The past few days:

Thursday I pulled Mali out of school to have her mole - the infamous blue nevus - removed. Unfortunately it was too inflamed to remove, so she has to wait a month or so. We did discover the German Sausage Deli, where I purchased a can of almond pie filling that combined well this morning with cottage and cream cheese to push our normally wonderful French toast into some new realm of deliciousness. Meanwhile, Andrew sleeps.

Yesterday Susy and I walked up to Alana's, and while we were up there Mali, Andrew, and Rian returned from the pool and made us a yummy bacon-filled waffle breakfast for dinner. Mali disappeared up to the school with her two amigos Rachel and Hannah, and a bunch of boys, and the rest Susy, Rian, Andrew, and I played hearts until Rian had to go home. (Guess who won!?!)

Wednesday night (without Rian) we all played poker after dinner, and we laughed so hard our sides hurt.

Crazy Day is Over

Let's see...
8:40 -
Moose and I return from the school with the kids. They had fun running around in the dark. There was lots of mud from the downpour which ended just before they left the house. Shoes are now all on the porch, and Rachel is wearing a pair of Mali's pants.
8:45 -
Cake time! Moms (Michelle and Mari-Faye) have arrived and are watching with us. Andrew lights the candles while I take pictures, then we all sing Happy Birthday to Mali.
9:00 -
Presents are opened. Pixie sticks are brought out, and soon there is sugary pixie dust all over the place. This joins with the glitter from the make-up event to form an interesting new texture on the top of every surface.
9:15 -
Andrew breaks out the DDR upstairs. This placates the horde for awhile. People begin to leave, of course starting with Abbie (the sweetest one) who actually left with her mom from the school; followed now by Mali's co-conspirators Hannah and Rachel (the most useful - with their mothers) who both have to get up early, Hannah at 5:30! Hannah's mom Michelle is a saint, and helps clean up for twenty minutes before leaving. (Mari-Faye is great too, she was here for the beginning craziness.)
Most of the boys seem to be here for the long haul.

Now - Late -
I don't know when I've been this tired. I drove Rian and Jamie home. Jamie's parents didn't seem to be coming to get him. That's sort of understandable. He talks a lot. Susy says he's the only person she's ever seen successfully order Mali around. (Update - He also had Andrew doing his bidding, very surprising.)
Rian and Andrew were great. They saved us. Rachel and Hannah and Mali did a great job of planning everything out. There was plenty of activities, and it seemed like everyone had fun. I think this will be a party everyone will remember for a long time.

Good night.

Crazy Day, Part Three: Afternoon

1:00 -
Susy finds passport!!! It was in an envelope with her birth certificate - she had used it to renew her driver's license and left it in there.
2:00 -
Andrew and Susy leave for the allergist to get shots, and stop at Highland Park to pick up Rian from play practice (she's helping out the middle-schoolers). Mali leaves play practice with Sara to go see Horton Hears a Who.
3:00 -
Susy returns without Andrew, he stops at Rian's house.
3:30 -
Andrew and Rian show up, ready for the party.

Snow!

I woke up at 2:00 and noticed a strange glow outside. I looked and confirmed my suspicions: the snow followed me home. It wasn't falling, but there was an inch or two on the ground. Of course this being Oregon, the kids are out of school today anyway, for some reason.
Susy stayed in bed an extra hour while the temperature warmed up and the snow started melting - it's going fast now. Mali and Moose just left to walk to Rachel's house. Andrew's doing homework.

Home again, and the great ear-piercing event.

I drove straight from Redmond to Andrew's swim meet. They swam against two good teams. Andrew had his fastest time yet in the 200yd Butterfly and he still came in last in the fast varsity heat. The other kids were not freshmen, and they were BIG.

The big news here is that Mali got her ears pierced. Susy took Mali's friend Rachel along too for support, and they got a nice afternoon of shopping out of it. The interesting twist was that Mali fainted about three minutes after her piercing was finished! Susy got hers pierced too, and while she was up in the chair, watched Mali go from bouncing around with Rachel to laying out on the floor. She is fine, and actually quite pleased to both have earrings AND to have experienced fainting.

Straight A's for Mali!!!!!!

Since Mali was in 3rd grade our standing offer has been that as soon as she gets a straight A report card we would let her get her ears pierced. This was very convenient for us, since elementary school gives out only S's and O's and other random letters.
Today, Mali's first middle school report card came in the mail. Tension was a little high. She has taken the start of this school year very seriously, paying a lot of attention to her grades.
She took her report card up to her room to open it in private, you know, just in case. I knew we were okay when I heard a squeal, quickly followed by much dancing at the top of the stairs.

Mali chose Chinese food for her celebratory dinner, and we just returned from China Bay. She's up in her room now with Led Zeppelin cranked up on her stereo. Her friend Rachel's favorite song is The Immigrant Song, and apparently Mali has been influenced.

We've got Saving Grace from Netflix. I hadn't updated our queue lately. We're going to watch it tonight so we can quickly get back into Veronica Mars.

