Portland Parents

Through January 13, the Forestry Museum has carousel animals on display; a collection of 25 rare hand carved animals. From horses to dragons, you’ll be enchanted with this magnificent exhibit. Admission is $7 for parents, $5 for children ( 2 and under, free ) and $6 for grandparents.

However, you can get a coupon from their site for a free kid’s admission with an adult. Carousels!

( here’s a direct link to the coupon ).

No school for students

Cute, huh?

This is the XO Laptop, the product of the One Laptop Per Child group. It’s durable. It’s crank-powered. It’s responsive. It builds ad-hoc networks with other OLPC laptops. It runs linux. It has a button to show the code of whatever’s running; you can modify the programming with the touch of a button (and some typing). You can revert the code with the push of another button. It promotes sharing, learning, and total awesomeness.

It can be yours for $200. That’s one for you for $200 and they donate a second to a needy third world child. Pretty cool, huh?

This confuses me, neighbors. A vague feeling of unease.

Coats being half-off at Fred Meyer’s. ( not at the minute; don’t go rushing out). Two for one deals on food at Safeway (The white cheddar cheese-its are very tasty). Both of these things are “buy one get one free.” However, people either take the item home or don’t worry about it, rather than doing something a little more organized.

Suppose Fred Meyer’s decided to promote, instead of “coats half off”, they went for “buy one coat and we’ll donate another coat to the Portland Mission” ? Equal or lesser value would be fine. Or “buy one box of cheese-its… we’ll put a second in the food donation barrel for you!” … You don’t really need two boxes of those at home, do you?

I know, silly. But it bugs me.

This is the 53rd year for the Christmas Ship parade on the rivers. You can get a full schedule on their site. The only thing that can get in the way of your enjoyment would be the if the weather is too terrible. So just before you head out, if the weather outside is frightful, check their site (same link) for updates.

I can’t wait. As the father of two lovely and talented daughters, I was reluctant to buy them the The Dangerous Book for Boys. Not terribly reluctant, mind you; but I did buy my eldest a couple of “girl talk” sorts of books. I just want her to have all the tools she might need in the future. Tools I didn’t have. She has read and re-read the The Big Book of Girl Stuff several times. The Daring book talks about cool girl stuff like tree-climbing and like mutual funds.

It’s that time again! Get your kids in the kitchen and make some salt dough ornaments. Good for kids of all ages, but of course you’ll want to judge your individual snowflake’s artistic ability.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup water
• Rolling pin
• Cookie sheet
• Toothpick

What to do:

• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• Mix together, salt, flour, and water until dough is formed.
• Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.
• Roll out the dough to about 1/4″ thick with a rolling pin that has been dusted with flour.
• Use cookie cutters to cut out as many trees and stars as you want.
• Use a toothpick to make a hole toward the top of the shape. Poke the toothpick into the shape, then holding toothpick straight up and down, make a circular motion as if you were stirring something. Keep circling until the hole is the size you want.
• Place all shapes onto an ungreased cookie sheet and place into the preheated oven.
• Bake for 2 hours.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
• Paint with acrylic paints.
• When dry, thread ribbon through hole and tie in a knot in the back.

Of course you can hand-shape the ornaments too. Use some glitter glue to add sparkly!

The Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation is running their Holiday Express train December 7-9 and 14-16. The passenger cars are lit and heated. You board at the Oaks Park station and ride north towards the Ross Island Bridge. You’ll see decorated trees, herons, ospreys and even Santa! You’ll be riding behind a steam engine, which is always a great way to travel.

You can get a Family Package for $39, but Parents and Grandparents are $14, kids are $8. Click on the link above to hit their site for more information and to purchase tickets.

… the book. Upon which the movie is based.

Have you read the books? Have your children? Do your children want to see the movie? Do you?

Not to stir up silt in the clear waters of the Willamette, but there has been controversy around the presentation of this movie. Frankly, I think you should make your own decisions and I don’t think your faith should be shaken by a fantasy book.

However, maybe you should read it with your child? It does raise some interesting free-will / authority questions that could lead you into a discussion that shows you how your child’s brain works. Here’s a plot synopsis, if you don’t feel like reading the books. And here’s a discussion guide ( aimed at teachers ) to help prompt some questions.

Here’s a lovely idea for a craft project, tomorrow while the rain returns to our fair city.

You’ll need some cotton string or yarn, some white glue, some little cups, some small blown-up balloons or wax paper. It’s messy so you’ll want to have some soap and water handy too. You might want some food color, glitter or paints.

Put the glue into the little cups; about a quarter to a half cup of glue per cup. Add food color if you want. Take a length of string about two feet long or so (more or less) and submerge it in the glue. Get it thoroughly glued up, and take it out and either wrap it around a balloon or create a flat design on the wax paper.

If you like, sprinkle it with glitter.

Let it dry for a day or two, and remove it from the wax paper or pop and remove the balloon. String it up with some thread and invite the grandparents to come admire the beauty.