Puppy Disaster

Nancy called, JuJu did not make it through the night. This was the small female salt-and-pepper schnauzer that Mali and I had chosen. She was not even 3 days old.

Crokinole

Paul bought a very fun game over the internet called Crokinole. It is a physical game where you flick wooden disks on a wooden board. If you want to see what it looks like, check out the Crokinole World website.

Last night we discovered Nancy making a vat of split-pea soup, so we brought bread and wine and helped them eat it. We also brought the last of the leftover pumpkin lusch for dessert, and Hannah Really Loved it. Afterwards we invited Pablo over for Scrabble, and the girls watched Who Killed the Electric Car.

Puppies!

Tinkerbelle had her puppies yesterday! Seven little cuties, two girls. Mali was dieing to get over there and see them, but we waited until she was all done and things had calmed down. Here's a photo of one from Nancy:

Boxing Day party

Alana threw a huge Boxing Day party last night. Susy went over early to help set up, while lazy Darrin went with Pablo over to Paul's to play Scrabble.
Lots of great people at the party - all the usual suspects, and the new ones: Doug, Erin and Natalie, Mische (no David or Lilly), Pablo's friend Nancy, and more of Alana's neighbors and friends. Andrew and Matias brought Andrew's new game, Betrayal at House on the Hill, but Olivia and her gang harrassed them out of the downstairs, and instead they threw wrapping paper at their parents. Lots of laughing over the white elephant exchange - particularly the belly dancing DVD and the old, scary stuffed-cat toy.

It seems likely that Tinkerbelle may have had her puppies last night - she is ready to pop, and started panting strangely as they left the party. Mali is thrilled.

Merry Christmas!

Hooray, it's Christmas!
We've been visiting neighbors, and are heading to Pablo's for dinner now. Here's some photos from last night and this morning.
Mali and Amy get down for the camera:

Darrin gets to hold a snuggly Conner while he wakes up:

Conner tries out Mali's Rudolph nose:

Susy manages to get sleepy Cooper to sleep:

Andrew and Conner:

Grandpa and Conner:

All the kids at the party:

Amy, Andrew, and Mary:

And from this morning, Darrin's new teapot: (photo by Mali)

Merry Christmas Eve Day!!!

We are safely at the Washington Grandparent's house. Oregon Dad's Dad is preparing waffles for us, and at 1:00 the rest of the family will show up for the Christmas Eve's festivities.

Sick kid, sick dad.

Mali came into our room with a raging fever this morning. She felt a little off last night, but we expected her to get better, not worse. She slept all day and is feeling much better tonight. We put off our trip to Washington for a day. I'm sick now with a sore throat, but I'm going to bed now and hopefully will be fine for tomorrow's trip.

We have finished our Christmas shopping, the Christmas cards are out, and gifts are made for the neighbors (yummy chocolate cranberry pistachio bark). Now if we could all just be healthy by Christmas all will be perfect.

Christmas Vacation

Not too much happening here, this first week of Christmas vacation. Mali and Andrew have been working on their paintings for Susy, click the photo below to see another view. Andrew spent most of today at William's house, and Mali and I walked to the video store and got The Devil Wears Prada, which she has been very eager to see.
Yesterday the kids and I got some excercise up at the school, playing soccer with Matias and a friend. Then Andrew had an indoor game where the Poi Dogs easily beat an Aloha Rec league team 9-3. Andrew had a very good game: his first two minutes as a forward he scored two great goals, one a header!

Christmas Party

Doug and Erin threw a fantastic party at their house with co-hosts David and Mische. Guests included: Paul and Nancy, Alana, George and Mary-Fay, John and Kim? from Intel, Bill and ??? from Intel, Erin's brother and ???, and Nan and ???, and many others I don't quite remember. Lots of great wine and food and fun.

Storm Day

We were all amazed to discover school cancelled Friday. It was a beautiful day, except for the fallen-tree-closed roads and power outages scattered throughout town. I drove Mali up to school since she was heavily laden with gifts and gingerbread house materials. We were a little early, so I didn't consciously notice the lack of cars, and there were people in the parking lot, but after reading the "school closed" sign four times it slowly dawned on me that the school was closed. Mali and I walked up later to deliver the presents, and happily her teacher was there to receive it in person.