New Trimester -AND- Storm cancels swim meet

I drove Andrew and Eric to school early this morning after we bought bananas for the pre-meet, carb-loading breakfast. He called soon after to say tonight's meet is canceled: Forest Grove doesn't have school today because of the storm.

The new trimester starts today! Mali gets to start Art, and Andrew is done with Chemistry and Japanese for awhile. Yesterday they were out of school to give the teachers a chance to pull the trimester grades together. (Oregon is a teacher-friendly state, for the most part.)

Andrew complained about yesterday's day off not being a day off. He woke up after 11:00 and the next thing he knew we were in the car to meet Susy for allergy shots and lunch. We went for shots at noon since Andrew had swimming practice later in the afternoon (coaches don't get days off.) It took Andrew and I a long time to get to the hospital for the shots. Here's why. I exited the highway there, after driving through the edge of the massive puddle in the photo, which was still a couple of feet deep. if I'd seen the photo I would have known to just re-enter the highway, but instead we took a long detour. Getting home wasn't much better because we got stuck behind a fire truck removing a fallen tree from Greenway Ave. I dropped Andrew off at Rian's and they got to hang out a very short time before I picked them and Maddie up for swim practice. Afterwards Andrew had time for a shower and then was off to the boy's swim team party, where they watched 300 and ate pizza.

Mali was at Zoë's all morning making a gingerbread house out of graham crackers and anything else they could find. She says it came out really nice, and wants to save it until after Christmas. She had lunch there and then came home to change and go ice-skating with Rachel. She loves ice-skating, and must be getting better - she was happy she only fell twice.

Andrew got home from the party in time for us to watch Veronica Mars. I limited us to one episode so the kids could get to bed before 10:00. Andrew was very unhappy about that, but was in bed asleep before I was done saying goodnight to Mali.

Quiche!

Susy and I went to Costco at lunch today, and I just missed the quiche sample, so Susy made us a feta and spinach quiche for dinner. Yum! Mali tried it and didn't like it, so joined Andrew in his chicken nuggets. Now Susy's making peanut butter cookies! The rain (and the day off) brings out the baker in her.
Andrew started time trials today at swim practice - they're doing them all week. He, Eric, and Rian walked home together afterwards since the rain had let up.
Mali went to Rachel's after school for awhile and they did their homework together.

Halloween Photos

Moose got into the act too, though he didn't go out with the girls. We did walk him over to Alana's in costume, but removed it so he could play with Max.
He's a construction worker, in case you couldn't tell. He didn't like the yellow hat, so we left that off.

And one more photo of the girls in costume:

Halloween!

Mali did her trick-or-treating with Hannah and Rachel - they left around 7:00, somehow returned to trick-or-treat our house around 8:00 with Andrew's friends Maddie and Joe, and then ended up at Alana's around 8:30, where Susy and I joined them and the full-scale party going on. There were over a dozen adults and what seemed like a hundred kids at Alana's - All the adult usual suspects and then some, plus scores of Olivia's friends. Alana had her usual gargantuan pot of chili, Jennifer brought an amazing apple tart, and of course Deborah brought more cookies and brownies then even the hordes could get through.

Andrew had Rian and Kyle over after school, then around 5:00 they headed over Kyle's party. Andrew, Tiana, Ethan, and Rian ended up at Tiana's house when the rest of the party went trick-or-treating, and Andrew finally got home around 10:30.

Supergirl Hannah, Waitress Mali, and Pirate Rachel.

Veronica Mars

We Netflixed Veronica Mars disk1/season2, so had a cozy evening last night with the first two episodes. We love this show.
Today is the start of the Halloween festivities. We're providing pizzas and punch for the Mali/Rachel bash at Rachel's house, then taking off to Robert and Jennifer's Wandering Pirate Party.

Mali has changed her costume AGAIN!!! Now she is planning a scientist costume, with not much time for implementation. Rachel apparently changed hers too, from a Federal Agent to a pirate.

Andrew will probably go to the final Southridge football game - his friends are all going and he's nothing else to do. His party is Wednesday - Kyle's family has a big bash at the club house.

Busy Weekend!

Crazy, busy weekend: Talent show, dance rehearsal, grandparents arrival, fence repair, crazy dinner, dance recital, bathroom remodel, Frisbee golf, dinner, and hot tub!

