A monkey. A squirrel. One happy family.

I thought koalas ate eucalyptus, not chocolate. Visiting the house of friends Josh and Brandy (and their awesome headless horseman). Our koala and our Jawa! Happy Halloween!

The sisters at Shryock's Corn Maze. (The Shyrock family doesn't use an apostrophe on any of its signage, but clearly, it is needed.) Annie with pals Sarah and Louise (or "Mah-weeze" as Annie calls her). Let's make crop circles! Margaret, Ella, Annie, Louise, and Sarah. Getting five kids to look at the camera at the same time is impossible. They are saying, "gumballs!" Love the pink cheeks on Annie.

Ella will head to the bathroom to brush her teeth, and 30 minutes later she will still be in there, making faces in the mirror or digging through the medicine cabinet, teeth unbrushed. Similarly, on Saturdays we'll let her know that in 30 minutes we need to leave for her ballet lesson and ask her to get her leotard on. After 30 minutes have elapsed she will have perhaps removed a sock and also created an elaborate maze on her bedroom floor, using only dirty clothes and library books. She will not have put on her leotard. Lots of yelling happens after this. Today, on the way home from ballet, and a couple of hours after a frustrating scene much like what I've just described, I asked Ella if she had any ideas for solving this problem. She thought for a bit and then replied, "We could get a monkey that would pinch me every time I didn't stay on task." Problem solved.

Here, in no particular order, are five random goings on in the lives of our girls. Ella got sent to the assistant principal's office for hitting a kid on the playground after said kid taunted Ella for being "slow" during a foot race. At the end of the race, the girl tried to give Ella a high five. "I'm not going to give you a high five," Ella said. "I'm going to give you this." And she hit the other girl in the nose. Ella commented later, "Now I have been sent to the office twice - once for kissing and once for hitting!"  Halloween costume decisions are solidifying. Ella wants to be a Jawa from Star Wars, so Spencer has already made two trips to Radio Shack for LED lights and other gadgetry to fashion the glowing eyes. Annie is leaning towards an animal of some sort - bird, cat, koala. If I can make it out of a sweat suit, I'm happy. Annie wants to listen to the Disney read along version of "Finding Nemo" 30 times a...