October Highlights:
- I visit family in Chile — I created a separate blog post for the Chile trip here
- Luke battles in Airsoft Gun Wars II
- Lilah completes another season of youth volleyball
- Cat throws tea party for best friend Alicea’s bachelorette party
Saved By Lilah
Since I was gone for more than half the month in Chile, I don’t have as many images as I usually do to document the month. I managed to take quite a few pictures of Luke and his friends at their second Airsoft gun battle before I left, but I didn’t have too many of Lilah. Luckily, Lilah is a little shutterbug herself. She loves taking pictures of herself and her friends with her iPhone. She also likes to put artistic touches on her photos and she does this all herself with apps that I don’t even know about. As you click through the photos I’m sure you will know right away which pictures were from her ;-).
A Different Halloween Experience
This was the first year in which our kids trick or treated away from their neighborhoods. Lilah was invited to go trick or treating with her friends at Village at the Park, while Luke scavenged the Heights neighborhood with his friend Mason. Lilah dressed up as Sully (from Monsters Inc.) and Luke dressed up as Slenderman, a popular video game character among teen and preteen boys.
While the kids filled up their bags with candy from other neighborhoods, Cat and I stayed home and doled out candy to the kids in our block. We had quite a fair share of trick or treaters but overall things felt a bit more subdued — fewer kids perhaps, but also not having the kids at our house made a difference as well. Or maybe it just felt more subdued to me me because, due to my trip, I missed all the build up to Halloween, coming home just two days before the event. There was no visit to the pumpkin patch for me as well, but at least Cathy snapped a few pictures that I could include in the blog.
Kids Did Well Without Me
One of the fun parts about going on my trip was periodically checking in on the kids with text and audio messages. On one occasion we even conducted a Facetime video chat. While I was away, Cathy also provided me with an update on how Luke was doing at school. This is what she wrote me after her conference with Luke’s teacher:
she (teacher) didn’t have much to say. 🙂 said ‘sorry to waste your time!’ haha. said he’s at 7th grade reading level (shocker!), is good at math and science, and the writing issue is like most boys his age. She said he’s starting to participate more during class but is still a bit shy. But when he has to work in a group, he’s fine and talks plenty.
Basically he’s a good kid 🙂
So even though I was thousands of miles away, thanks to the marvels of modern technology, I never really felt unconnected from the family. It was also nice to know the kids were doing well and thriving in my absence (maybe I should go away more often ;-)).
Cathy’s Friend Alicea Gets Married
While I was gone, Cat also organized a bachelorette party of sorts in which she invited several of Alicea’s friends to the Tranquility Backing Company and Tea Roomfor an afternoon in which they talked, played games, sipped on an assortment of different teas, and nibbled on sandwiches and other delicious party treats. In addition, they all had fun trying on the different hats, boas and gloves the owner makes available to her patrons. The outfits are designed to recreate the childhood experience many little girls had of dressing up in fancy clothes and hosting make believe tea parties in their rooms.
Cat said all the gals had a blast and really enjoyed the experience — here’s some evidence of that.
That’s all for now…more next month!