Fall has arrived in Hanoi! This is the best time of the year to go out and chill at a local café. We don’t have much color-changing leaves, but still the fall spirit is high. Time to indugle in the national trearuse – cốm, a cherished Vietnamese delicacy made from young, green glutinous rice, harvested in autumn, then roasted and pounded into flat flakes. I love the unique sweet, nutty flavor and chewy texture, especially when it’s wrapped in lotus leaves. And of course, my all-time favorite soaked persimmons. Plus, now that Starbucks is in Vietnam, I might grab a pumpkin-spiced latter to celebrate.

October is our last month at the current rental house. 2 years have gone by so fast! Haruki’s birthday celebrations were a week long, with a family trip to Melia Ba Vi with ong ba, Nhung, Minh and baby Pho, then a party at home with Nem’s friends. He’s 5, oh my! With all of his birthday decorations, plus Halloween decorations (right after Full Moon décor), I’m slowly packing our memories of 3 years living in my beloved Hanoi. The move is not that hard because we don’t have big furniture, and we’re moving into our new house. But still, leaving memories behind is hard.

This Halloween kiddos want to be minions, so there’s not much DIYs for Mommy to busy herself with. We do have the costume for baby Pho too, so we’d be Gru, Lucy and 3 minions. Halloween is also our very last day at the Vinhomes house. Jon will then be going to our home in WA first, while the three of us will be staying at ong ba’s for November and the first week of December. We’re so not ready to say goodbye! Might even stay until the end of their school year. But, being away from Daddy is the last thing we want to do.

Looking ahead, next year there are fall to-dos I definitely wanna do in WA with the kids:

• Carve a pumpkin: it would be our first time ever! Or, at least paint the pumpkin
• Go to farmer’s market & apple picking
• Go to Fall Festival to pick pumpkins from the vine
• Host Thanksgiving if I’m not feeling too overwhelmed haha
• Bake leaf-shaped cookies

But, for the time being, gotta enjoy every moment at home before the big departure! Who’s in for a noodle breakfast every morning – me!