December 31, 2011

If you don’t already have plans for New Years Eve, better start thinking about it now! Sure you could hire a sitter, leave the kids at home, and go out, but there are also plenty of options to celebrate the New Year as a family. As an added benefit, many family celebrations are earlier in the evening, so you can still hire a sitter and go out to ring in the New Year after you finish celebrating with the kids if you so desire.

December 22, 2011

I’ve been so busy lately! Between getting ready for Christmas and doing my work, there just has not been much time left over to do fun things with Alex. Poor kid’s a pretty good sport most of the time, but he really deserves to get to do more. Plus, if I plan things right when we go to a mid day activity, he often falls asleep in the car on the way home, which is great since it is so hard to get him to nap.

By now I think most of us have finished the majority of our Christmas shopping. I ordered a lot of my gifts online this year since it is a bit simpler than going shopping with a 2 year old, plus many of the items I wanted are not available locally, and I was ordering most of the items for out of town family so this way I don’t have to ship them. I did have to do some of my shopping locally though.

December 10, 2011

After writing all about where to see Christmas lights  last week, I really wanted to go see some myself. So on Saturday I gathered up the family and we went over to the Jubitz Winter Wonderland at the Portland International Race Track.

The first stop was Jubitz truck stop where we could save $5 by buying a fast track pass instead of waiting and paying for admission at the race track. As if that wasn’t enough incentive to buy the pass for $11 at Jubitz, the pass also came with a huge cup that I could fill with my choice of hot or cold beverages (I filled it with Cocoa).

December 2011
Need a Christmas tree? Sure you could put up an artificial tree, but there are so many tree farms in the Portland area. Purchasing a live Christmas tree supports a local farmer, the tree smells great, and going to the tree farms is a fun family activity. Even if you are not going to get a tree for your house, you can still visit a tree farm to purchase a wreath or other gifts and while you are there you can enjoy the great holiday entertainment and activities many of the tree farms offer.

December 2011

It’s that time of year again. Last week we took Alex out to Lloyd Center  to get photos with Santa for our Christmas cards. If you haven’t had a chance to visit Santa yet this year, here are some places and events where you can meet the big guy in person.

Bridgeport Village: Breakfast with Santa
Dec. 3, 10, 17, 8:30 am
Join Santa for breakfast. Tickets 503-968-1704
Bridgeport Village, 7455 SW Bridgeport Rd, Tigard, 503-968-8940

December 2011
Dark comes early in the winter, but thankfully holiday lights bring a little cheer to the chilly evenings. While it is fun to just drive or walk around neighborhoods to see the lights, there are also several holiday light shows in the area where amazing light displays can be seen in a concentrated area. Plus the light displays are often accompanied by Holiday music and other entertainment.

Colton Celebration of Lights
December 10-27, 6-11 pm
Take a walk through light displays, a toy land, and a train display, watch holiday movies, and enjoy refreshments.
Aspen Meadow, 24232 S. Upper Highland Road, Colton

Lloyd Center Mall, November 30, 2011

A couple years ago when Alex was just a few months old, we took him to meet Santa the very first time. We took him to Lloyd Center Mall, for convenience sake, and got some lovely photos. We bought digital copies which I used on our Christmas cards.

We did not take Alex to see Santa last year. Instead we went to Drakes 7 Dees and saw the reindeer. It was fun and with some work in Photoshop I was able to come up with a cute image for our Christmas card.

October 22, 2011

Alex loves the Portland Children’s Museum, what kid doesn’t? We got a membership in the beginning of the year and it has turned out to be a very smart purchase. When the weather doesn’t cooperate for outdoor activities and there are no Open Play sessions scheduled at Inflatable Kingdom, the Children’s Museum is a great place to go.

The museum’s newest attraction is the Lego Castle Adventure. We went to check it out on a Saturday morning. Morning is a great time to visit the museum as the parking lot tends to fill up later in the day with Museum and Zoo visitors.

October 11, 2011

When I got the catalog for the Fall classes at the East Portland Community Center this year, the class listings were particularly interesting to me. See Alex turned two in September. There aren’t many classes and activities available for kids younger than two, but at two years of age, Alex is now old enough to choose from a few of the classes the center has available. Since Alex loves balls, the choice was a no brainer. I signed Alex up for “Balls! Balls! Balls!.” We signed up for the Tuesday session which ran from October 11 until November 8.