It finally did snow for five minutes, but after it hailed hard for ten, leaving a nice sheen of white pellets available for snowballs. William and Lilly were over, and everyone trooped out to play.

Choir at Starbucks

The Nancy Ryles choir sang at Starbucks last night. The photo below shows Mali chatting with her friends Dana and Rachel. Click it to see them singing.
Afterwards we all went to Pizzicato for dinner, and met up with Mali's new friend Julia and her family.

Zoë is Ruth

Mali and Andrew each had their first Indoor soccer experiences of the season this weekend - Mali's first ever. They both did great. I got to play with Mali's team, since they are just practicing. It was very fun, but I am Really out of shape. I played goalie for awhile at the end, so I could rest. Mali was very motivated to score against me, but she never got a good chance.

Mali and I raced home after soccer and showered, so we could all go to Paul and Nancy's church tonight to watch Zoë and Hannah in their Christmas program. It was a musical called "It's the truth, Ruth," and Zoë played Ruth. Hannah played a sheep, and also played her violin (in her sheep costume!) with other violinists before the show.
Afterwards we went for Chinese food with Pablo, Rocio, Matias, Nancy, Z0ë and Hannah.

Friday Night

Mali went to Lexi's Ice Skating show and was very impressed with Lexi's abilities. She came home and showed us some of the moves, and announced she wants to go to Sun River for three days and skate! The details were fuzzy - it's just something she wants to do.

She caught a ride to the show with Lilly, so Susy, Andrew, and I finally watched the DVDs Susy got last week: Highlander and Highlander II. What a disappointment! There was a good TV show, and books, and still more movies, but these two movies are horrible. The first one was watchable, though it's from 1986 and hasn't aged well. I certainly expected something more interesting after all the hoopla and the fact that it's still around - there's another movie coming out next year.

Friday, and everyone is healthy

I think everyone is healthy. Susy is still sleeping, as it's her every-other-Friday off today. Last night she and Mali went to a neighbor's house for a cookie exchange, along with 70 other people. They brought carmel-chocolate-pecan turtles, and returned with a large variety of goodies.

Health Report

Andrew is doing much better tonight. The medicine seems to have kicked in. He actually ate a piece of pizza for dinner.
Mali's friend Amanda is home from the hospital. It's her birthday today, so Mali and I went over there at 7:00 and met up with a few teammates for her birthday party.

The BIG news: Andrew has grown an inch in the last month!!!! It seems to me it was all in the last week. He is now only a quarter inch shorter than Susy. Mali has also grown: 3/4 of an inch in the last month.

Andrew's seat of recovery

Susy took Andrew to the doctor yesday, where he was diagnosed with strep throat and given a shot of penicillin in his butt. He's not awake yet this morning, which is a good sign.
Mali spent the day at Lilly's, then went to her dance class.

Andrew is still sick

He's been eating chicken soup and milkshakes. He was able to choke down a couple of Swedish pancakes yesterday for breakfast, but today he's just gone straight for the ice cream. We're taking him to the doctor as soon as we can get him an appointment this morning. Susy's working from home today so she can take him. Work is sort of hectic for me at the moment.
At least Andrew isn't missing any school! Today's a day off for students in the Beaverton school district, for some unknown reason. update: It's grading day, obviously.

Andrew is sick!!!

Andrew spent last night at Kyle's house, and came home this morning sick. He actually fainted while they were out washing the car this morning, and then he threw up. He came home and took a nap for a couple of hours, but he's still sick with a sore throat and his voice sounds pretty odd.

The Fountain

Andrew is spending the night at Kyle's, and Mali was with Zoë making gingerbread houses, so Susy and I went to see The Fountain. It was a beautiful movie that really wasn't very good.

