Very Busy Halloween Weekend

Matt’s out of town.  So, of course, that’s the perfect time for Ashlyn to spike a high fever (103.7) on Thursday night.  The other two kids had slight fevers earlier in the week, so the fever wasn’t unexpected, but when it’s dark out, and you’re alone, and she’s crying because she feels so miserable, and the fever doesn’t come down with ibuprofen or cool baths it does get a little frightening. The most scared she got was that she might miss out on all the Halloween festivities.  She didn’t.

Our neighborhood hosted the trick-or-treating this year.  This is not a celebration in Tanzania and our askari (night guard) thought the whole evening was hysterical. Because it was our neighborhood hosting and we don’t have a huge amount of houses, I did feel obligated to stay at home and hand out candy.  Luckily we have amazing friends and the Fischers stepped up and took the kids around for me. If the gate was decorated then that meant they were participating in the trick-or-treating.  Ours had fun and took their job seriously.       

Neighbor’s gate decoration

Anderson helping carry my beer to meet up with our friends

T pre-makeup

She wanted to be a scary leopard (hence the bloody chin), but I told her she can’t really pull off scary with a smile like that.

My view for the evening

The spoils

Saturday was a very full day.  Along with normal Saturday activities (Ashlyn’s guitar and Anderson’s soccer), Tierney had an all day track meet followed by a piano performance at restaurant in town.

800 meter 

Long jump

Shot Put. (Yes, T was chosen for shot put.  I couldn’t believe it either)

We were only home for just over an hour from 9:15 am until 9:15 pm and spent the day out in our summer heat and sun. They are Rock Stars.  And that evening Tierney was literally a rock star. Umoja had a performance at Blue Heron where they performed Sam Smith’s Stay with Me.  Tierney (and Amelie) were on piano with voice, drums, and violin groups also participating.  It was fun to watch.  

Video and sound quality are not premium, but this is mostly for the grandparents anyway

Umoja at Blue Heron from Lisa Coyle on Vimeo.

Because we were out on the town already on a Saturday night we pushed the limits even further and went out for sushi afterward.  Sushi.  In Arusha.  Risky?  Likely, but it was worth it (and so far so good). 

The kids and I are looking forward to a very lazy Sunday. 

Enjoy the extra hour of sleep today (except for those of you with little kids because we all know they don’t know you’ve changed the clocks).    And remember that means you are now an hour further behind us (EST 8 hours and MST 10 hours different now).