I am pretty sure that when Kyle and Owen are adults, looking back on their childhoods, one of their fondest childhood memories will be Lehigh football games.
They’ve been going for their whole lives. We have never bought a ticketed seat. We get in for free with my faculty ID, and we sit on the grass at the end zone. The boys always bring a football, and they run around with a wild pack of other kids, tumbling around on the grass, rolling around the hill, tackling each other, and playing full-contact-football. They take breaks to check out what is happening on the actual field every once in a while, or to try to catch the ball in the end zone as it is kicked for a field goal. They take breaks to say hello to folks they know (Braydon and I are always socializing with friends and students and alum). They take breaks to ask for help finding napkins to deal with bloody noses, or to ask for ice to deal with gashed up knees and elbows, or to ask for an endless stream of cash to go buy junk food and sugary drinks from the vendors. But mainly, they spend the entire time rolling around on the grass, jumping all over each other, and acting like little maniacs (who are quickly becoming big maniacs). They love it. It is quite the awesome way to spend a Saturday afternoon.
At the center of it all is always their friends James and William. They’ve been playing together at these games for at least 8 years. They are steady companions at these games — and they also have been going to the same school together for the past several years (including the move from one private school to another; which is really quite something). These four boys will not forget their falls spent at Lehigh football games together — that, I am sure of.
These pictures — as James and William’s mom said — “tell a whole story.” They really do.
Saturday was the last home football game of Lehigh’s regular season. Lehigh played Colgate and won. It was a good ending to the season, but we were very melancholy about the end of a another era. The boys had a great time, as always. And I marveled at the longevity of our families’ friendship and the bond of our four boys that has pulled us together for so many seasons of football games on that end zone grass. All of the grass stains and blood stains and ketchup stains are so worth it for the fun that we’ve had and the good friends that we’ve made.
Boys: I hope you always know fun times and good friends — times that are light and full and raucous, and friends who are true and spontaneous and easy.
Meera’s friends Cameron and Natalie are twins. They came over for a playdate a few weeks ago. They are sweet, nice, fun girls and the threesome had a lot of fun. (I also could not get over how well-mannered, polite, and centered these two girls are — a major testament to their parents! Raising twins is hard, and this mom and dad is doing a great job!). A highlight of the playdate was “playdate popcorn” (our traditional playdate snack) — and these three girls ate the entire bowl in no-time-flat.
Watching the three of them together made me think a lot about what it must be for other families when Kyle and Owen go for a playdate with a singleton. Twins are something really special, and different, and challenging. We’ve had twins over to play with Kyle and Owen, but this was our first playdate with twins who came over to play with Meera. It was striking to me how Meera interacts so naturally with them — for Meera, as a younger sibling of twins, twinship seems to be something she organically understands, in an authentic way that even seems foreign to me. Playing with twins is its own special category of play (we know that all too well, as a family with twins ourselves), but for Meera it seemed almost effortless. It was interesting for me to witness.
It was so fun to see these three girls play together.
Meera has been thriving in first grade. This shouldn’t be a surprise, except that it sort of is. Up until this point, Meera hasn’t been a kid who really loves school, and she’s always needed a lot of alone-time and down-time and at-home-time. But this year she’s just loving school, and really taking off academically, and I think it is in large part because her self-confidence is blooming and her social life is good.
She’s got some good girl friends in her class this year — the kind of girl friends a mom like me really appreciates: girls who don’t seem to be catty or cliquey or possessive or aggressive. This is huge (girls can be so hard). And I see the beautiful results of it in Meera’s sense of self and self-esteem.
She’s got a new friend this year who is just a great pal for her. Chloe does wonders for Meera’s love-of-school. These two cuties are two peas in a pod and they get in trouble daily for their shenanigans. They talk too much, giggle too much, and generally get-distracted-from-class too much when they are near each other. I went on a field trip with them last week and I got to see it in action. It is quite a hoot (as long as you’re not their teacher!)!
I hope they stay friends for a good long time. I have a hunch they might. So, I’m posting this for the sake of posterity.
