October 26, 2009

• What a busy weekend! Though not quite as busy as it should have been.

  On Saturday morning I went to the Christ Chapel Christmas Cantata "retreat" (i.e. a long rehearsal when the various sections break up and practice their respective parts, plus eat lunch), then that afternoon Jessica, Zhenya, the poppets and I drove south to Mainstay Farm for one of its annual October "pumpkin days." 

  The first thing one comes upon is the hay bale area.  Both girls and Jessica enthusiastically joined the others who were jumping and leaping around it; here's Jessica tossing hay at Brianna:

  

  Zhenya and I were far too dignified for such shenanigans, of course.

  Being "pumpkin days" there were pumpkins aplenty:

  

  There were some plug-ugly pumpkins, and that's a fact.  Brianna was most disappointed when Gran resolutely refused to purchase a pumpkin, despite her wiles:

  

  To be honest, I'd found the tiny pumpkins cute but couldn't find prices for them, and the line at the gift shop counter was long.  This is one of my favorite photos, taken of Bridgette and Zhenya:

  

  There was face-painting, which I balked at when told it was $6 and one needed a coupon, purchased from that same counter.  BION, a nice man had a kid who refused to have his face painted after all, so he generously gave the ticket to Brianna.  It took a long wait (only one girl was on face-painting duty at a time), but eventually it was her turn:

  

  

  A butterfly!  At least it didn't as long as the popular Spiderman, which really took forever as it covered the whole face.  Frankly, six bucks seems out of line for face painting, though considering the line, many people are willing to pay it.

  That evening was the 1969 senior class of Nolan Catholic High School's 40th reunion, held at La Playa Maya in the Stockyards.  Great turnout, considering the small size of the class!  (At the time, Nolan was much smaller; I seem to recall there were not quite 100 seniors that year.)  Mom, guess who came all the way from Boston?

   

  Yup, Laura Snakard!  When I began Nolan in my sophomore year, she was the only one I knew.  ;^)

  Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I much enjoyed meeting up with those I knew back then.  Nikki Massey (as she was then) did a stellar job chasing as many people down as she could and getting them to come.  She even had commemorative mugs for us (a nice touch, I thought).

  On Sunday afternoon we had intended to go to the Boo at the Zoo!, but shortly before we were to leave both girls showed up with temperatures, and Bridgette had been complaining about her stomach earlier.  I went completely brain-dead and totally forgot to call Alex, who had driven back from Houston with his family, dropped his mother-in-law off in Farmer's Branch, got the girls in costume, and rushed to Fort Worth's zoo.  To find none of us there. 

  Very embarrassing, it was.  Why I didn't immediately call him, I can't think.  He'd have already been almost here, but at least it'd have been ME calling HIM, instead of HIM calling ME, wondering where we were.  He and Beth kindly drove over, staying outside due to the sickies in the house, so we could admire the girls in their costumes:

  

  Isn't Hannah the darlingest little Japanese girl you ever saw?    She'd been reluctant to wear the kimono until a friend gave her the chopsticks to put in her hair.  And here's Faith in her pirate outfit, held by Alex:

  

  Most of the time, of course, she refuses to wear the cap.  Why don't little girls like to wear hats, caps, and scarves?  They look so cute! 

  Today was supposed to be Bridgette's first day at the McKinney Memorial Bible Church's preschool (Monday and Wednesday), but she was still running a bit of a fever, and Brianna as well, so no one went anywhere.  Well, I took Bridgette with me to SuperTarget to get her our of Jessica's hair for a little bit, then ran a couple of errands, but that's about it. 
    
  Hope they girls get well ASAP, seeing as how Halloween is this weekend!  Bridgette's too young to care, but Brianna's not, and having been unable to go to Boo at the Zoo! yesterday, is bound and determined to wear her costume and do some serious trick-or-treating on Saturday. 

  • 9:20 pm
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