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I lucked out on timing with a trip to MA again! I was already planning to be in MA for work this week to attend a series of meetings — and since it is the last weekend before Natalie’s trimester ends, I was hoping that they would have an end-of-trimester dance performance! They did! It was incredible. It was really fun to see Natalie dancing — she is a beautiful dancer. Ballet is definitely her favorite, but she was in five dances and tried other types as well. Most of the dances were choregraphed by students. I’ll share links later. The performance was so fun.

We are also lucky to have a strong MA support squad…. not all the women know each other, but they are some of my favorite friends. 🙂 On the picture below, from left to right:

Ruth Mahoney — my former co-worker’s wife, I stay with him and his family most often. They’ve hosted Natalie overnight twice too.  Their boys are grown and their house is so homey. I always feel so welcome and have an entire floor to myself! They live close to my favorite park to run in too (Forest Park).

Michelle Steger — the mom of one of Elliott’s best friends Teddy. They are another host family for me — and Elliott! Between the Stegers and the Monges, I feel like I’m in a three-way custody-sharing agreement when I visit with Elliott. (In the best possible way)

Mary Cieplik — My former neighbor who used to go on 15-min power walks with me in the midst of the pandemic, in between the daily grind of zoom meetings and a crabby 1-year-old at home. After a few years of convincing, we finally got her to come work in Holyoke too! 🙂 Her school is FILLED with joy and fun.

Beth Gage — Beth and I have worked together at Holyoke Public Schools for almost 10 years. She was one of our first recruits. 🙂 We’ve been through A LOT. She is a former dancer and has two adorable daughters, who are almost 2 and 4.5 (pretty much the age of Natalie and Elliott when we moved here!)

These are just some of our amazing friends in MA — and many of the reasons why its easy for me to live in IL but work in MA. And why its hard — a split heart at times. I just wish we could merge both locations!

Halloween 2025. It was a nice day for trick-or-treating! I attended the Lines parade — You can see Conor here who was a “Boss Man” inspired by a lego minifigure in the basement. Some people at school also guessed he was a magician or a president, so he felt like he had a 3-in-1 costume. I was out with Conor for almost 3 hours, while Jordan manned the house (aka mostly just enjoyed 3 hours to himself, with Laney the Bat). We did a loop in our neighborhood with his friend Bennett the SWOT team guy and his family, including 4-year-old Audra the Glinda Princess and 10-mo-old Declan the Duck. After a stop at home, Conor then asked me to ride our bike to Lakeview to see his friend Reid the Lions football player, and we crashed their party and did a loop in their neighborhood too. I was exhausted by 7:30 p.m…. in part due to the festivities, in part due to waking up at 5:30 AM to play tennis, and in part due to being woken up at 3:37 a.m. by a 6-year-old who couldn’t sleep and joined me in bed.

Elliott and Miles went out on their own for probably about 2.5 hours — a super heavy pillow case in tow. Elliott did a good job of checking in with us to let us know he was safe, and I was lucky to cross paths with him for 90 seconds.

Natalie’s school had a halloween party. She was originally going to be Rapunzel, but then her friends made a late-in-the-game switch to devils. She was also a devil-witch 6 years ago, so that was a cute costume comparison.

Frank the Crossing Guard for the win! Best costume!

Conor went to check on Zofie who had to leave school a little early due to allergies!

The first kids out on the block! 4-year-old Audra is so cute and always needs to be in the mix

See the Elf Wizard and his trusty bat

I hadn’t seen Elliott all day, so I felt lucky our paths crossed during trick-or-treating!

Miles was a pheasant hunter — which is also what he did for 10 days in October, so not a far stretch here!

Natalie’s friends went as devils — they had a Halloween dance at school

Elliott’s loot! (Laney may have found a hershey kiss later on in the day!) Whoops

Mr. Organization got over 50 Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups!

We call this “bed on the stairs”… or, making more of a mess instead of cleaning up.

Conor planned a day-after Halloween party…. Jordan and I beat Elliott and Clayton in the mummy-wrapping contest

Conor wanted to bike to Lakeview to see his friend Reid — who was having a party, which we crashed!

Right before bed time…. Conor was digging through my gift supplies under my bed. He came up with this idea….. he says, “you are to Conor from Grandma and Grandma.”

Camp Duncan (25 min north of us where Conor goes for a summer camp each week) was set up for Harry Potter Forbidden Forest. Elliott and Clayton dressed up and went through it on their own. They said it wasn’t very scary, but they enjoyed the views and their butterbeer. We listened to the first chapter of book 5 on the way up, where Harry fights off Dementors in the alleyway, which was enough to set the stage for me, personally!

The grades K/1 flag football league invites every team to the play-offs. The Ravens, led by Coach Jordan, had a great season and started out the Super Bowl with a touchdown on the first play. (We won’t mention the rest of the game.)

A lot of the moms complimented Jordan to me, saying he did a great job with the boys all season and made it a positive experience. I couldn’t agree more! Conor seems to agree too — he said he would play flag football next year as long as Jordan is the “head boss coach”.

“It looks like she was robbed”

“Did a hurricane go through there?”

“She didn’t leave it like that did she?”

“Are you going to leave it like that until she comes back for Thanksgiving?”

No

No

Yes

No — I want my parents to be able to stay in there while they visit. AND there were flies so I didn’t want two months of fermentation to make it worse.

after many hours of cleaning….

my plan for Thanksgiving is to set an earlier deadline and let her know her December allowance is conditional upon leaving with a clean room!!

She also confessed (aka laughed) that her dorm room cannot believe how messy her room is and has even taken videos to show others because they wouldn’t otherwise believe it. I knew she was a top tier offender!!! Thanks goodness school enforces cleaning your room once a week otherwise she cannot see friends.

(If you talk to Natalie, please done mention this post or the content in it!!)

“Right now I’m. A master builder and when I grow up, I’ll be a Lego designer and a dad,” Conor, age 6 and 2/3

also this  is his pic day shirt and pic day smile. He likes the side look. Gel to come — I hope his dad helps him.

Conor went to a nature center for his first first grade field trip. Unfortunately, I was in MA so I didn’t even get to try to see if I could chaperone. Poor Conor — I haven’t chaperoned a single field trip or helped out at a single school party. Hopefully I can change that this year.

Can you spot him?

(Hint: The tallest kid in the baseball hat)

MA Send-off with Holyoke Public Schools Friends

Natalie’s Dormmates

1st day of school breakfast bunch

Here’s a video from the event: https://youtu.be/dGFR-FC-QbM.