256! Grease Monkey Derby Bout

It was disconcerting to drive up and see an ambulance parked in front of the facility. . .we decided it must be there just in case.  But then we saw a couple paramedics running out of the building and climbing in.  Yikes.  Evidently however their presence was connected with the pole vaulting practice that was going on inside.  (The pole vaulter boys looked a bit distracted . . .all those girls skating around on the other side of the gym in derby gear. Accident waiting to happen.)  Skating hadn't even started yet.  I'd been a little worried about the safety of roller derby, but after watching a bit of the pole vaulting I felt pretty lucky we were there for the derby.  At least when skaters fall down, they don't fall down, down, down!

Hexa Decibel chats with Kathleen between bouts

Carsten lost his tooth!

Resident Action Figures

Two Busy Elves

Turkey or Pig?

Frances and Pascal wanted ham for Thanksgiving.  Athena wanted Turkey soup.  David, Carsten and I wanted traditional Thanksgiving.  With all the votes in,  we found this very nice free-range turkey.

But as Athena and I were about to put him in the oven, I looked at him.  Was he really a turkey?  Those two oldest children of ours are extremely resourceful and clever.  Did we somehow actually end up with a ham?  He really looks as though he's got the ears and snout of a pig.

By 3:00 he was all turkey.

You Know the Holidays are Approaching When. . .

you're invited to Thanksgiving lunches

(with macaroni, cheese and sporks)

Remains of wrapping activity start appearing around the house. . .

And presents!

Halloweeny Characters on our Front Lawn!

A Picture of Dorian Orange

He looks meaner and more scary every day closer we get to Halloween!

At first he looked pretty happy and nice.  Just maybe a little naughty. . .

Now he's turning scary!  I guess that's the nature of a jack-o-lantern, to be scary for Halloween.  He's getting lots of practice and it shows!

Weird From the Desktop

Four-armed monster does his homework

A New Face at Our House!

Who is that sitting above the October roses?  It's Athena's Jack-o-Lantern!

He looks naughty, doesn't he?  And she's so nice and sweet.  Maybe Athena expresses her darker self through her pumpkins and that's why she's able to keep such a happy mood almost all the time. 

He has a lot more character than the other pumpkins.  Although the one whose eye fell off and I colored in with a Sharpie marker, that one is his own pumpkin, too.

These roses were blooming when we moved in.  They're still blooming.

Happy Birthday Carsten!

Below are pictures of Carsten from yesterday.

And here he is a year ago:

Doesn't he look a lot more grown up already?  

Dahlias and a Sweet Baby Bee

These little bees seem to live in this dahlia plant.  They hide within the curled-up petals as though they are in a honeycomb.  Some days a flower will have 4-5 bees in it.   We have many dahlia plants, and while these bees visit all the flowers of all the dahlia plants, they live only in one of the plants.  There are also some scary-looking jumping spiders that have moved to this plant. 

High Kicks

Carsten earned his next belt last Thursday.  He's now an orange belt with one white stripe.

He can kick higher than his own head. 

Next belt after the orange belt with one white stripe will be solid orange.  His favorite color!

World's Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Ever Baked

I know there have been billions of chocolate chip cookies baked over the years.  But this without doubt was the all-time best. 

Absolutely perfect. 

Is that Kanji ??

Does our blog look like this to everyone?  Did this happen to anyone else's blog?

They prefer Multigrain Cheerios to granulated sugar.

    

Ants.

Relative Heights

Backpacks for Back-to-School !

  

We found Carsten a really fancy orange backpack, our one splurge of the evening.

   

Almost Ready for the Splits Club!

Here is a link to the splits club:


http://www.rmafit.com/hall-of-fame

Here are photos of Carsten in all three positions.  I told him that I want a picture of him doing the splits as my Christmas present.  Five months to go. . . it looks as though he'll be able to grant my request!

Right side . . .

Left side . . .

. . . and Center !

Wow !  Quite impressive.