29-Nov-07 On the Second Day After Thanksgiving, la la la

Noni decided curly hair would be fun.

Eric and Bill went to the Stanford-Notre Dame game (ugly game, pretty new stadium).

We went to the cute retro Sweet Shoppe and played hide-and-seek at the park.

We drove home and finally tried the Apricot Tree restaurant (pretty good for along the 5!). Also Eric is a genius because he found a way to bypass that damn Pacheco turn where the cars line up. On Monday, my friend Karen who was in Los Altos for the weekend and also drove home Saturday night, told me that they waited an HOUR in that lineup. Woo hoo Eric!!!!

28-Nov-07 The Day After Thanksgiving, Part 2

In the evening, we went out to dinner with Mary Anne, Bill, Megan, Chickie, Shannon & Dennis, Cassidy, Audrey, and Kate.
Nick brought the Elmo that lives at Noni's place. I caught a photo in the car (see his good-lookin' sweater?)We went to a delicious Cal-Mex place called Aqui. I wish we had one nearby - it was sooooo good!
The (big) girls had their own table:
While Nick sat at the grownup table and played with cars with Uncle Bill:

Oh My Goodness! Look who stopped by the restaurant to say hello! What a way to start the season! Eating Mexican food and saying Hola Papa Noel!

After dinner, we drove through the Fantasy of Lights in Los Gatos. Lots of pretty little vignettes in lights! It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas!

27-Nov-07 The Day After Thanksgiving, Part 1

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, we got started helping Donna prepare for Christmas. I have some cute video of everyone putting the tree together. Julianna was especially industrious about shaping the twigs.
These girls are good little tree trimmers. I hope they are in the mood for more, since we will probably get our tree in a week or so.
Donna is so efficient at the decorating. (Yes, I know I said this before.) It seemed like it took about two hours to Christmas-ify the whole place. She says she still has a few more things she'd like to put up, so that will be fun to see, but it really does look festive already!
The "haunted house" up the street has a lot of their lights up. As you might guess, they go all out on the lights. But the thing I like about it is that they don't go crazy. There are a lot of lights, but not a lot of other stuff. Last year it was truly beautiful. We'll see how far they take it this year -- they kept adding Halloween things all October.
As for me, I still have not packed up the Thanksgiving stuff. My problem is I think I need to put them in a bigger box than they were in before and I have to find one... bleh. And all the Christmas stuff is way up high in the garage so I will need Eric to help me get them down... and it's dark out there by the time he gets home (no light in the garage).
I don't know what we will do about exterior lights this time. Last year we were barely moved in so we didn't deal with lights. This house is much harder to do than our old house. Ack I am going to stop thinking about it now.

26-Nov-07 a peek at our Thanksgiving

We had a very nice Thanksgiving, and hope that you did too. We were treated to such delicious food and marvelous company. I asked Katie if she had a nice Thanksgiving, and she said "Yes! It was a wonderful Thanksgiving!" Here are a few photos:

Brendan certainly has grown up!

Sallie, Bill, Rose, and Donna

20-Nov-07 some news about me

Eight weeks ago, I finally did something I've been meaning to do for a long time. When my 30th birthday came along, I decided that could be the impetus to get me to finally do it. But I had a new baby and thought it wouldn't be a good idea while I had little hands grabbing at me all the time. Then another new baby came along. Then ... well... this is not a big deal for most people, but I was self-conscious about being 34 and going in to get it done. So I was stalling and dragging my feet...

Then my friend Annette passed away of leukemia. She was a jewelry designer and I had purchased quite a bit of her pieces over the past few years. I wear some of them a lot, but there are some things I was still unable to wear. I was determined to finally just GO DO IT.

Here are just a few samples of her work, worn by ME!!!!

19-Nov-07 Darell's visit

We all enjoyed having Uncle Darell here. He set up a little bowling alley in the den for Nick (Darell tries to adhere more to the way you are supposed to bowl, while I am just happy when the kids are occupied - I hadn't fixed their pin set-ups or shown them how far away to stand when they roll the ball). Nick loves having Darell to bowl, throw the baseball, and shoot baskets with. Unfortunately for Darell, Nick has a very long attention span for these activities.

