Cinderelly, Cinderelly

Yesterday, the girls put together their chore/to-do lists for the morning, after school, and bedtime.

 Lily's is pretty self-explanatory.

Amalia's may require a bit of explanation.

Bedtime (in order from left to right):

• Floss teeth.
• Brush teeth.
• Gargle with mouthwash. (Can you tell the dentist found a cavity last week?)
• Put on PJs.
• Go to the bathroom. 

Morning:

• Make bed.
• Pack snack.
• Get dressed.
• Eat breakfast.
• Brush hair and teeth.

After school: 

• Do homework. 
• Set table.
• Help make dinner. 
• Give Jake bird food and water.
• Sweep up food and seeds around Jake's cage.

Take a hike

 Today we took the girls up to a ridge in Los Gatos overlooking San Jose.

This is what Andy means when he says he's going to "do some pruning." If you can't recall what our hedges used to look like before they were, um, "pruned," click here.

Sourpuss

 Amalia had a great time harvesting limes from our backyard today.

Fear the Tree

 

Yesterday was Stanford's first football game of the season. We played San Jose State. 

 The Pierce family got all Stanforded up and headed up to campus.

  Lily trying to get her sister to smile.

Amalia was much more interested in running around than sitting in the bleachers.

The game started at 8pm.

 Coin toss.

The incomparable LSJUMB and a glimpse of this year's new Tree mascot.

We made it most of the way through the 3rd quarter before we had to take the girls home. Fortunately, we listened to the rest of the 34-13 victory in the car on KZSU.

Digging the chicks

We rounded out our Labor Day weekend with a visit to Gilroy Gardens, a botanically themed family amusement park located in the garlic capital of the world. We were having too much fun for me to take many pictures, but I did snap this one at the petting zoo, which both girls loved. Lily said she was going to particularly miss her spotted chicken and asked when we could go back to visit it.

Steamy, dirty and corny

 This morning we headed over to the San Jose Children's Discovery Museum.

 First stop, water play.

 

 Then we spent quite a bit of time in the garden.

 The girls helped sift some leaves for the compost bins.

 And then planted some snapdragons and Jupiter's Beard.

 They got to pick some of the garden's tomatoes as their reward.

 Checking out the bikeshare bikes on our walk to lunch.

 Showing off the cornhusk dolls they made at the museum. Lily's is named Alice.

Amalia named hers Snowflake, same as the rest of her pet creatures. She's sort of like George Forman that way.

Vball basics

I took the girls outside today to teach some valuable volleyball skills and Andy snuck some pics with the camera through our front window.

He got some video in there, as well.