Holy batwings, Robin!

The suspense was almost too much for Lily. Good thing Amalia got something out of it too.

She originally wanted to be a bat for Halloween (you know, like the animal). But then we went online and she saw this one. Big surprise.

Garanimals might be called for

 

Lily always picks out striking ensembles. The above outfit features tiered layers on her shirt and skirt, as she pointed out to me. But I particularly enjoyed Amalia's concoction the other day. Can you count how many patterns there are?

Why am I reminded of Chico and the Man?

 

A portrait of Andy, taken by Lily.

Random anecdote: 

The other day Andy asked Lily what Stanford is (since the girls are often covered in branded apparel). 

Her reply: It's a place where people get married and where they play football. 

There aren't many years where the second part of her sentence is true; happily this happens to be one of them. (Beat Cal!)

Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

Plumply, dumply pumpkins

Today was a beautiful day to go pumpkin picking.

 

Lily's  artwork -- before we carved it all up. 

 Not to be left out, Amalia also drew her own stem hole. 

The goop scoop.

 

Lily tried to do it without coming into any actual contact with the seeds. 

 

From left to right: mine, Lily's, Andy's. Amalia's didn't end up getting carved.

 

What with the porch pumpkins and all, I suppose we'll have to go get some candy to hand out to the neighborhood kids this year. Usually we turn off the lights and hide upstairs. :-)

Water, flowers, and chocolate

While killing time downtown with Amalia yesterday during Lily's art class, we discovered a hidden fountain on the GW campus. Andy would want me to make sure I pointed out that it was an environmentally friendly state-of-the-art stormwater reclamation system. Amalia just thought it was fun.

 Amalia serves as a good reminder that the reward is not always in the destination. It takes a long time to get anywhere when the 2-year-old decides she wants to push her own stroller.

Heard repeatedly: "I don't need help!" (usually declared when I was trying to keep her from running over hapless GW students or anyone else on the sidewalk)

Back home, we did some flower planting. Lily of course wore her chic, black gardening dress. 

Bonus video: Amalia deciding that she does indeed like chocolate and imploring Jake Bird not to eat her.

Workin' on the railroad

There's nothing terribly entertaining about the following video--just a little snippet of our lives. Amalia's been very into trains lately so we've pulled out all of Lily's old Thomas stuff.

Under her breath, Amalia is saying, "Lily take apart." The "no" is much more pronounced -- as it is wont to be.

They Might Be Busy

Last Saturday was a busy one. We dropped Lily off at her new art class at the Corcoran, took Amalia to Children's for a blood draw (allergy testing), made a much-needed shopping trip to Target, checked out a free They Might Be Giants show at The Kennedy Center (Andy and Lily), and then settled down for the evening to watch Stanford lose to Oregon. Despite being a bit overscheduled, everything turned out pretty well -- aside from the game, of course.

Back at Lily's stomping grounds.

Palatable kids music + Kennedy Center + free = lots o' people

Lily behind the camera.

Tough girl.

I guess it stands to reason that when you're in the equivalent of the nosebleeds, a 5 year old is going to start creating her own entertainment.