Age of innocence

Last week, I had the privilege of chaperoning Lily's third-grade class on a field trip to the Fallon House, a Victorian-era home built in downtown San Jose in 1855 by Carmel and Thomas Fallon (the latter was one of San Jose's earliest mayors).

Yes, there was a lot of standing around listening about how people lived in the 1800s (especially rich people), but the nice thing about the tour is that it also included a number of interesting activities to keep the kids engaged.

Like writing your own calling cards, which you then gave to the butler (played by a classmate) as you entered the house.

And dressing up in period clothing. Very Laura Ingalls Wilder.

 And, now, for effect--Emma, Lily, and Adrianna in sepia tones.

The kids also learned about what it was like to be the Fallons' servants and got to try their hand at a few chores, including polishing silver, grating laundry soap, ironing, and shining shoes.

They also made scones (cooked in a toaster oven for expediency), which they got to enjoy in the garden after the tour.

One of my favorite moments of the tour was when we were upstairs learning about the bedrooms and the docent asked the kids what room, which you might have in your house, is missing. She was going for "bathroom," of course, but the first response from one of the boys was, "The TV room?"

Cosplay

 Tonight Lily and Amalia went to a "Frozen" costume-slash-gymnastics party. The girls dressed up like Elsa (Amalia) and Anna (Lily), with leotards underneath.

For those of you blissfully unaware of these characters, you can use the above image for reference.

I would like to note my La Reina skirt being dusted off to play the role of Anna's green dress.

For the record, Lily's favorite character is Anna; Amalia's, the shopkeeper.

Sunrise, sunset

 

I just sent Andy and the girls off to their first father/daughter dance. Sniff, sniff.

But before they could go, we had to uphold the Freeman tradition of posing in front of rosebushes.

The girls were freshly bathed and dressed. Not really to the preening stage yet, thank goodness.

I just wanted Lily's hair to dry before she walked in the chilly air to the dance.

Wouldn't want her to catch cold, after all. ;-)

Waiting for Daddy to come home gave us time to pick dandelions.

And try on alternate wraps.

I'm not sure if she's scowling because she wanted to leave for the dance or because I was taking a picture.

Not to sidetrack us, here, but did I mention that we met Moo Cow's owners this week? A lovely mom and 4th-grade girl that live a block over. They call him "Meow, Meow" and they don't mind at all that we're sharing his company. They sometimes come by to visit him in our front yard. He apparently goes between our houses pretty regularly. I speculated that he might have still others. A cat of many secrets, that one.

Back to eating chewy Jolly Ranchers to pass the time.

More rosebush pictures!

She settled on the black shawl and the purse she got at Mt. Rushmore.

What happens when you tell Amalia to pose.

Can you tell she has candy in her cheeks?

Ah, the missing link!

Andy came home just in time for a few pictures before heading out.

As I'm typing this I'm realizing I probably should have sent the camera with Andy to capture the actual dance. Oh, well. I'm sure there will be stories. I have so many questions. Like, do the daddies and daughters really dance together or do all the girls huddle in a corner while the dads hang out and drink beer?

The wind-blown look

With Andy in Vegas this weekend for the Baker to Vegas law enforcement run, the girls and I headed out to Santa Cruz. 

 There's a reason people usually go in the summer. It was chilly and pretty breezy. 

 Though still beautiful. 

Doodle 4 Google

This is Lily's submission for Google's annual Doodle 4 Google contest. This year's theme is "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place..."

Lily's Doodle title is "Good Things on Earth." Her description: "If I could invent one thing to make the world a better place, it would be to comfort, help, or do one thing nice to people at least once a day."

I wonder if they have a category for most heart-warming.

The young padawan

While Heather was with Amalia at the farm, Lily and I went to the San Jose Museum of Innovation and Technology.

Lily built and programmed a robot and experimented with center of gravity and balance.

You can't see it, but she's listening to the audio assistive device to hear the description of Princess Amidala's outfit. She was so impressed by the description, she had me listen to it, too.

I think it's sad if I have to explain this.

The point of our visit was to see the Star Wars exhibit and ride the Millennium Falcon, which was set up like a flight simulator.

 

The Landspeeder from Episode IV

Lily got to ride an actual hovercraft.

Three Wookiees.

Lily was amazed that Star Wars is over 35 years old and still popular.

Selfie at Togo's afterwards.

E-i-e-i-ewe

 Amalia's first Girl Scout field trip was to a sheep farm in Watsonville.

They had a bunch of other animals, too. Here's the inside of a chicken coop. It smells about like you'd think.

 Petting one of the chickens.

Showing off the eggs they collected. Amalia's was blue (perfectly normal, based on the breed of chicken).

 Here are the sheep. These guys in front are the two rams.

 And the pigs. That big one in the middle is the mom.

This is the dad. He had very large "bumps," as Amalia put it.

 A one-day-old lamb.

 So soft. The mom didn't like us doing this, by the way.

 Feeding the lambs was udder chaos.

 A very cool treehouse.

 Fort Awesome.

 Taking a turn on the rope swing.

 Secret Daisy handshake.

 Earning her "farm fun" patch.

 Sedona, the border collie, herding the girls as they show off their patches.

My animal lover hanging out with Trixie and Sedona.