Spite and Malice

Plenty of spite and malice in last night's card game, which Mali managed to win. Spite and Malice is an excellent name for that game, and we'll go with it since we couldn't find our Skip-Bo cards.
Mali was asleep twenty minutes after we finished playing, and beat me awake this morning - I saw her light come on at 5:30 again.
No snow or ice this morning, contrary to the kid's hopeful forecast, so they're at school.

Early in the morning

Mali and I are still on East Coast time. She is up at 5:30 doing a rug-hook tiger she wants to finish by Christmas. I've been awake since 3:00, and finally got out of bed at 4:00 so I could start work at 5:00 for no real reason.
Mali's soccer game tomorrow has been cancelled because the boys team they were to play can't get enough players. No one here is upset by that. It is COLD here.

It's snowing!

It snowed hard this morning, which got the kids all excited, but nothing stuck around. It's too warm. It stopped for a couple of hours, but is now snowing like crazy, with big, fat flakes. I just opened the front door to check it out, and I can hear the soft fall of the snow just under the clamor coming from recess up the hill.

Home from Florida.

Florida isn't quite as magical when it is below 70 degrees, but we had a great time visiting with Irene and Melissa. We reintroduced them to Skip-Bo, which they introduced to us in an earlier visit (2003?). It's an old game that used to be called Spite and Malice, or Cat and Mouse.

We did manage to get in some good beach time on Saturday when the weather finally warmed up for awhile. The beach was stuffed full of people until a huge black cloud passed over, waking me up to find people packing up and leaving everywhere.

Our trip home was uneventful, and surprisingly uncrowded. The planes were full, but the airports were not. An airport worker told us we were between the morning and afternoon rush.

Photo Shoot

Irene and Susy played dress up with their Mali-doll. Then last night Susy discovered old photos on my PC, including Mali in the red dress in July 2003. Here's the before and after shots, with two of Andrew too.


Mali and Andrew, July 2003 and November 2006

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was wonderful, with lots of great food all cooked to perfection. Melissa took the best picture, so you don't get to see her.

Busch Gardens

Wednesday we drove up to Tampa to visit Busch Gardens. Amazing, going to a family theme park where the theme is beer. The first picture below is in front of a giant Anheiser-Busch eagle topiary. I couldn't help but think of Stephen Colbert.
We didn't get all the way through the park, but we had a great time.

More Florida

Today we head to Busch Gardens in questionable weather. Yesterday we played some soccer on the beach, with poor Mali heading into the water several times to retrieve the ball. (She was wearing the flip-flops.) Afterwards we hit the Y where Mali and Susy swam, and raced, and Mali won. Andrew and I played ping pong, fooseball, and air hockey. Then we headed to Olive Garden for dinner, but I made everyone pose for a picture first.

Cold Florida

No swimming yesterday. The kids wanted to look for shells, so we tried a park I found on the map, but there was actually no beach there - it was mainly for fishing. Then we headed back to the main beach by Grandma's, where they played in the sand. It was windy, and there were a few drops of rain, but no one took any notice except to not get into the water. We may try more beach hopping this morning. It was raining when I drove here (Panera's at the mall next to Grandma's), but now the sun is out. The forecast is for low 60's until Friday. Not to worry -we will find things to do.

Waterpark disappointment.

The YMCA waterpark is closed for the Winter! Apparently, it is too cold. The kids handled the disappointment fairly well, but then they weren't allowed to use the hot-tub (16 or over only), the outdoor pool was full of a swim meet, and then the teen-center closed for the day. We will go back and try it again. Mali is just old enough to use the teen center, which was full of fun stuff. The kids swam with Susy in the indoor pool while I worked out.
Today we will go find a different beach - the kids want to find one with shells. The beautiful one by Irene's is full of nothing but brilliant white sand. We will be swimming there - maybe even today.

Florida!

We made it! We arrived at Grandma Drew and Melissa's house last night in time for a late dinner. This morning Mali and I went to the beach while Susy and Andrew were still sleeping. We saw a flock of dolphins just off the beach, pelican's diving after fish, and short, little sandpiper-like birds sprinting around the waves. There is a craft fair next to the parking lot at the public beach, so we'll all go back to check that out and get in some more beach time. It was cool this morning, but is warming up, so we should be able to get some swimming in.
Update: We dragged Irene to the craft fair. Susy and Mali got some nifty, magnetized jewelry, and I got a totally cool, funky hat made out of honeycomb paper.

