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.

Well wishes

 Ever since my ear surgery last week, Amalia has been making me get well cards.

These all came home today. Better than Vicodin!

M is for Micah

 Who could've guessed that these two kids who were best buds as toddlers...

 would be reunited years later.

On Sunday, we went up into San Francisco to help celebrate Micah's 9th birthday. That's his sister, Nina, in the gladiator outfit.

That's Micah in the long-sleeved tie-dye. The party featured games of tug of war, capture the flag, and a scavenger hunt.

 And, of course, cake. Same curly hair!

 Lily says the kid on the left sort of looks like Neville Longbottom.

 And a Batman piñata.

STEM girls

Tonight was the science fair at the girls' school.

Amalia tested different liquids to see which one would help a plant grow best. Diet soda was the best; milk was the stinkiest. 

 And she won second place amongst all the kindergarteners!

Lily tested different kinds of soda to see which would clean (corrode) pennies the best. Regular coke was the winner.

And she, too, won second place in her grade!

 

Such a fun night of science. We celebrated with a surprise trip to the frozen yogurt shop.