First Day of School!

Just a couple of pics from the kids' first day of school, which was Monday (the 29th).

I can't believe they're in 4th and 2nd grades! How time flies.

We somehow neglected to get 400 pictures of this event, unlike years past; so if you desperately need to see more first day of school coverage, here's some from the archives!

2007

2008

2009

2010

Star Wars Day at the LA Zoo!

It's currently 103 degrees outside, definitely the perfect day for a trip to the zoo!

Normally we would not have gone to the zoo in heat like this. But it was Star Wars Day today, so we truly didn't have a choice.

If those guys in costume could stand it, so could we!

Star Wars Day!

A perfect day to wear your metal bikini.

Boba Fett...

A good Imperial officer never shows his discomfort!

Seriously, can you imagine being in these costumes in this heat???

It was Star Wars Day, so naturally there were huge crowds. And long lines to take pictures with the characters... so Derek took pics of people we don't know.

These guys didn't mind the heat at all!

Deacon and one of his favorite Star Wars creatures. I can't remember what it's called, though, so I'll ask him later and post it in Comments!

Non-Star Wars creatures!

At first Derek thought this said "Tarkin". Hey, it was Star Wars Day.

MONKEYS!

RISE of the Planet of... soaring temperatures.

Heat rises, so I wonder if these guys' heads were hotter than their feet??

At lunch. Zoo food always tastes great, because your feet are SO tired. We recently showed the kids the "Cheeseburger cheeseburger cheeseburger - CHIPS" sketch from Saturday Night Live, so they were excited when Daddy ordered a cheeseburger and chips. Deacon took this pic.

Predators emerging from their cave.

This guy never looked at the camera, but he was really cute anyway!

Keepin' cool in the shade.

Unlike these guys. Anakin looked about as happy about the heat as he did in Revenge of the Sith.

No, Maren, we're not buying you that large giraffe today. At least the gift shop was air conditioned.

A last pic... shorter lines = Alff kids/stormtrooper photo op! Always a pleasure to meet a member of the elite 501st.

So that's it! Didn't stay for the big Star Wars blu-ray presentation due to the heat, so you'll have to get all the breaking news on that front elsewhere. But it was fun, and now the AC blasting in our house feels gooood.

The Jungle Book!

From August 6th and 7th... the kids had a great time performing in Disney's The Jungle Book at Music & More!

I had intended to have some video for you, but it just won't upload for some reason. Blogger is rapidly becoming a very, very big pain. Might be switching to WordPress or something else in the near future... but for now, here are some pictures!

Uncle Mike is hard at work before the show. He's a gifted artist AND technical wizard!

The show begins! Deacon is one of the wolves who has protected Mowgli in the jungle.

And now he's an elephant.

Maren is the singing Coconut Tree, who also looks out for Mowgli, her jungle pal!

But look out... here comes swingin' Louie, King of the Monkeys!

Played by Deacon, who performs I Wan'na Be Like You.

Assistant Monkey Maren hands Mowgli a banana.

Deacon, singin' and dancin'!

Maren and the other monkeys get into the swing of things!

Louie and Baloo the bear scat it out.

The triumphant end pose! Always one for authenticity, Deacon wants his Monkey King to be intimidating.

Monkey Maren, hiding from Shere Khan, the tiger.

Back in action as the Coconut Tree - throwing fruit at Shere Khan!

Ending with The Bare Necessities!

A cast pic. MINUS Maren, who appropriately had just fallen out of a tree outside (she was fine).

Outside after the show! Deacon and Maren greet their fans, which included...

Gramps!

And Papa!

Papa is almost 102 and the ultimate theatre critic.

He gave the show a rave review.

Later, at Chevy's in Auburn! (There are only two Chevy's left in the entire L.A. basin, but they're everywhere up north. Go figure.) Anyway, here's a very cute pic of Maren and Sydney.

Then Deacon and Elias tried to out-cute the girls, posing cheek-to-cheek themselves.

Mike and Derek. Cheek to cheek.

Derek and Jana!

After much silliness, Deacon gives Grandpa a big hug.

Alffs, and an Oyog!

Maren and Deacon with Great Auntie Kay!

Instead of flowers, Maren received an Angry Birds T-Shirt.

As did Deacon.

And a well-deserved hot fudge sundae.

That's it! I'll continue to try to post a video, somehow. Not sure what the glitch is but I've tried on different computers, using different file formats and different browsers, and nothing's working.

It seems that when something goes wrong with blogger, someone at Google logs into a help forum and says, "We're working on a fix for that." And then months and years go by, and nothing ever gets fixed. Very frustrating. So we'll keep you posted if we move operations elsewhere.

Summer 2011 is rapidly coming to a close, but we've got a bit more coverage of our Adventures before it's through. Stay tuned!