October 2018

October has been a fun-filled month. Highlights below!

 

We took advantage of the newly redesigned Carter Playground on Columbus, which is beautiful these days.

 

 

We met Sean and Evie at the Greek festival in Roslindale for dinner, and Evie and Helen played happily on my father's lap with Evie's socks. One sock kept three of them occupied for thirty minutes or so, while Marcus and Samantha each got $5 to spend in the kids' area however they chose: Marcus spent it all on a make-your-own slime booth, and Samantha bought two $1 trinkets and a $3 jar of pre-made slime. Robert lamented that they were so independent he missed getting to go into the kids' area with them altogether.

 

On Columbus Day, I went with all the kids to the Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy. Robert met us there and took Marcus to a kids' D&D and M:TG event at a game store in Cambridge while Samantha and Helen and I spent hours at a complicated building event at the Mary Baker Eddy and then went for trendy ramen across the street.

 

We've had cello lessons on Saturday mornings and piano lessons on Snuday afternoons and some mellow late Sunday afternoons at home enjoying each other's company.

 

Marcus's Cub Scout troop marched in the Roslindale Day parade, which Sarah and Sean and Evie and Helen and I watched. It ended with free ice cream from a truck in Fallon Field, and we all had a lovely afternoon. Zooming past the roadblocks on my bike was particularly satisfying, I have to say.

 

The kids have been continuing with karate--Samantha got another strip just this month--and also doing fun one-timme events. Robert took them to a St. Martin in the Fields chamber concert at Jordan Hall one Friday evening.

Marcus saw the fog sculptures, Fog x FLO, in Franklin Park, and Samantha went to the Winnie the Pooh exhibit at the MFA.

 

Both kids are doing great in orchestra. Samantha's played at Hubweek downtown and also ran an instrument petting zoo there.

Samantha loves teaching, and gets lots of practice teaching Helen the cello at home. At the petting zoo she taught kids how to play the cello, and then she picked up a violin and started demonstrating that, too, for good measure.

Marcus plays in a large orchestra with the middle-school students, and also in a chamber music trio with two other fifth-grade boys--they're two cellos and a violin.

Marcus's cohort helped build the cardboard instruments for the kindergarteners to start practicing with. Samantha helps Robert set up the parent coffee hour every Friday, while Marcus and DJ are in orchestra and she and Chloe are waiting for theirs to start. Apparently they've started hijacking the event and turning it into a "kids' tea hour" instead.

 

We have varied tastes. . . On some school days, if they're running early, Robert and the kids stop at Starbucks or Blackbird donuts (depending on subway or bike, respectively). We also tried a new all-you-can-eat shabu shabu place in Allston which has a fantastic array of fishballs, and enjoyed an all-you-can-eat sushi with friends and a dim sum with different friends.

 

After a couple years of a women's hockey drought, when none of Robert's cousins were playing on the East Coast, we got to see Lexi play hockey again! We went to two games, the Riveters (best mascot in sports, ever!) vs. the Boston Pride (disappointingly, their mascot is a lion, not a rainbow. Sigh.), in Lower Allston at the new Bruins training center, and we had a fantastic time cheering her on.

 

We celebrated Halloween at various Halloween/Fall events, starting with the Frog Pond Pumpkin Float festival (complete with giant bubble guy and lots of giveaways), continuing with a potluck dinner with friends before walking over to the JP Lantern Parade, and then carving pumpkins with Pop-pop and making pumpkin art to hang on our front door. On Halloween we trick-or-treated up Centre Street and on Dunster Street, with Elliott from E.T., Hermione from Harry Potter, and a purple octopus.

After Halloween, the kids sorted through a giant combined bag of candy, and then a few days later we went to the closing weekend of the zoo's Jack O'Lantern Spectacular festival, for some really cool carved pumpkin sightings. Happy Halloween!

 

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Created: 11/4/18. Last Modified: 11/4/18.