Thanksgiving 2015

Silas, Rosemary, and Tess were on cloud nine with both sets of grandparents for Thanksgiving this year.


Many more pictures are here.

Cub Scouts

You have to embrace those moments when your child's interests diverge significantly from your own.

Silas joined Cub Scouts with his two closest friends, and he has had a lot of fun.  He loves the camaraderie and even the uniform.

The den leader is fantastic and I have to say, the activities have been enjoyable.

Pictured here:

Collecting cans for a food drive (above).

Veterans Day ceremony at our PTA meeting (middle).

Some sort of Scout handshake (below).

The Scouts' prohibition on gays ended this year, in July. 

The prohibition on atheists and agnostics remains -- but seems not widely enforced.

The exclusion of girls has federal support, currently; the Scouts have a Title IX carve-out.

I've enjoyed the chance to discuss with Silas some of my views versus some of the Scouts' views.

Silas' views will be forthcoming, and meanwhile I'm happy for him to realize that parental philosophy is not black-letter law.

Halloween 2015

The kids on Halloween: bat, ninja, Hawk Girl.

Many more photos of this year's festivities are here.

Tess had a ball.  She seems to understand everything that's going on these days.

Last year on Halloween night, Tess took her very first steps.