Halloween Madness 2010

Halloween 2010. Big evening with many friends. 16 people for dinner and then into the neighborhood. More pictures here. Starring:

Al Capone


The Zombie Butcher

The Zombie Gangster

Zombie Gangster Halloween

Silas had the idea to be a Zombie Gangster for Halloween. We love making our own costumes. This one took awhile to assemble. Do not want to meet a Zombie with a Tommy Gun anytime soon.

Musicians

Jasper has started playing Trombone and Silas the recorder. Jasper sounds like an elephant sitting on a thumbtack and Silas plays Mary had a Little Lamb.

Uniforms for the Season

Soccer


Brazilian Jujitsu

Beached Whale

Dead whale on the beach just north of the house. You can see that one side facing down has been chewed up by sharks. You can see teeth marks in the bottom image. We got to touch the baileen and he squeaky skin. Majestic beast.

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Mountain Biking Tam

Great hard ride up and soaring down through the redwoods.

First Day of School 2010

First day of Jr. High for Jasper (Grade 6) and Third Grade for Silas. They are now at different schools and both excited for the changes and challenges ahead.

Family Camp 2010

DeBenneville Pines Family Camp 2010. Another great year with old friends and new. This year we extended the family to include Stacy, Noah, and Mia. Best times in the creek, playing capture the flag, and connecting with good people. Here is a link to some photos.

CrockerBoys Return to Red Rocks

JASPER SAYS: I think the hike at Icebox Canyon in Red Rocks was pretty fun. The round trip was over 4 miles. I got a really bad headache because it was so hot. The way down was much easier than the way up. I think Icebox Canyon is a cool place to hike.

SILAS SAYS: At Icebox Canyon we had a fun time, but the only bad thing was that it was too hot. I liked when my dad and I went about 200 more yards beyond Jasper and Amos. And we went up to this really cool place. But, I could not go as high as my dad went because he said it wasn't safe.

Go A.P. Jaguars!!!

JASPER SAYS: It was cool at A.P. Giannini Step Up Night. First the school band played. They played Michael Jackson, Pirates of the Caribbean, and two other songs I didn't know. I signed up for band. Then, the Principle and some of the teachers talked. After that we went down to where they were selling the A. P. Giannini gear and I got sweatpants and a sweatshirt. The A. P. Giannini mascot is the Jaguar. I think A. P. Giannini is going to be a good school for me.

Crazy Hair Day 2010

SILAS SAYS: Crazy hair day was a really fun day because I wore this really giant, red, afro wig. See, look at the picture above.

JASPER SAYS: It is Spirit Week at our school this week. The first day of spirit week is rainbow day,the second day is called crazy hair day, the third day is called sports day, the fourth day is called twin day, the fifth day is called pajama day. Today was crazy hair day. My favorite spirit day is crazy hair day. I always do crazy hair day. Every one at school was trying to give me candy or money for some of my hair spray. The hair spray colors I had were pink, purple, and green. I had a fun time at crazy hair day.

Fine Art at the De Young

JASPER SAYS: I was really happy when my mask got picked to be in the De Young Museum. My art has been the De Young once before, I drew a Frida Kahlo. To make my mask I looked at a photograph and drew the photograph. Then I made the mask out of ceramics and it got heated up in the kiln. Then I painted the mask with glaze. The colors I put on my mask were blue and yellow. I think I did a good job on my mask.

Sushi Chefs

JASPER SAYS: The homemade that we made was pretty good. My favorite kind of sushi is California rolls, but we did not have that kind of sushi. When Amy was in Japan she bought a sushi roller and really good seaweed, so we could make sushi. I think sushi is a really good food and easy to make.

SILAS SAYS: The sushi was really fancy and nice, but I did not really like it that much. So, for dinner I had 3/4 broccoli and 1/4 sushi.

Historical Documents

JASPER SAYS: Thank you so much, Lars ,for the Asterix and Obelix books. I read them all in 2 days. I really liked reading the first one because I could now read them all in order from the beginning. Asterix and Obelix are my favorite comic book series. (These are the same comic books that you and my dad read when you were kids!)



SILAS SAYS: Asterix and Obelix are the best comic books. Thank you for for sending seven Asterix and Obelix to us. So far I have read five Asterix and Obelix in 3 or 4 weeks.

Fifth Grade Kickball

Lakeshore Kickball team visiting Sunset Elementary. Jasper scored two runs! Listen to the cheerleaders chanting: Jasper, Jasper, Jasper.

Dinner with the Bridge

Dinner with friends at a newly discovered, for the CrockerBoys, spot on the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Old WWII bunkers, container ships, and poison oak made for a great evening. Thanks for the amazing meal Michael.

Suffering in Santa Cruz

SILAS SAYS: I had a great time in Santa Cruz because it was Dada's birthday and he was turning 44 and he turned 44 even before I got out of my bed. We were there for Easter and it was really fun because we got a lot of candy in the morning. The Easter egg hunt was not really that fun because I only found 5 eggs, but Brian gave me two. The Easter egg hunt was on the beach, beach, beach.

