Happy Fall and Happy Halloween!

Fall was in full swing and the leaves started changing colors in September.

And much to the kids' dismay, school started up again.  Here is Xiao Yu hopping on to the bus; it comes by at 8:15am every morning.  He is in 4th grade and has a good teacher.

He very much enjoys gymnastics and takes a class once a week.

He also really enjoys swimming.  He and Gabe go twice a week in the evenings at the local pool for lessons.

He has a kit with little rubber bands.  He has learned how to link them together and spends many hours making bracelets.

He also enjoys reading and currently is going through the entire Tin Tin series.

And he loves jump roping.  He was recently working on jump roping while crossing his arms.

Karina, along with everyone else, is in full time public school this year.  She is in 7th grade and able to sign up for electives.  One that she signed up for is choir.

She also signed up for Track & Field and did the mile and 1/2 mile events.

But once, one of her friends could not make it to a meet and was in the 4x1 mile relay.  So her other friends asked her to fill in and she grudgingly did so.  She did great.

At home, besides reading and watching videos, she also helps to take care of the animals.  Here is a shish kabob of lettuce she made.

Unfortunately, her little bunny, Starlight, passed away this fall, which was a very sad event.  So the girls are concerned that the other bunny, Churro, gets lonely.  So the girls spent extra time in their run to keep them company.

Karina is interested in earning money.  There is always a lot of yard work to do, so Elvin is willing to pay any of the kids $10/hour if they help out with some manual labor.  Karina decided to do some work by shoveling and wheelbarrowing bark chips for an hour one day.  She was a good worker.

And Karina is definitely the most prolific baker in our house.  She is interested in trying out new things and one time made boba from scratch!  She got the recipe from YouTube.  The first batch did not turn out right and this is her second try.

This dough turned out to be the right consistency and she rolled them out into long strips.

Then each are cut to size using a pastry cutter and then rolled into balls and dredge in corn starch.

After being boiled, they are ready!  She sometimes makes drinks for Elvin, which he loves.

The other day, she made merengue.  They are not hard to make but laborious.

She is able to pipe them into all the same sizes.

And they come out great!

And Karina loves Lucky.  Here he is getting some exercise in the back yard.

But more often, he on the couch snuggling with someone.

Karina and Gabe do various things together, which apparently includes re-enacting a scene from Lady and the Tramp.

Gabe is in 5th grade and while at first wasn't so sure about school, now is enjoying it more since he has gotten to know his classmates.  He made a "city" at school made out of paper in geometric shapes.

His best friend at school signed up for orchestra and so he did too.  We did not expect him to choose the cello, but that's what he wanted to play.

He also is in swimming with Xiao Yu, but doesn't like it nearly as much.  He has improved a lot.

He enjoys much more playing basketball.

His dribbling is fairly good and was chosen by the coach as the point guard for the team.

After the last game this season, they held a party for the basketball team.

And here they are...

He enjoys soccer even more than basketball and really enjoyed playing this year.  This team has been together for many many seasons.   Elvin coached the team this season because at the end of the last season, the previous coach's son moved on to another team.  It was an enjoyable experience.

And Gabe requested this summer for Elvin to build a tree house.  And thus began a project that took a lot of time and energy.  Elvin made Gabe help out as much as he could.  

So Gabe helped somewhat with painting and carrying wood.  Karina also helped out quite a bit.  It was a race to get the roof on before the rains started up.

As it stands, it still doesn't have all the walls, but at this point, the tree house will only get done next year when the weather warms up again.

Eliana is a freshman in high school and, is in band playing the alto sax and is really enjoying that.  

She has joined the pep band which plays at the football and basketball games for her high school and so we have gone to a couple of games.  The band sounds great!

She spends her time hanging out with friends, reading books and spending time on her phone.  Lucky really likes sitting next to her and often one will find the two of them together.

This fall, the kids went to the local pumpkin patch and met up with their cousins.

You can pay 25 cents to get some pellets to feed the goats.  And they slime your hands in return.

Karina went into the corn bin and buried herself in there.  Undoubtedly, kernels of corn infiltrated every pocket and crevice of her clothes and she will be finding corn kernels for days to come.

She did not much enjoy the corn maze experience, however.

At the pumpkin launch, where you try to get the little pumpkin, about the size of a softball, into the 50 gallon drum down the field, Gabe needed Eliana's help (and mass) to be able to stretch the elastic far enough back.

And there it goes!

Here are the kids with their cousin's four kids.

Each child picked out their own pumpkin, to carve later on.

Which they did a couple weeks later before Halloween.

This year, all the kids were old enough to clear out the guts of their own pumpkins.

Gabe decided to make a ghost on his pumpkin.

And there it is...

Karina made one in honor of the bunnies.  

Xiao carved a crazy face.

As far as trick or treating, our kids dispersed this year.  Gabe went with his friends dressed as a panda, just like last year.  He loves that costume and will sometimes wear it even when it's not October 31, just because.

Eliana went with her friends and this year she was the Onceler from the Lorax book.

Karina decided not to go trick or treating because she had a recital and also we told her if she didn't go, we would give her a gift and she chose an air plant.  We struck the same deal with Xiao Yu and he got a pencil sharpener.

And this is the loot that Gabe came back with.

That was our Halloween this year.  Happy Halloween!