Fall Days

On Halloween, Sophie dressed up as a Japanese Girl and Daniel as a Japanese Boy. Technically, these were not alternate identities, and were also an omission of half their ethnic makeup, but hey, it's not like dressing like a Caucasian gets you any candy. At least not in the suburbs. Anyway, as long as Sophie got to wear lipstick, she was happy. (Daniel, as you can see, was not. Of course, he wasn't wearing lipstick either.)

Before trick-or-treating, the cousins got together at Grandma and Grandpa's house to make ginormous caramel apples. Because it wasn't like they were going to get enough sugar that day.

For her 8th birthday, Sophie requested her annual Barbie Doll cake. Alas, Rachel Tessier, the professional pastry chef who has traditionally made Sophie's cakes, no longer lives anywhere close to us. So I watched a couple of how-to videos on the internet, whipped up some pink buttercream, and put together my very first plastic 'n' pastry confection. The resultant princess looked a little lopsided and perhaps a little pregnant, but was still quite tasty. Still, after all that effort, I'm pretty sure Sophie had more fun with the box cake she and her cousins decorated themselves, with Duncan Hines frosting and leftover Halloween candy.


Grammy Marilyn came to Jax for Sophie's birthday, and she and the kids enjoyed eating Auntie Annie's pretzels (Grammy's favorite), riding the kiddie train at the mall, and having sleepovers on the futon bed. Grammy also bought the kids warm coats, in anticipation of our Thanksgiving trip to NY. More on that in a future post; I'm trying finish up with 2009 photos, so I can feel briefly virtuous before falling horribly behind in the New Year . . .