October 2018

It’s pumpkin season and one of my favorite times of year!

A few weekends ago we went out to Milky Way Farm to pick pumpkins with Dan, Maithili, Kishore, and Ashwini. The farm also makes their own ice cream, which is amazing, so we waiting in a seriously long line afterward as our reward. It was worth it.

The kid crew at the pumpkin patch.

Sophie and Kishore decided to go to a part of the pumpkin patch where no one else was – to find the perfect pumpkins of course. They held hands the entire walk, it was really sweet. They also came back with arms overflowing with pumpkins, so I guess it was worth the walk.

Afterward we headed back to our place to do some carving.

Serious work here.

Sophie also got some good quality time in with Kish and Ash.

 

Second cousin snuggles and story hour.

I should have taken a picture of our pumpkins when they were all finished, but forgot, and now it’s too late because the stupid squirrels in our neighborhood ate them down to their stems! I couldn’t believe it. They were decimated in about two days. Next year we’ll keep the real ones inside and get some indestructible ones for outdoor decorating.

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On Sunday we celebrated my Nana’s 93rd birthday with a party at Doug and Vicki’s house. Nana just got back from a two month trip to Scotland, Sicily, and Greece. Not too shabby for a 93-year-old. Doug and Vicki were with her in Scotland, and then Diane and Richard were with her in Sicily and Greece. She doesn’t fly any more, so she took the Queen Mary II back and forth between New York and London.

Here’s the birthday lady. Looking dapper coming right from church to the party.

Becky, mom, and me with Nana.

 

She had a little help from the grandkids to blow out the candles.

Ari, Nana, Sophie, Lauren, Kishore, and Ashwini. What a cute crew!

More pics from the day – Becky and me, and mom with her grandkids

Earlier in the day we also went and visited Pappap’s grave at Valley Forge Park. He was buried there eight years ago, but never had a headstone. The kids and grandkids all chipped in and had one made, and it was just placed last weekend, so we all went to see it.

Although it took a while, it was really good to see and felt like good closure for everyone.

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Sophie decided to run for Student Council this year, representing her 3rd grade class. Each student who wanted to run wrote a speech and the teacher read each out loud to the class and everyone then voted. And Sophie won!

Below is the speech that she wrote (with perhaps just a little prompting from mom):

Hello 3D,

I hope that you will vote for me as your student council representative because I am an older sibling and I know it feels to have to negotiate. I am also good at making people feel like they belong. In addition, I am good at talking with others about things that are happening and listening to their concerns. I think that Cynwyd is a great place because it’s a school that doesn’t tolerate hate, and I’m proud to go here. I love being in 3D because everybody is so kind and I would be honored to represent 3D on student council. That’s why I think you should vote for me as 3D’s representative.

She was proud of herself, and we were too!

Here’s the third grader herself in her school picture (perhaps a little dazed looking).

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The girls are both settled into their school routines and for Lauren that means that field trips start. Kindergarten is the culmination year for Montessori students and the kindergarteners take a field trip once a month. I was chaperone for the first one, which was to a Colonial Plantation at Ridley State Park. The plantation is run just as it was in the 1700’s (with the excepting of working toilets, fortunately).

Here’s Lauren performing one of the traditional children’s chores – chopping wood. I can say with certainty that if we needed to rely on our kids for warmth we would be dead.

They also made their own candles by dipping a wick into a pot of melted bee’s wax (about a hundred times).

The Plantation also had a bunch of animals that the kids got to see and pet.

 

Chickens, turkeys, and an enormous ox. The ox works the fields just as he would have hundreds of years ago. Fortunately they don’t eat any of the animals any more.

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On September 30th, Dave, our friend Don, and I all did the Waterman’s triathlon in Rock Hall, MD. This was my first tri ever. Dave had done a few in high school, and Don has been doing them the last several years. We all did the sprint distance, which was a 750M swim, 15 mile bike ride, and a 5K run.

Dave and I trained a bit over the summer, mostly running and biking. We both had gotten very few swims in. I was extremely nervous about it – he was totally chill. We were fortunate enough to have the most amazing weather possible.

The three of us before the start. I wore a full wetsuit because I really didn’t want to get cold. It was surprisingly easy to swim in and did the trick.

Here is Dave and Don’s group,  men 44 and under, before the swim start. I went with the last group, which was novice of all ages.  I hated going last because my only thought was that I was the last person on the course! Even though I really struggled on the swim, luckily I was still able to pass some people (though not many!).

Next up was the bike. No video of me, but below is one of Dave coming in from the bike to run transition. Bike is both Dave and my strongest leg, and we both did pretty well.

Dave bike

Last leg was the run. Transitioning from the bike to the run is a bit like running in jello, at least for the first quarter mile or so. I was very wobbly, but kicked it into high gear. So did Dave and Don (although I wasn’t there to witness it, apparently there was some close competition on the run between those two).

Below are videos of both of us coming over the finish line.

Dave Finish

Jess Finish

We all ended up doing really well!

Dave came in 54th overall man and 6th in his age group with a time of 1:27:27

Don came in 65th overall man and 7th in his age group with a time of 1:29:23.

I came in 36th overall woman and I WON the novice group with a time of 1:40:20.

With my first place trophy (a wooden boat wheel)!

It was so much fun. I think we definitely have another one in our future!

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