8/31 - Donkey Kong tells Princess Daisy to hoist the anchor

Daisy said she was not dressed properly for such an activity and that Donkey Kong should go ahead and hoist it himself.  She is such a princess.  (Lil' Guy left her in the car this morning, and I felt bad leaving her there, so DK and I brought her to work too.)

I asked Erika to hold up Donkey Kong and Daisy, but they wanted to show off their fancy poses.  She had a hard time holding on to them!

How was the rest of your school day?  Here’s a picture I took of you guys meeting Moochie the chinchilla.  Did he like being back at school?

8/30 - Littlest Monkey haz a banana

He was nice enough to share it with me for breakfast.

I was nice enough to share my afternoon cupcake (thanks, Raj!) with Littlest Monkey.

Sharing is caring.  And filling!

Odd things grow in the urban jungle…  Here, Littlest Monkey found some strange pipe mushrooms.

8/29 - Fly Guy is disguised as a regular fly on the wall

He sure picked a pretty building to do it.  This is the Hearst Building.

Fly Guy tried to check Bob’s watch for the time, but I think Bob was a little surprised…

And:  Happy, happy birthday to Grampy and Linda!!

8/28 - Fly Guy gets caught in a web

We slowed and stopped as the signs requested, but Fly Guy still got stuck in the big orange web.  Don’t worry – I got him out.

Later, Fly Guy took a number.  Turns out his number was the same as Lil' Gal's classroom number --  23!

8/27 - Fly Guy has more elbows than the average guy

He says he also has way more smarts than the average fly and the average guy. Who am I to argue with an oversized bug?

8/24 - Blue Yoshi is an honorary lady who lunches

At first, Blue Yoshi thought these footprints were from a giant that worked in the financial district, but I explained that they are BART’s attempt to keep us all in line.

We had a little reunion lunch with Katelyn and Jennifer, who escaped from I knew from my old job. It was so good to see them, but we missed Adelina and Linda (who is still at the old job).

8/23 - Pink Yoshi and the green steam machine

I have no idea what this kind of construction vehicle is, but it seems to have something to do with water pipes and the water tanks that have been sitting around this week.

Pink Yoshi found another pink dragon in the city.  Pink Yoshi said, “My, what a long tongue and sharp teeth you have!”  And then slurped her long Yoshi tongue at it.  Dragons are strange.

8/22 - Yellow Yoshi gets fruity

He wanted to know what was in these fruit boxes, but I told him we can’t open packages that don’t belong to us.

Yellow Yoshi saw the warning signs on this equipment and decided he would be very, very careful.  Good Yoshi.

8/21 - Mini McQueen says his future is so bright, he needs two pairs of shades

I’m mailing the stuff Ry left behind from our camping adventure back to him today.  Mini McQueen tried to jump in the box, but I got him out just in time.

Mini McQueen is a hit with the ladies...  Dana and I ran into Liz at lunch today, and Mini McQueen wanted his picture taken with both of them.  (Actually, they asked me to take their picture with him.  They want to see their picture on my little blog.  Sillies.)

8/20 - Mini McQueen finds a big red tank on California Street

There was another rusty tank nearby that made us think of Tow Mater, but we didn’t take a picture of it.  The red tank had a nice ladder that wasn’t to be used.

Mini McQueen also found a friendly parking meter.

8/17 - Summer vacation: Camping edition

Um, hi.  I'm back.  I meant to announce that I'd be off for a bit, but things got super busy and then I was in the woods.  Let me explain...

So my friend and I had been talking about camping and thinking it would be great to take our collective kids on a camping adventure, and then we put our planning heads together and just like that, a camping trip was born.

First, we took a ferry ride into the city to have lunch with our friends.

Then, we packed up everything but the kitchen sink, and went off to the redwoods.

We met banana slugs, deer, raccoons, huge crows, and lots of mosquitoes.

The kids frolicked on fallen trees and made "dirt angels" in the dust.  (In their pajamas. Sigh.)

We played pirates, finding that fallen trees make excellent planks and pirate ships.  We found nuts and called them gold dubloons.

We went to the beach and ran wild with friendly dogs.

We ate camp stove nachos and made s'mores.

We camped with twin 6-year olds and a 3-year old and not only survived, but thrived.  Best vacation ever.

8/10 - Dalmatian Dog and things with wheels

Dalmatian Dog saw a double decker bus and a green trolley car at lunch, in front of the famous Flatiron Building.

Then he saw a big spool of wire.  Curiously, it had a sign on it that said, “Please recycle this.”  It’s huge!  How do you fit it in the blue bin??

8/09 - Space Suit screams for ice cream

The police officer was looking for bad guys and wondered why a space suit would be wandering around by itself…

I love this building. Today they offered us free ice cream and a harp player up on the rooftop. What’s not to lick? I mean, like?

Damien and I took Space Suit to get ice cream. Damien and I had cookies and cream. Space Suit got whipped cream everywhere…

8/08 - Black Snakie slurps up a scrumptious sundae

He slithered to the bottom of the sundae cup and slurped his way up to the top. It was quite messy, but totally worth it.

How cute are my little camp Carnival animals?

8/07 - Lemon Meringue loves Lippy

Poor Lemon Meringue didn’t get to see much today.  We were at my desk all day getting work done.  We did notice that she and Lippy were both yellow…  #lame

8/06 - Dalmatian Dog still wants to be a firehouse dog

Good thing I work by the fire station so we can see things like this when we’re out and about…

8/05 - Weekend edition: Sleeping Bag edition

Next week, we are going camping with friends.  This will be the twins' first camping trip, and my first camping trip with kids.  This weekend was all about getting our supplies together.

Finding budget sleeping bags ended up being quite the adventure -- 4 stores in a day! -- but we found them. Here we are "practicing" in an adult sleeping bag.

And here, the matching "Miss Kitty" sleeping bags we picked.  So cute...

We also went to Bit O' Honey's birthday party and jumped jumped jumped jumped.

I went to see the B.A.D. Girls championship bout and got to meet Demanda Riot.  How awesome is she?

8/03 - Cheetah Power goes up, up, and away

Would you like to ride
In my beautiful balloon ?
Would you like to glide
In my beautiful balloon ?
We could flow among the stars
Together you and I
For we can fly
For we can fly
Up and away
In my beautiful
My beautiful balloon
The world's a nicer place
In my beautiful balloon
It wears a nicer face
In my beautiful balloon
We can sing a song
And sail along the silver sky
For we can fly
For we can fly
Up and away
In my beautiful
My beautiful balloon
Suspended under a twilight canopy
We'll search the sky for a star to guide us
If by some chance you find yourself loving me
We'll find a cloud to hide us
Keep the moon beside us
Love is waiting there
In my beautiful balloon
Way up in the air
In my beautiful balloon
If you'll hold my hand
We'll chase your dream across the sky
For we can fly
For we can fly
Up and away
In my beautiful
My beautiful balloon
Up, up and away
Up, up and away

Cheetah Power finds power in friendship:  I wore my cheetah sweater today to keep CP company.  We also found this nice orchid, who CP named “Cheetah Flower.”