A Friendly Neighborhood Halloween

It has been many years since the kids trick or treated in our own neighborhood.

Everybody had a lot of fun and got lots of candy.. so, success!

Travis's house is the Halloween epicenter of our side of the street. They go all out, and many of our neighbors join in and bring extra candy and snacks.

Iria painted Lennon's face, but Lukas did his all by himself.

Impressive!

And Lennon is wearing a tie- that is also impressive!

Lukas is dressed as Joker and Lennon is dressed as Two Face.

Here is Lukas and Travis. 

Lukas has really nailed that Joker pose..

The girls looked super cute.

Kassidy is already saying that she wants to bring a bigger bag next year :)

My favorite part of Halloween is when they dump all of their candy and start negotiating and trading among themselves. There are never any fights, but it is still some very serious business :)

Portfolio Website

Speaking of art- here is my online portfolio that I just updated for freelancing. 

There is some concept art from Gearbox in there as well.

Click on the link to visit:

https://erikdoescher.myportfolio.com/

Chalk Art

Some of the kids drew some cool drawings on the driveway last Friday.

Here is Kassidy's art:

Lukas drew Billy Joe Armstrong from Green Day (of course).

Lennon drew Lady Gaga. 

He always complains about how hard drawing is for him, but he has been getting a lot better!

And the Show Goes On (and on and on)

Keira announces a new dance show about every other night, and always performs around 3-4 numbers.

If she is in a good mood she will let Kassidy do a dance, and the boys can watch only if they behave :)

Fox, and Photo-bomber

Fox and Lennon were ball boys during the last home game of the season for FC Dallas.

See you again in February!

Father and #1 Son

A big part of the recent NYC trip was getting some time to bond with Lukas before he starts ignoring me in a few years as a teenager..

Here are some snapshots that we took during the trip. 

Here we are outside of my college, School of Visual Arts.

We had lots of diner food- Lukas actually started getting tired of burgers!

First subway commute.

Top of the world- Central Park.

More subway riding..

At the footprint of the north tower. I left before the towers fell, and still remember going into that building all the time to deposit my checks from DC Comics.

NYC pretzels! 

It was hard to wait until they started making them after lunch.

Feeding birds.

Forbidden Planet- the favorite store of the day.

The flatiron building was fun to show him. It is still one of my favorites.

Lukas made friends with the 6 month old puppy of my friend's friend- named "Khaleesi"

Still following this?

Museum of natural History- first stop: T-Rex

Hanging with the (stuffed) lions.

Lukas loves bow and arrows- it is one of his favorite things to draw and learn about.

We talk a long walk in Central park, and visited some of my favorite spots. I used to take a lot of photographs in this section during college.

Hailing his first cab.

Parting shot from my Aunt and Uncle's house.

If he was this tired after two days, imagine what living there is like :)

Frousin Fun

The Martel kids were visiting their dad this weekend, and we stopped by for a few hours on Saturday.

Sports on TV, food, conversation, video games, and lots of silliness- just the typical frousin day.

Smash and Crash

Lennon and Fox played in a tournament against some FC Dallas players tonight, but it was on the virtual pitch rather than the physical one.

They went 0-3 playing the N64 version of Smash Bros, but were competitive despite being born many years after the game originally came out.

Here they are playing against Reggie Cannon and Arron Guillen. Jesus Ferreira looks on from behind.

They didn't get to play Tesho and Walker Zimmerman, which was probably for the best because those two were quite good.

All in all, fun times.

Lennon wants to play in more tournaments- just wait until the game is Rocket League or Halo..

Aunt Sue and Uncle Peter

Lukas and I visited New York City last week, and visited with Aunt Sue and Uncle Peter.

It involved lots of pictures, talking, shopping, and diner food. 

Nothing much has changed in the 15 years since I have been there :)

Daddy Daughter Night

Keira and I went out on one of our daddy/daughter trips last night.

That usually involves going to the the mall and eating at California Pizza Kitchen.

She is starting to transition from the toy stores to the tween stores- I think that we are growing a little mall rat :)

Sherman Sketch

Katharine sketched this drawing of Sherman last night.

I love seeing her draw from life- great stuff!

Busy Weekend

This past weekend seemed busier than most, but with Fall kicking in to full swing we should probably expect worse this coming year.

Summer has softened me up..

It started out with Fox and Lennon playing against each other at 8 AM on Saturday morning.

Then it was off to the movies with Fox, as part of his birthday celebration that day.

Then I dropped the kids off at Fox's house for the party, swinging back there again around 3 PM to catch the last two hours of the party. Lots of swimming, water balloons, and soccer.

Meanwhile, Iria had been at dance all day (8-4) with the girls. We had been planning to see a show together at the Peacock Theatre that night, but Iria felt sick so we stayed home.

But my day was not over..

At midnight Katharine and I went into Dallas to see her first production of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Katharine loved it. We got back at 3 AM..

A few hours later, Katharine was singing a German solo at the 8:45 AM Sunday church service. She sang beautifully- the girl has got lots of talent (and stamina) :)

Then I took Lennon to a matinee at the Dallas Symphony. It was a all Beethoven program (5th piano concerto and 3rd symphony), and we sat behind the orchestra so that we could look down at everybody playing.

We finally got home after afternoon choir practice, and everybody went to be pretty early.

Even me.