Fence Fall Down

We've had stormy weather for several days here. Monday morning I discovered my fence fell over on my apple tree.

Soccer's End

We are back from our weekend tour of Oregon. Medford was fun once we learned enough to discard all our pre-printed directions. We had a fun dinner with the team at an Abby's pizza. Mali's team lost their game 2-0, their first loss in 12 games, and their last game of the season.
Andrew was happy holding a yorkie before the game began. Lobbying for a yorkie of our own has begun in earnest.


After Mali's game we left immediately for Redmond, Oregon, at least once we got the van jumpstarted. Then we raced a storm over the pass and had dinner with Matias and Ethan's gang, since everyone else waited until Sunday to make the trip. The Poi Dogs lost 12-1 or something, and then we raced another storm across another pass. Below is a picture of Mali getting hot chocolate, and a coffee for her mom. Mali has discovered coffee, at least the decaffinated variety. She likes it, provided it tastes like ice cream.

Monsoon Soccer

It is still raining. It may never stop.

Andrew's game in Salem was dry, but the wind was astounding. Balls kicked high into the air would come down going the other direction. The Poi Dogs gave up several cheap goals and lost 4-1. Mali's team played at home under the lights in thick, driving rain, and no one scored.

Yesterday the eXtreme won, 3-2, in more rain. Andrew's game followed immediately, which was nice as there was no need to dry off only to get wet again. The Poi Dogs lost a heartbreaker 2-1 on a brilliant last second shot by the other team.

Tomorrow I drive up to Redmond for work and the big family dinner at the SouthCenter Red Robin.

Halloween Party Photos

I've posted several photos from the Halloween party for Mali's soccer team at the OregonDad Flikr site. Here's the address, click it to go to the site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/sets/72157594360125495/

Halloween

Andrew did not go trick-or-treating, but he did allow his sister to dress him up as a girl. The costume was a big hit at Alana's, where there were thirty-plus kids enjoying Olivia's mother's hospitality.

Sunday's Soccer Halloween Party

Sunday we had the sixteen girls of Mali's soccer team over for a Halloween Party. By winning or tieing all of their last ten games, they won the right to pick their coaches Halloween costume - see if you can spot him in the photo below.
Activities included: Costume contest, Donut-hanging-on-string eating relay race, M&M-on-straw relay race, treasure hunt, and a cake decorating contest.

Thursday Night Date: The Prestige

Susy and I got a night out! Since she had Friday off, we went out for dessert and a movie Thursday night. We had a great time. Dessert was at Dessert Noir, which turns out to be a bustling little cafe and bar, not just a dessert place. It was just down from the theater, where we saw The Prestige, a movie about magicians at the turn of the century, with a brief bit with Nikola Tesla, played by David Bowie.
We were home by midnight, and the kids were asleep.

Rylin Gives Two Thumbs Up!

In an attempt to convince Rylin to finish her dinner - so we could get to the pumpkin ice cream - I told her about her cousin Mali's abilities to create a sauce for any food. We finally settled on peanut butter and honey as two ingredients worth trying out. Honey alone was the big winner, though the two flavors combined did result in a measured one-thumb-up response. The two-thumbs-up pose was completely unsolicited and surprising, hence the poorly-focused camera-phone photo.
I also told her the Andrew vs. ice-cream story, which she seemed to remember, but loved hearing again. And the ice cream was delicious.

Halloween season begins

In preparation for Sunday's big Halloween party, Susy found these spider cupcakes.



Here's the kids disguised for their night mission of dropping plates of Halloween treats at select neighbors.

Weekend report

Soccer, and travel for soccer, was the theme for this weekend. The Poi Dogs (Andrew) won 3-0 and lost 3-0, and the eXtreme (Mali) won 3-0 and tied 0-0. Andrew and I travelled with Pablo, Rocio, and Matias to Bend for Saturday's game, then spent the night with most of the team in The Dalles for Sunday's game. We met up with everyone at Romul's Italian restaurant for dinner - though we had a late lunch in Bend after the game, so we just visited.

