2/28 - Rainbowfin and Diny the Saur are racing

Rainbowfin and Diny the Saur decided to make a “rainbow race” out of the notebooks on my desk.  Rainbowfin was in the lead, but the race ended up a tie.

2/27 - Nigel wants some new kicks

Nigel and I really liked these fancy sneakers we saw on the way into work this morning.

And then we sat at my desk all day doing lots of work.  We did get a cake break (not pictured), though.  :)

2/26 - Weekend fun

On Saturday, I got to go to the opening bout for the Bay Area Derby Girls.  It was a whole new perspective for me -- I was checking out everyone's gear, studying the strategy, and explaining the ref calls to David.  What a difference knowing the rules makes!

Apparently, the last time I wore this coat, I forgot to take the toy out of my pocket -- whoopsie!  (Or was it part of Lil' Gal's plan to come to the bout with me after all?)

Oh, and I got to meet Chantilly Mace, otherwise known as Skater 26.  Wooo!!

Made these yummy Creamy Spinach Enchiladas for dinner, and they turned out really well. NOM.

And... Lil' Guy is always cute in googles.

2/24 - Mario races through lunch

76 degrees in the city on a sunny February day.   Bella!!

We had lunch today with the always delightful Dana and Ernie.  Mario was racing back and forth on the table between me and Dana until he almost drove a dish off the table (his kart is very powerful!).

2/23 - Legless Bowser feels like a girl in springtime

Legless Bowser hopped onto an orange, and then he was on a roll…  He said, “Orange you glad I can move around now?  Bwahahahaha!”

Doesn’t he look pretty next to all the spring flowers?  Awwwww.

2/22 - Cookie's new boyfriend

... Or should I say “dogfriend?”  He’s very dapper with his striped tie.

Cookie wants to go for a walk (me too!), but it’s non-stop meeting day.  :(

2/21 - Headless Daisy finds it all very taxing

Headless Daisy was stuck in bridge traffic for a really long time this morning.  Mommy and Mama were quite late for their tax appointment.   Supporting evidence, your honor:  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/02/21/BATB1NADFN.DTL

Here’s Daisy, skipping from chair to chair in the waiting area of the tax preparation office.  (Not bad for someone who can’t see!)

 And here she is with Greg, our wonderful tax preparer.  He has a good head on his shoulders, thank goodness!

2/20 - Mickey proceeds with caution

Look!  Someone made a cake that looks just like Mickey Mouse! My toy friend Mickey couldn’t stop pointing at it.

We found a broken glass door while we were out for a walk.  It almost looks like raindrops, doesn’t it?

2/17 - Yoshi meets a ferocious lion!

When the lion roared, Yoshi noticed he had a long tongue, just like Yoshi.  And then they were fur-Yoshi-ish buddies.  Justlikethat.

Did you know that, in the city, there are elevators under the sidewalk?  It’s true. They’re open a lot in the mornings so people can deliver supplies to the buildings downtown, but this one was open for our lunchtime walk.

Yoshi liked the pretty lights on my work building.  (Me too.)  Yoshi sang a little song: "You light up my life."  (You do.)

2/16 - Wario zooms away from the lotus root

Wario wants to race.  This morning, he tried to race a mini-van. When I put him down on my desk, he zoomed right across it!

At lunch, he zoomed so fast past a taxi, there were flames shooting out of his tailpipe!  Go, Wario, go!

Raj took us out for lunch at a favorite Indian restaurant.  I tried to take Wario’s picture next to a dish of steaming lotus root, but he zoomed away.  Stop, Wario, stop!

2/15 - In which Yoshi and Yellow Crayon become fashion accessories

Dinesh brought Jeanine a fancy dress back from India, and she thought Yoshi would make a nice hairpiece. He kept falling off, but a binder clip finally did the trick!  (Yellow Crayon and I thought they were both silly.)

We went to Walgreen’s in search of discounted Valentine’s chocolates, but there was nothing left!  Yoshi felt empty inside.

When I saw Yellow Yoshi, Yellow Crayon, and Yellow Cab together, I started humming a little Cold Play tune…

YELLOW

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And everything you do
Yeah they were all yellow

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow

So then I took my turn
Oh what a thing to have done
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
You know you know I love you so
You know I love you so

I swam across
I jumped across for you
Oh what a thing to do

Cause you were all yellow
I drew a line
I drew a line for you
Oh what a thing to do
And it was all yellow

Your skin
Oh yeah your skin and bones
Turn into something beautiful
And you know
For you I'd bleed myself dry
For you I'd bleed myself dry

It's true
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine for you
Look how they shine

Look at the stars
Look how they shine for you
And all the things that you do

2/14 - Green Birdie goes postal

He thinks he’d be a really good mascot.  Look at that fine beak!

Green Birdie is loved -- A magic mirror told him so!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2/13 - Toad's race gets rained out

Toad wanted to race on the city streets, but it was too dangerous – and too rainy.  So I found some friends on the computer for him to race with.  He won!  Oh, yeah!!

Toad wanted me to tell you that even though he’s small, he has a giant heart filled with love for you.   (Or is it a giant heart filled with Toad?!)

2/10 - Littlest Monkey finds a time machine

Littlest Monkey and I passed a fire engine, chief’s car, ambulance, police car, and police motorcycle on the way into work.  There was some kind of medical emergency, and they were bringing someone out of a building on a stretcher. Here is Littlest Monkey by the fire engine. (We didn’t take a picture of the sick person, because we wouldn’t want people taking OUR picture if we were being rushed into an ambulance.)

