Monkeyin' around

 This is what kids' hard work looks like--callus-covered palms from the school monkey bars.

Lily's are a bit further along.

Halloween Fun Night

Yesterday was Halloween Fun Night at Bagby Elementary, the girls' school. As you might expect, it featured kids in costumes, a bunch of carnival games, inflatables (bounce house type things), candy galore, a Haunted Halls, and, as it's also the school's biggest fundraiser of the year, a silent auction and raffle.

 Apparently, Minions say, "What?????!!!!"

 The huntress, showing off her technique.

 Waiting for the parade to start.

 Kindergarteners in costumes. So cute, except for the werewolf, which was actually a bit scary.

 On the parade route.

 The werewolf was not so scary without his head.

 Amalia trying out the ladder thing. Standing upright is not the way to go.

 The preferred belly-down technique.

 Still no guarantee of success.

 Winner! Winner! Winner!

 Shooting hoops. The games were all about getting candy.

 The girls tried several times to win me a cake at the cake walk.

 No luck. But we did come home with three small pumpkins.

Meanwhile, Andy was watching Stanford beat UCLA at the homecoming game. Look at all those Trees!

The team coming over after the game to sing our alma mater in front of the fans, and a whole bunch of alumni. Hail, Stanford, Hail.

Andy did make it back in time to accompany the girls through the "Haunted Halls," which got progressively scarier as the evening progressed--ending with actual costumed people jumping out and scaring the kids. Lily says it was her favorite part of Halloween Fun Night. Amalia refused to go back through after her earlier experience (lights on, no scary people).

Spooky creatures

We seem to be the adopted owners of a black cat. He has any number of names. His tag says Spock Paws, but we call him Moo Cow because that's what we called him before we read his tag.

Apparently he lives nearby, but his real owners recently bought a dog and now Moo Cow refuses to go home. The girls started feeding him so of course he regularly shows up each morning and evening meowing on our porch. He's also a good birder--and squirreler--having already killed and eaten two of each in our yard. He is and will remain an outside cat, despite Lily's predictions to the contrary.

She's not spooky, but here's a picture of Amalia filling out her trick or treat scavenger hunt at Gilroy Gardens last weekend. What you can't see is the sign next to her that indicates she's sitting in front of an Amalia rosebush.

The petting zoo brought out spooky animals--snakes, tarantulas, bearded dragons, hissing cockroaches. The girls pretty much just hung out with their favorite chickens.

But I hung out for a while with FeeFee.

And to top it all off, here's Amalia "reading" to me from the spider book she made in kindergarten.

Ear ye! Ear yikes!

On Tuesday, October 8, 2013, Heather took the first meaningful step (of three) toward having "normal" hearing for the first time in her life. Instead of treating the symptoms of poor hearing, her new ENT discovered the cause of her hearing loss and is aggressively addressing it. Hopefully, within the next two years, Heather's hearing will be better than ever - literally.

Here are some pictures from days 1 & 2, to help anyone who has been imagining any gruesome images: 

  No, that is not a blue "YES" tattoo under her left ear, although I told her she looked hot.

 At home 90 minutes or so after the 3-hour operation. She was the last one at the surgery center, which had locked its doors hours beforehand. I suspect her departure was rushed a little more than one typically experiences, so the staff could go home. She really could have used another hour to stabilize the pain and nausea.

The ice pack was to prevent nausea. As were the open windows, moon roof & air conditioning in the car on the way home that night, and the open windows in our bedroom and bathroom upstairs since. Even I was cold. Maybe they wanted to distract her from all the other pain she was experiencing, since Heather really does not like being cold. And the advice to not eat or drink anything after midnight the previous night was very wise advice, indeed.

Day 2: Self Portrait - Van Gogh-style

Two more to go. At least this one is now behind her.

Thank you to all the well-wishers out there and for the flowers, fruit and help at home.

Spooking up the place

Halloween is just around the corner and the girls spent the morning making sure our house is ready. 

 Rest in pieces. 

 It's nice that the fine print is legible. 

 Worst hairpiece ever. 

 We're going to need more Scotch tape. 

 Hanging out in the cemetery. 

Chillin' with the artists. 

The indoctrination continues

Yesterday Stanford took on the Washington Huskies. We headed up to campus early enough to catch some of the pre-game FanFest--and the incomparable Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band.

The woman in the Bo Peep outfit is our drum majorette.  

Walking to the stadium. 

I don't know what this thing was called, but Amalia had to strap on a harness attached to a bungee cord and try to get the baton as far down the line as she could. 

 The girls checking out one of the Palo Alto Fire Department engines. 

 My favorite part of the FanFest were the free Red Vines they were giving away (not pictured). 

 And here's Amalia with Stanford bomb-sniffing dog, Red. She's 10 years old and still hard at work. 

 Once we finally got to the stadium, Lily settled in nicely with her book. 

 Amalia was a bit more interested in the game. Or maybe it was the chips keeping her occupied. 

 My bookworm still reading. 

Checking out the band at halftime. 

Argh! She drove them nuts!

A few posts ago, Heather mentioned Krispy Kreme had a promotion during national "Talk Like a Pirate" day, where they gave out a free glazed doughnut if you spoke like a pirate, and a dozen glazed doughnuts if you came in dressed like a pirate. But when we arrived four hours before closing time, Amalia all pirated up (her class had just done a unit on pirates), they were out of glazed doughnuts and even had the gall to charge us for two mini doughnuts.

This shivered our timbers.

Enter Heather's golden quill and razor-sharp wit and you get an apology and 24 doughnuts:

Next time they walk the plank.