Susy and Mali spent the weekend preparing decorations for next Sunday's Halloween party for the eXtreme, which will be at our house.

We had a great dinner at Paul and Nancy's again Sunday night. Sushi and salmon and ribs, and an asian salad with pears made by Rocio. Susy brought two apple pies with apples from our trees. One pie without cinnamon for Pablo, and Pablo brought homemade vanilla ice cream.

Sock Hop

Zoë came over for dinner, and I walked her and Mali up to the sock hop. Probably over 200 kids there, and about 80 adults - not all of them taking as many pictures as me. Kyle called Andrew from the gym and convinced him to come, so he and Mali got to show of their swing dancing.

Mali's Ladybug witch

Here's a picture of Mali in her potential halloween costume: A ladybug witch, or as Andrew says, a witch in a ladybug costume.

Home from school

The kids got Friday off school. Andrew had William over to play games, and they did get outside for awhile to play soccer up at the school with Kyle and Matias and a couple of Suma kids. Mali and I walked up to check them out, and then went to pick pears at the wild pear tree Mali discovered when she was five years old.


This morning I made the kids eggcakes. Andrew discovered his looked like an elephant, so I took a picture. Then he ate it.

More Birthday Trivia

I spent my birthday working and coaching soccer and then we went out to the new Ruby Tuesday's down the hill, since I hadn't been there yet. It's a lot like Red Robin, but better, I think.
I'm still full - so much for the diet. Susy and I split a hamburger and we each got the salad bar. Andrew and Mali attempted to split their orders - a huge pyramid appetizer of chicken strips, and a set of 4 mini-burgers. And they each got a milkshake. THEN we got dessert, sharing a free-for-birthday, surprisingly large ice-cream sunday, and we ordered a pie-piece-sized wedge of a cookie with a huge mound of ice cream on it, all drizzled in caramel. So much there was even a small scoop of ice cream left over when we rolled out of the place. Apparently there was enough food, even after Mali skipped eat her share of the chicken strips, saying they were too spicy.

Today I am driving up to Redmond for meetings today and tomorrow. Friday the kids are out of school.

My Birthday!

Grandma and Grandpa came down Friday to celebrate my birthday with us. We had a great time, and they took us to dinner at our favorite Thai place. They gave me a supercool camera, a digital Canon Rebel XT SLR. It was not as impossibly difficult to figure out as I feared, at least the idiot mode worked simply enough. I practiced taking pictures of it at breakfast, then took it to Mali's soccer game for it's first real workout. It worked wonderfully - much easier to get action shots of the game.

Mali's game turned out to be a great one for the grandparents to see. They won 2-1 on a last second goal. Today's games were good, but wet. Andrew's team played well, but lost to a very good team 4-0 in a slight drizzle. Mali's game afterwards was much wetter, but they won 1-0.
Afterwards we stopped at Dairy Queen - Mali's second choice - her first was for Sushi, but the Japanese restaurant nearby was closed on Sunday's. Then Susy and Mali went shopping at Old Navy, and Andrew and I came home so he could work on his homework. I picked some apples for Pablo and co., and he rewarded me with two slices of a fantastic apple tart that he made with them.

Last night we went out to Vindalho in Portland with the usual suspects. The food was delicious and incredibly flavorful. Zoë and Hannah spent the night at our house while Andrew kept order. We were home by 11:00 - half of us had early mornings to deal with.

Day off for Mali

Mali's school has conferences today and tomorrow, so she has some time off. Susy and I are walking up with her for her 9:00 conference, then rushing off to work (Susy back to work). Mali may be playing at Rachel's house today - we're waiting for a phone call. Tomorrow Susy has off, and then Grandma and Grandpa arrive for my birthday celebration - woohoo!

