just beyond our fence is a huge tree. i say huge because our house is on a pretty high hill overlooking a cliff of sorts. anyway, this tree peeks beyond the cliff. on this tree are green prickly balls. they are the strangest looking things. i've been wondering about them since first seeing them. in fact a few weeks ago, i climbed over the binju ditch (not sure about the spelling) and tried to reach out and grab one. no luck. fast forward to yesterday. i ran to a portable classroom to escort one of my students who happens to be korean. she noticed one of these spiky balls on the ground, picked it up and began peeling away the casing. low and behold---a chestnut! what an odd discovery. she knew just what it was and began to describe her family's method of cooking them. the ironic part of this story is that she is severely language impaired, yet teaching me a little something. they soak them to soften the shell, then add the actual nut to other dishes.
The Halloween festivities are in full swing here. We attended a "Fall Festival" at my school on Thursday evening and today we enjoyed a "fall festival" at the girls' school. We've managed to keep their costumes a secret until Wednesday when Claire spilled the beans. She was doing so well at keeping the secret, I almost thought she wasn't our child for awhile ;) Claire dressed as "Pinkalicious" and Mya was a cupcake. My Mom and Dad bought Claire the book, "Pinkalicious" for her first birthday. It has been an on-going hit with our girls. They both have the entire book memorized. It is such a cute book where this girl named "Pinkalicious" loves pink. She eats too many pink cupcakes and turns pink, which she is thinks is simply beautiful then red, which is less than favorable. She eats her vegetables to turn alleviate her pain. In the meantime, her little brother is envious and devours the last one, then turns pink too. It is a ...
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