November

The leaves looked so nice outside that we did a photo shoot.  Luke was not thrilled about it.  

Anna was cooperative.

When we got back inside Luke was in a better mood and asked me to take more pictures.

Most of the time, Oliver is wherever we are. He likes to be part of the scene.  The kids were eating cookies and candy because I had to bribe them with Halloween candy for the photo shoot.

Luke just looked so darn handsome doing his homework that I took a picture.

A snowy day.  

October

Lukey turned 8!  He had some friends over the weekend before his birthday. Luckily it didn't rain and they were able to play outside.  It was so busy that I didn't even think about taking pictures during the party.  Too much craziness.  He had soccer practice on his birthday proper, but on the next day, he had family over for pizza and cake.  

This is how Anna and Lukey spend a lot of their time.  They like Geronimo Stilton books a lot right now.

Trick or treating in Plymouth with Leah and Juliet

We went to a birthday/halloween party that we all dressed up for.  Tim was dressed up as a ?? Maybe a lion tamer? Freddie Mercury? I found these pants for him in the morning on the day of the party on a rack of past recital costumes at Anna's dance place.  They looked good with his moustache.

Our pumpkins looked great this year!  From left to right-Luke's, Tim's, Mommy's and Anna's.  Luke carved his all on his own this year.

Anna at her school parade.  

Luke dashing by at the parade.

Anna's class

Luke making slime at his party.

Before going trick or treating.  We were out almost the entire trick or treating time this year.  It was a nice night out.  

Earlier this year, Chester passed away.  We were very sad about it.  He was a great cat.  We visited the DIA a few weeks ago and they had offendas on display for Dia de los meurtos.  We decided that to celebrate this year too and set the offrenda for Chester.  Ralph E. and Dash were there too.  This way, they were able to cross over and visit for a few days.  

Oliver misses Chester.  He meows more than he used to.  

Anna's duet concert

A few weeks ago, Anna played in a duet concert for piano.  The videos I took are horrible but you can hear what a good job they did!  Her and Tiffany, the other girl that she played with, went to the last few minutes of each others classes for a few weeks before the concert.  They had a lot of fun together.

Anna got pierced!

Anna decided that she was ready to get her ears pierced.  She started to ask about it often so I got her an appointment and she did it!  She was very brave about it.  I held her hands while they pierced her and she barely flinched.  She said it hurt less than she thought it would.  So far she's had no problems!

I did some research and decided that I'd rather her get the piercing done by a needle than a piercing gun.  So, instead of going to the mall as we originally planned, we went to a piercing studio in Ann Arbor. It was very nice. They were very nice and took her through the whole process of what would be done and how to take care of her ears afterwards.  It was also very clean and we went in a separate room where Disney music was playing while it was being done.  Good for her personality because she wouldn't want to be on display in front of a bunch of people for something like this.  Cool experience.  Her ears didn't even look red at all afterwards and we haven't had any issues yet at all.  

Two piercers were there so both ears could be done at the same time.  

She picked out these opal earrings.  They are very pretty!  She loves them.  They're cool because they have a flat back so they won't bother her while she's sleeping.  

Back to School

This school year is off to a good start.  The kids have teachers they like and friends in their classes.  

Lukey and Anna's parents go to Croatia

We walked from the cruise port to Old Town, Dubrovnik.  It was a lovely walk.  

Parts of Game of Thrones were filmed in Dubrovnik.  A lot of the Kings Landing scenes.  This is Lovrijenac Fortress, the Red Keep, and the site of the Battle of Blackwater.

This fountain might be part of Game of Thrones.  Not sure. 

The Old Town area was pretty cool.  It was surrounded by walls that we walked through.  People live in here.  And there's shops, farmers markets, etc.

The nearby island of Lokrum is Qarth from GoT.

The walk of shame stairs from Game of Thrones.

A view of Old Town from Lovrijenac Fortress.