The girls loved playing with Darell too. This is how the kids played with him (picture all three, even though there are only two in this picture):

I hope Darell enjoyed it here. I know his work project was not so smooth, but I hope he had some good walks and some good food. I like having him here!

For Cole

Dear Cole,
Auntie Barbra thought you might enjoy looking at these pictures. They are from the first day Katie was home from school with chicken pox. I found a huge mess in the girls' room, including the whole Calico Critters house and all the little things (Nick and Katie had been playing with it but as usual did not clean up before moving on to other toys). I looked at all the messes all over the room, and then somehow found myself carefully placing everything just so in the Calico Critters house (I think I was trying to pretend the other messes weren't there).
Anyway, I heard you like the Calico Critters, so I thought you might like to see how I arranged everything while I was in mess denial that day:

This is the living room, where mom is coming home after her "away time."

Dad is busy in the kitchen!

The rabbit friend is going to wash her hands.

This is the play room. Also, mama dog is going to sit at the vanity and get ready to go out.

16-Nov-07 Big girl bed!

In August, we moved Julianna from the toddler bed to a big-girl twin bed. Very exciting! We went online to let her pick out some new bedding. She picked pretty ballerinas to coordinate with Katie's bed (which is ballet, but a different design). So I placed the order, and lo and behold.... back-ordered. What a letdown.

Then yesterday, it arrived! THREE MONTHS. Grrr.

We were so excited to put it on her bed. It looks great! I would even say it was worth the wait!

Library Tests by K

I took four Library Tests today. I got 8 out of 10,8 out of 10,10 out of 10, and 10 out of 10. I took my library tests on Pirates Past Noon,Goldie the Sunshine Fairy,India the Moonstone Fairy and Afternoon on the Amazon.

15-Nov-07 a science and art lesson

Got some new pictures of Malia! Here is my favorite one:

Hello, little smiley! Can't WAIT to see you!

It was fun to see the kids in Katie's class so excited to see her again on Tuesday morning. I think she enjoyed that very much!

Here are some photos from the last time we went to Huntington Gardens (Nov. 1):

Surprisingly enough, we found something there we had never noticed before:

You drop rocks through this thing, and they bounce off all the metal nails and it makes a beautiful chiming sound. Nick spent lots of time on this. What could be better than picking up a handful of rocks and dumping them, then being rewarded with a beautiful, musical sound?!

We had to go do the experiments again, which we so enjoyed last time:

First, you put a drop of nectar (from one of three types of flowers) on the sensor plate of the refractometer.

Then, you look through the eyepiece, and read the number corresponding to the boundary between blue and white zones. This tells you the concentration of sugar. (Doesn't this look like a lovely museum? It really is.)

Lantana = 20%, Salvia = 25%, Lavender = 30%.
Butterflies prefer nectar with 15-25%, hummingbirds prefer 20-25%, bees prefer 30-50%.

Here are some of our favorite artworks from that visit:

Pinkie and Blue Boy, mounted across from one another
Blue Boy is by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1770. The outfit is a costume of 1630's style dress, as Gainsborough painted this as an homage to the works of Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck (1559-1641).
Pinkie is by Thomas Lawrence, c. 1794. Sarah Barrett Moulton (called "Pinkie" by her grandmother) was 11 at the time of the painting. Her younger brother, Edward, was the father of poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Children playing (there was another one of two sisters that we liked as well)
This is Clavering Children by George Romney, c. 1777.

I have always loved this one by Mary Cassatt of a mom and her toddler daughter.
Breakfast in Bed, c. 1897
Mary Cassatt was an American expat living in Paris, and was a close friend of Edgar Degas. She often depicted women and children.

Christmas wish lists

I have been asked to provide ideas for the kids' gifts... here is the link:

Wish List

11-Nov-07 we left the house!

Oh, boy, did it feel good to get out of the house Friday evening! What a week.

After dinner, we walked over to look at the football game through the fence. We saw the last three minutes of the first half, and then the marching band well, marched onto the field. Suddenly, three high school boys wearing black g-strings hopped the fence on the other side of the field (home side) and ran through the band and across to the away side fence, where we were. The first two hopped over the fence and were standing right next to my bewildered children while the third had some trouble getting over the fence (!). This caused the "away" students to razz boy #3, which caused boys #1 and #2 to yell the "f" bomb at them a few times. Teen boy #3 got over the fence on his third try, and they ran off (almost bowling over my children) down the street. K said, "mom, that was so, so, so, so, ... weird." Yes. So glad we brought our kids over to see the good, clean fun of a high school football game ... and some butts and foul language! Oh, how I wished I had my camera with me so I could put an image of it on the blog for you!

