Catching Up

I've been distracted. So lets catch up. Here's a photo all the way back from a month ago - a few days before Halloween. I think I was at a late meeting that evening. Jo and the kids carved the pumpkins. Here they are posing their scariest best. A few days after Halloween we had to throw the pumpkins out. They had collapsed in a gooey bug infested mess. Shortest lived pumpkins in my memory. Global warming, y'all.

A few days later we dressed up and went to the Silk Road Gala for Asian Family Support Services of Austin (formerly known as Saheli) - what a mouthful. But a lovely moving experience. Jo was a part of the team that put it together. They tried several new things including a live auctioneer. Great job all around. As a result we are now the proud owners of a Jesus Moroles piece. When Vivian and Evan saw it the next morning they wanted to know why it qualified as a sculpture.

Vivian and Evan had their parent-teacher conference the day before the Gala. It went off well. Vivian, you need to improve both your Spanish and English reading. But apparently you are excelling in math and at being able to connect the dots and discover patterns and relationships. Evan - you are just charming anyone who comes with ten feet of you at school so it's hopeless to get any sort of objective criticism about you. We'll have to wait till your charm wears off. Which it will. Here's a sample of Vivian's math work that her teacher showed off to visiting parents at Singapore Math Night a week later (math nerds!). "Super Bueno".

Then Evan woke up one morning complaining of a ear ache. By the time I picked him up early from school to visit Dr. Griggs, he had forgotten which ear hurt. He was more interested in extracting a lollipop from the good doctor. I told him that only happened when he got a shot and as he wasn't getting a shot he wasn't going to get a lollipop. Wrong. He had a couple of nurses giggling at his stories and they offered him one.

So Evan's ear stopped hurting. He and Vivian played with Ava while Jo and I packed on Friday afternoon. And we headed out of town on that cold and drizzling evening in a car filled to the brim.

Consider yourself all caught up.