Last Day of Hanukkah

Rachel has been learning about holidays around the world at school. Yesterday she asked if we could invite ourselves over to some Jewish friend's house so she could try some latkes. Well, I decided to try to make them at home with this result, lol!

Halloween in Outer Space

Every year the symphony puts on a Halloween concert for kids where costumes are encouraged for adults and kids. This year the theme was Outer Space...of course Cho Chang put in a appearance too.

Indian pow-wow

We attended the annual Indian pow-wow in mid-October at one of our favorite parks, Long Hunter State Park. It was during Rachel's school fall break and her friend Coco came along. The girls enjoyed shopping for Indian crafts, hanging out in the teepee, and trying some Indian tacos with fry bread. It was a most beautiful fall day!

Rachel's new activity

Our little "horse" is almost halfway through third grade, can you believe it?! She is in choir, tennis, and has been taking horse back riding lessons for a few months now. She is learning how to ride English saddle (no saddle horn to hold onto). It is quite a workout but Rachel loves it and her teacher says she is a natural!

40 is the new 20!

Hello All,

I thought it had been 5 years since my last update but it turns out it's only been 3 years. I guess time just kind of blends together as you get older..?

I'm putting up some pics from my fabulous 40th b-day party. We had chocolate cake, white cheesecake, chocolate marble cheesecake, and 2 carrot cakes. Flowers courtesy of Will and Mag. Wish you all could have been there. Here's to at least 40 more years!!!

Yeh-yeh and nai-nai's visit

Yeh-yeh and nai-nai came to visit us last weekend. As usual, they helped me a lot with my garden and yard. They each came to hear the symphony play Beethoven's 5th (duh duh duh duuuh!). On Saturday we went to an Arts and Craft's Fair where Rachel got to try bowl making and weaving. On Sunday we celebrated Moon Festival with some collegues in the symphony (food, mah-jong, and mooncakes). Monday we visited Rachel's school where Yeh-yeh did an Er-hu demonstration for Rachel's class and Rachel got to show her kung-fu fan prowess (see Yeh-yeh's NEW blog http://www.bloomington-heritage.blogspot.com). While Rachel was in school, we went to see a calligraphy exhibit at the downtown library and also a private collection of Chinese landscape painting at the Frist Art Museum. A trip to Costo to get supplies laid in for their upcoming Taiwan trip and a peek at Rachel's ballet class rounded out a full day! After a day of relative rest Tuesday (which ended with a rousing game of Go Fish), we had to say our goodbyes. As Rachel and I headed to school, Yeh-yeh and Nai-nai headed back home to Indiana on Wednesday after a fun-filled visit.

New friends from eakin

The weekend before last, we had some new friends over for a picnic lunch and playdate. Agatha is in Rachel's kindergarten class, her brother Peter goes to 1st grade at the same school, and her little sister Esther is still learning to roll over (she is about the same age as Bryson). Viera and Michel came from Slovakia and Michel is working on his PhD in chemistry at Vanderbilt University. Their family reminds me of ours while daddy was in school, except the kids are in reverse order. As you can see, the kids had a good time trying out Rachel's violin and playing together.