Multiple personalities

Every visit to Nancy and Andres' house seems to bring out a new side of the girls. This time, Lily's inner rocker emerged.

 Rocker turned skater girl.

 Christmas pimp?

 Jackpot!

Back to sweet Lily. This is a pic one of the other parents sent to me from her school. This is her friend Emma during Mileage Club (they walk at lunch).

Call of duty

Andy chaperoned Amalia's kindergarten field trip to the planetarium yesterday. The movie they showed was old--Pluto was still listed as a planet. And Andy found out that other children are just as chatty and fidgety as Amalia, which is probably good perspective. (But look how tall she is! I know I shouldn't be surprised, but given that she's one of the youngest ones in her class it's all the more startling.)

Later in the afternoon was Antonio's 6th birthday party at Pump It Up, which Andy also took her to (I was coming down with a cold). The card Amalia made for Antonio featured a skull and crossbones and drops of blood because "he likes that kind of stuff."

The Queen Bee on her air-throne.

Oaktown

 Today we headed up to a place called Children's Fairyland in Oakland.

The place is meant for very young children. We're about aged out, I think.

This poor horse could barely go up and down under Lily's weight.

 A turkey joke is too obvious, right?

 Sitting pretty.

 A tiny Ferris wheel. Or perfectly sized children's cages.

 What California kids do in winter.

Right next door is Lake Merritt, where the girls fed some seagulls. I don't know why there were no ducks.

 Maybe these faces frightened them away.

 Shooting the breeze.

 And last but not least, we stopped into the botanic gardens.

 Lily's mindfulness pose.

The girls contemplating a koan, I'm sure.

School cam

One of the third grade moms takes and shares pictures of Lily's class, which is pretty great. This one is from Tie-Dye Day. 

Decorating cookies at the holiday party.

Sharing her Rainbow Loom wisdom with others.

Shaking hands at the door?

Nice, firm grip.

I have no idea what day this was.

Pajama Day

Field trip to downtown San Jose to see Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen."

Ready to tumble

Andy was visiting his buddy John in the City today, so the girls and I headed up to Stanford's Maples Pavilion to catch a gymnastics meet.

 A study in contrasts.

It looks empty now, but the place filled up with a bunch of squealy girls with neatly combed hair. Mine proved the rule by being the exceptions. Note, however, that Lily did not bring a book this time.

Stanford edged the Georgia Gym Dogs (that's what they call them) by less than a point.

Big doings

Amalia hit a couple of major milestones this week: 

She read her first full book, Mice on Ice. (I won't spoil the ending, but there's a cat involved.)

But I think Amalia is even more proud her new star-drawing abilities. Only time will tell what next week brings.  

Morning glories

Lily ran inside this morning to tell me that the sky was blue and pink. I told her to go take some pictures of it.

 Then Andy took a couple of pictures of Moo Cow on his new bed.

He stalked our cockatiel one too many times and is now banned from inside the house. I guess we figured he should at least still be comfy.

Chillin'

 It's part of the irony of California that it was warmer ice skating than it was at the beach.

 Lily says the seagull looks like me.

 Back on the ice.