Oh my goodness skunks truly do stink! My parent’s dog Mia was sprayed
by a skunk and the smell is incredibly strong. It seems impossible to
get away from and it ends up burning your eyes. To me it smelled like
a potent combination of onions, garlic and gasoline. My dad used a
combination of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and soap to rid the dog
of the smell. I may need to bathe myself in it too.
Brecken spent the night with my girls at my mom’s house while Gabe had
a game filled birthday party at his house for 25-30 kids. Dahlia and
Brecken were the best of friends. Dahlia even gave up sleeping with me
or Monti to sleep with Brecken.
You forget how small they are. I loved it when I could fit the girls
in a sink to bathe them. Willow only cries when she is cold.
In Grant Park the City of Chicago was holding an event called Snow
Days. There were about 20 snow artists working on a variety of
intricate sculptures. Unfortunately Chicago had some unseasonably warm
temperatures earlier in the week. All the artists were extremely
behind on their work which needed to be done by noon the following
day. The artists told us they would have to work through the night and
that they hoped for colder temperatures so they could achieve the
amount of detail in their sculpture they needed to win the contest.
My mom had a birthday party for Gabe at her house. She filled the dining room with different numerical ways of representing 16 years. She even had it calculated in attoseconds, the smallest measurement of time. 16 years = 5.04576e+26. No matter how you calculate 16 years it simply blows my mind to think that Gabe is actually sixteen.
Monti and Dahlia traveled a long way to meet their new cousin Willow.
It was worth every penny. Monti kept saying, “She is just so
adorable.” Dahlia was just in love. I asked her what she wanted to do
while Brecken napped and she said , ” I just want to stand here and
watch Willow sleep.”
There are times when I can allow Monti to put together her outfit. I
dressed her for the Coraline premiere but the “green princess’ outfit
she wore for the Father-Daughter Dance was all Monti’s creation. Once
her wig and shimmery fabric remnants came off it looked as if she were
wearing green pajamas. Some father and daughters came in tuxes and
formal dresses. Regardless of what she was wearing she had a great
time dancing the night away.
We made it back from Portland in time to go to the IVE pancake
breakfast Saturday morning. Even Junior supported Monti and Dahlia’s
school by attending the event and eating a couple pancakes.
We love OMSI – Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It has great
activities for all ages. I was surprised when I realized our previous
favorite area of the museum was filled with babies and toddlers. My
girls looked like giants compared to all the young kids in the
Scientific Playground. It hit me that my little girls have grown up so
we headed to the “big kid” section. We had the best time doing
chemistry experiments, designing flying objects, perfecting sailboat
building and experiencing a simulated earthquake. We had to miss
school to come here but I think we did a pretty good job experiencing
lots of new things that day.
We had the whole pool, hot tub and sauna to ourselves at the Embassy
Suites in Portland. We used all three.