Halloween night

That night we went trick or treating with Miles, Philip and their family. Chloë took things very slow. She wanted to get the perfect candy at each door .

5 little pumpkins

Olivia's class memorized this cute poem. It was a fun way to end the Halloween day at school.

Olivia's kinder Halloween carnival

Mrs. Englehardt is a great teacher. She loves these kids. You would have to to dress as Mini Mouse! Here is Olivia's class.

This is Olivia with her friend Cory- the pirate. He says Olivia is his girlfriend. "And I am serious!" says Cory. He is a darling boy.

In the afternoon the entire school had a parade. Sam was a little bored. There he is in his Pirate costume.

Grandpa Mike can fix anything!

Grandpa Mike came into town for Loula's baby blessing.
While he was here he helped us fix a FEW things around the house
(jammed doors, door locks broken, curtain rod tie backs, outlets, light fixtures
and the list goes on and on).

The most important thing Grandpa Mike did was install a very nice rod iron gate
in the brick wall into our front entrance.
Now I don't have to worry about the kids running into the street.

But the most memorable thing Grandpa Mike did was help the kids build a nice big sandbox.

Sam and Chase helped tow the sand from the car to the sanbox.
Everyone (even Chloë) helped hammer and screw the box together. Thanks!

Trunk or Treat

Here we are outside the church building waiting for Olivia's friend Paige and her mom Regina. We had a lovely evening with them.

This is our little Tinker Bell, Captain Hook and our lovely pirate!

silver lining

This pictures just highlights one of the great memories over the past few days.
I have titled the picture:

Focus and Zoom. . . who needs them.

Like all great works of art we must acknowledge the artists. Photo by Sam of Chloë.

To ease my pain I have written the good and bad of each situation:

1. The camera broke- bad. I appreciate pictures of my kids that are in focus-good.

2. Chloë jammed the DVD player with 2 DVDs-bad. Kids can't watch DVDs-good.

3. After a year of waiting, I painted the living room-good. Sam's forehead painted my couch-bad.

4. The t.v. analog converter broke-bad. Sam and I fixed it-good.

5. I made bread WITH 7 kids from Sam's joy school-good. It was crazy-bad.

6. I decided to make soup for my sick sister-good. She was not sick by the time I made it-bad.

7. I took the soup to her house-good. The soup spilled in the front console of my car-bad.

8. I sewed Olivia a church dress-good. Chloë pulled the sewing machine off the table, it's broken-bad.

9. Took the 3 younger kids to go grocery shopping- good/or brave. Left my wallet at home- bad.

1o. I am trying to organized a demonstration march in support of prop 8-good. Having a hard time connecting with prop 8 community leaders to get people to come out-bad.


BUT, because of my loving husband, Andrea laughed with me, and Dory's help, I would say we had a great week.

With LoulaBell

Some days the kids don't even look at Loula, but today was different.

Everyone wanted their chance to hold and help her.

Here is Olivia with her little sister. They have the same eyes.

Here is Sam. He says, "Loula is so cute".

Prop 8

This video addresses some concerns I have heard about Prop 8.
Please take a few minutes to watch the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI-GjWY-WlA

This is something that is very important to our families, California voters and everyone else because California will be setting a precedent for your state and your family.

messy peanut butter