We couldn’t find a title for this painted sculpture, so Littlest Monkey tried to use it as a time machine.  He wanted to go to the future where monkeys rule the world and drive banana cars around town.  Lucky for us, it didn’t work and Littlest Monkey and I will see you soon!  We are excited about the Kindergarten Dance!!!

Kindergarten Dance Update:  As expected, Lil' Guy was eager to dive right in, and Lil' Gal clung to me at the door way for about half an hour, protesting the noise levels.  (What with the music and the balloon popping, I can't say I blamed her!)  The twins' best friends arrived, and Lil' Guy and his pal dove into the fray.  Lil' Gal's sweet friend eventually lured her in with a game of "keep the balloon aloft," and a good time was had by all.

2/09 - Koopa Troopa and the froyo bloopa

I’d been working busily away all day, only to realize it was 3pm and I hadn’t taken a break.  (Or let Koopa Troopa have any fun – bad Mommy!)  My plan was to take a little walk and grab a frozen yogurt to take back to my desk.

We walked to the top of the hill and found a lovely view.  On the way down the hill, I put Koopa Troopa on a pedestal, and made him the center of attention (or an asterisk of some sort).

Then, it was froyo time.  Only…  the frozen yogurt shop was closed!  It’s going to be some other kind of food place in the future, but that did not help me today.  :(  At least we got some fresh air.

2/08 - Carrot thinks you are beautiful

Orange Carrot met Pink Flamingo, Yellow Cab and Yellow Crane on a colorful lunchtime walk.

Never forget:  You are beautiful!

2/07 - Look out, Simon! Predators behind you!

Simon loved the pretty lamps and the fancy ceiling of this building.  He made kissy sounds, but didn’t realize there were eagles and lions right behind him…  (I scooped him into my pocket, and we got away in the nick of time!)

Simon says "Be my valentine!" He sends you guys all the love in his drippy heart.

2/06 - Simon's city adventures: from sweet to snarly

Simon saw a bowl of sugar as big as a lake (to him) and wanted to dive in.

We had an after work meeting.  Simon found a "new wave" bus stop, which meant something else entirely to me.  (Ahem. #old)

Here, Simon left his heart in San Francisco -- at City Hall.

He was too polite to howl at then (almost) full moon, but I thought "Someone needs to keep the city crazy."

I was about to howl, but then we saw a big dragon, and we crept quietly to the BART station.

1/21 - Super 6th Mario Birthday Party

First of all, let me say that I cannot believe my teeny little twins are now six (6) years old.  I remember getting a bag of hand-me-down clothes and looking at the size 6 pants and thinking, "They will never be big enough to wear these." And now that time has come.  (sniff!)

OK, moving right along...  Lil' Guy is very into everything Mario Brothers.  A little bit on the Wii, but mostly loves playing with Mario action figures, pretending he's Mario, etc.  Lil' Gal plays along.  It's easier that way.  So, when I asked them what theme we should have for their birthday party, it was merely a courtesy.  I knew how it was going to go.

Thanks to many great ideas from the internet, here's what I did....

Cupcakes for school:

Decorations:

• Mario table topper, borrowed from a neighbor (thank you!)
• Balloons and streamers in red, green, yellow and blue
• Plates and napkins in red, green, yellow and blue
• Pin the Mustache on Mario poster (see Games below)

Food:

• Broken Glass Jello, in Mario colors

• Goomba Meatballs (sadly, I ran out of time to add the faces)
• Spinach Dip with Moo Moo Meadows veggies
• Star Power Cookies

• Toad on a Stick (inspired by these)

• Mario and Luigi (red and green) juice boxes 
• Mario cake and vanilla ice cream (not bad for my first attempt at fondant, no?)

Games:

• Race to collect gold the most coins
  Bag of 400 coins found at Party City.  I gave each kid a paper lunch bag with his/her name on it, and opened the doors to the twins' rooms where the coins were hidden.  The kid with the most coins won a prize.  Everyone got to keep the coins they found.

• Yoshi Egg Race
  I used some Easter eggs on a stick that I found at Michael's, and painted spots on them with green nail polish. The kids lined up in two teams.  Each kid had to run to the end of the room and back and then hand off the egg and spoon to the next kid in line.  The winning team got prizes.

• Pin the Mustache on Mario
  I had this poster printed at 18 x 24" at my local Copymat.  We used black construction paper to cut out mustaches and used blue painter's tape on the back to make them stick.

• Pass the Bob-omb
  I found a styrofoam ball at Michael's and painted him to look like Bob-omb.  The kids sat in a circle and played Hot Potato, passing Bob-omb until the music (Herb Alpert worked nicely) stopped.  Whoever was left holding Bob-omb was out.  The last kid sitting got a prize.  This was the most fun game we played.  The kids pointed and laughed hysterically whenever someone got out.  It was so cute, I almost had them play a second round!

Prizes

• Gold coins
• Mario Kart erasers
• Small gold plastic trophies

Goodie Bags/Favors

• Mario/Luigi posterboard hats

• Mario Kart pens
• Mario Kart stickers
• small notebooks in red, green, yellow, blue
• chocolate gold coins

We had a total of 10 kids, and they had a great time.  It was a delight to host them -- they were polite and literally begging me for more and more games!

Here are the twins, still wearing their hats days later -- now with the addition of mustaches!
(They are still wearing the hats, now two weeks later!)

A super shout-out to my wonderful friends, who came early and hung streamers and a million balloons, made the poster board visors, assembled goodie bags and hid cold coins, and did anything and everything else I asked of them.  Thank you so much for your help and for listening to my story over and over again of how the power went out at 2am while I was up to my ears in fondant and none of the batteries in the flashlights worked.  David, Joanne, and Linda, you guys ROCK.