Friday was the last day of school, and Mali's talent show. She did a fun, short dance with Lauren and Rachel. I walked up to see it with Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah. After school Mali and Rachel went to Lauren's for dinner, then Mali had the dress rehearsal for her dance recital, then returned to Lauren's for a sleepover. We couldn't find her leotard for the rehearsal, so she faked it and Saturday Susy took her to get a new one after we tore the house apart and couldn't find it. It still hasn't turned up.
Saturday morning I sealed the grout on the new tile in the guest bathroom just in time for our guests. I quickly put Grandpa to work taking out the tree in the backyard and fixing the fence. We had a little help from the neighbors.
Then we picked up Zoë, went downtown to drop them off at the Newmark Theater, and went to dinner at Oliver Twist's across the street. Our food finally came about the time the show was starting, but we only missed half of the introductory filmstrip about the history of the Billings Dance Academy. And we got our food for free - if you don't count all the anxiety it induced.
Mali and Zoë did great at the dance - Mali seemed to be front and center for most of the routine. We also got to see Lilly, and Brenna seemed to be in half of the 30 routines.
Sunday was very busy, as I had Grandpa instruct me (while doing most of it!) how to install the wainscoting/beadboard in the downstairs bathroom, along with the sink and new toilet. Such a great guy I am to put him to work on Father's Day! He was great, but I tired him out. I tired me out too.
After they left for their long drive home I cleaned up a little and we all went to McMenamin's Grand Lodge in Forest Grove for Frisbee golf and to meet Paul&Family for dinner and to crash in the wonderful Japanese Soaking Pool there. The frisbee was great: Susy had Mali rolling on the ground over her first few frustrated frisbee throws. We were all amazed at Andrew as he managed to perfectly land his frisbee very gently at the very top of a very tall tree. He was a little sad after breaking his sunglasses tossing them down while climbing, but he recovered.

More photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad/
Susy talks Andrew into smiling:


Andrew in the Japanese Soaking Pool:

Dance Recital at Newmark Theater, Downtown Portland:

Nancy Ryles Talent Show, the last day of school:

Sunday Barbecues

Andrew had Kyle over and I snuck in a game of 3-dragon ante with them. Mali had friends Rachel and Dana over, and they washed the car and I took them to the pool for a couple of hours.
Later, Andrew went to a barbecue with Austin, and we threw one at our house for the usual suspects except for Paul, who had already left for California. Andrew was missed, and Matias and Ryan were forced to play Xbox without him. Hannah, Zoë and Mali had fun with Moose, Max, and Tinkerbelle running around the yard, though Tinkerbell got the neighbor dogs all worked up and we had to keep them away from the fence. Andrew came home just as folks were leaving, and we fed him a hot dog and some cake.
Mali poses while washing the car. Click to expand and see the rest of Rachel.

Gengar watches Andrew Text. He had been ducking the camera, texting distracted him long enough for me to capture him.

Mali's Performance Team Routine

Big day Friday! Susy and I walked up to the school at 2:00 to see Mali and Rachel's performance team routine. They were surprisingly good. Surprising only because I saw their Thursday night rehearsal in our hallway and it was halting and rough. But they pulled it all together for the big show. Another surprise: they got a huge cheer from the audience before they even started. Apparently the girls have some fans.
There are more photos at www.flickr.com/photos/oregondad.


Andrew spent the afternoon at Austin's. The rest of us went to Alana's for a barbecue: Sangria and Pablo's chimichurri. The new expanded list of usual suspects include Alana's horse trainer Janet and her husband Michael, and Deborah.
No Paul, Nancy, Zoë, and Hannah; they are in Seattle this weekend. We are watching Tinkerbelle (Moose's mom!) for them while they're gone. They dropped her off Friday and already she has taught him to bark at people walking by, and to dig in my garden!!!!!

Changing of the Dishwasher

It is a new month, so we've changed our dishwasher. The new one is named Andrew. Mali got paid out a $3 bonus for her quality work over the last half month when it all began. Andrew seems determined to expand on that, and is asking questions and learning what it will take to go the extra dish and up the bonus into the stratosphere, base salary being not much more than dinner and the occasional Starbucks.

Monday night was quiet. Moose and I walked Mali to Rachel's house, so now she can go there on her own. After a scrounged-up dinner, Susy and I walked to the pet store to get Moose a much-needed dog toenail clipper. A good walk, but it quickly cooled down and the wind picked up. The only loud part of the evening for me was the post-walk retrieval of Mali, Zoë, Natalie, and Lilly from their dance class.

Sunday night was not quiet, but it was also fun. Andrew invited Austin over for the afternoon, and they entertained Mali and Moose most of it. She stayed for dinner and then we played a very fun game of Pictionary, boys v girls. Girls won by an inch, as Andrew correctly guessed Alps for Pyrenees just after Mali said, "Time."
("European Mountain Range." "Yes, and...")
Previously, in Dad/Andrew Pictionary:
"Arabian building. Muslim building. Muslim religious building. Muslim church. Muslim church. Muslim church. Muslim church building."
"Yes. The word is: Mosque."

Friday Day Off

Susy and I took today off and picked out new flooring and sinks for the kid's bathroom. Apparently that is going to happen.
Mali had Rachel and Lauren over after school, and they painted the inside of the playhouse. They finished about half of it, and only Rachel ended up with any on her clothes. Mali got in a little trouble later, when Lauren's mom showed up and the girls were no where to be found. They had gone down the cul-de-sac without telling anyone, and without her phone.
Pablo and I went for a nice little bike ride to Garden Home.

Tuesday Night Softball Party

Very nice end-of-season party last night at the pool. Pizza and side dishes upstairs, afterwards the girls played keep away with a group of 6th grade boys there. Andrew came after track and played too, then swam laps until we left.
A lot of time was also spent in the hot tub, mostly just after eating pizza. Here Mali talks with Jordan over Tamara, while Rachel smiles for the camera.