Oregon City Tournament

On the 26th of April the girls participated in a Taekwondo tournament in Oregon City. This was L's second tournament and the first one where K got to spar. L did really well but K had a bit of an off day. She was nervous and rushed through her form which caused her to miss some parts of it. It was a good learning experience though and she did a great job on her sparring. Here are some videos and photos of the event.

 Doing her form. She was called first and it threw her off.

There are three judges and each scores on one thing: feet placement,

 hand placement, and overall form. 

She received 9.4, 9.7, 9.6. Not great but not bad either.

This is her in all her sparring gear. It's a lot of padding and very hot.

She did a great job especially for her first time sparring.

K receiving her competitor trophy.

As a tiny tiger, L got to compete first. She had a judge do the form with her in case she forgot any of it but she did pretty well. If you watch the video, she tells L she did her form as well as a black belt.

Sitting like a black belt while waiting for her turn.

Tiny Tigers don't get scores for their forms, but if they did I am

sure that L would have scored high. Here she received her

competitors trophy. We were so proud of how well she did!

From Orange to Yellow

On April 24th, 2014, L had her belt test at the local Taekwondo school. She was testing her knowledge of her orange belt so she could proceed to yellow. Because she is a tiny tiger still, she received some help from her instructors when needed. However, she didn't need much.

Doing her form with Mr. Hawkes.

Doing her one steps with Master Duer.

In this video the kids were supposed to attack the black bag for 

30 seconds using all the moves from their specific color of belt.

This is supposed to help build endurance in case they are ever attacked.

In this video the kids are being attacked and they have to get out of the

assailants grasp then attack him before running away.

And the recipient of the yellow belt goes to...

Receiving her yellow belt.

All the tiny tigers that tested that evening.

My sassy yellow belt.

Dyed Easter Eggsperiment

I read on pinterest how to dye your eggs with shaving cream and food coloring. The pinner swore the eggs came out with vibrant colors and it was more fun then the old fashioned way of dying them, so we gave it a shot.

First you spray a lot of shaving cream into a container, we chose an old pizza box for easy clean up. Then you put lots of droplets of food dye all over the pile of cream. Mix with a disposable tool, we used sturdy weeds from our yard, then you are ready to dye your eggs.

Roll your egg around in the mixture until it is covered with cream then set it aside to dry. The longer you let them sit the more colorful the eggs will be.

Rinse off after desired amount of time has passed. The post said for 20 minutes but ours were barely colored after that length of time so M and I had to redye them and let them sit for a couple hours.

There were a few that turned out really pretty but most of them were pastel pinks and purples.

K wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny and left a rock she painted for him. She is always good about leaving thank you notes for Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy. It's very sweet. Here's a closer look at the rock. It's an egg shaped rock so she decorated it like and Easter egg and put a basket with eggs in it.

On Sunday morning they came down and hunted for the eggs the Easter Bunny left for them. He always hides the eggs we dye along with some plastic candy filled eggs. They also each received some fun items in their baskets.

A chocolate bunny, water cup, bunny bubbles, bracelet, gum, tic tacs, flower seeds, a huge bubble wand, and a rubber band airplane.

For dinner we went pretty simple. I made croissants from scratch, M cooked a ham and we had salad and green beans with sparkling apple cider to drink. I pulled out our glass dishes and the girls thought that was the coolest thing. L kept saying how fancy it was, they are used to eating off of plastic stuff.

 For dessert I made strawberry shortcake cupcakes. They were delicious! You can find the recipe here.

Sisters and Prineville

On the first day of our spring break trip to Eastern Oregon (March 26, 2014), we stopped in Sisters for lunch and checked out the cute little shops. We didn't stay long because the girls were driving me crazy touching everything they liked in each shop. On our way out of town we saw a couple of great metal pieces. This was our favorite, Cinderella's coach.

After Sisters, we headed to Prineville. Jess, one of our friends moved there from Eugene and has an adorable store she has opened called The Vintage Cottage. We wanted to see her and check out the new place. She refinishes furniture and other things which she finds at garage sales and second hand shops. Her prices are very reasonable and she has such creativity! If you are ever out there you should stop by and tell her I sent you.

Prineville is a small town but very cute and has some interesting things to see. There is the Bowman Museum which is inside an old bank. The girls enjoyed learning about how people made a living in the 1800's. There is the Cada Dia Cheese Dairy Farm which you can take tours of but we weren't able to fit it in. There is also some nice architecture to look at. I really liked the courthouse.

On Thursday we went to Steins Pillar in the gental slopes of the Ochoco mountains. Steins Pillar is a 350-foot natural skyscraper composed of rhyolite ash produced by eruptions from the Cascades that settled in an inland sea and compacted to stone.

Steins Pillar is just outside of town. You can hike up it in the summer.

K drew a smiley face in the snow on this post.

The Painted Hills of Oregon

After going to Steins Pillar we continued east heading toward the Painted Hills. I had heard they were pretty but I wasn't prepared for all the colors layered throughout the hills. I am sure in the summer the colors are even more intense. They say pictures can speak a thousand words, I will let the pictures do most of the talking in this post.

 

This picture of the girls and me is taken at the Painted Hills Overlook in the John Day Fossil Beds. The pictures don't do these hills justice. The reds and golds are so vibrant!

 

These pictures are from the Painted Cove Trail. There is a boardwalk all around this area with little signs that tell you all kinds of interesting facts about the area. The gist of it is that all these hills were made from volvanic ash fall over different periods of time millions of years ago. During different times the land had different climates ranging from tropical, jungle-like forest to deciduous seasonal climates to the desert like conditions it has now.

The warm red colors are from iron oxides. Yellows and oranges are a blend of iron and magnesium oxides. The lavenders are from rhyolitic lava. These colors are striking with the mix of blue lake and green plants.

The girls in front of Leaf Fossil Hill. It is covered in fossilized remnants of plants over 30 million years old.

My cute girls posing for the camera.

 

The roads we drove on were open range and there were lots of cattle milling about.

We all got a kick out of these cute calves with their mamas.

Jess told us to get gas before we left Prineville. We forgot, but luckily on our way to the paleontology museum we found gas in the VERY small town of Mitchell. The residents were very polite and helpful. We got gas and some cokes before heading out of town.

We saw this little store and were intrigued but unfortunately they were closed.

This house is for sale and right next to it was another ramshackle house being remodeled.

If you ever find yourself out this way, I recommend stopping in this town or at the very least, driving through it.

Noticed that the picture I took looks very similar to the one on this informational sign.

 

At the Thomas Condon Paleontology Center. It was gorgeous here. We learned all about this land from millions of years ago and got to see fossilized bones of animals that lived here. There were never any dinosaurs here but the animals that lived here are related to todays horses, rhinos, elephants, mice, and wolves just to name a few. We also got to see how a horse evolved over the millennia from a small three-toed animal to the horse we have today. K was totally in her happy place! She loves anything having to do with paleontology.

Saber Tooth Tiger skull.

Looking at fossils under a microscope.

K putting together pieces of a fossil.

We started our day at 9am and didn't get back to Prineville until 6pm. We headed to our friend Sue's house, near Redmond, to spend the night. She has an adorable vacation house not far from Prineville and she was a gracious hostess. She fed us a tasty dinner of soup with grilled cheese (I had a pulled pork sandwich) and made up the guest room for us to sleep in. I only got one picture while we were there and it was of the girls finished puzzle they worked on. And, really, who wouldn't want to give Johnny Depp a kiss, right?!!?

In the morning we got up, had a tasty breakfast and then headed on our next day of adventure and sightseeing.