Sun & Friends & Halloween

School starts mid-August, so by September we are settling into our routine - when to leave the house, where to go, how much time we need for homework, and how to earn a pajama day from Mr. Draven:

I also made a concerted effort to let Brennan have an actual party reasonably close to his actual birthday this year, instead of just having him invite 2 buddies over for a movie and sleepover night and calling it good.  I took a Subaru-load of boys to the Westfield movie theater, handed them tickets for Fast & Furious Part 27 and a half, or whatever sequel it's up to now, bought them some junk food, and shuttled them home 2.5 hours later for pizza and video games.

Fall is the best beach time in San Franciso:

whether it's playing ball with Roux -

Shell hunting with friends -

Or - now that Brennan's school is so close to the ocean - just a before-school beach walk:

We had a nice day for the Cole Valley Fair, too -

Lucie was super excited to meet up with school friends and run wild, wasting money on cookies and stickers.  Brennan was also excited to meet up with friends, but he disappeared to someone's house and they probably spent as much time playing video games as they could get away with.

I had a dentistry seminar in San Diego mid-October, and it was a pretty gorgeous weekend there as well.  It would have been better to have my crew along for the trip, but I made the best of it and used my little bit of free time to enjoy stuff the kids wouldn't want to do, like walk in Balboa Park (which is seriously so lovely I'm embarrassed to have never gone to, despite 3 prior trips to San Diego) -

- eat Baja style fish tacos for dinner EVERY NIGHT - 

- or sit and watch the sunset.

Since I came to my senses and decided to fly, rather than drive most of the length of California solo, I got home in time to enjoy the last day of the Columbus/Indigenious Peoples Day weekend.  Since the 3 of us had the day off, it seemed as good a time as any to head to Sonoma County to try one of the massive pumpkin patches.

This was our first try at a corn maze - we tried for the longer route, but must have missed a turn, or made a path of our own and merged into the short path, and found ourselves back at the start point about 20 minutes later.

I briefly campaigned to start over, and then gave up because it was hot, and approaching lunch time, and they really prefer to bounce on whatever this thing is -

- or use a hydraulic cannon to fire tiny pumpkins at junker cars

- or shop for extravagant candy apples.

We celebrated the end of an era, with a final trip to the California Academy of Sciences before our membership lapsed.  

For years it was a favorite spot - a great place to burn toddler energy in the play room, warm up in the rainforest when it's wet and grey outside, wonder at pretty fish and giant planetarium shows, or just enjoy the half hour of peace that an over-priced bowl of mac & cheese will buy.  But as the kids have grown and their days have filled with school and sports and friends, we just weren't going much any more.

We had a good run, from October 2008 -

- to October 2019.

And we had farewell cupcakes:

Thanks to a tip from a co-worker, I found a riding instructor who is willing to put up with my screwy schedule, so Lucie is back the saddle this fall!  We only have to drive to Pacifica, her teacher is really nice, AND I don't wake up at 4 am wondering how I can afford it, so that's nice, too.

Of course, the real highlight of fall is Halloween!  We showed off our questionable parenting skills by  letting Lucie dress up as one of her heroes, Eleven from Stranger Things, the fairly age-inappropriate TV show we watch as a family. 

And doubled down by getting Brennan this costume, a straightjacket-burlap sack combo (it's a Batman villain called Scarecrow) that both obscured his vision and completely restricted the use of his hands when fully dressed.  He managed to trick-or-treat by keeping his arms under the jacket and sticking his hands under the bottom.

And, of course, there's soccer from September to November.

Unfortunately, my big camera died again early in the season, already having outlived its planned obsolescence by a few years, so my ability to get decent action shots was very limited.

Due to Walter the Chihuahua's bad eating choices, I missed both kid's last games in favor of some emergency gut surgery.  Thanks to another parent, we at least have video of Brennan's assist on the Championship winning goal for the Gorillas.

Now we're on to Thanksgiving break - which for us usually means it's beach and taco time...