Margaret had an elaborately planned Scooby Doo birthday party. There were clues all over the house, in “ghost” balloons, a cryptogram, puzzles with secret writing on them. Katy and Olivia were the arch villains that would have gotten away with it had it not been for the meddling kids.
This is Margaret’s letter to Santa. Click on it to see a bigger picture.
I think she wrote this in the computer lab at school. They told them to write to Santa. Clearly, Margaret is not familiar with the format of a letter to Santa (Dear Santa, I want X, Y and Z for Christmas), and thought it should be like a normal letter to a friend or relation.
Today was the (50th) annual Christmas parade in Los Gatos. Margaret rode in a float with her Brownie troup. We all went down to watch her.
Katy and Margaret had a pre-Christmas recital. Sam and I enjoyed it immensely.
Elizabeth: The girls worked very hard to prepare for this, and played songs that were somewhat difficult for them. They both played well, and I am proud of them. If you would like to see and hear their performances, click on the photo and then on the movie of each of them. After the recital, which took place in a nursing home, they stayed and greeted the residents who came to listen to the show.
Margaret and I went to Girl Scout Camp this weekend for the Mother-Daughter camp out. We slept in this tent cabin with Sophie and Karla Maxfield. Most of Margaret’s troop went along, but we made up most of the camp out. We had a great time hiking to the Fairy Grove (aka Fern Canyon, a redwood grove) where the girls built houses for fairies. Margaret built a hotel. she spent a lot of time making the “Clover Cafe” portion of the hotel. She also enjoyed climbing the tree, making smores, singing songs, and exploring the tepees. We also spent a whole afternoon at the craft shack, making birdfeeders, necklaces, dolls and the big pink hat.
We went to the zoo with Olivia. We managed to see almost all of the zoo in a couple of hours. We got there early on a cold foggy day, so it was pretty much empty. Some of the animals were much more active, others were nowhere to be seen.
Katy started 6th grade and Margaret started 2nd. Katy was a little apprehensive about staring middle school this year. A couple of days later and she says it is better than elementary school. Margaret has class again with Sophie this year.
We went to a party today where the Karaoke Ice cream truck was the guest of honor. The kids had a great time singing and dancing karaoke. We even got Pokie up there doing it and here is thestuff from the Karaoke Ice website.
There are a couple with Katy and Jenna from the Karaoke Ice website, here and here.
Today was Margaret’s birthday. We had a good time. This morning we (Rusty and the kids) went geocaching. We went with Margaret’s friend Sophia and her dad. We visited the cache that we hid a couple of years ago. It was in good shape. We also went and found another cache not too far away. Margaret says to tell everyone that she got 2 super bouncy balls, one was big and rainbow, the other small and yellow. Sam was very excited, he got a Teletubby and a Hot Wheels car.
Later in the day Elizabeth’s parents came down for supper with us. Margaret demonstrated her new abilities with her new bike. She would like you to know that she rode if very well and that it is blue with Hawaiian flowers on it and fenders.
After supper, Reese and Mary showed up for cake and presents. When I asked Margaret about her birthday today, she told me that she liked her hula hoop. Margaret really likes Hawaii and keeps asking us when are we going back.
Margaret also got me to finish the Harry Potter game on the PS2 tonight I had to fight the big snake (or basilisk).
At Van Meter today it was a very musical day. With concerts on the hour most of the day. The kindergarten classes went a little while after the violin episode. Margaret is the one in the second row behind the boy in the yellow shirt – who is worth watching. Notice she still has on the crown from her birthday celebration at school today. Here is the video.