Boxing Day

Alana's traditional Boxing Day party was a great time! About 35 people were there, and we knew most of them. Mali had fun with Rachel and Zoë, and Hannah and Rachel's sister Julia discovered each other. Moose had fun with Max, though they were shuffled outside for much of the party. Tinkerbelle did not come for the party this year. Last year she came because she was pregnant with Moose and Max and several other puppies, ready to pop, and required monitoring. She popped the next day, which made for exciting times.
Andrew brought Rian, and Matias disappeared with NancyD's twins to play pool downstairs. Sadly, Pablo stayed home sick. Alana's friend Cookie made a fantastic chocolate ameretto cake, and NancyD brought delicious appetizers. Alana made her standard salmon, which everyone loves (except the fish-haters.)
Paul went second in the gift exchange and won himself thong underwear, picked out by Maiara and Alicia. No one traded with him. Nancy won a Candle-Topper - for retopping candles, of course. Susy was pleased with her vibrating neck pillow, NancyD with her paperwhites, and I came home with a can of poppycock.

Storm and Symphony

Wind has been shaking the house and tossing rain against the windows since early yesterday. Poor Moose sits by the sliding door like he wants to go out, until we open it. He's been outside twice for about two minutes each. Mali slept at the opposite end of Andrew's bed last night (their idea) to hide from any falling trees in the backyard. They moved Moose's bed in there for the night too.

We ditched the kids Saturday night for Robert and Jennifer's going-away dinner at Alana's, with all the usual suspects and also Annette's friend Jason. We ditched them again last night (their choice) for a trip downtown to hear the Oregon Symphony play Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Zoë, Hannah, and Matias all came along, along with their parents and Alana and NancyD.

Rian had some reason for going to the ceramic place down the hill and invited Mali and convinced Andrew to also come and paint stuff. Susy picked them up and dropped Mali off at Zoë's for the afternoon - they haven't done much together lately. I'm driving Mali back to Zoë's this morning, but she's only getting a ride because of the wind and rain.
Rian came over for the afternoon yesterday, and we all let Andrew convince us to play a game of Euchre. Susy and I won, of course.

Winery Saturday

Saturday we ditched the kids and went winery hopping with Alana, NancyD and her friend Joe. We made an unscheduled stop at Ponzi just down the street - none of them had been there before, which is amazing since it's only two miles away. It's good wine, but pricey, partly because it's so close to Portland.
Robert and Jennifer found us at Elvenglade/Remy picking up our futures, and tasting them now that they're bottled. Susy bought a nice print of the painting they used for their labels, and I had a long chat with their photographer, bagribs, about Flickr.
From there we all headed South to Carlton and stopped at Ken Wright Cellars and drank expensive futures we declined to buy, and then walked over to the Utopia tasting room where it was my turn (I was jealous of Paul's purchase last time) to buy a case of their tasty and reasonably priced Napa Malbec.
We returned home and Susy fed the kids while I (Bad Dad!) let Alana drive me over to have more wine and food at Robert and Jennifer's house, and play Guitar Hero.
I came home in time for us to discover that Netflix sent us the wrong Veronica Mars DVD. And of course that is the one disk that has been unavailable at our local video store.

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.

Halloween Begins - Friday

Mali and Rachel have been planning a Halloween party for over a month now. Luckily, it was at Rachel's house, which meant we provided pizza, chips, and pop, and then Rachel's poor mom did all the supervising. We couldn't help beyond that as we had Robert and Jennifer's farewell-we're-leaving-soon-for-Napa pirate-themed costume party to attend. We were joined on the first half's crazy Murray Hill treasure hunt by Paul, Alana, and NancyD. Susy proved brilliant at deciphering the clues - while driving.
Our pirate gang invaded Mali's party at Rachel's house to find a stranger to mummify one of our gang in toilet paper - a victory condition for the treasure hunt. That's when I got this cellphone photo of Mali in her Scientist costume:

Soccer, Juice Joint, Homecoming

Mali Soccer -
Mali's team won 4-0 in McMinnville Saturday, and lost 1-0 at home yesterday. Mali played great, as usual. Actually, she was sort of asleep the first half of the first game, but THEN she played great. There's lots of soccer photos of Mali's team (some of Mali) at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alohaxtreme2/1401943691/
Here's the latest of Mali from MY Flickr stream:


Murder at the Juice Joint - Saturday night we went to the local Wine Styles shop to play a dress-up murder mystery game. Also there were: Robert and Jennifer, Paul and Nancy, and NancyD. Alana won best actress - I swear she never went out of character once. Susy went all out and really looked the part of a flapper girl/actress. I was Detective P.I. Pinkerton. I'll post some photos after I get them off Alana's camera.

Andrew news -
We have learned that Andrew is going to the homecoming dance next month with a cross-country running friend of Tiana's. Rian was over yesterday and somehow the topic came up. Here he is on the phone at Mali's game Sunday morning. Who's he talking to?

Rocio and Matias return!

After 5 weeks in Peru. We tried to beat them home from the airport to be in on the surprise, but the swim meet ran slightly longer than expected. They looked great, but exhausted - they left Lima at 1:00 AM. Pablo grilled yummy stuff and gave us white Sangria, and then we ate Nancy's delicious chocolate cake. Rocio fell asleep on the couch, but Matias was going strong.

4th of July!

Pablo put his new grill to the test for the 4th, with ribs, chorizo, burgers, and vegetable skewers. Alana and NancyD came over, so there was no shortage of great side-dishes too. Susy made her deviled eggs, bruschetta, and guacamole. I'm still full.
Here's Mali holding her patriotic pup: