Halloween Parade

This morning at St. Paul's, the kids had their Halloween parade. John was a cowboy and Anna was (surprise!) a fairy princess, as was her friend, Helen.

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The photo of John was snapped while he was saying his morning prayers with his class.

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The photo of Anna catches her, wand in hand, leading her comrades to the parade line.

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We took a few more photos that can be seen on Flickr, where the photo quality is always superior.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/50471452@N00/sets/72157622695087328/

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Songs and Articles

Anna and John were such a hoot yesterday! We just had to take some video. John is learning how to sing Twinkle, Twinkle; but it comes out more like "winkle, winkle," and he gets tied up after the first line.
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Anna, for her part, has been writing scholarly articles on the British philosopher, Michael Oakeshott (1901-1990). She's evidently getting ready for the annual meeting of the Michael Oakeshott Association that will be held here at Baylor in a couple of weeks. She seems somewhat evasive when asked about the content of her articles. See what you think.
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What a Party!

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500 North Park hosted a party tonight: Tony & Barbara, Cal & Laura, Chip & Nicky. What a party! We're all cigar smokers (the men, at least). And Mr. Poe (Tony) set us up with the very best.

The picture speaks volumes about the quality of the cigars, if the length of the ash is any test--which it is, of course.

But cigars were not all. Chip is famous around these parts for his world-class whisky. He's the master distiller and inventor of Balcones.

Since Chip was with us for the festivities, we may (may! We're not saying we did....) have tasted a sip or two of his Blue Corn Whisky. If we did in fact taste some, which we're not saying we did, we might have thought it was "oaky, superbly balanced, corn-like on the nose, and smooth." But, of course, that's all speculation. Also on the menu: beef fillets (medium rare!) with a romaine lettuce & blue cheese salad, and a side of Louisiana seafood gumbo.

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Barbara: We realized after you left that we owe you big time! (You know why.)

What a fun evening and what great people! 500 North Park was honored.

Jumping!

Tonight, before our very eyes, John learned to jump. He and Anna were running laps around the house and it finally "clicked" for John. He's been trying to jump for weeks, but he's never left the ground. We think the crucial variable may have been the fried rabbit we ate tonight. Only kidding! (Jeesh! People will believe anything about Texas.) We actually had fish tonight. No special jumping powers there. But Johnsie: he's got it!

Fairy Godmother

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Our faithful reader, Princess Kim sends the following to Anna Katherine:

Dear Anna Katherine,

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This is a note to tell you that I am delighted that you have publicly announced your Fairy Princess Being. I have been waiting for some years to have a companion Fairy Princess, and although your mother might be one, too, she has never officially announced herself. So watch her carefully, she may have a very sparkly wand tucked away somewhere in the house. I knew when you were born that your parents were capable of creating a companion FP for our mutual delight, and so here we are.

I thought you might enjoy seeing my gown which is a bit like yours. I am above the rooftops of Rome preparing for an evening at the opera. My tiara was still in the safe so I hadn't put it on yet, and it was still too early to don the opera gloves, but at least you can see the dress.

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Let us think about which opera we might like to attend together first when we meet again in person. The Magic Flute might be a good one for us, but I am open to suggestions.

Fall Break

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One can't get too excited about Fall Break at Baylor, since it's only one day. But like clockwork, the temperature dropped about 25 degrees as evening approached and it really felt like fall. So we decided to dust off the ol' chimenea. Chimeneas are wonderful! We like to burn Texas mountain cedar in ours--stuff we collect from around the property and the adjacent park. The aroma is just awesome.
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On the table in front of Anna (above) are some pottery sherds she found in the garden. She says she wants to set them all out in a row so that her grandparents on both sides can see them and want to come to Waco. Some of them are rather interesting--the pot sherds, we mean, not the grandparents, though the latter are presumably interesting too. One is the bottom of a porcelain plate that says "Dresden" on it in old letters. It also has an image of a royal crown. And since Anna is a fairy princess, she really likes the crown. (Kim: Anna loved your latest "Princess Kim story," by the way.)

Speaking of chimeneas, this is our second one. The first was a thoughtful gift from Mary Campbell, which David thoughtlessly backed over with the car. The result was not pretty.

Guard Dogs

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Visitors to 500 North Park will receive this warm welcome from our children. The flowers in Anna's lap are a lure. The real attitude is written all over John's face.
.I wish the photo quality were better on blogger. Here's the real image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50471452@N00/4007728891/