We watched the band for a while, and headed back home to see the fireworks from our back porch! No helicopter, though. We were wondering what happened to that plan!

Saturday, the girls got to play all day with E&S and go see their soccer games. N got to come to my band rehearsal and play with the drummer's kids' old Hot Wheels. When we left, he said, "mommy, that was a good house." Hee hee!

(Eric was at the UCLA-ASU game)

For dinner, we were at "Tall Katie's" housewarming party. My kids love being honorary members of her family! We had a lot of fun.

Now Uncle Darell is here! Everyone is happy. Dino won't leave him alone, as is the norm. So maybe everyone but Darell is happy. J/K He is taking me to dinner tonight!!!!

OK, now I shall go find an old picture to share (I feel like doing a Blast From the Past):

That is J and S! AAACK! Look at the peanut! I don't know how she is still with us, how did I resist eating her up????

My girls are still yummy, don't you think?

9-Nov-07 Homecoming game

Katie is better, but we played it safe and did not go to school today. So that's a full week missed and Monday is a holiday. Nick has a cold now. I am losing my marbles.

Yesterday there was a note on our doorstep saying this:

"Attention Neighbors: This Friday's football game will be starting 7:00 PM and ending at about 9:30. As part of our half-time ceremony, there will be a jubilant display of fireworks along with a helicopter hovering over the field between 8-9 PM. Due to the loud noise, you may want to keep dogs, and other pets indoors..."

Well, this should be interesting!

Here are some photos to enjoy:

From our Sunriver trip, when Sarah and I took the kids to the nature center.

Why I feel like my mom today

Because I just ate an enormous helping of vegetables with my dinner (my zucchini)!

7-Nov-07 how K is feeling

It's been a very uncomfortable few days. Being so itchy has been difficult both day and night. Finally, this morning I see that a few of them are scabbing, so I hope she starts feeling better. She has been doing some schoolwork her teacher sent home, which is taking her mind off the discomfort somewhat. She enjoys working on it. She also has spent a lot of time in front of the TV!
N has two microscopic-sized spots that look like scabbed-over pox. I don't know.

5-Nov-07 Here we go again

Katie is home from school today with chickenpox. Found the spots yesterday morning. So we are stuck at home for a few days AGAIN.

She actually had both the vaccine and the booster. This breakout of chickenpox is strange -- more vaccinated kids are getting it than the statistics would predict, and I know of a family in which even the child who had already had the disease got it again. It makes me wonder if this is some kind of different strain? I didn't think that happened with chickenpox... My scientific mind wants to solve this puzzle.

Nick has a couple of red bumps, but it actually doesn't look like it did on the girls yet. We'll see what happens through today.

2-Nov-07 Halloween recap!

After nap, the girls "costume'd up" and had mommy do their hair.

You can see how Little Red's ringlets turned out in this picture.
You can also see the food she put in her basket for "Grandma." I like that she is bringing a fried egg.

Dorothy had braids and blue ribbons. She's got Toto in her basket, ready for the big evening!

We convinced Lightning McQueen that if he wanted anything out of our candy basket (for giving out), he needed to put on his costume and say "trick or treat!"

Our friends, Sharpay (from High School Musical) and the Pink Power Ranger, arrived to trick-or-treat with us.

We set out to trick-or-treat next door. N didn't want to leave our doorstep in his Lightning McQueen costume. We broke down and let him wear his frog costume from last year. This made him very happy!

As a frog, he was very into the collecting candy idea. We went down our street and all the way around the block. We came back to our house for a "pit stop." Everyone picked out a candy (actually I'm not sure how many they each had).
N and S are very excited that they both picked the SAME CANDY!! Soulmates!

WE LIKE CANDY! LET'S PUT OUR TREAT BAGS ON OUR HEADS! DO YOU THINK WE'VE HAD ENOUGH SUGAR TONIGHT?

