Happy Halloween!

We had a fabulous time tonight at the Fuller's house for Halloween. Pizza, pumpkin lager, friends, dry ice, great costumes, even some Guitar Hero!

Chris with the kids and a bowl of dry ice -- very cool stuff!

Most of the crew (minus Dan) before heading out to trick or treat

The all important candy trade afterwards!

Andy playing Guitar Hero

I watched Andy playing Guitar Hero tonight and he had such fun I just had to video a few seconds. It's interesting to note that when Dan plays GH, the ONLY things that moves are his fingers. Literally, he stands there like Keith Richards. Andy, tho is moving all over the place -- he plays that guitar with everything he's got!

And yes!!! this time the video worked -- I can now put videos on my blog and make them work!!!

All Hallows Party

On Monday, the tribe had our All Hallows Party at the park. Some dressed for the occasion, some didn't.

Susan brought a pumpkin pinata -- here's Emma talking her turn
After the sack race

There was way more going on that I didn't get pictures of -- everyone set up a *house* gave away candy, we had face painting, hair painting. Dennis even let Jenny paint a Homer-esque zigzag on the back of his head!

We had a new family join us too! Something like 30 people at one time -- our tribe is growing!

Aquarium/Botanic Gardens

A couple of weekends ago, we spent a wonderful day at he aquarium/botanic gardens with friends. yeah, I've been lax about getting pix into the computer, but here they are.

Megan, Emma, Dan & Andy watching the small mantas (or are they skates?)

The kids spent what seemed like hours sliding down and running back up to do it again!

By the time they were done everyone was ready for some lunch.

Andy challenged Kevin to arm wrestle. Then everyone joined in!

Dan does math

About half an hour ago, Dan came to me with a handful of nickels, and told me he'd just counted his nickels and got all the way to 400!

Wow! 400? Can you show me how you counted that?

He spread his nickels out on the desk, and started counting them one by one into his hand.... 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, all the way up to 100. Then he paused a moment, and looked at me. He asked, "what comes next?"

One hundred and five -- a dollar five when you're counting money.

Okay. One dollar five, one dollar ten, one dollar fifteen, all the way up to one dollar forty. He just beamed, and I wondered when Dan learned to count by 5's.

Minutes later, he came running with two quarters. "Will gave me 50 cents to put with my other money! How much do I have now?"

Let's see - you have $1.40, add 25 cents you have a dollar sixty-five, twenty-five more makes a dollar ninety. If you go get that dime off the counter in front of the microwave, how much will you have then?

Immediate reply. "Two dollars!" and off he ran.

I asked Will just a moment ago if he'd shown Dan how to count his nickels. He answered, "no, I gave him two quarters I didn't need, but I didn't help him count anything."

Dan knows how to count by fives, and that a dollar ninety plus one dime is two dollars!

Pictures Again!

I don't know how it happened, but my camera is resurrected. Last month, the camera stopped, and I swapped to a new battery (at least, I thought it was new) but the camera was still dead. I put the camera, along with two (presumably new) batteries, in the glove box and began camping on ebay for a new camera. Didn't win any bids in my price range, so I've been without pictures for about a month. Thursday, on a whim, I put in a new battery and the camera came to life! I don't know whether it was that I had grabbed a dead battery or that a new battery was defective, but we have pictures again.

These were taken before the camera battery died, on a tribe park day.

Trying to help Sorscha down from the tree

Andy showing off his strength with Judson on his shoulders -- Judson is 5" taller than Andy, tho somewhat lighter.
Andy watching Sorscha & Spencer in the tree -- don't know where he found the Readers Digest