Sunday Evening's Activities

Down time on Sunday night: Andrew with his new computer game Black and White 2, and Mali gets a nice soak in with a good book - The Diary of Melanie Martin.

Sunday's Soccer

Mali's team played her friend Hailey's team today, and lost 2-1. Andrew's team won 4-0 against a team playing three players short. The Poi Dogs are in second third place!

Afterwards we went to GoGo's Mongolian restaurant, and now we're all stuffed.

Soccer Victories! and Clinton Kelly!

Both kids won their soccer games today! Mali's team beat the 2nd place team 4-2. Andrew's team won a hard-fought contest 2-1. Both games were at 1:30 at Powerlines Park, Very Convenient.
Afterwards, we rushed to Macy's at the mall so Mali could meet Clinton Kelly, of What Not to Wear.
Here he is, signing her shirt: "Mali, so glad I could meet you. Clinton Kelly "WNTW"

Susy and Mali, in line with hundreds of others:

Friday!

Possibly the last beautiful Friday of the year. Susy enjoyed her day off with a nice sleep-in, followed by lunch at the new Cafe Murray Hill, and then made cookies with Mali after school.



I predicted Andrew could not pass-up the badminton game across the street. He didn't even make it home.

Travelling Weekend

We only had two soccer games this weekend, one on each day. Both games were similar: Out-of-town, hard-fought losses, with lots of chances for us to win but we couldn't get it in the goal. And Andrew and Mali both played great.
Saturday we found Estacada for Mali's game, and Sunday we went all the way out to Warrenton (Hammond) just West of Astoria for Andrew's game.

After Sunday's game we found a picnic area at Fort Stevens state park and ate the delicious picnic Pablo packed, then went to the beach where the Peter Iredale shipwreck is mired in the sand. I took a nap while Susy, Pablo, and Rocio read the paper, Andrew and Matias dug a deep hole in the sand, and Mali ran just around the beach. Andrew and Mali also found themselves out in the surf up to their chests even though the water is very cold. The 80+ degree weather helped with that.

Saturday night we had grilled salmon and mahi mahi at our house with all the usual suspects, except Paul, who was out at a Men's retreat, golfing somewhere in Washington. Nancy brought a salad, Pablo brought banana bread and homemade strawberry ice cream, and Alana brought a quiche and some manicotti she just happened to have on hand.

Mali's conference

Thursday night was back-to-school night at Nancy Ryles. Just as for Andrew's conference, I showed up late after soccer practice, blissfully missing the principal's speech. We met Mrs. Putnam and saw Mali's latest work.
Dinner was late - BLTs, with a grilled cheese with bacon for Andrew - no L or T on his plate.

Fishing

No fish for me! Two for David - an 8 pound silver he got to keep, and a 39 pound king we had to turn loose. And John caught a strapping 8 incher that he wrestled into the boat.

I called home - Mali scrimmaged with the boys against a Freshman team - she played on the team with the high school boys. I'm amazed. I wish I'd seen that.

Sushi

Homemade sushi and sashimi were delicious! Kids had a pizza option they took advantage of, though they also ate the edamame.

I'm driving up to Redmond, Washington this morning for work.

Victory for the X-Treme

Mali's team wins 1-0 with a late goal, against a much better team than yesterday!

Tonight we're going to have sushi at Paul and Nancy's, along with Pablo and Rocio and Alana. Last night Pablo, Rocio, and Susy and I took Alana out to dinner in Portland for her birthday. We wandered from the Brazen Bean to the Tao of Tea to a Tapas place about as far North as you can get on Northwest 23rd. The kids were on their own, and did fine - though we did have to call at 10:00 to tell them to go to bed.

After yesterday's game, Mali went with her friend Lilly to a cheerleading performance at Southridge H.S. that Lilly was performing in. She translated several of the cheers for the Poi Dogs, and performed them for us.

Soccer

Andrew's team is getting much better. Saturday they came back from two goals down to tie 2-2, and this morning they tied 0-0. They're passing much better, and playing smart.

Mali's team has gotten worse, and lost yesterday 3-2 to a team that hadn't scored yet. We're going to her next game now.

