Bridges

In Vicki's class this year they studied the Portland bridges, of which there are many. They learned the names of the 10 bridges that cross the Willamette River within Portland city limits (yep, 10!) and learned what type of bridge they all are. They even took a field trip to the bridges, riding MAX (the light rail) into town and then walking across the Steel Bridge, down the waterfront to the Hawthorne Bridge, and back across and up to the MAX station to ride back to school (I love that they used public transport - they did that on their zoo field trip too! Saves on gas and teaches the kids to be less reliant on cars.) Then each kid chose a bridge and built a model of it out of cardboard and popsicle sticks. Vicki built the Marquam Bridge, which in our family we've always referred to as "the double-decker bridge". Here she is with her model, complete with Hot Wheels cars:

And just in case anyone wanted to compare, here's what the Marquam Bridge actually looks like:
Yeah, it's kind of hard to see, but she did a really good job keeping it realistic!

The other bridge event in our family recently was Lexi's bridging from Daisy Girl Scouts to Brownies. We had a little ceremony for the girls where they crossed a bridge and received their Brownie uniform on the other side, and we had Vicki's Brownie troop help us out. The Daisies all felt really important, and Lexi loves the fact that she's now a Brownie, just like here sister!