Chagall's Little Apprentice

It rained buckets this weekend.  Positively buckets.  We took this as the perfect opportunity to check out the Portland Children's Museum.  

It was "meh", mostly because most of the exhibits were too big for Kate, but we took full advantage of a traveling exhibit focused on the art of Marc Chagall. Chagall's paintings are colorful and whimsical-- perfect for little ones--and the exhibit included lots of hands-on exploration of his work.  It also included a paint station and we watched as our little artist created her first masterpiece.

The Pum Patch

Here's the thing about the pumpkin patch--it's outdoors. The whole thing.  Here's the other thing about the pumpkin patch--if you want to go in Portland, you will probably have to go in the rain.

But, if you decide to go spontaneously on a Monday night, the clouds will miraculously part as you pull into the parking lot and you'll have a gorgeous evening.

Yeah, so the noisy migrating geese? WAY more interesting than the pumpkins.

 Oh, and Kate pointed at all the pumpkins and said "pum!" At least its a good start.

The makings of a memory

One thing that has really stuck with me as a new parent is this strange desire to recreate some of my favorite childhood memories for Kate. As summer turned to fall, I was struck with this insanely vivid memory of playing in the leaves in our front yard.  We had a huge maple tree over the driveway and we would rake up the leaves in a big pile and then jump off the deck or out of the treehouse into them. It was great fun.

So, naturally, I wanted Kate to have a good romp in the leaves this fall.  Except we don't have a big maple tree, or a treehouse, or a front deck.  We do, however, have a small patch of grass and few maple trees across the street.  After hauling a few buckets full of leaves, we ended up with a giddy little girl making her own memories.

Rain

The rain returned to Portland yesterday. While we will still get a few sunny days this fall, we can pretty much say good-bye to that bright shining orb until June (if we're going to keep it real). However, that won't stop us from getting outside.  After all, there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothing.

Kate Movie Friday

Our very messy, but very independent eater.

Kate Movie Wednesday

At the park with Daddy.

Parkin' it

Fall is quickly settling in here in the Northwest and we all know that our sunny, Chinook summer days are numbered.  Kate has been logging as many park hours as she can handle.

Mid-week Escape

Both B and I had the day off today. We didn't actually realize this until we got up this morning and the conversation went a little like this:
Me: "When do you have to work?"
B: "I don't work today, when do you have to work?"
Me: "I have the day off."
B: "You do?"
Me: "Yeah, let's go hiking!"
Seriously, it is mind-bending how in touch we are with one another's schedules.

So, we flawlessly executed a textbook Hoybook Alpine Start and made big plans to take Kate up to Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge for her first hike along the Timberline Trail.  Those plans, however, were quickly aborted when we arrived to sunny skies at Timberline, but wind gusts in the 40's.  Yikes.  We drove back down to Government Camp and headed for the calm shores of Trillium Lake.

We finished the two mile trek around the lake in about an hour, threw some rocks at some ducks in the water, had a Jeep picnic and drove back to Portland. It was a great mid-week mountain escape with my two favorite people.

Hanging out at home