Rain

The rains came down this evening, so everyone got wet at soccer practice. It appears Summer is over at last.
Andrew is worried - his language arts teacher is missing one of his assignments, so he has a D for the class so far. He will be asking her about it tomorrow.

Back-to-School Night for Andrew (with update below)

Andrew has the greatest teachers! I missed the first half (Spanish, PE, speach from principal) while at Mali's soccer practice, so only met his "core" teachers: math, science, social studies, and language arts. They are all wonderful, and of course think the same of Andrew. Here is the general link to Highland Park.
The big change this year, according to the teachers: No Late Work Accepted. They all mentioned this, as that is a change for them as well. Apparently the high school teachers asked for that. Also, his algebra teacher, Mrs. Norse, said "I'm sorry if your child is already stressed out about math this year." She has been warning them that it will be a challenging year, and the homework so far has been difficult - not overly long - just... challenging.
** UPDATE **
All their assignments are on the internet, I have added links (on the right) for each of his classes, if you'd like to see what they're assignments are. The Science, Social Studies, and Language arts are somewhat interesting. Algebra is just the page and problem numbers assigned. Click through "assignments" and then the date/week to get to the text.

Hip Hop/Jazz I&II

Mali had her first Hip Hop/Jazz dance class last night, and loved it. She and Zoë were very excited to learn that Lilly is also in their class. So were the parents, as carpooling will be even easier. Susy and I both went to check it out, and saw Mali having a great time. She came home and showed us every excercise and move they learned. Then she tried to show us her friend Lilly's cheerleading moves, but we quickly put a stop to that.

Andrew's soccer practice has been cancelled tonight - pre-empted for someone else's soccer game on our practice field. The timing is good, since tonight is back-to-school night at Highland Park Middle School.

More soccer news - not so good

Andrew's Poi Dogs faced a better team today, and didn't seem to have the same energy or intensity of yesterday. They started out poorly, but got better in the second half, only to get tired because of a lack of substitutes. They lost 5-1.

Mali's team had their worst game ever, playing horribly and losing 3-0. To make it worse, they pulled their normally awesome goalie and replaced her with Amanda, the coach's daughter and Mali's friend. Five minutes into it, she made a great save but hit her head on the pole and was rushed to the hospital for stitches.

Soccer Victory!

Andrew's team had their first game today - and they Won!!! 2-0. They played great. Next game tomorrow, Mali too.

Susy took Mali shopping for a dance outfit. She starts her dance class with Zoë on Monday.

First Day of School

Andrew had so many school supplies to bring he carried his backpack and his new messenger bag from REI (both his trademark lime green). He and Mali each packed their own lunches.(!)
Andrew was unable to share a locker with Carly as planned because of some arcane rule regarding class timing. Instead, he lucked out and is sharing one with Eric: a nice, fun, new kid he met on the swim team this Summer who is surprisingly in his hall.

Mali really likes her teacher, but she says the only fun kid in her class is her friend Rachel. I'm guessing she'll make some more friends.

Labor Day Weekend

Our garage sale was a huge success! Susy made nearly $500. Andrew and Mali each made about $20. Mali sold brownies when the helpers weren't eating them. Our garage is still a mess because we haven't delivered the entertainment center and we still have to sell the fooseball table (CraigsList), but progress has been made!

We had dinner at Paul and Nancy's Saturday night - crab legs and chicken wings. Andrew finally got to try crab. He liked it enough to have a second bite.
Sunday we went back-to-school shopping at REI and the Bridgeport Mall.
Last night we had a neighborhood get-together out in the front. We all congregated on Pablo's driveway for Paul's smoked ribs and Pablo's sausages and chimichurri, and Sangria. We brought the famous baked bean casserole - and brownies - always the brownies.

Photos: Brownies and Halo

Mali makes brownies to sell at tomorrow's garage sale. Andrew and his posse play Halo.

Kirk Picnic

We had a great time at the Kirk Picnic!
Here's some photos.

Mali holding her youngest cousin, Cooper:


Andrew and Mali with their famous cousins:


Grandma Lil: