october 2018

August ran into September which ran smack into October. Everything sped up by a gazillion times. It rained and rained and rained in September and was unseasonably hot well into October. Mid-month it went from 80's and humid to highs of 50.  We went straight from AC to the furnace. There was essentially no fall. The leaves finally turned the last week of October just in time for Halloween. It was a strange fall. 

In no particular order:

There were some spectacular sunsets in October.

 

We spent a weekend in Asheville with the Isaacs and John celebrating Greg's 60th and Meredith's 30th birthday. It was also known as the 30/60 Weekend. Asheville is pretty great and the company was great so it was an all around spectacular weekend.

Great drinks!

 

Great fun!

Sweet Evie Mae was a total trooper!

Great food!

Great friends!

Great donuts!

Our Air B&B was what you would call "open".

It was great!

We had so much fun. Some highlights included:

a tour of New Belgium brewery • amazing meals • scooter riding • seeing the Cameron and Sarah • late night tea • the road trip with Rusty & Kaitlin • reading an entire book • sleeping in the downstairs with everyone • the upstairs bathroom • the bachelorette party next door • coffee • afternoon and evening out on the town • Evie Mae • that shoe store  • a weekend out of town

Halloween was fun this year. I actually bought pumpkins before October 30th (win!). This is my annual "I don't participate in pumpkin carving" picture.

After a few miscuts on her first pumpkin, Sophie opted for painting her pumpkin with some sort of puffy paint. That too was a fail.

I don't have a picture of the finished product but this was Ted's. I'll probably have pumpkins growing in my front garden next year. After all the mess of a mis-carved pumpkin/painting/carving, her pumpkin was smashed after trick-or-treat. Not her year for that I guess.

Sophie had her last Halloween party and parade at school.

For GEMS we added a baby to a basket and she became Moses' mom!

The annual cousin pic:

2 characters from Fort Night. Camille the Wellie Wisher. Egyptian princess.

The Sizicks and the Joseph's also trick-or-treated with us.

The mom's got in on the action this year which was way fun! It was one of warmer days this month.

The dad's handed out fist fulls of candy as fast as they could to then go inside and play video games. Tradition.

The boys joined in on the video games post trick or treat.

Just the usual Saturday at our house.

I did a beach weekend with friends in Ocean City. It was a bit rainy but we made it work! The trip included long walks, grilled chicken salad, A Star is Born, outlets, and reading on the beach.

We finished up flag football season. Our team was ok.

Towards the end of the season it got pretty darn cold.

I don't really remember why I took this picture. I think it was one of our many days off of school and the dining room table is usually my office. You can see how productive that makes me.

Speaking of days off school - this is a list of the first 18 weeks of school (August through Christmas break) and how many days a week kids are actually attending. Only 7 out of 18 weeks have 5 full days. It's been hard to feel like we are in any sort of rhythm.

Post-parade candy. Ted loves marching band but a couple of parades have been cancelled due to rain. Surprise!

For Ted's birthday we brought some friends home from church and combined them with our neighborhood friends. After a morning of rain, we made some quick changes and ate cupcakes first (made by Sophie!).

Then we took them to the new pizza place on High Street where

the slices of pizza are as big as your head!

They spent the rest of afternoon playing flag football and all sorts of other things.

It was a great day!

Sophie dog sat Breezy. She was 100% in charge and did a fabulous job. Breezy was a dream.

Doh & Pap came over to celebrate Ted's birthday. Doh was trying to help the boys see a magic eye book. Not super successful.

Birthday money hidden in a coconut - where else?!?!

Actual birthday sleepover and big old breakfast.

He had a second birthday celebration in New Martinsville with Grandma, Gary Pap, Henry, Roxie and Reed!

As Roxie says: "Poop Cake"

Everybody went to church with Doh & Pap.

Janell, Susie & I had a fun girls lunch in Fairmont one day.

Ben went to New York City with his mom. They saw Phantom of the Opera and Wicked. I don't have any other pictures than this one!

Our car turned over 200,000 miles!

Also in October:

• We celebrated 25 years of Young Life in the Mountaineer Area. We had a great banquet. There may be pictures floating out there but I don't have them.
• Date night was thwarted one time by pumpkin carving and another time by 7th grade math.
• 5th and 7th grade math are the pits and might
• Parent/Teacher Meetings
• The race towards two Fall Weekends in November.