It takes time to blog and often you find yourself months behind in the work. The end of the year is weird for Elia’s blog as you will find Halloween in her November blog, Thanksgiving in her December blog and her birthday and Christmas in her January blog. Perhaps it is time to cycle the blogs together but for now this is how it is. For Halloween, we had inclement weather so we took the girls to Pentagon City Mall to trick or treat. Elia was Jasmine and Curie was Cinderella/and the Fairy Godmother. We had a great time actually (except forgetting that we don’t like the Chinese street food restaurant there) with most stores participating and being good sports. The best was the Lego store but the kids got a pretty good haul.
When we got home, the weather had not yet started so we had the opportunity to trick or treat around the neighborhood as well. We did not go out with Isabella or Etta, or Natalie, so it was definitely different.
Halloween is also about the Hoagland’s party which is always a riot. Lately Elia had been afraid of the costumes and creepy stuff and we have had to leave early. This time however, we did not – we were the souvenir shop for the Hoaglan’s ghost ship haunted house this year and the kids were very excited to be a part of it – largely because we had swag to “sell” and a cash box they were interested in. We were lucky that Steve decided to join us with Julie and so we had a great costume. Elia was not as scared but did get bored and eventually we had both girls in the car watching on phones.
Elia’s week for kindergarten was this time too and instead of being the “star of the week” Mrs. Tumberello has each kid take care of Kinder Bear and do a journal a la Flat Stanley, so when Etta had her birthday party at Sky Zone, Elia was invited and brought Kinder Bear to Skyzone and met up with Patrick and Victor, two kids she says she likes in addition to Garrett (but not Sebastian) as boyfriends or boy friends. We also took Kinder Bear to Neabsco Creek to go bird watching. Interestingly when Elia got to choose a classmate to have lunch with Mrs. Tumberello, she didn’t choose any of her three boy friends but ended up choosing William, another boy in her class.
We asked Elia what her choice of restaurant would be and she chose to go to Cracker Barrel. The kids used to get breakfast there, including bacon and sausage but would eat some of Erin’s trout. Albert began cooking trout or other fish for the kids in addition to the tilapia with paprika from his childhood that Curie likes. So though we were surprised, it should not have been one when she said she wanted to go to eat trout. This was a weekday though and we had to tell her that Cracker Barrel was too far away. Elia was upset but that weekend on the way to Neabsco we were able to take her there to get her trout. It was there also that Albert ate the haddock and both Erin and Curie took to haddock as the new fish of choice.
Last month Albert went on a field trip with Curie and this month it was Erin’s turn to take Elia on hers. Elia’s field trip was to the Burke Farms where we had gone earlier for slides, a hay ride, and pumpkins amongst other things. Erin says they had a lot of fun playing with the friends and they brought back two more pumpkins. Elia’s belt test for her white belt was just in time for her photo shoot at EMA, and while she was nervous she did great! We went to Rockville, had hot pot at Hot Pot City, spent time in a gift shop where Curie bought a doll set and Elia bought Frixion pens. And at MOD that night the girls drew a picture for the staff at MOD. There were birthday parties, and dinners at Gaijin Ramen with the Hoaglands, and at Wegman’s Pub. Albert bought Daisy Quake dolls from five and below for the kids but we lost one of Daisy’s hands on the way to Gaijin Ramen.
So Elia is adorable, working hard at being smart and smart-alecky. She says cute things like “I miss me when I was a little baby,” and works to catch up with Curie. Curie asked Erin how babies are made. Not to be outdone, Elia then asked Erin how buildings are made. “Answer THAT one, Mommy. ” She loves to dance, loves to sing, and will make up songs like Curie, her latest is a song about Ultraman: “Save Ultraman/he’s in a storm/boom boom boom/he’s in a storm.” We bought Ring Fit for the Nintendo Switch and though the leg band doesn’t even fit her leg, Elia worked diligently on her levels and held her own. She is amazing and a ham at the same time, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.