Hilo Halloween Halloween's almost over here, and when it's over here, it's over almost everywhere....

	Max told me to try to replicate the face on his stuffed pumpkin. He also says that I go the mouth wrong: "too sharp." (He's right, but have you ever tried to carve curves? Look at the eyes if you want to see how bad I am at it.) But he did enjoy helping to light it.
	Here we are, dressed to go to school. Yes, I'm wearing my tribble again, as I do every year (also April 1st). Woody's dressed, we decided, as an "Aloha Witch."
	Woody's been doing music with Max's class (and the other preschool group). Today was just like every other Tuesday, except for the clothes...
	Max and his friend Kaj, of course. We've been trick-or-treating on their street for a couple of years now. We always bring candy to add to the collection, though, so it's not freeloading! Nobody comes by our house: busy street with no sidewalk.
	Costume? Check. Empty Bag? Check. Cute? Check. OK, here we go!
	We started out as a small group, Max, Kaj and friend. By the end we'd accumulated a half-dozen other kids and they were quite the little pack.

  ¶ Tuesday, October 31, 2006 1 comments

  Max The Elephant Max's costume this year is, as you can see, an Elephant. Marge made it, as she's made his last two costumes: with great skill. Max has been worried that people wouldn't recognize what he was; what do you think?

	Here's Max trying it on for the first time. He's pretty excited!
	Bit of a mixed metaphor, but he's wearing Walrus slippers, the Elephant suit, and the mask is a homemade one, a "Red Whale."
	Max pretty much wore the costume (minus the headgear) any time we were at home for a good length of time.
	In the last day or so, Max has developed a serious cold. The image of a sniffly elephant (here putting a handkerchief up his sleeve because he has no pockets) is pretty funny, though.

  ¶ Tuesday, October 31, 2006 0 comments

  Gnomes and Troubadors Saturday night was the Malalama Waldorf School Medieval Faire: it's a major fundraiser, and all the families are called on to provide labor, not to mention sell tickets, etc. I worked the late shift at the food stand. Woody did a set of songs on her own then did a set as back-up to another parent.

The official opening of the Trails -- Enchanted and Scary -- was marked by a very abbreviated parade and extended firedancer performance. I couldn't get a good picture of the flamethrowing bagpipes, sorry: you'll just have to take my word for it.

	Max spotted the face-painting, and was immediately hooked. He wasn't so sure about the process, and he wasn't entirely sure who this person with the funny gypsy accent was (one of his teachers, actually).
	This is the final result. The leaf and vine theme was designed to go with his gnomie costume, which was made by one of his favorite teachers.
	Here's the Full Gnomie....
	Max Gnome meets dragons!
	On the Enchanted Trail, Max Gnome meets a fellow forest-dweller.... Max was serving as our "guide" on the trail, by virtue of his glowing stick.

  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 0 comments

  Sunday: Up the Mountain Sunday we did the drive up to the Visitor Information Station on Mauna Kea, 9000 feet above sea level.

	We really were up near the clouds. Some of them looked friendlier than others....
	A little way off from the VIS is a silversword sanctuary, which includes this little shrine, to Pele, I think.
	Max enjoys wearing layers, and one of the only pictures he'd really stand still for was with the Invisible Cow sign.
	The selection of snacks at the VIS is decidedly slanted towards the celestial.... By the way, a lunch of freeze dried bananas, peaches, strawberries, cinnamon apple slices, mint chocolate chip and neopolitan ice cream still won't feed five people. Trail mix helps, though.
	Because it was daytime, they only had one telescope out, with solar filters. I was not the only person sticking his camera on the eyepiece, not by a long shot. Note the flare in the upper left quadrant!
	Later, back at the seashore.... It turns out that you can feed the fish at the Hilo Hawaiian, if you ask the right person -- no, I don't know who it was -- and they give you some actual fish food.

  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 0 comments

  Watching Max Dance Just another Saturday morning, with a new camera....

	Yup, there I am, caught in the mirror.... And here are shots of Max's Grandparents watching, as well.
	Max loves his teacher; he'll hardly dance with, or near, anybody else!

  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 0 comments

  Max's School Birthday, and extra cake We didn't get any pictures during the formal "birthday story" portion of the event, but I did get some nice shots of Max hanging around the yard before lunch.

The flower-draped cake is the school cake, an apple cake made, in this case, with real Mauna Kea apples picked by his teacher. It's a real toss-up as to Max's favorite present from this birthday, but the E-Z Bake Oven is clearly in the running; this was his first creation.
  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 0 comments

  Fauna

	This is, bar none, the best bee picture I've ever gotten.
	Roosting water birds at dusk. Didn't have the tripod or I could have gone for a longer exposure.... Below, two pictures of an Asian Spinyback Spider, from our own backyard. I've been trying to get a good picture of these little critters for ages, but my older cameras just wouldn't focus on them.
	Finally, the old joke comes to life....

  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 0 comments

  Flora Most of these are flowers I've taken pictures of before. Obviously, with the new camera, I'm retracing my steps, photographically....

	I'm gonna start looking up the names of things, I think. Unfortunately, this clover-like thing, very common around here, doesn't seem to be in my books. This picture was taken on the Saddle Road.
	This one I looked up last time: Bamboo Orchid. Marge remembers them from their first trips to the islands, many years ago.
	A small Ohia. I don't think I've ever gotten a picture of the buds before.
	This was taken in a field of relatively new a'a lava; just about the only plants growing on it were a few scattered ferns, and this layer of lichen. Most of it was gray and dry, so the green stuff stuck out.
	Just a palm frond, in the right light.

  ¶ Monday, October 30, 2006 3 comments

  Max Is 5

	Yeah, it's a bit fuzzy, but it was the best present-opening smile I got all morning. He had lots of smiles, but somehow most of my pictures came out with a look of intense concentration, or he's got his head down too low to see....
	After opening the presents, it was off to Ken's for the traditional birthday breakfast. Kens' was actually closed for two days before this, though I didn't see any obvious evidence of the renovation they said they were doing. But they got re-opened on time, just in time!
	Aside from the cake (and the cleaning, with which Marge was a great help), probably the most preparation intensive part of the party was the pinata. Worth it, though.

  ¶ Thursday, October 26, 2006 0 comments

  Life Cycle of a Birthday Cake Max wanted a "chocolate vanilla cake with chocolate vanilla icing." We bought a bunch of cake mixes, then realized that swirling two of them would produce enough cake for a small regiment. So we faked it with chocolate sauce.

Figuring out how to mix two icings also required some creativity, but after some back and forth discussion (and a little extra mint extract in the vanilla, to "make it less boring"), we went with polka dots on a chocolate background.

Max loves his cakes to have moving vehicles on them, and he won't stop until we've used every color in the collection. Which is how we ended up with a red sun, I think.


And that's how all good cakes should end!  ¶ Thursday, October 26, 2006 0 comments