wed, 10/27...day 300

Niall, Cory, and I headed over to the PSCS Fall Potluck this evening after work. We got there about 20 minutes early, the way it worked out with picking them up from Extended Day, getting some dinner, and then driving across I-90 to Seattle.

When we walked in, Steve was there and few other people, and I enjoyed chatting with them a bit. But the boys were immediately drawn to a table near the entrance with cool science stuff - moss, petri dishes growing things, pinecones - and various microscopes. Soon Tanya (staff member/science teacher) came over and began to gently explain to them how to use the microscopes, opening experiments so they could see what was inside, and generally delighting them with science.

The crowning touch was a big fat grub that they got to hold and look at under the microscope. So cool!

It was so heartwarming to see Tanya and the boys exploring science together. Let me just say again how amazing and wonderful the PSCS staff members are! Love them.

Later I caught a cute shot of Tynor and Juliana. Awwww... :D

tue, 10/26...day 299

We don't get many Big Leaf Maple leaves in our yard anymore, now that the Wheats' maple trees are gone.

But one strayed over from somewhere, looking very Fall-like among the dead branches.

mon, 10/25...day 298

Hands down, my favorite Halloween tradition is roasting pumpkin seeds. Ok, I don't like sorting and cleaning them, and it's tricky to get them roasted just right.

But when you can mange that trick, the result is just out of this world.

sun, 10/24...day 297

The light was so pretty on the Japanese Maple out front this morning, I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures.

One of them turned out really nice. Lovely bokeh and everything.

And then...I looked at a full screen version. OH NO! The ISO was still set to 3200 from when I was taking pumpkin carving photos indoors yesterday. Waaaaah. :-(

It was still a pretty photo but MAJOR grain in the nice, blurred background. Sigh.

So I went back outside, with my ISO set properly this time, and took more photos. Of course, none of them was *quite* as good as the first one. But I'm sharing one here anyway. To remind me that it's just not going to be the perfect photo every time. :-)

sat, 10/23...day 296

We had Juliana and Grandma over this afternoon to carve pumpkins. I'm a quick-and-done kind of pumpkin carver, and Cory is the same. We did one together, and then he went off to make paper creations (Quidditch equipment this time :P).

But the others worked a LONG time on their pumpkins, and they turned out great. Tynor and Juliana spent so much time on their designs, the pumpkins weren't finished until the next day! (Tynor finished carving Juliana's for her as it was nearly done.)

fri, 10/22...day 295

When I got to Cory's extended day room today, he and two friends were putting on a puppet show for the youngest kids' extended day group. It was so cute!

They might have been inspired in part by BookIt Theater's visit to the school today. They put on a show, and then did workshops with some of the classes, including Cory's. Wish I could've seen that. Cory loves to act, especially if you take a video of him!:P

thu, 10/21...day 294

Every year, Carmen - the Spanish teacher at TLS - and her students put together a beautiful Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) altar at the school. I think it gets more elaborate and decorated every year - it's just lovely. So colorful and festive.

You always know Halloween is getting close when the altar is up and the sugar skulls are getting decorated!

Sometimes the boys bring photos to school of their great-grandparents to include on the altar. I always look for a few other faces each year as well: Eleanor Siegel, the founder of the school, and Renee Motley-Colbert, a teacher who died unexpectedly about five years ago (she was the same age as I am :-( ).