Goodbye October

Last night's sugar coma ushered in the conclusion of fall color today. High winds, rain and severe weather threats abusing the warm tone landscape. I cannot begin to express how sad this makes me. God has once again provided intense beauty for those who take the time to notice. However, I am not going to lie, finding beauty in nature during the upcoming months is not something I easily do. I am going to work on recognizing it in the brown and gray that tends to overcome me each winter.

I rushed Kate through schoolwork today so we could escape for a final leaf run with the camera before it's all blown away. Even in the rain, the golden tones were stunning. Ty and Brycen napped in car seats while Kate joined me in gushing over God's color show. Sister appreciates simple gifts.

Trick or Treat

Lady Bug Girl from the adorable book series. She's pretty cute. 

It was a beautiful night to walk the neighborhood begging for treats. They filled their buckets and had a great time. 

Mario was Batman until the last minute. Thank you Aunt Theresa for enough hand me downs to allow multiple costume changes. It was a fun day of dress up and no one knew who would be Trick or Treating tonight. 

Knitting lesson

This week

There were sleep overs

Devyn tired of waiting on naptime, crawled up onto the glider and promptly fell asleep. She's a cutie. 

Makenna was hit with a minor stomach bug in the middle of the night last weekend and Erin stumbled down the stairs to use the restroom. She was overheard complaining, "only in my house would there be a line for the bathroom at two o'clock in the morning!" True story.

Erin took Kate and Ty out for a big sis date for Mexican food but later complained they ordered chicken nuggets. Who orders chicken nuggets in a Mexican restaurant? They had a great time but at the end of their outing, Ty made this face asking, " Erin, is this creepy? Am I creeping you out? I'm really creepy".

I made this little pumpkin out of a book in a desperate attempt to avoid cleaning my house today. It is oh so cute, but I eventually had to clean anyway.

Ty had his flashlight out to investigate the inner workings of the garbage disposal one morning this week. 

Much to Greg's dismay, the kids are digging holes in the ground in front of his target. They also planted a tree there today! He's less than thrilled. They seem to have forgotten the purpose of the target.

Most construction workers wear pajamas and snow coats in October, right? It was way too cold this week. I have objected. It's made no difference. So tonight we braved the elements, sort of......

Kate Date

Kate and I participated in a local painting class together today after church.

We enjoyed the experience; however, I am not going to lie, I know why these events typically include wine. I reached the half way point of our two hour class and thought, "well, at least we had fun" because it was not looking promising. Even Kate kept saying, "I think the teacher has better brushes than us". We blamed the brushes. Yes we did.

We did have a great time and the end result appeared as though we had a clue. I think I will take another class someday.

I don't drink wine but may need to reconsider if I don't have my eight year old along to blame for the final product. Or I could always mention the brushes again......

Tough

When the going gets tough, the tough brews a cup of tea and sits down with a magazine.

Makenna and I had planned to experiment with her camera for my birthday two weeks ago. However, I am far more comfortable behind the lens and wear a haggard, non-photogenic look most often. Yoga pants don't exactly represent the way I want to be remembered even though they make up my mom uniform more days than not. Friday I decided to invest a few minutes in myself and wore real clothing. Makenna noticed and offered to take my picture. I told her she could only capture this specific moment because I didn't want to get up. She laughed and suggested I never look this relaxed so it would be an odd snapshot. It was unusual but I briefly appeared this settled on Friday and would appreciate more similar opportunities. Someday I may tolerate a real photo session.

It was a tough week around here. Erin walked out on her new job at Amazon. She had not yet followed up with CPS but returned to the comfort of Subway. Her choices created some stress in our home. I had four extra kiddos most of this rainy week and whereas they were well behaved and as sweet as usual, they added a lot of energy and volume. On top of that, my son has become a tiny terrorist of sorts loudly demanding his way at every turn. A few extra teens were here to witness said behavior the other evening and took it upon themselves to recommend spanking as a form of discipline. At that moment, the tough took a solitary walk to contain the steam that was building behind her ears. I am a direct person and struggle to find polite ways to tell someone they are being rude when they sit at my dinner table and tell me how I should be parenting my children. I know what kind of week my son had. I was there for every moment he was unsettled by the energy level. I was there when he was injured. I was there when those same teens promised a baseball game and didn't follow through. I was present when plans were changed and promises were broken. He is four. He needs compassion and words to express how he's feeling. He needs attention that isn't divided a dozen other ways. After my walk, rather than tell the teens how their choices aided in Ty's melt down, I shut myself in his room with toys and let him lead the way in imaginative play.

Even though this wasn't a particularly great week for Ty, he did have some redeeming moments. Last night, we were waiting on Erin in the mall. We'd thrown every penny I had into the fountain and ran out of entertainment that wasn't going to include him swimming in said fountain so we went looking for his sister. We found her checking out in a store. Ty was flopping and dancing all over the place to the point I finally recommended he go to the bathroom. The hurt expression that crossed his face in that instant was priceless as he exclaimed, "But Mom! These are my best dance moves!"

Yesterday he fell off the bed and was crying pretty hard. Once he calmed down, I asked him how he fell and he declared he was standing on a ball on the bed! "Buddy! I have repeatedly told you not to do that or you could get hurt!"

"But Mom, I do it lots of times and only got hurt once."  This will not be our only shiner and I may need character witnesses when CPS is called to investigate.

The Zoo

In between rain showers that weren't in the forecast for today, I took a van load of kids to the zoo.
We came...

We saw....

There may or may not have been a fence board removed immediately prior to this shot. The kid is tough. 

We had fun...

We survived.

It was a good day, but I have to share that these two have become fast friends. Cooper joined his sister, Gleason and baby brother, Maverick at our house this week because he is on fall break from kindergarten. He and Kate held hands clear through the zoo, even when it was incredibly awkward to do so.

Adorable.