Bill is Captain Hook for halloween and his is the costume with the most purchased parts (though Eva did help him make a hook for his hand). We bought a cheapo pirate face painting kit at CVS and Will tried it out the other night. Isn't this gross? Will might have a career as a make up artist!
Will's school has a costume contest every halloween. This year, Will dressed as "the stock market crash." He built this cardboard car, spray painted it red and decorated it with the names and logos of failed companies. If you look closely, you can see the bumper hanging off the back and the STOCK MRKT license plate.
Will took this photo of KC next to a cermic sculpture of KC he made this summer at Interlochen. The ceramic cat is actually a vase with a cat face on it. The face is kind of flat; it the shape of it all actually reminds me of Thomas the Tank Engine. But still, he has captured a likeness here!
Eva has been doing indoor climbing for over two years, but today was her first competition. Competition involves climbing various marked routes up different man made boulders. Each route defines where you are permitted to place your hands and feet, and is market by the colored tape. The routes are each given a score based on difficulty. The difficulty corresponds to a standard scale, V0 - V15 (actually I am not certain the top of the scale). The competition lasts for 4 hours (in today's case) and you get points for the five hardest routes you climb during that time. You get a 10% bonus for climbing a route without error on your first try (called 'flashing'). Eva's five hardest routes were two V3s, two V2s and a V1. She flashed three of her hardest routes, including the hardest V3 she climbed. 
Well, not exactly upside down, but partially inverted ;-). Most of the harder climbs involve going up a wall that is angled out, sometimes almost to the point of holding on to a ceiling. In this case after Eva got past the overhang, the wall was a normal vertical. Unfortunately in this case, Eva could not quite get past the transition from overhang to vertical.
This is Eva about to come off the wall after finishing a V3. Each climb is 'judged' to make sure the climber does not use any illegal holds and in this picture you can see the judge in the lower right.
This was the competitor meeting before the competition (where they remind everyone about the rules). EarthTrek in Rockville is a great climbing gym, and a lot of people came for the event.
Eva made a new friend on her climbing team this summer and the girls have started climbing together on Sundays. It is *excellent* because they can belay each other instead of having a parent belay to exhaustion. 
