Isabel had class outside again today. Her school group hiked around Helen Putnam Park and ate lunch under Grandmother Oak, a tree that has been living for more than 100 years.

It was a hot day and the class hiked for hours. We arrived at the park around 9am and didn't leave until 2pm. Isabel held up great. She walked all over the place, exclaiming over the aquatic invertebrates in her pond microscope and doing her best to pull up the non-native plants as part of the STRAW project (students and teachers restoring a watershed http://www.bay.org/watershed_education.htm).

I had a little cry to myself on the way home, feeling so incredibly thankful for Isabel's continuing good health and happy go lucky attitude. It's almost as if I didn't realize just how healthy she is until I saw her in action. She was so pink cheeked and strong, keeping up with all the other kids and happily leading the way up and down the trails.

Isabel has come a long way and is a true success story in every sense. Just last year, while she was on maintenance chemotherapy treatment, her first grade class had a field trip to the very same park. I kept Isabel home because I knew the day would be too long and arduous for her. This year, seven months off treatment, it's a completely different story. She's doing marvelous and it's absolutely incredible to witness.

This evening after dinner, instead of walking the dog around the block, we headed down the street to our local pumpkin patch. We walked through the corn maze and checked out all the cool shapes and sizes of all the pumpkins.

We spent the last week creating art for our Day of the Dead altar with our neighbor friends. I found great happiness and pleasure in creating our Day of the Dead altar. I would work all day, painting, twisting tissue paper, gluing, while it poured outside and the kids played with the neighbor girls all around me. The kids happily created amazing little Katrina dolls for our relatives. We used old fashioned clothes pins and painted them all white. The kids made clothes for them and added yarn hair and then drew on their faces. We used gold wire for little glasses. We talked about who they represented and it was so nice to have it be so mellow and filled with happy memories while we created. We talked about each person, what they were like, how they died. Isabel asked me how long my mom's hair was and if the clothes she picked out were fitting (totally not, she put her in striped pants but I didn't tell her that). We used a piece of my friend's grandpa's shirt to make his doll's shirt. I carved a skull out of a sugar cookie and put it on a tea plate that was my mother's wedding china. Alan helped me dig through photos and memories to find just the right shots. Isabel sculpted my childhood dog out of clay. I made so many tissue paper flowers, all strung on wire to hand around the skulls. We painted out quotes that our loved ones used to say. I wrote down "Run Like The Wind" for my mom who used to say that to me after a kiss as she sent me on my way up the street to school. I wrote "Born To Raise Hell" with a flaming heart for my uncle, for that is what his old navy tattoo read. It was fun and I was surprised at how much pleasure it brought me. Real, deep, fulfilling pleasure. I loved being immersed in something so creative and personal. I love this holiday and I love being so involved in it. I love it for my kids but I really love it for myself. I am grateful I agreed to decorate a store front window for Day of the Dead. I would have not gotten so involved in the making of a true altar otherwise. The finished product is great but just seeing all the bits strewn about the floor together, the photos, the quotes, flowers, candles, skulls, pictures was so beautiful.


The kids were great and created many wonderful pieces for the altar.

It all came together beautifully and we were able to set up a wonderful display for a storefront downtown.

My camera caught all the reflection of the window and hardly any of what was inside.

I plan getting some good shots of the altar sometime soon.

We had a fun time making skeleton shrinky dinks which I then glued to the outside of glass bottles.


The kids concentrated on making mini sugar skulls.

Shrinky dinks, beloved pets and sugar skulls.

A tiny bit of the display I snapped.

It was very sunny that day and my camera caught more of the window reflection than anything else!

But you get the idea, even if you can't see the details!


We were at the Day of the Dead opening celebration this evening.

Folkloric group that performed authentic Mexican and Indigenous folk dance.


The St. Vincent de Paul Aztec Dance Group

I couldn't resist buying a hand painted dish for our home.

We met our friends at the pumpkin patch today.


Isabel made it halfway through the haunted house before running back out again!

The kids had a blast playing together.

Hide and Seek





Our fourth annual pumpkin patch meet up!

The Starlight Foundation treated Isabel, Gabriel and I, along with a few other families, to an afternoon at San Francisco's wax museum.



There was lots to see, though the kids didn't recognize the majority of the people there!

We were able to make a wax hands at the end of our tour. Gabriel couldn't to make one of his own, due to the age restriction. I made a cast of my hand for him instead. I didn't really understand why they didn't allow children under the age of 7 until I plunged my hand into the ice water and had to hold it there. It was so cold it hurt!

Isabel's came out great.

Gabriel picked the dye colors.

Isabel is now seven months off treatment! Isabel is the "Featured Hero" this week on the home page at www.alexslemonade.org


We drove to Oakland this morning for Isabel's monthly check up and blood draw. The visit was so quick it was decided that we will alternate months between the main cancer clinic in Oakland and our pediatrician here in town. What good news! Isabel is so healthy and happy! Next month I will only have to drive all of fifteen minutes to get her checked instead of almost an hour each way.

I put numbing cream on her arms in anticipation for the blood draw. I use Glad's Press'n Seal wrap which is really easy and painless to peel off. I numb both her arms because of the couple of times I numbed only one and the phlebotomist inevitably had use her other arm!

Waiting for the onocologist.


At the laboratory for the blood draw. Gabe made a waiting room buddy right away.

HURRAH!

We spent the weekend visiting with some of the cousins and slowly gearing up to participate in this year's Day of the Dead celebration.
http://www.petalumaartscouncil.org/currentprograms/day-of-the-dead-2009.html

Isabel started making part of a frame for our Day of the Dead altar which will be featured in the store front window of Stink boutique in downtown Petaluma from October 17th to November 3rd.

Isabel has her seventh month off treatment check up and blood draw tomorrow morning in Oakland. Please keep your fingers crossed and think good thoughts for an easy visit with more perfect blood counts! Thank you!