More Halloween

Here are a few of Airan's pictures from the day. His shots are always much better than mine. Enjoy!

Halloween 2009

We cycled through so many great Halloween costume ideas this year (swing set and slide, guitar and drum set, whale and dolphin), and we never managed to follow through on any of them before the girls changed their minds and latched on to something new. In the end, we went with some pretty generic Party City costumes, but the girls looked adorable and had a blast. Happy Halloween!

Evie seeds her pumpkin


Sophie's empty pumpkin


Drawing scary faces


Simply terrifying artwork


Sophie's finished pumpkin


Here's your scary Halloween pic for the year.


Evie's finished pumpkin


Spooky!


Angel and butterfly, all bundled up for some trick-or-treating


Evie and Sophie pose with Hilary the '80s aerobics instructor

Happy Birthday, Libby!

Happy third birthday, Libby! We had a great time celebrating with Libby and lots of friends today. Libby had the good taste to throw a pajama party, so the kids were all showing off their sleepwear fashions.

Evie, Libby, and Sophie snuggle up. It was a pajama party, after all.


Singing to the birthday girl.


She came thisclose to setting her hair on fire. I seem to recall someone's hair catching fire at her birthday party last year, too. Hmmmm.


Decorating pumpkins.


Libby, the birthday girl


Evie concentrates


Owen


Sophie


Emma and Martin


Alejandro


Nora


Here's the cake I made for Libby. She's in a Dem Bones phase, and when a three-year-old wants a skeleton birthday cake, she gets a skeleton birthday cake. And then I put on a few gum paste flowers, because that's what I do. I put gum paste flowers on things. You have a problem with that?


I had a lot of fun piping the skeletons. Airan was kind enough to make a hand-drawn template for me, and I shamelessly took credit for his beautiful work.

First Day of School

Concert on the Couch

Sophie and Evie put on an impromptu concert in the living room today, and I thank my lucky stars I thought to grab the camera so I could share these performances with all of you. Just try to tell me these kids aren't musical geniuses. And natural entertainers!


"Butterfly House," original lyrics sung to the tune of "She'll be Comin' Round the Mountain"





"Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" with a few custom variations:





"Little Red Caboose" with some delightful improvised percussion:





A revealing glimpse into the art of collaborative songwriting:





Another original song, "I Like Butterflies":

I could be wrong, but I don't think this is the approved method for hatching penguin eggs.

At the Zoo

At the climbing maze in the children's zoo. Sure, Evie looks like she's having fun, but she refused to go any higher than this.

Sophie wouldn't even go that high.

On the train ride. Also too scary for Sophie.

Watching zookeepers work with the seals.

Zookeeper, seal.

In the primate house, watching those silly little monkeys.

I want to say this is a howler monkey, but I'm not entirely sure.

I think Sophie's winking at me.

This poor gorilla just looked like she wanted a little privacy. Did we give it to her? No.


Gawking at gorillas.

These gulls were after our lunch. Scavengers.


On the carousel. Also too scary for Sophie.