Declan Hercules & Keevah Nyx House: December 2025

I LOVE Halloween Season! It's the kickoff to all the best holidays of the year, and dressing up is so much fun.

We've all settled into the school year, and I'm really liking 4th grade so far. In addition to my regular classroom work, I was in the school musical, called Encore. It was a review, with one song from each of the prior 19 years of St. John's Lutheran School musicals. I had a lead in "Consider Yourself" from Oliver, and was in about 8 other songs as well in the ensemble. My friends and I have a blast doing these shows, but it is definitely a big time commitment. The whole family is exhausted by the time we conclude our five shows before Thanksgiving! Mama ran the snack bar this year, so that was extra work too, but she nailed it and raised a lot of money for the school.

I'm back in my taekwondo class now after a few months off for the play, and super happy to be perfecting my kicks. I'm also continuing my voice lessons that I started earlier this year.

Declan is surviving 8th grade and actually enjoying it as well. He is applying for high school right now, crazy right??? He's hoping to go to our local private high school, Justin-Siena, but we won't find out until February. He is still doing fencing & running, and loves reading with a passion- he's currently reading the Dune series.

8th and 4th grade school pictures

8th Grade field trip to Levi Stadium

4th grade field trip to Wildlife preserve

The Color Run at School: Our Jog-a-thon fundraiser. Mama made us hose off before coming home!

4th graders!

Twin day with Elizabeth

70s day at school

Declan fundraising with Connie & Haines for 8th grade graduation

Declan fencing

Here are some photos of "Encore" the musical I spent the past few months doing

From Jungle Book, to Newsies

Mary Poppins, & Oklahoma

And Consider yourself!

Dada went to Zambia for work for a few weeks in October - and made the front page of their newspaper after his meeting with the Zambian president.

BUT, we were able to go to the pumpkin patch & get the house decorated before he left. We went to the pumpkin patch in Petaluma, which has a huge corn maze. Read the fine print on the sign as we entered the maze, it's pretty funny!

Then it was time for the Halloween festivities! Friends had a halloween party, and a lot of my classmates were there. The school also had a Trunk-or-Treat, and we did a trunk themed "Wednesday". I was Wednesday Addams, Mama was Morticia, and Dada was Gomez. Declan couldn't make the school event, but he joined as Cousin ITT for Halloween. I LOVED our costumes so much this year (and I, of course, love the show Wednesday), that my birthday party will be Wednesday themed in December!

Trunk or Treat

Declan and friends had a separate costume as the "Founding Fathers", Declan was Hamilton

HAHAHA!!!

The boy gang went to Sonoma and passed out candy & pocket Constitutions!

Halloween Day as the Addams Family

Mama & I made a Char-boo-terie board!

Trick or treat with Mika & Brooklyn

Friend's party with some of my classmates

it was a mermaid & pirate theme! Dada's was the most creative as an Intellectual property pirate!

Dada took us and Declan's friends Tai & Ryder to 6 Flags for Fright Fest - so fun! Declan loves this annual tradition, and this was my first time going!

Sandwiched between all of those festivities, we had a Toga Party! This was our fourth in 14 years, but it had been 7 since the last party. With our pool & new deck finished, it was a good excuse to invite everyone over. We had about 75 people come to spend a fun evening with us! The food & drink was yummy, but the costume contest was my favorite! I'm hoping it won't be 7 years until the next one!

My hair for the party - I'm Nyx, the Greek goddess of night who gives birth to the dawn

Chaos, Nyx, Hercules, & Zeus

Gee & Grandpa joined us as Medusa & Poseidon!

Some friends!

After Halloween, we transitioned to Thanksgiving. We were lucky to have Gran out from Pennsylvania for 10 days, and Gee & Grandpa also joined us for Thanksgiving. We did our regular "Stranded in Napa" Thanksgiving - and had a few other families join us.