Declan Hercules: Atlanta, a Pink Toga Party, and The Great Pumpkin is coming!

The Great Pumpkin is coming!  It's coming! It's coming!  ...but not to it's coming to Mexico instead of Napa!   We are going to Mexico to celebrate Dia de los Muertos next week.  I've been learning all about Mexican culture.  We have put up an Altar and an "ofrenda" in our house, and I can't wait to see all the traditions in person.  All of that is for next blog post, but we still have had a busy month doing all our normal Fall & Halloween things here.  

Our newly installed Altar or "family wall"  - Each row represents one generation.  Keevah and I are in the middle in the second-to-last row - with all our cousins alongside us.  The dude at the tippy-top is my maternal great-great-great-great--great-grandfather, Benjamin Colton.  

Me and Keevah with Miss Laura in front of our Altar for Dia de los Muertos

We started the month with a quick trip to Atlanta for Mama's annual ENT Academy meeting.  We spent the weekend with Dada's childhood friend, Mr. Noah and his family.  Dada and Mr. Noah met when they were about my age and have been bestest of friends since then!  He has a little boy, Benjamin, and hopefully we will be friends forever too!  I got to see Olympic Park, with the cool fountains and Ferris Wheel too.  We had a bit of a crazy departure, spending all day at the airport due to TWO separate engine failures (one of which occurred upon takeoff!!!), and eventually returning to Mama's hotel to spend an extra night in Atlanta!  Dada couldn't compliment me enough cause I was so brave and so patient the whole day!  

Noah, Emily, Mama and Dada;  then Olivia, Elizabeth, Benjamin, and Me

Me and Benjamin (age 7) recreating a photo of Dada and Mr. Noah from over 30 years ago!

                          Dada & Mr. Noah circa 1986

Me with Dada, and Mr. Noah with Benjamin

Olympic Park in Atlanta

With Mama and Auntie Kristi (she's ENT too!) at Olympic Park

The restaurant in Atlanta had a putting green!

At dinner with Mama, Dada and Mama's colleagues

Thomas Jefferson!

While I was in Atlanta with Mama and Dada, Keevah Nyx spent the weekend with Gee & Grandpa.  She loved the park - all set up with tons of bouncy houses!  

Keevah and Gee at Smedberg Park (family relative on Gee's side)

Bouncy House fun!

Pumpkin castle!

Feeding the duckies with Grandpa (or Papa, since Keevah refuses to call him Grandpa!)

Keevah with Pinky Bear.  Mama got Pinky as a gift when she was one DAY old!

We returned from Atlanta just in time to get organized for Mama's toga party.   We threw the party to celebrate the end of her Breast Cancer journey, and have been planning for many months!  Everything was perfect - the twinkle lights in the trees, the Greek columns, yummy Greek food, awesome costumes, music, and so many of our friends and family. Everyone had to include something in their costume to promote breast cancer awareness.   I spent the night tending to our roaring firepit, and running around with my friend Haines (until we eventually crashed to watch a movie).  

Mama as the Greek Goddess Aceso - Goddess of the Healing Process

My whole family (with our little pink items on our costumes as a nod to Breast Cancer awareness)

Mama with Gee 

Granddad & Boppy

Hercules!!!

Nyx - Goddess of Night, who gives birth to the Dawn

Mama with more friends - including some who flew in from Minneapolis

Mama with Dr. Steve and Dr. Lois - her ENT partners

Mama's hospital colleagues

So many great friends!

Dada with Dr. Jessy; I couldn't leave the party to go to bed, so I fell asleep right in the middle of the action

 Though we aren't going to be in the US for Halloween, there was Trick or Treating at BOTH my school (called Trunk or Treat because everyone decorated their car trunks!)  and in the shops in downtown Napa. So, we got to get all dressed up in costume after all!   I went as Harry Potter (again!), and Sissy went as the Great Pumpkin.  She's wearing a costume that Gee made for Mama when Mama was about 5 years old!  It still looks great, and Keevah loved it!  

Downtown Napa

Uncle Ben & Mama circa 1982

Napa Riverfront

With Gee & Grandpa

At Mt. George's (my school) Trunk or Treat evening

Cute little pumpkin

Harry Potter mixing potions

It's hard to eat a donut with NO hands!

Keevah found her old costume and had to try it on!  It fit shockingly well...just a bit short!

Keevah Halloween 2016

This weekend, Gee & Grandpa are in Napa since Mama is on call and Dada is in Havana for a "boys trip".  We got to carve pumpkins with them!  I started with a ridiculously complicated skeleton holding a sword, and eventually settled on the classic jack-o-lantern!  Keevah wanted a kitty cat, so Mama carved one for her...complete with a spooky spider!  

Keevah Nyx refused to touch the "guts"!

Grandpa was a good supervisor!

Old school jack-o-lantern

My classic jack-o-lantern

Mama made a kitty for Keevah

Finally - we have been loving our leaf piles in the back yard!

We love Fall!

Keevah Nyx: Fall is coming!

Hello friends and followers! 

Can you believe it's October already?  We had another great month at the House household.  I'm in a new preschool at the Napa Community College and am loving it.  It was time for a change, and though Mama and Dada were nervous about the switch, it couldn't have been easier for me!  I love my new school, and make sure to tell whoever is driving me each morning to go to my new school and not my old school!  I'm not even speaking in sentences, I'm speaking in paragraphs and essays at this point - they can't get me to stop!  Though  I continue my fierce independent streak, I still copy everything that "Quacken does".  Though I can say Declan, I generally refer to him as Quacken still, and will keep my motives secret for now.  

I'm excited to share our October plans with everyone, but first, we went to Monterey and Carmel in September with the Romps family.  I absolutely love water and sand, and fishies and especially sharks, so I had an amazing time! 

Family in Carmel

Mama and Quacken

Hitchin' a ride

Burying big brother

My turn!

Sand Angels!

Checking out the tidepools

Family hike

I dressed myself:  swimsuit, tennis shoes with socks, sun hat, a random feather, and an awesome hiking stick

Love my brother!

Cheese!

Siblings!

Posing

The men in my life

Declan with our teepee of drift wood

Dennis the Menace playground!

Monterey Bay Aquarium

My favorite - Sharks!!!

And guess what?????  Fall is here, and the Great Pumpkin is coming.  So, we had to prepare and get ourselves to the pumpkin patch!  We had a great time on the hay pyramid, the slides and the hay maze.  My Dada couldn't resist me, so I picked out way too many pumpkins to bring home!  

Rolling pumpkins down a hill

And of course, when we got home, it was time to decorate!

Two mummies!  I found out the hard way that their eyes glow at night! Yikes!

Another really cool treat this month was a special VIP tour of our fire station.  Mama and Dada's good friend, Mr. Joe, works there...and he arranged for us to go behind the scenes to explore the fire trucks and the station. 

That coat and hat were HEAVY!

Declan & Mr. Joe

And finally, here are a few extra random photos. 

Watching a movie with Quacken - I secretly love him so so so so much, he takes such good care of me.  But it's more fun to just pretend that I can do everything myself!

Declan is still taking piano lessons and getting better & better!  Here's him with Gee. 

His favorite song is Ode to Joy, and he plays it over and over and over and over and over and over and over, every chance he gets!

Stay tuned!  We have a trip to Atlanta, Mama's toga party, and our vacation to Mexico for Dia de los Muertos coming up this month!