Then mommy and all the girls took a walk to see the "haunted house," but I already told you about that.

So, all in all, the kids had a wonderful day and everyone enjoyed going up to the houses and saying "trick or treat!" N too! They were all delighted with their costumes and proud of themselves. Time was spent with best friends, and apparently, for at least one person, fears were conquered.

Our doorbell was ringing nonstop. E and I took turns being the "trick or treat" chaperone and the door-answerer. There were lots of times when I didn't go back inside after handing out treats, because more groups were on the driveway and sidewalk. Group after group after group! Nice kids. We did have enough candy! Just barely. It was fun and festive and I enjoyed it very much.

The weirdest part was that the high school's marching band was practicing on the football field. So the music accompanying everyone's trick-or-treating was the halftime show music! That band has been very busy this week. They practiced all day Saturday and Sunday, as well as Mon, Tues, and Wed nights. We were so surprised they had asked the high schoolers to practice exactly during trick-or-treat time.

N did not want Halloween to be over! He is looking forward to next year, and we are preparing him for the fact that the frog costume will not fit him any more. Just planting that seed now.

Our street's trick-or-treaters were done by 9:00. Very good. There are a couple of other neighborhoods in our town that get even more trick-or-treaters. We saw the edge of one of them when we checked out the "haunted house." It was insane. Minivans were pulling up to busy corners (not parking) and kids of all ages were piling out and heading down the sidewalk. I don't know if ours is one of those "destination" areas that people drive to, since we're not on the end of the street. But this practice can't be safe. And I will quote another writer, "CANDY IS NOT THAT IMPORTANT!"

But I want to stress that we had a wonderful night, and everything seemed "just right" to us!!

why I feel like my mother-in-law right now

because I have already taken down all of the Halloween decorations! Yahoo!

Pictures from last night are coming... I had trouble putting them on the computer and now I still have to deal with red eye and cropping and stuff. But last night was really great so I am working on sharing it with you pronto!

** Edited to add:**
Oh. My. Gosh. The "haunted house" is completely put away! That is amazing. Donna must have been there helping them, because she is the only person I know who is that quick at making her home look neat and pretty.
I am even more impressed about this than I was about their decorating! I think I need to meet that family.

And I replied to your comments by leaving a comment myself...

all about Halloween by K

My favorite candy is CandyCorn, Tootsie Roll,Lollypop and Starburst. Mom says we got 200 or 300 trick-or-treaters. It was weird to have that many trick-or-treaters trick-or-treat at our house. I went to about 20 houses. I went to bed after 9:00 and I go to bed at 8:30 so I was
really tired in the morning. Iwon HALLOWEEN BINGO today!

Love Katie

Do you recognize this person?

There is a house a couple of blocks from us, by the library. All month we've been watching their decorating progress. "All out" is an understatement. They wrap the front of their house in stone backdrop stuff, put stone gargoyles on the pillars, hang witches, skeletons and monsters from every tree, put monsters all over the porches and windows, including the attic window, and put cobwebs all over the porch. One of the monster things moves and has light up eyes and creepy music. It seemed that every time we went by, there were more decorations. One day there was a fenced-in graveyard in the front yard, with skulls on the fenceposts, creepy bones crawling out around the gravestones, and grim reapers standing guard. Another day there was a huge ghoul flying over the front yard (they rigged wire from their roof to the tree between the sidewalk & street and suspended the ghoul from the line, but also rigged the flowing robes from the line so that it looked like it was flying and not just hanging there). Most recently there was a 10-foot tall ghost in shackles hanging from the tree between the sidewalk and street.

In our family, we have taken to referring to this house as "the haunted house." Somebody in the family said, "on Halloween, I want to come to this house!"

So after trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, mom was reminded about "the haunted house," so we set off to walk over there. There was creepy music and somebody was talking eerily into a microphone that was set on echo. Everything was dark except lit up by blacklights. There were lots of pumpkins and people in costume everywhere. It was very very creepy! Somebody in our family wanted to go up to the porch to trick-or-treat there. Somebody else did not want to get any closer, in fact wanted to head home.

Can you guess who it was that went on up to the dark, monster-covered porch to say "trick or treat?"

I think you'll be surprised!








It was Katie!