Boo!

As might be expected, today started out like this:



...which produced this [mine, Aine's, Alex's]:



and this [Sarah's, Olivia's]:

.

There was then some of this:



And later some of this:





Followed finally by lots of this:

and a fair amount of this:

Happy Hallowe'en!

Some cute kids

Olivia in her new hat -



Aisling in a good mood (not that rare in life, but she does NOT like to have her photograph taken so it's hard to get a good shot - I surprised her here - she didn't realise I had a camera) -




Alex and Aine showing off one of their creations in the sand.

These photos are from the Diana Memorial Playing Fields in Kensington Gardens - the one with the Pirate Ship - we've been before. It was a lovely sunny day, so we wanted to do something outdoorsy. Needless to say, the playground was crowded - but not too bad. For all that it was sunny, it was also fairly chilly, so we then moved on to other pastures. A few more photos over here on Flickr.

Happy birthday cake

Here's Olivia's birthday cake, a few days past the event - no time to make one until today. And of course the kids all wanted to help decorate it - and as we have extra kids at the moment, a LOT of decorating was done. It was chocolate inside, with (vanilla flavoured) purple icing. And of course, all the decorations in the world.

Birthday treat

Today in lieu of a birthday party, I took Olivia and her friend Nina for a day out. We started by going to Guildford Spectrum to go ice skating - no photos of that, sorry - and then went up to Kingston for some lunch and a bout of shopping at all my personal favourite shops - Build-a-Bear Workshop, the Disney Store, Woolworths, Claire's Accessories and so on... Needless to say, I didn't buy much. The hats came from Claire's, and I think were an excellent choice - they really suit them.





Here they are in Woolworth's, being silly with a small car (they didn't put money in and ride on it, which is probably a good thing) before browsing through all the black pre-teen clothes and eventually buying matching toy stuffed turtles. Ah, the joys of being 9 (or 8)!

After the dinner party

We had a dinner party with friends tonight for Geoff's 50th and just left the kids to amuse themselves in the living room with DVDs, etc (they did come in an say hello and chat occasionally, and stuff, but didn't sit with us for dinner - for one thing, with 8 adults, not space enough for anyone else at table!). One by one, they dropped off - funny thing is, Alex was the last one to fall asleep. Olivia has had a bad cold, so is probably more tired than usual and Sarah was out all day with Guides at a concert in Birmingham, so perhaps she is more tired than usual as well...

Pizza night

The girls (including Sarah's friend Jess, who is sleeping over) do their pizzas first...



and now the boys!

Bits of my day

Dress as a book character day at school - give a nominal donation and you can come as a book character instead of in uniform. Alex was a "Red Indian" from Peter Pan, Sarah was Lyra Belacqua from the Dark Materials Trilogy, Olivia was Pippi Longstocking. Hers is my favourite. Especially the hair (we did it with strong twist ties).



Great sky tonight - I missed the birds flying across it, but it still was lovely. We are having (and here I hope I don't jinx things) the BEST weather this autumn. My very favourite - chilly to start, then sunny later, with gorgeous deep blue skies and lots of SUN... Cold at night, of course, because no cloud cover, but heck, it's worth it.



Just filled this in a little while ago and it's ready to go off in the post tomorrow or early next week - I have to get the right postage of course, as I am outside the US. I should think it highly unlikely my little vote will make any difference at all in Maryland, which tends to vote Democrat for President even when almost no one else does (except Reagan in 84 - well - no one voted for Mondale, really!) but I still want to make a statement. And, if (God forbid) my guy doesn't win, I want to be able to complain long and loud - which I hold you shouldn't be allowed to do unless you vote!

African animals

It's such a busy week (or two) here, but without much to say, really, so I thought I'd just share this lovely masterpiece, which Alex did yesterday after school. He got nearly as much paint on himself and his shirt as on this picture (not quite) but I think it was worth it - be sure to spot all the camouflaged animals!