Day 209

Matteo is the first one to leave for school in the morning, by an hour. He's taken to making breakfast for himself, and for Lexi (who often gets up early), and even for the other sibs who happen to get up early enough, too. Nana, Papa, and Matteo went to Basil & Barley Pizzeria Napoletana. He had one of the best "pepperoni" pizzas I've seen and tasted (extremely thin-cut meat). Also learned that a Limoncello Martini and a Limoncello Long Island are pretty good, too. Oh, and don't miss the pesto lasagna. The popcorn pictured at the end below is for Fina's Homecoming Party tomorrow evening which is now full steam ahead. Most of the adults watched the VP debate; Jamie listened to Prager's lectures on Exodus 21.

Day 208

Happy Dance! Fina's cohort's COVID test can back "un-detected." The Homecoming Party is on! Another great brunch at Buttermilk. Matteo came home (after a dodgeball after-school activity) with a Samaritan's Purse Christmas Child box. This looks like fun! Jamie's God Is Good course finished up with the Ten Commandments this evening. Recordings and slides-notes from all sessions are available at the link. Reminder: schedule a mini-golf outing with Jonny (he is dying to go).

Day 207

Back to school Monday. Homecoming Party prep continues; they are go unless a positive COVID test erupts. The baby keeps playing. Lunch was from a new pizza place that we like: Parry’s Pizzeria & Taphouse. Tracy ran up to Denver today to ship off MRIs to Dr. Grant (Stanford). And Lynn got a clean bill of health from a cardiac specialist checking up on a potential hereditary issue. AJ joined Papa at the fire again tonight. They chatted mostly about the immensity of the universe and about rovers sent to Mars. AJ explained (correctly) why the moon looks so much bigger than the stars even though the stars are much bigger than the moon.

Basket Case

Day 206

After church in the morning, we had a quick lunch and were off to the Colorado Pumpkin Patch. It was a youth outing for TimberCreek, to which the whole fam damily went. As they say, a great time was had by all. All the photos from the pumpkin patch are here (133).

Pick-up time after service,

Day 205

 Today we had the Sunday School teachers luncheon/picnic at our house! Got some reading time in. Check out Tracy's photo of the three boys with casts and braces. Four of us visited The Screening Room A/V downtown to check out theatre room equipment; that was a hoot and a half!

Fina's Homecoming Party stuff

Personal Fruit Pizzas for today

Day 204

Matt did a lot of food prep today, including prep for a yummy steak dinner this evening with smashed potatoes. His prep also included pumpkin guts for future pumpkin pancakes and the like. Look out, someone's already broken into the Halloween stash. Let's see, who's the Reese's hound? Actually, who isn't? Matteo stayed after school to play with a friend at a park near the school; he seems to have made a few friends fairly quickly. Jamie went out to the horse ranch today. We had a new boy join the group so we let the "old hands" show him around and introduce him to all the horses. And final prep is underway for tomorrow's luncheon here for all the volunteer Sunday School teachers and support folks.

Day 203

Jamie, Lynn, and Matt went to Abby's Irish Pub for lunch. We forget how good that place is. The food is tasty and unique. Tried Jameson Cooper's Croze (a cooper is one who makes barrels and a croze is a groove in the barrel where the head sets in or a tool to make that groove). Fina continued prepping for her cohorts' Homecoming Party (blue jars). AJ talked a lot about DragonCity at the fire pit tonight.

Irish Nachos (corn beef)

New leg casts

Smoke from Colorado fires this time