Koen, sporting his favorite painting shirt (a gift to me from Gloria during her time in Japan, it reads “Fantastic Pure Color”).

What better way to spend a Sunday morning than playing “Pirates and Knights”? Koen always prefers to play the “royal knight”, where he can practice both chivalrous behavior and exert full-on physical play (with me allotted the role of “gnarly pirate king”). Truth is, we both love this roleplaying, with the little boy in me every bit as filled with a joie de vivre as Koen.

(Part of his chivalrous nature is witnessed when, after inflicting a wound upon his adversary, he calmly removes his helmet, carefully sets his sword and shield aside, rummages through his pockets, and pulls out an imaginary flask of medicine, which he himself applies to the wounds. And the very next moment? On guard, grubby pirate!)

Messieurs Scooper and Carver, toiling away.

The end result. Just your ordinary photo of a ho-hum jack’o'lantern, ay?…

…But after long hours of tinkering with advanced ultraspectralphotonographic photo-editing tools, voodoo dolls, and other whizbang technologies, I was able to reveal an image previously hidden from the naked eye! (Truly, this is the same photo as the one just before, with the layers of darkness peeled away.)

In celebration of Susan’s birthday, or perhaps simply in celebration of balloons and the joy of being alive, Koen streaked to and fro across the upstairs hallway, with all of Susan’s birthday balloons in tow.

The Red Fire Breathing Dragon at his Monday playgroup (sans dragon head), gearing up for Halloween.