Last year was the most amazing Halloween ever — as the students who live in Sayre Village with us put on an incredible night of trick-or-treating for our three bambinos, organized and orchestrated by the bambinos’ beloved Uncle Jon (aka our 2nd-year-on-campus-Head-Gryphon). [CLICK HERE.] Oh my word, was that Sayre Halloween 2013 ever fabulous. And the year before was absolutely FABULOUSO as well! Sayre Halloween 2012 we were dealing with a major weather event (Hurricane Sandy!), and yet somehow our bambinos received the most wonderful Halloween planned entirely by their beloved Aunt Sarah (aka our 1st-year-on-campus-Head-Gryphon). [CLICK HERE.] My, oh my, that was a wonderful Halloween.
There’s a pattern going here: Amazing Halloweens on campus!
Sayre Halloween has become my favorite night of the year as a faculty family in residence!
So, the precedent had been set, and a tradition had been established on campus, and 2014 did not disappoint! Our incredible community of students-we-love, and our 3rd-year-on-campus-Head-Gryphon-Jevin made — for the 3rd year in a row — an awesome and memorable and incredibly-inspiring Halloween for our bambinos yet again. This year the bambinos trick-or-treated throughout Sayre (150 students opening up their apartments in the three buildings that make up Sayre Village; the students love it— it is usually the first time they’ve been the ‘adults’ handing out the candy to kids from their own place). In addition, Kyle and Owen and Meera were invited to trick-or-treat at two other houses on “The Hill” — Umoja House and House 104. It was an AMAZING night! Amazing, amazing, amazing! Words just don’t do this whole thing justice. The students just amaze me beyond belief.
This year we planned for, and hosted, a Pumpkin Carving Party for post-trick-or-treating. We invited Sayre students to come over for cider, pizza, candy, and pumpkin-carving. The World Series was on… so there was some watching-of-that going on too. We roasted pumpkin seeds. We ate pizza (Man oh man, college students can eat! They devoured 8 large pizzas and several gallons of cider!). It was SUCH a GREAT night!!!
Facebook status post: “Tonight is trick-or-treating in our very own neighborhood (campus)! Incredible for me to witness this experience— totally 100% student-organized Halloween for our 3 bambinos (and only for our 3 bambinos; they are the only campus kids)! Trick-or-treating at the residence halls… An amazing thing for a professor to get to do. This is one of my favorite nights of the year of living on campus!— at Lehigh University.”
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After Spooktacular 2014, and Sayre Halloween 2014, it was finally October 31st, 2014 — and by that time I was just about all Halloween’ed out. But, alas, there was still Halloween 2014 to do. There were the bambinos’ school Halloween parties and their school Halloween Parade…
…and then there was actual Halloween night.
That night we went to our friends, The Reeds, house — they live in a perfect trick-or-treating neighborhood right on the edge of campus. We had pizza and hung out with them and by the time it was dark and trick-or-treating time I was just about 100% spent. I took only one picture that night, but it pretty much sums up the entire experience:
Facebook status post: “This Elsa costume got a LOT of use over the past couple of weeks. And this mama is officially done with the whole extravaganza that is Halloween “season.” Sugar highs. Sugar lows. Done and done. Halloween 2014 over and out!”
The next morning — November 1, 2014 — I went to work and rid every square inch of our entire apartment of everything-and-anything Halloween-related. Including the HUGE amount of candy that the bambinos had acquired over the entire Halloween season. This, for sure, is a perk of living in a dorm with a Residential Fellow family:
It was amazing how fast that candy disappeared!
A few weeks ago, we had the students of Kappa Delta over to our apartment for a Mocktail Party. It was a great event, and — among other things — I ended up being asked by the sorority to be their faculty advisor (to which I agreed), and they also reciprocated our invitation by inviting us to their house for dinner. I decided that Meera and I would take them up on the dinner invite, and leave the “boys” of our family at home for the evening.
