Halloween 2017

Halloween was pretty laid back again this year. No trick or treating and not even a big party. 

But we managed to celebrate and get thru this first holiday without my mom.  This summer in Guatemala we learned that Day of the Dead is a big holiday there. I had thought it was just a Mexican Holiday, and given the loss and death in our family this year it seemed really fitting for us to actually celebrate it at home. We set up an altar at home in our dining room:

Pictures of our recently departed cat Nali and Grandma Barbie were at the top along with some decorations.

Underneath were pictures of Becky and my grandparents (except Grandpa Moyer, we don't have a picture of him), and our cat Bryce, who died several years ago, and Ally's hamster Penguin who did earlier this year.  It was really comforting to have this up and see our loved ones. Día de las Muertes is a celebration of ancestors and loved ones who have died. It is commonly a party honoring the dead, with special food and shared memories. 

We had Alice and her mom over for dinner. It was great to spend some time with them.

We also had Clemens and Daniela's families over for chili dinner and pumpkin carving. 

Clemens, Ally, Nina, Sofía, Elena and Daniela (seated). 

The carving creations!

On the 30th Ally had ballet class. Most of the girls (ok all of them but her) dressed up in costume.

That night Ally and Becky painted pumpkins in Day of the Dead motifs.

Then on Halloween night Ally went to practice for a few hours.

After practice she took a bath with a special jack o lantern bath bomb. Ally wasn't feeling great and spent the rest of the evening watching tv in bed. Several of her friends stopped by to say hello. Below she is with Willow (a taxi cab) and Catalina (a spy), maya and Olive also came by. We are glad and grateful that Ally has such good friends. 

Our local Natural History museum had its annual Day of the Dead event on Saturday this year. We picked Ally up from practice early so we could all go together. It is a tradition that we go, this is our 6th year attending and Ally was pretty insistent about going. 

Turns out Ally wanted to write a message to Grandma Barbie at the altar. 

The altar is set up to write messages to loved ones who have passed on. It had an exceptionally special and poignant meaning for us all this year. 

This 2nd altar was set up as a memorial to people who have been affected by natural disasters this year. Ally spent some quiet time with it as well. 

No crafts, or music or face painting. We went for the altars. 

After the event we stopped for FroYo and ingredients for dinner. Becky made delicious rice, beans and homemade tortillas for dinner. After dinner we shared memories of our family in the picture on our altar. Bryce, Nali, lots of grandparents, and Penguin too.  

I look forward to this new family tradition and celebration. It felt really good. 

Growing Up

Not quiet 11 but old enough to go in and buy frozen yogurt, or fro-yo as she calls it, all by herself.

After school Ally asked if we could go get fro yo. It's her favorite treat. We have a local shop in Harvard Square. Parking can be tough so I pulled up about 10 yards away and sent her in with cash to buy herself some. 

She ran across the street so fast I couldn't snap a picture of that, but here she is walking towards the car with her fro-yo.

Her standard is the original flavor, which is tart vanilla with gummy bears and chocolate chips.

 What a happy girl.

The usual

Ally received a set of the Hunger Games trilogy and tonight she finished book 1! To our surprise she really liked it. 

She's read most of it at bedtime over the last week. She's starting to stay up late reading. It's so hard to discourage her from reading and insist she go to sleep when she is this excited about a book.

Ally is really into reading right now. She and her friends have been going to the library before school. The librarian has been suggesting books and Ally's having so much fun. 

Eating her favorite pizza with her dog in her lap.

Ally got this really fun bag from her friend Khai in London. 

Ally went to Alice's birthday party.

She's definitely got some attitude. She has her ears plugged so she can't hear me sing along to the music in the car.

Ballet had a parent watch class. Becky took these to show me. We just love to see Ally dance. She is so beautiful and graceful and elegant.

And oh so fashion conscious right now.

Pets

Here are some recent pictures of Ally and our pets.

Yes Carl is giant.


On a nature hike with Cloey.

At home with Cloey.

 

Reading and sleeping with Nali.

There has been a lot of  Ally sleeping in our bed lately. Nali loves to sleep with Ally and it's helped her sleep. She and me are missing my mom a lot lately. 

Salon at Home

This summer Ally had some of her hair dyed blue. Because of the dark color her hair is naturally the salon bleached it and then colored it. The blue color fades over time. We had it re-dyed once at the salon and then our stylist Feri showed me how to do it at home. Ally has been hesitant to let me do it but this weekend she agreed. 

Becky was a huge help and acted as my assistant. We wrapped the locks in foil like at the salon so the color wouldn't drop everywhere. 

Waiting 30 minutes for the color to set.

Rinsing out the dye in the kitchen sink.

And drying the dyed hair.

It's hard to see the color in pictures. It came out great! We didn't stain anything in our house and Ally loves it! 

After her hair dying we completed the beauty work by shaping her eyebrows. Yes you read that right. A few weeks ago Ally told me she was self conscious about her eyebrows. So I contacted Feri our stylist and she met us after hours and showed me how to tweeze Ally's eyebrows so they are nicely shaped and cleaned up. Ally is so happy with the results and hopefully I can keep it up. We are so very thankful to have Feri to help us with this.

Beauty and tween years are tough. 

Here she is after school today. It was a hot sweaty humid day. 

Pennsylvania Trip

In late August Ally and Becky flew to Philadelphia to spend a few days with Grandma Debbie and Poppy Dave. They had fun tubing, grilling out and making s'mores over the fire pit, crafting, playing games and they went tubing again on the Brandywine River.

Becky said Hershey Park was probably not the best amusement park for Ally. Most rides were either too little kid or too crazy for Ally. I guess they spent a long time wandering looking for a good ride for Ally, once they found one they rode it 3 times! They did the bumper cars, the chocolate tour and Ally played in the Splash Park. 

The trip itself was fun for all of them, but Hershey Park wasn't the highlight. Spending time together and tubing were the favorites.