Ella is quite the jabber mouth these days. She just goes off at times and we can understand about every 3 words. If she sees the camera she usually stops talking, so it's not often that we can catch a gab session like this - videotaping behind her back seems to be the only way.

Canstruction

Jason's architecture firm competed in the annual design and build competition called canstruction. It's a contest where groups construct giant sized structures made out of canned food, and then all the canned food is donated to local food banks. The contest was held in pioneer place mall. There were 6 or so architecture and engineering firms that competed here in Portland, it's a nationwide thing though, so they have these contests all over the place. It was close to Easter when they did it, so Peeps was his firm's theme. Turned out well & they had a fun time. (check out canstruction online, you will be amazed at some of the creations!)

Playdate PDX

The castle play area - what fun!

The ball shooter arena

Going down the BIG slide side by side with dad

We went to this fun new playplace called Playdate PDX, last week. It's in the pearl district. It's a lot like discovery zone was when we were kids...but the tubes seem bigger so parents can climb through them a bit easier. Ella had a blast! There were slides, hills to climb, a light up dance floor, tubes to crawl through, obstacles to climb through - great fun (and exhaustion) for kids and parents alike! It was only $4 for the whole day...pretty sweet deal we thought. It was really close to Jason's work, so he walked over on his lunch and chased/played with Ella. The place is owned by 2 doctors so it's very clean and seemed very safe. We'll be back!
(Sorry for the blurry pictures, they were from my camera phone)

It was a really big, fast slide - I went down it once and decided that was enough, didn't think the baby boy inside would be into such a wild slide ride!

Going down the tunnel slide

3D Baby Boy

He says "It's all "okay" in here", or maybe he's meditating already

Face and arm pushed up against his cheek

This is his face with his arm up by it

Can't wait to tickle those tootsies!

Hand by his face

Profile (there isn't really a hole in the back of his head, it's just how the image was taken)

Hands by his face, it's getting to be a tight squeeze in there

Hand and arm by his face

How will your garden grow?

Helping push the peas into the soil

Let us plant lettuce :)

This is our first real attempt at a garden all on our own. We've done a few things in pots before but never the whole real deal. It's certainly been a learning process so far. We had to decide what we really wanted to plant, and then find out what would actually grow here. It's been a fun endeavor for all of us! We planted our peas, lettuce, green onions, and spinach in our new raised beds about a month ago. Last weekend we planted beans, carrots, a couple tomato plants, cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, herbs, sunflowers and basil. Hopefully mother nature helps us out and keeps the cold frosty weather away, and brings on the sun! So far so good though everything we planted last month has come up and seems to be doing well. As for last weekends plantings.... Ella was really into helping, she got her own garden tools from the Easter bunny, so she was well equipped with a little shovel and hand rake. She was in a "lets move the soil" kind of mood after the new seeds were in, so we may very well have carrots in our beans, sunflowers in our basil and cucumbers in our strawberries - oh well it's all part of the fun right?

Things are beginning to sprout up!

Lettuce

Strawberries

Sugarsnap Peas

Backyard Fun

She just loves being outside, even if it involves rolling around or being tickled in the grass!

Ready to catch a ball!

Have a great day!

Patio in the Making

Re-doing our backyard has been quite the process. We started with a pretty blank slate, there was grass in about half of the yard, 4 sick azalea bushes, an ugly tree, and a tilled up mud pit from the old owners. We wanted a yard to hang out in and enjoy and knew it'd be quite the process getting there! Coming up with a plan and finding the stone we wanted for the patio was a feat in itself. We've been working on it since mid-March (when I say "WE" I mean that it's been a group effort. Our family and friends have been so helpful pitching in to get the seemingly endless job done! THANK YOU, YOU ROCK!). Jason and his dad Dale laid the patio about a month ago over an exhausting weekend, we've been working on the other bits and pieces since then.

Here's how it's all gone down: The sod and 5" of dirt were removed, gravel wheel-barrowed in and compacted, 1" of sand laid over the top, pavers placed and leveled after that. Edging placed to keep it all nice & square and tight. Raised beds constructed and put in place, beds filled & we started planting, arbor made for the entry to the yard, tree removed & hauled away, arbor #2 made for the end of one of the raised beds (kiwi plant to be shared with the neighbor coming soon!), rain barrels moved to the non-visible side of our house, mini-drainage swale made for the garage to drain into, garage gutters fixed, and more garden planted! Whoa baby it's been a busy time!

We still have about 3 yards of dirt to move from the unfinished half of our yard. We are hoping to plant grass there once the massive dirt pile is gone, but we aren't quite sure how we're going to go about that. We thought about paying someone to come and haul it away, but they all know how much work that will be and charge accordingly! There's still work to be done but it's been an amazing transformation already! We even ate dinner outside a couple times this week (thank you sunny days!), what a joy it was to finally get to enjoy our new patio & ever changing yard. Ella LOVED it too!

Hopefully more changes coming soon!

Just after the bushes along the garage were cut down

Laying out the patio plan with stakes...we wondered, "is it big enough?"

Jason digging out the sod, he then dug out 5-6" of the soil to make way for the patio

We had Mt. Scott Fuel Co deliver a yard of sand and 3 yards of gravel to put as a base under the patio

Gravel is down and compacted (pictures sure made that look like a quick easy job!), we rented a plate compactor from a local stone place, well worth the $40 rental fee!

The two pallets of blue stone pavers just waiting their turn

What a tedious job! Jason made a specific layout of all the pavers and where they went, it was like a big jigsaw puzzle. Dale and Jason worked hard to make sure each stone was level and sloping away from the house so it drains well.

Getting there...waiting for the path to be compacted then laid

Ella helping sweep the sand into the cracks between the pavers

Placing and filling the raised beds

Make a Wish

We found a couple of "wishes" aka - dandelions going to seed in our back yard, so we decided it was time Ella should learn how to blow it away and make a wish...(so we'll have a few more dandelions in our yard, small price to pay for fun!) :) Well it was a bit of a hard concept for her. She blew out her birthday candles just fine but this she just didn't quite get. She had spit all over her face from trying to blow, it was really pretty cute. She then proceeded to touch the "wish" to her wet spitty face and got the seeds stuck all over her lips - Jason and I were dying laughing, meanwhile Ella stood there with a look of disgust and disappointment that we were laughing at here, but we just couldn't stop - it was so stinkin cute! We helped her out and eventually blew it all away.

Spit covered cheeks!

Not real happy to have this all over my mouth!

Grass Head

Helping pick the weeds in the unfinished part of our yard

This new hair style is all the rage.

Guess you could say she's "going green"