JASPER SAYS: My three favorite things in Santa Cruz were: candy, movies, and beach. We got a lot of candy on Easter morning. We watched three movies. The movies were Old Dogs, Back to the Future II, and the Blind Side. We went to the beach for the Easter egg hunt and I found about 15 eggs. We also went to the beach to boogie board and play on the beach. We had very good dinners, but my favorite was my Dad's birthday dinner because we had RIBS and Mathew's world famous chocolate mousse cake! I had a very fun time with friends and family in Santa Cruz.

Amy's Seder 2010

JASPER SAYS: I had a fun time at the Seder because a lot of my friends were there. We had big dinner of parsley and salt water, grape juice, boiled eggs, matzoh ball soup, matzoh fried chicken and rice pudding. I learned that the Jews were slaves of the Egyptians. The parsley and saltwater represents the bitterness of slavery and the tears of the slaves. My favorite food was the matzoh ball soup. There were 16 people at the Seder. Before we had dessert we had to find the Afikomen (it's actually just a square matzoh cracker). I found the Afikomen and got one dollar.

SILAS SAYS: I loved the dinner but the only bad thing was it to a very long time to read the book so we had to wait through 30 minutes to get to dinner. It took so short to find the matzoh, 30 seconds to one minute. Most of my friends were there like Elijah, Lukie, Lila, and Noah. I also made Lego claymation movies while Amy and my brother set up the table.

Most Difficult

SILAS SAYS: It was fun doing the black diamond. I liked it so much that I did it twice. The second time I bombed the hill. Last time I was in Tahoe I was so scared to go up the hard lift and go straight down. This time I did it four times. At the cabin there was a pool table and we played pool so much and it was so fun. I won, I think, two games.


JASPER SAYS: I liked the weekend because I snowboarded every day. I did three different black diamonds and I had a great time. The resorts I went to were Tahoe-Donner and Alpine Meadows. I went to Alpine with my dad, Andrew, and Jeremy. Alpine is their favorite resort, so they gave us a tour of the mountain. One of the lifts we went on was called Summit. We went to the top of the mountain and skied all the way down which is about two miles long. I also had a very fun time playing pool and sledding. I really liked it when we went to Truckee.

My First Tooth Lost

SILAS SAYS: At school I was trying to pull it out. I was bending it down and pulling it and twisting it slowly, but the real way you are supposed to do it is just pulltwistreallyfast. My dad pulled it out when I came home from school and I said "look at my wiggly tooth." And he's, like, we're going to pull this out right now. It's really weird because this is my first tooth and I am already seven years old. Lot's of my friends already lost their teeth when they were five or six years old.

Salmon, Letterboxing, and Lake Sonoma

SILAS SAYS: When we were going to the Salmon place I was so excited, but actually what I wanted to happen did not happen we did not get to fish.We still had so much fun. And in the first place when we were looking at these tiny salmon jumping there was this lady and she said that if you went up the hill, through the building, down and around you would get to this place where there were little waterfalls in the water. Every once in awhile at a waterfall you would see a big salmon trying to go up or stay up. When we were first getting there there was an Osprey that someone was holding right out in front of the building. There was an Osprey at the Salmon Festival because they found it hurt and probably laying on the ground. And Osprey actually eat salmon that is why they brought it to the festival. While my dad and his friends were listening to what the lady was saying about the Osprey, me and the kids went to this other place right behind them and you got to spin this wheel and it landed on something that uses water. And then the guy asked you a question about what it landed on. If you answer the question right then you get a coloring book, a book about salmon, a pencil, a shower head, or a shower timer.

And in that whole weekend we found six letterboxes. The last one we found was really fun be cause we had to use our imagination and they said a bunch of rocks were a trolls home. And they said this tree that was bent was a serpent. The people we were hanging out with were named Ben and Jeremy. When we went to their house it was fun because the had a lot of gumballs. Pretty much all we did when it wasn't breakfast, lunch, or dinner, we chewed gum. Right when we got to their house, Ben talked about planes, and he said every single plane's name like GX48 Extra or something.

We went to our friends gramma and grampa's house. When we were there we watched a football game. I was so close to winning $25 dollars, but my friend Noah beat me by five seconds.


JASPER SAYS: I thought it was really fun at the salmon hatchery because we got to see salmon that were three foot long. I liked letter boxing because the stamps were really cool. When we went to Ben and Jeremy's house, I had a fun a fun time because we played with Nerf guns and played their flight simulator. I liked the Super Bowl party at Jim and Judy's house because I could have won $25 dollars and the game was really exciting. Even in the game there was a dog pile of grown men. I really liked my weekend.

Fairfax Hike in the Rain

Sweet hike in the mist and the rain near Stacy and Noah's house. Streams running, fungus amungus, puddles and mud. Burritos never tasted so good.