I had never (in my life!) been inside a sorority (although, Meera has actually been in a few!), and I was so excited for the night. Meera and I decided to bring them a painted canvas, just like the ones they had brought us when they came to our apartment. I got Meera set up, but she did the entire thing herself, and was really proud of it. We gave it to the Kappa Deltas upon our arrival to their (beautiful) sorority house — and then we had a delicious dinner (seriously, they have an AMAZING chef!). After dinner we were treated to a tour of their house (which I, of course, found absolutely fascinating!).
The funniest part was that Meera was very distressed that none of their beds were made— so she went through the sorority room-by-room making their beds for them! Soooooo funny!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We later received an email from the sorority president with a photo of Meera’s canvas (along with her 1st grade school photo, which we had also given them), displayed in the entrance foyer of the sorority house! Too cute!
The second half of last week Heather was out of town at a conference for work. The kids had Friday off from school and I took the day off too. We watched a family movie on Thursday night to kick off the weekend.
On Saturday morning, I had planned to have lunch in the treehouse. When the rest of our plans got switched around it turned into breakfast. And breakfast meant the muffins Heather had made.
The funny thing was that in the morning, all three kids had no interest in going to the tree house and actively resisted. Now, I say it was interesting like that’s somehow unusual that they would resist a suggestion. It’s not – it’s only unusual that I would be the one making the suggestion and putting into action. I did eventually drag them out there and guess what? They LOVED it. Every second. You can see it.
***
In our life, Heather has the role of Program Planner. That means she takes on all the coordination of what we do – socializing, activities, things like packing breakfast for a tree house picnic. That’s layered on top of her overwhelming work (I saw her calendar for the last week – 30min-2hour meetings back to back, without break from the start of the day until the end – oh yes, and teaching 200 students, serving on committees, and planning her next book). That layered on top of being responsible for our food and school care. It’s truly the second (and maybe third and fourth) shift that she takes. I don’t even know if that really captures it.
I am very lucky. I am lucky that I get to have the whole package – a wife with an important career (I love that) and I a wife who gives us a rich, filling, healthy life (and I love that too). On the off-occasion that I am the program planner, I get a little glimpse into her world.
When I look at this picture, and I see the delight of these three of having that breakfast in the tree house, what I see is how lucky I am for what Heather has given us.
A day in the tree house having muffins is so much more than that. It’s the accumulation of effort of 10 years of love. A brief note of recognition and appreciation.
There is no particular reason I posted this, other than sometimes, for those of us who are less expressive than we should be, it needs to be said.
We had the Sayre Gryphons over for dinner tonight. Allie took this selfie. Too cute!
We’ve been hosting a ton of events at our home since we moved back in for this academic year. The renovation of the apartment has made the space so perfect for inviting people in, and we’ve been really maximizing it. In the past 7 weeks, we’ve hosted 8 different events.
Tonight, though, we had what I think was my favorite event in our entire time of living on campus. I know, for sure, it was Meera’s favorite. We invited the wonderful young women of Kappa Delta sorority for a study break/“Mocktail Party.” It was so enjoyable and lovely and warm and fuzzy and inspiring and uplifting. We have relationships with a bunch of these women (some of whom lived in Sayre with us last year; some of whom have been students of mine), and I’ve always been super impressed with them. But it was awesome to have them all together in our home. I cannot tell you how inspiring it is for me to see these smart, ambitious, beautiful young women taking on the world. I loved every minute of the event!
Meera was thrilled-beyond-thrilled to have a home full of “girls.” For a long stretch there was serious drawing/coloring going on. Meera was in heaven!
But the cutest thing of all was the hostess-gift they brought for me/us:
It was such a fabulous experience! I haven’t been blogging, but I don’t want to forget about this one.
Oh goodness gracious! I have been flooded with email requesting that I post about the apartment renovation!!! You all, my dear readers, are such a wonderful and loyal bunch! Thank you for caring. Yes, ok, yes, at some point I will do a big post on the apartment renovation! (I have about a million photos of the whole thing; it will just take me a while to work my way through that project.) But yes, it will happen. Thanks y’all!
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