My Birthday Party @ Mom & Dad's

Yesterday, October 4th, I had an early Birthday Party! Yay! While my actual birthday isn't until October 7th, this was a great excuse to visit Mom & Dad and have cake and ice cream. I managed to blow out all 24 candles on my cake at once, although Dad threatened to light 14 of them again so I can blow out the expected 38. There were only 24 in the package.

Cassie, Zoe, and Mom helped lick the candles clean, and did a great job helping eat it too, a task Peter and Dad helped with also!

I added two photos of me here, as I am realizing I haven't added very many of me, personally! Notice my wonderful hand-knit hat, and my new blue over shirt. Thanks Mom!!! It was a great preview for Tuesday.

We also showed off Cassie's new guitar, along with the three chords she learned in her first lesson. Her class is after school at a neighboring elementary school. I took off from work early so I could come to the first one.

It was really cool. The teacher has a lot of experience teaching this class and sent them all home with a chord progression that was simple enough for quick success, but complicated enough to be challenging.

Forest Grove Sidewalk Chalk Festival 2008

Whew! What a weekend! Saturday morning, we collected our backyard neighbor Anna, and drove to Forest Grove Oregon for the Sidewalk Chalk Festival! This is a celebration of non-permanent art. People of all talents and ages come to decorate the sidewalks, enjoy other people's art, listen to live music, and have fun!


We arrived by 9:30, picked up our chalk, found our squares, and got started! Check out our creations here- Chalk Art Kids, and Chalk Art Adults. I took a lot of pictures of the castle Zoe and Anna made because it changed so much. It was a great experience.

Other activities included face paint, balloon art, live music, and puppet shows. Part of the fun of this experience is taking a break and seeing what other people are creating. Everything from portraits of Obama, to kids' fire rescue scenes, to harvest themes, and fantasy/gothic imagery.

By the end of the day, it was hard to leave our art behind and say goodbye. Anna was worried we'd be there too long and she would get bored, but at the end she didn't want to leave either.

The Tooth Fairy

Zoe has had a very loose tooth for a long time. This front tooth has been loose since the summer when we were camping at the beach. However, it's just been really reluctant to let go.

Last week it really got loose- she could push it sticking out 90 degrees from the rest of her teeth! Ow!


But finally, last night I offered to help pull it out. With a 1-2-3 and a firm tug, it finally let go. So here's to Zoe's new smile!
And our own growing tooth fairy! ;)