthday, Mr. Man had an all-day boy bash! The first course was a lovely fruit platter and pancakes. Notice the dinner table contains legos for all the boys.





Movie time with roasted chickpeas!



Lego building!



No boy-bash is complete without light saber duels!



No birthday cake at this party. Whiffies Fried Pies for these boys! A Portland gem. Some boys have double chocolate pie, others have cherry pie.



Mr. Man, of course, had double chocolate!

The Actual 9th Birthday

Mr. Man turned 9 on April 6th. After school, he had his birthday dinner, which consisted of his favorites: tofu bacon and homemade pierogies.



And of course there was cake! Notice he licked the beater clean of all icing remnants.



His massive lego present came wrapped in toilet paper!