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Two days ago I mentioned that it was our niece Olivia’s birthday. I included a cute photo of her to go with the post, what I said was one of my favorites. But I have some other favorites involving Olivia, and in most cases these photos include Ella.

Take this one for instance. So often you’d find these two cousins with their arms around each other. And, all biases aside, can you find two more photogenic kids than these two?

Switching subjects, most of my readers likely know I have another blog, one devoted to my work on the subject of kindness. I have a new kindness class starting in December and am biding my time until then by posting family stories that I connect to kindness. As an example, check out this post about my dad, me, and the racetrack.

So Ella is throwing a little get-together tonight at our house for three of her girlfriends, a Ghostbuster, Raggedy Ann, and a ventriloquist’s dummy. She, herself, is either a chaperone or a ventriloquist. You pick.

They left school at about 3:45 and it’s now 7:45pm. By my calculation, that’s 4 hours. So other than the bus ride home, they’ve been getting ready.

It was a lot easier to get Ella in her costume when she was younger. Perhaps that has to do with my mom’s ability to construct easy to wear costumes. Or maybe it had to do with Ella being anxious to go trick or treating.

Two years ago today we returned from Paris to our home in Nantes and had to beg kids to stop at our house to trick or treat…

It’s our niece Olivia’s 14th birthday today so I hereby dedicate this post to her. Happy birthday, Olivia!

I’ve been saving this photo, one I took of Olivia years ago, to use tonight. I once had it printed in black & white and gave it to her mother. I remember seeing it up in their house so I’m pretty sure the picture is liked by others.

Some things to know about Olivia:
– She is an elite athlete, both in softball and basketball.
– Her nickname is “Goose” although I have a hard time calling her that.
– She is wise beyond her years but keeps this fact a secret, or tries to.

Now the secret is out!

Ella & I had dinner tonight at the Veggie Grill with our friends Kevin & Milo. Kevin is Milo’s dad and, importantly, one of the two people responsible for Melinda and me meeting (it’s a long story but a good one – for another time). We haven’t seen them in a while so it was great getting together. Tonight’s photo was taken while Milo and Ella were having a hot chocolate dessert at Fran’s.

I contacted Kevin last week as during my “cute-off” photo search I came across some adorable photos of a young Milo (and a young Ella) and sent them on to him. One thing led to another and ultimately to tonight’s dinner.

The moms, Melinda and Lynn, were noticeably absent from tonight’s proceedings. Melinda is in the midst of a juice fast and couldn’t bring herself to sit with us while we eat yummy food. And Lynn is a hot commodity movie & TV show director away in California right now directing an episode of Ben & Kate.

So yesterday I told you about how in 5th grade for Halloween Ella went to school as Barbara Gordon and then changed costumes to become Batgirl in order to trick or treat as her preferred character. She couldn’t go to school in her Batgirl costume because the school didn’t allow masks.

There are two more things you should know about this.

First, my mom made BOTH the Barbara Gordon AND the Batgirl costume. That’s quite a thing for her to have done, to hand-sew two costumes for one grandchild in a single year. Making Halloween costumes is one of my mom’s claims to fame.

Second, Ella’s interest in Batgirl (and Barbara Gordon) stemmed from the two of us watching episode after episode of the Batman TV series from the 60’s together the previous summer. Ah, what a joy that was for me. As you can imagine, Ella’s favorite episodes were those that featured Batgirl.

Quick, who is Barbara Gordon? That’s right, Barbara Gordon is Commissioner Gordon’s daughter. That’s 10 points for you! Well done. Now who is Commissioner Gordon? Commissioner Gordon is the police commissioner of Gotham City. Nice! Another 10 points. What is Gotham City? Gotham City is the city Batman protects. 10 more points for you.

25 bonus points are available if you can put this all together. Ready?

5 years ago when Ella was in 5th grade she wanted to be Batgirl for Halloween but her public elementary school didn’t allow kids to come to school wearing masks. So she had the brilliant idea to come to school as librarian Barbara Gordon, Batgirl’s alter ego, and change into her Batgirl costume to go trick or treating.

Did you get the bonus points?

Three times each school year the high schoolers at PSCS engage in what we call “Intensives Week.” We stop the regular schedule and for a week the students participate in just one activity all day long for 5 days. Yup, it’s intense.

Ella chose to participate in a cake-decorating intensive called “Icing” so she spent the week learning how to make various icings and apply them to cakes. Her final project was to conceive of and decorate a cake, the end result being shown in today’s photo. As you can see, she went for a seasonal theme.

Oh, if the blog title isn’t resonating for you, think of the song “My Country ’tis of Thee.” There’s “sweet land of liberty,” followed by, “of the icing.”

Melinda & I just watched the most recent episode of the TV show “Parenthood,” one of our little indulgent pleasures. There’s a character on the show named Haddie who recently left for college so the show has had story lines that remind us of Chloe being at college. On top of that, Haddie is a mature and thoughtful young woman, another reason her character reminds us of Chloe.

So, yeah, having a kid away at college is one of those events in life you anticipate as parents. It’s a big deal and exciting and you are just so proud. Your relationship with your child shifts and, hopefully, it’s in a good way. I certainly feel that’s the case with Chloe and us.

So tonight we’re thinking about Chloe and missing her a bit, and thinking about her and stuff like that.

Everyone should have a few Jonathan Chens in their life. You know, the kind of person who is just decent and kind, a person who helps you connect with that best part of yourself. That’s Jonathan.

I connected with Jonathan through PSCS. When the school moved in to the International District in 2008, the staff and I wanted to make connections with other organizations in the neighborhood. Of the several we made, the one with Jonathan has been golden. You see, until tomorrow he has been in charge of the Danny Woo Community Garden, which is located just a short walk from the school. Jonathan invited us over to volunteer, and ultimately provided the school with a plot to garden.

Jonathan is moving to California and tomorrow, like I said, is his last day at work. Tonight PSCS hosted a going away celebration party for him.

Everyone should have a few Jonathan Chens in their life.

This is a funny story. At least I think so. Cute, too (maybe the “cute-off” continues!).

So Ella was eating some chocolate pudding, right? And as good chocolate pudding eaters are prone to do, she left some around the edges of her mouth (for later). But funny thing, the chocolate pudding ring around her lips looked a lot like my little moustache and beard. So I grabbed a baseball hat, at the time a signature piece from my wardrobe, and put my glasses on her. I then quickly got the camera and took this picture.

A pretty good likeness of her father, don’t you think?