450 Tons of Sand, in your living room.

Come checkout the masterful sculptures, the live entertainment and the great food. Last year’s event had 15 teams and 65000 visitors- that’s a lot of flipflops!

More info

Sign up for free swimming lessons!

You can join the magical-ventriloquist Steve Taylor and his puppets for a fun summer show featuring an “aquatic” adventure — at Albina Library, 11:00 Saturday!

Sellwood-Moreland Library is having a clown show (with one clown) – 11:00 Saturday.

Learn how to raise money-smart kids in this crazy world- Gregory Heights library, 1:30PM Saturday!

The Portland Pride Parade is Sunday!

Looks like it was a combination of the cool museums like OMSI and the Children’s Museum, and our Farmers Markets and even the fountains that brought us here.

Well, I hope all of you are pleased with yourselves!

Anyone three years old or older qualifies for five free lessons for beginners from June 21 to 25 at any of the thirteen neighborhood PP&R pools. Last summer more than 3,100 Portlanders were taught how to swim during PP&R’s free swim lessons.

Classes are available mornings, afternoons and evenings on a first come, first served basis. Registration is only available in-person on Saturday, June 19 between 8AM and 1130AM at the pool of your choice.

Additional beginner, intermediate and advanced classes are also available throughout the summer at a nominal cost. Scholarship assistance is available for families in need.

Do you have any suggestions of books we can read together? Aim at something interesting for a highly literate teenager (my elder daughter). I’ll pick out a book by this weekend. You, on the other hand, go to your library and sign up for The Biggest Summer Reading Program Ever (Signups start June 18).

Hello, Portland! Are you even paying attention here? How many schools do we need to close before our kids will learn nothing from this? Find some more money and open more schools!

Or are you trying to drive down class sizes by making families move to other school districts?

125 out of 146 tested products had lead. The EPA says that especially for babies and young children, no amount of lead is safe. Lead poisoning is “heavy-metal” poisoning, and the body can’t flush it out properly- so once it’s in the body it stays there. Lead interferes with a variety of body processes and is toxic to many organs and tissues including the heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, and reproductive and nervous systems. It interferes with the development of the nervous system and is therefore particularly toxic to children, causing potentially permanent learning and behavior disorders.

A full list of the lead-tainted products is here(list of lead tainted products)

Original Source: http://www.envirolaw.org/documents/100609-NoticeLetterwithExhibits.PDF

On one hand, we have Derek Landy. Skullduggery Pleasant is a fun story, a little more mystery-action than fantasy. However, Stephanie is resourceful, witty, smart, individual … she’s fascinated by magic, she’s a great kid who (frankly) reminds me of my daughter. When she faces problems, she works hard at overcoming them. Stephanie is more like Harry Potter- still a kid but with some great structure and a great personality.

On the other hand, we have King Lathmar in Blood of Ambrose. He’s a boy, also 12, who, when faced with problems, cries. His grandmother helps him escape from a bloody coup, and he cries all the way out of the castle, then some nice peasants find him and help him, and they take him back to the castle. He just goes along with it. He couldn’t be any more different from Stephanie if one of them sprouted wings and a snout. It’s not a terrible book, it’s darker fantasy and aimed more at adults than kids, but I think Grim Skulduggery was a more enjoyable read.

Of course, the environments these two kids grew up in shaped them. Stephanie has to handle a lot of stuff on her own. Her best friend was an author (he died and left her his house). Lathmar has been coddled, has had guards every day, his grandmother had done everything for him.

So, ask yourself; what sort of 12 year old are you raising? And where do these authors get their models?

Note: The links to books on this post are, of course, affiliate links. Because “baby needs new shoes.” However, I stand by my opinions

Thanks so much for the entries. If you didn’t win, I sympathize. The final two pictures were indeed, from Powell’s Books and from the Ron Tonkin mural. Congrats!