Halloween

Cold night to go trick or treat. Brave souls don't mind as they are always looking for candy! Happy Halloween!

lunch ladies in their finest outfits

cold night

neighbors ready to hand out candy

pumpkin alley

end result: more sugar than any would ever need

First Snow

Today is Halloween. Instead of fallen leaves, here is snow!

Trunk or Treat

Sophie enjoyed spending time at school for trunk or treat.

Beware of the witch with her broom!

Mariya & Sophie having fun getting candy!

Backyard

Most likely last weekend before frost. Time to winterize the backyard and finish projects.

First project: powerwash the house. Alex was all over that!

Second: stain the pergola. Alex was not as enthusiastic
after an hour. Not sure Papa enjoyed it very much seeing this face!

In the meantime, Sophie played snack truck

and read in the sunshine while the boys worked hard

Chess

Game of chess. Que le meilleur gagne !

Did you notice anything? Alex got his braces off!!!

Good game!

Race

Last cross country meet in the books. Alex' middle school won!

3-mile race: 16:47 mn best time of the season for Alex

So proud of our athlete!

Artwork

Sophie is quite the artist. Here is some of her artwork from school. More on Artsonia.

She already knows that artists sometimes struggle to make ends meet and is planning on living in Alex' basement / art-studio when she grows up. Provided that Alex becomes a neurosurgeon!

kindergarten

1st grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

4th grade

Fall

Fall weather is definitely here. Leaves are turning into beautiful colors.

Snake

A walk in the park sometimes involves some interesting creatures along the way.

Hello copperhead!

Time to move away from the bike path,
onto nature path, little buddy!

Leaves are starting to turn

Haunt

Halloween at World's of Fun features Haunt Fest. If you want to see hundreds of teenagers hoping to get scared on a Saturday night, this is the place to be. Alex was in his element there. Sophie, well not so much.

Sleep over

Sophie loves it when her BFF Lilly comes for a sleep over.

Goofballs at the table

Who knew that eating phở was so much fun!

Fire pit time

Kids and sticks...

Pictures of feet at the beach: over-rated.
Same picture by the fire pit: awesome, right?

Walk by the school on a beautiful fall day

Battle of the Brains

Sophie participated in Battle of the Brains at school this year. Check out their project. If her school wins, it will be displayed at Science City!

Up, up and away!

Fall Fest

Annual pilgrimage to Bethel College to attend Fall Fest.

Welcome to Bethel College! Papa went to school there!

Eating ethnic Mennonite food, listening to jazz band,
meeting with friends and family

Photo-bomber here

It only took 20 pictures to get one where no one moves.
What did we do before digital cameras?!?

Long jump

Beautiful fall day

And to finish off the day well, checking out Braum's
ice cream where cousin John works part-time

Salt Mine

How do you get to be 650' underground in Kansas? By heading to Hutchinson to visit the Salt Mine Museum! Remember, this was an ocean before - way before papa and maman were born.

Welcome to Strataca!

Old equipment from the 1940'

Waiting to go underground

Salt everywhere! Constant 70 degree weather is awesome
to preserve stuff, including movie tapes and artifacts.

Not sure we want to be miners...

See you at our next stop!

Lawrence

After the cross country meet, we headed to nearby Lawrence. Boy, we could tell we were in Jayhawks country as everyone was wearing blue shirts. Maman being the sports fanatic you all know -NOT, we headed to WheatFields bakery and of course had to eat Vietnamese.

Amazing bakery. Alex loved the brioche bun.
Sophie had a chocolate cookie.

Almost as good as in France.

Humongous toy store. Unicorns, anyone?

Little Saigon Café: best little hole in the wall to eat phở