Another month that seems to have gone by in a blur. The weather was all over the place. We had a full week of 80+ degree temps, yet all the ski areas remained open over Memorial Day weekend due to snow in the Cascades. We didn't make it up skiing, though we did go to the mountain to visit with Phoebe's Godfather and have yummy Huckleberry pancakes at the Huckleberry Inn in Government Camp.
Phoebe had her class field trip to the Oregon Zoo the first Friday of the month. I stayed home from work to take both she and Ellen. Since it was a morning field trip, I was still able to take Ellen to school on the way home. We got to ride on the train and see the elephants getting cleaned again. I didn't take lunches thinking that I could just pick something up at the zoo, but man it's expensive to buy lunch there. I'm not going to do that again. They got to play with some friends of theirs from their classes, so they enjoyed that most of all. The other part that we all enjoyed was looking at the new additions to the fish display. We watched a crab walking down a wall by some large anemone looking kind of like they were trying to reach out and grab the crab as it walked by. That was kind of fun.
Mother's Day was this month, of course. We spent the day at the Oregon Zoo for the brunch they have there every year. (Oddly enough, on Mother's day this seems to be the place to be...where the kids would more enjoy being. I guess it just goes to show how selfless our mothers truly are). This was the first year that we have made it to the brunch, but it was quite good. We strolled around the zoo for an hour first to work up an appetite, and then we went for our sitting time. They had quite a nice array of good things to eat. Ellen and Phoebe both ate more than we thought they ever could topping if off with a nice little cup of Jell-o because, as we all know, there's always room for Jell-o.
Both of the girls had Mother's Day Teas in their respective classes that Grandma got to attend with the girls. Jada had to organize the Mothers day tea for her class so she couldn't go. The girls made some really nice things including some pretty tissue paper flowers, a book mark, and a framed photo.
The middle of the month had one particularly busy Saturday. May 20th saw the occurrence of both Reach the Beach and Walking with a Vision. Reach the Beach is a charity ride for the Lung Associatio, which I did as a 100 mile ride. It ended up being 105 for me since I rode to the start line while Jada took the girls with her to Walking with a Vision. The 5K walk is a fund raiser for the Foundation for Retinal Research put on by friends from our child birth class whose youngest daughter has a condition which will eventually cause her to lose her sight. After the walk, there was a little concert and silent auction along with snacks. While Jada was checking out items at the silent auction, Ellen and Phoebe saw some storm troopers walking around (the StarWars fan club is rooted in Seattle, and we have a lot of folks who dress up for parades and events around her as a result) for pictures and what not. The girls got scared and hid under the table until Jada got back. I could just picture it when Jada told me about it later. I felt bad for them. Unfortunately, Jada couldn't get pics with the Storm Troopers. After they left there, they came to meet me at the beach. I had a pretty good ride. The rain they had been calling for never materialized, and it ended up being sunny the whole time. (I got quite the sun burn on my arms) I was also able to get into a couple pace lines across the valley which helped a lot. Jada and the girls just missed me crossing the line by about 5 minutes this year, so it was possibly lucky that I had the 2 flat tires. Some day we'll get it sync'd up.
Both of the girls had their final performance of dance class, and their school carnival was also this month. They really enjoyed the inflatable bouncy thing. Ellen spent most of the time with her friends running around.
Phoebe had some good and bad. She got pretty sick with a horrible cough and runny nose for a little over a week. On the plus side, she completed a month with no potty related accidents. She was quite proud of herself and rightly so. We certainly are proud of her.
Ellen has taken to reading anything and everything. She reads stories to Phoebe from the library. We've continued reading chapter books with her as well. This month we have completed "Ralph S. Mouth", "Ellen Tebbits", and "Otis Spofford" as we've continued through our Beverly Cleary series (She lives in Oregon, y'know). She also has picked up a habit of just referring to Phoebe as "sister" which we are trying to get her to stop.
An update on our riding: Jada and I have logged over 400 miles on the tandem so far. I've logged just over 1000. That's it for this month. We have another action packed month coming up.
Journal entry: June 3, 2006