Spirit child

Amalia has gotten very into Halloween this year. She scooped out all three of the jack o' lanterns we carved.

And then when she got home from school today, she set up this All Hallows corner in our living room.

Angels and demons

 Yesterday was Halloween Fun Night at the girls' school. It all started with a costume parade.

Amalia reused one of Lily's old costumes and was a vampiress.

 Lily brought out her goddess dress.

 

Principal White again donned her Snow White costume.

 Lily said this picture makes it look like they were devil and angel.

I have no idea who this is supposed to be, but it might just be my favorite costume. (Lily informs me that it's Rosalina from MarioKart. I still don't know who that is.)

Cutthroat kitchen

Both girls were at work in the kitchen this evening: Lily making brownies from scratch and Amalia making chicken noodle soup. All I had to do was supervise.

 Amalia was very happy with her result and had 2 1/2 bowls.

After having to scratch one batch of batter and start over, the brownies were ready for their powdered sugar topping. (Lily misread the recipe and had added 3 1/2 cups of water to the melting chocolate when 3 1/2 tablespoons were called for.)

Both girls gave them a thumbs up.

Halloween shoot

Lily's archery shoot this weekend was only about 20 minutes from the house, so Amalia and I tagged along this time to see her. It was great to see Lily in her element. Plus we were rewarded with great views of the valley.

It was a Trick or Treat shoot. The targets were zombies, skeletons and other scary creatures. Archers were encouraged to wear costumes and were rewarded with a free bottle of water or soda. Lily weighed the risks and benefits and decided a costume wasn't worth it.

Unfortunately she got edged out by a point by another "Lilly," who, Lily is quick to point out, is almost 11 years old and has been shooting for almost two years longer.

 

These two lovely girls (also almost 11) were in our shooting group. They took advantage of the free soda.

Blue angels

 On Sunday we visited our family friends Glenn and Diane up in San Francisco for Fleet Week.

 The view from their Pacific Heights apartment was absolutely gorgeous.

 Amalia shared her prized spot with their Bichon, Jake.

 

Beautiful SF staircase.

Hero worship

 

Tonight, Andy took Lily to a book release event for her favorite author, Rick Riordan, of Percy Jackson fame.

But first, a stop for sushi.  

 

The event was sponsored by Kepler's Books, but was held at a theater in Redwood City due to his overwhelming popularity.

The ticket came with an autographed copy of his new book, Blood of Olympus. Lily wasted no time diving right in.

Although it's the last book of the Heroes of Olympus series, Lily was relieved to learn that there are many more series and off-shoots planned.

 The man of the hour.

Lily coming out of the event with her book and a bonus Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, which she of course plans to wear to school tomorrow. A night she likely won't forget.

Current events

The girls wanted me to wake them up last night to see the blood moon. I think they were awake from about 3:30 a.m. to 3:30:30 a.m. But they can both accurately claim to have seen it.

In other less apocalyptic news, Lily is in her third straight week of voluntary lunch duty. She says she really likes serving the food to the other kids and may be a lunch lady when she grows up. Plus, she gets free hot lunch when she works, which she immediately offsets by buying snack. However, Lily is quick to explain that since lunch is $3.00 and snack is only $2.00, she's still saving us a dollar. (She's certainly her father's daughter. :-))

After the initial sting

Well, it wasn't five minutes after we got to Half Moon Bay that Amalia got her first bee sting. After a few tears and a few minutes of ice, we resumed our lovely day at the beach.

 Amalia and Joaquim built sandcastles, collected shells, and jumped in the waves.

Then we stopped for lunch at Sam's Chowderhouse before heading back over the hill.

Jump start

It's October and 90 degrees outside, so naturally Amalia decided to start her Christmas wish list today.

Eggseptional

There's nothing like having your children reach the age of making food you actually want to eat (or in the case of this morning's eggs, food that someone might like to eat--not me, of course).

This week her class had to give "how to" presentations. Lily's was on how to do archery. Check it out here: http://www.haikudeck.com/p/UbeIiLMkxu. It was very well received. The next time you see her, you can ask her to give you her speech.

 Anyway, Lily was inspired to make Sparling Eggs by her classmate Miles Sparling's presentation.

I think they turned out a lot better than her independent attempt at pickling apples, for which she used vinegar, black peppercorns, and bay leaves. No one has been brave enough to taste these yet.

 Sparling Eggs are a scramble with shredded cheese and tomatoes.

The final verdict was that it looked good but the tomatoes made Lily gag--and Amalia wouldn't even touch them.

Still, I'm pretty sure this won't be the last of Lily's culinary efforts.