Halloween 2020

This year it was just Kuba who dressed up in costume and went trick-or-treating.

He was a ballot box for the Trump-Biden election.

He wore a ballot box that had a spot for either candidate that folks could put candy in.

Nobody voted for Trump.  It was a clear win and a treasure trove of candy.

Anders on the other had, had a movie night/sleepover in the barn with his friends. 
They hunkered down for 2 movies.  It was cold, but they were prepared with tons of sleeping bags and blankets. It was like camping out, but in the barn. They were not short on candy either.

 

Pumpkins

We tried hard to carve all of our pumpkins this year.
We bought extra large ones just to do so.

But the large ones never made it to completion.

The boys cut off the top and cleaned them out.

Then we left them inside to finish but never got that far.

They completely molded and turned to pumpkin mush before halloween.

Luckily - Anna and I finished ours so we still got to experience the beauty of a jack-0-lantern.

This night we also had pizza made in our pizza oven.

 

Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

This summer in the garden, we were graced with so many different kinds of flowers.  Our yard was full.  Zinnia's, sunflowers, and a bunch I can't even name - but they sure were pretty.  I've been filling vases for 5 months. The amount of joy I find in just cutting and filling a vase with color is pretty darn huge.  Even Anders got into it a little bit this summer, and made this ring of tiny vases to fill the table.  Absolutely one of the things I will miss the most about summer, just walking outside with a pair of garden snippers and a vase.  

 

Pandemic Meet

Kuba had his first cross country meet last weekend, despite the pandemic. The only teams running were the 2 Burlington middle schools so there wasn't a huge crowd.  Also, the coaches separated the kids into two heats.  They all ran with navy blue face masks on that said Edmunds Cross Country and the spacing helped keep them apart.    Kuba did pretty well.   He came in at the top of the second heat with a time of 16 minutes for 1.8 miles. It took a little convincing to get him to join this year, but I am so happy he did.  

 

Yippee Ki Yay Yippie Ki Yi

Despite the pandemic, Kuba remains steadfast in his love of theater.

He just finished a new performance called The Frontier Express.  All of the actors wore cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and bandanas as face masks.  It was a little bit hard to hear, but, nevertheless, it was live and on stage.   He played Buck - the good cowboy who saves the day!

Yippee Ki Yay! 

 

Apple Picking

 

Evening Gaming

We've been having fun as a family playing Pokemon on a regular basis now. Anders and Kuba have created 18 different decks from their card collection.  We randomly choose a deck and play away.  Most always it's Kuba who presses for a match, but sometimes it's somebody else.  Anna and I have gotten a lot better at the game and now finally understand a lot of the nuances of the cards and the game. 

The boys have been collecting cards for more than 5 years now and haven't yet grown out of it.  It's just matured and gotten more interesting. I actually think it's a clever game and calls for skill and understanding to play well. I first posted about Pokemon way back in March, 2016.  Here I explained how it all started for the boys.  

Pokemon has been around since 1995 and there are 8 generations of the cards.  The boys didn't join the craze until 20 years after they were created. The executive director of the game thought it was similar to the hobby of insect collecting.  This makes sense to me about why the boys are attracted to it. Both boys have always been fond of animals and insects.   

Here are a few more photos that feature the game or them with Pokemon in some way. Why am I writing about this?  It's because the point of this blog is so that the boys can read about their lives when they are older and all grown up. This is what life with boys is like these days-still playin' Pokemon. And it's been significant enough to write about it.