Bill Roper's Journal

Today, Julie is two and a half years old. Wow!

In honor of the occasion, I've posted a few late pictures from our Halloween festivities. Of sorts. :)
( Julie inside... )

Katie agitated to head out Trick or Treating from the moment she got up this morning. Of course, this is a little girl who's been waiting for Halloween for months. And daisy_knotwise has been working hard on their costumes for months, including the last rush to finish everything.
( Pictures inside )
Julie decided that she wasn't going to go Trick or Treating after all, so she stayed home while Katie and I headed out for an hour and a half of canvassing the neighborhood. And a good time was had by all.

Back at home, the Trick or Treaters have been thin on the ground so far. We'll see what happens after dark.

There is still a big pile of boxes in the library from when we cleaned out the corner of the garage so that our HVAC guy could get into the attic. We've been winnowing them down. daisy_knotwise thought that this afternoon was a good opportunity to winnow them down some more, so she sent me to the park with Katie and Julie.

And at the park, we encountered Nathaniel. And Nathaniel had a bicycle.
( Photos inside... )

I actually got a new digital camera about a year ago for the purpose of taking pictures of the girls without having to haul around my SLR. Unfortunately, it disappeared some months ago. It must be here somewhere.

And I'm sure that buying a new camera will cause the missing one to turn up shortly. In the meantime, having the new camera meant that I was in a position to take pictures of Katie and Julie as they dashed about the play area in Woodfield Mall after dinner tonight.
( Pictures inside... )

daisy_knotwise has been threatening to grab the video camera and record this for a while. When Katie and Julie asked to be dressed in their ballerina costumes, well, it was just too good an opportunity to pass up.
( Cut tagged for narrow screens... )

I was out of town for Julie's birthday, but daisy_knotwise was active with the camera, so now there are uploaded photos for your enjoyment.
( Kid photos inside... )

By way of Instapundit, these photos of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. They're impressive.

Gretchen at Age 2 Jeff was good enough to pass along some of the old slides that he'd scanned. I did a bit of cleanup in Photoshop. And this is Gretchen when she was just about two years old, a little bit older than Julie is now. Scary, isn't it?

Katie turned three years old today. Because I had to go to a Capricon meeting tonight -- which meant missing dinner with daisy_knotwise, Katie, and Julie -- we went out to Red Robin for lunch. There, they brought Katie a little chocolate sundae and sang their happy birthday song for her. Katie was delighted.

On the way home, we stopped at the bakery and picked up a small cake, because there had to be candles some time. Katie insisted. :)

And Katie had a decent haul of presents. Julie gave her the "Melody Time" DVD that Daddy had picked out, while Mommy and Daddy gave her several Dr. Seuss books and a box set of Curious George books. And there was much reading as a result.

But not when the cake was present, as you'll see.
( Photos and cake inside... )

Today is Katie's birthday, about which more later. But before I get around to that, I owe pictures dating back to the pre-WindyCon 36 era. Like, for instance, November 1st, the day when Julie turned 18 months old.
( Photos inside... )