Fall Fête
Saturday, October 30, 2010
8:20 departure.
To the Silverspoon’s.
On the way, the sun had sometimes been shining in Puck’s eyes.
“The trees are blocking the sun for us,” he said, “because they said… ‘Yes. We will block the sun for you.’”
9:00 OLeif left to meet a housing agent in South City to inspect a home that had been purportedly built in 1912, to find out more about the area.
Theodore and Gloria were meeting a client.
After library books, Izzy took Puck on a quick hunt through the house looking for a roll of tape.
Then Charlie arrived, having been doing much better as of recent times.
And they were busy helping a South African family from their church move out from their old house.
When two o’clock arrived, it saw them at church for the children’s Hallowe’en party. Puck had dressed himself up in a shining green dragon cape. He also had his old orange jack ‘o lantern bag ready to be filled with outpourings.
He took a hay ride and crawled through ‘the cave’ tunnel in the choir room. He managed to collect a small handful of candy.
Daisy-Jean was dressed in a red fringe dress, flapper-style. And Henri was sporting the old Judah Gecko costume.
Then OLeif departed for a rehearsal in Chesterfield for the Presbytery Reformation service the following evening.
On the return to the house to meet everyone else…
“Mama can say ‘OLeif’,” said Puck, “but little boys have to say ‘Daddy’.”
4:30 — Esther’s pre-wedding party, or, as they had so particularly labeled it: Fall Fete. She was to marry a fellow from Indiana. And aside from Uncle Hilario’s side of the family, presumably, Uncle Balthasar and Aunt Tuuli were also present.
The air was growing cool again, but not so much that the kids could not play outdoors without jackets.
And Puck and Liselotte hit it off immediately, as usual. They rummaged through the toy box for a pile of plastic shovels and subsequently began digging up Uncle Hilario’s back yard.
“Look! I found another hole!” they called back and forth to each other.
Then they found the pile of small wood planks on the patio ready to be used in the little fire. Linnea taught them, each, how to hold the planks above their heads and use them as cricket bats when she tossed them the little plastic balls they had found in the landscaping. They both proved to be rather good shots.
And when Linnea began doing black flips, they both began doing somersaults together. There were a few near-collisions. And a near constant pile-full of giggles.
Back inside: homemade apple bread, zucchini bread, beer bread, chips with salsa and guacamole, chili, butternut squash soup. And then bowls of M’nMs and a cake.
“Mmmm, chili!” Jashub exclaimed, coming over to inspect the pots on the stove. “Yes!”
And Mom had won a bag of gourmet popcorn in one of the games, during which there had been a tie-breaker.
“For the tie-breaker,” said Uncle Balthasar. “Let’s all guess Tuuli’s age!”
And Fernando shared a story about how Esther had helped him find an engagement ring for Polly back in the day, and he had given her trouble by sending her photographs of ridiculously gaudy Super Bowl-type rings to get her opinion on them.
Good old family times.
Then Rose returned to prepare for her Hallowe’en party, dressed up in an old Spanish gown and a glittering masquerade mask with feathers and a black rose and rhinestones.
Puck was in bed by nine.
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