Triumphs of Ida

Ida, finishing up second grade!

Unbelievable cougar diorama!

Cougar's hiding, in there; a closer look:

Special feature:  an opening into the DEN!

There are the cubs!  Identifiable by their cute little spots!

and what's that, back there?  A bloodied rabbit.  Prey!

In her spare time, Ida managed to do some mini-Olympics performance.  Many kudos to her teacher, Michelle!

Wait, did Principal Matt Goldstein not know enough about cougars?  He showed up to pay special attention and suggest a special commendation was in order!

Adventures

Unbelievable amount of Memorial Day Weekend ACTION

True, there's plenty of time when it looks like this around here:

But then we headed over to OMSI to check out Ripleys Believe It or Not exhibit.  This one, we believed.  It's like a very large chair.  Made for an actually gigantic man.

Hmm.

This may always be at OMSI.  Still exciting.

Still no one's taller than this bro?  Robert Wadlow, the Alton Giant.  Remember him from my Guinness Book Bicentennial Edition.

Our girls are growing too.  They will not be eight foot eleven, but the computer said Ida would be 5'5" and Miki 5'7" thereby dwarfing their mother who says the science was faulty and needed to take more data into account.  We'll see.

Anyway, it's been a warm spring.  Early strawberry picking on Sauvie I. with our old pal?

Sure!  The berries were delicious, if quite sparse.  Less sparse:  cut out head photo opportunities:

And then on the actual Memorial Day, Ella got strong and the ladies rode their bikes to the MULTNOMAH COUNTY FAIR.  Miki was almost too heavy for this pony--Ida was, but she rode the SCREAMING EAGLE instead.

This is really weird and hard to describe, but legal:

Miki = 6

Wow, whew. So much going on. Despite our strategy to procure a "low yield," about thirty kids came over for Miki's "patio birthday party with fire and roller-skating" a couple weeks back. Wild. No one got hurt.

She's really feeling her oats.  Six!

Kissing beautiful chalk drawings made by her sister...

And celebrating at the Bradford's, a couple weeks late.  Was she patient for this?

No, not at all.

She also got her face infected by a poisonous plant and has been on prednisone, which has made her a 'roid rage risk.

Adventures

So yes we returned to the old WildCat Mountain hike. Some disagreements among our planners...

Arthur spent most of the day trying to get a bullseye by throwing rocks from extremely close range at this target.  They rebounded and almost hit Theo in the face.

Ella told Maggie a very, very sad story.

Arthur, the girls and I went to his secret "writing hideout" owned by a wealthy and absent woman that has a giant hot tub, very little furniture, and a trove of vintage Playboys.

Ah, May; Renn Fayre, etc.

So, yes, hit the old RF. Didn't do any drugs or get naked and paint ourselves blue, but did consort with the students.

Found the old heating vent, sat in a giant chair with some strangers, etc.

& Ice Cream

I found the balloon room disappointing (it's supposed to be COMPLETELY FULL of balloons), but it was hard to get these girls out of there.

Obligatory photo booth shot

The girls know every candy bowl at ReedCo.  And the other day I was walking down a hallway and saw these names written on a chalkboard from some time months before....

Before we get too far from Leaping Lamb...