October and November

It has been a while. October was busy. I taught at least once a week and often had to go in more than that just to be prepared to teach. Hopefully next semester won't be as bad. I am teaching all the same classes. We will see.

In other news, my kids are cute. And that is mostly what this post will be about. Obviously we did the whole Halloween thing, but I didn't get a picture because they wore the same costumes they wore to King Richard's Faire. I guess it is a little cuter when you have to cover half of their costumes because it is cold outside. Anyways...here goes the pictures.


You will see many pictures of the kids in their Sunday best. I guess it is because they do look quite cute right before church. Don't ask me to snap a picture after. We have 11 am church, so they (and the parents) are quite tired and more than ready for some rest. Anyways, here is one Sunday (in October) before Church.

I love this picture. They look like bestest buddies.

 



Sam's squinty smiley face will be seen many times in this post....Consider yourself lucky!!

For Columbus day we ventured to Honeypot orchard for some apple picking. We pretty much re-created a visit we made last year. This time we parked far enough away that a complimentary hayride was included. My kids didn't want to look at the camera in this one.

Since Sam does super cute squinty smiley faces, Lucy compensates by doing really awkward sideways goofy faces. I have no clue how we are going to get good family pictures this year...

Yes, the apples were delicious!

And here is Lucy looking grown up....sigh...

We also made our annual trip to Pumpkin fest. Despite their being some questionable behavior outside the festival, we had a lovely and non-eventful time. It was actually kind of rainy. We met up with my mom, Poul and Danielle, grabbed some food, did a loop around the square, Lucy got her face painted and we headed back to my parents'. It was a nice weekend to visit my family and a very lovely time to be around Keene.

The hike I did with the kids in September is now one of the kids favorite places to go. So we did the hike again. I got some more pictures of them holding hands and being good at being siblings. I think these pictures will be important later in life when they are driving each other crazy.

Lucy LOVES the bridge that we cross. Here is HER bridge.

Aw.....that cheesy smile gets me every time. Yes, here are some more pre-church pictures.

This is a picnic they created in the kitchen.

And the park. I believe this was just last week. The weather is getting cold, but I am determined to keep bringing the kids outside. For my own sanity and for their need to let out energy.

Instead of giving Lucy a knife we allowed her to paint a pumpkin. I think she did a fabulous job. She even let me participate to add some of my own artwork.

And here is pumpkin Jimmy carved the day before Halloween. He went very traditional.

But my friends, winter is upon us. On Saturday (or Friday) I woke up to snow on the ground. I wasn't super excited. Maybe selfishly because I can't take the kids out as much and also because I like to run outside, but it gets more complicated with snow. I am excited for all the holiday parts of winter, but not so much the cold. That being said Lucy and Sam are super excited. Lucy saw the snow and demanded we make a snowman. She thought it was "amazing!" Here they are trying on some winter clothes. Sam likes to wear hats like dopey from Snow White and the 7 dwarves. The hats hardly stay on his head.

But then there is his smile...

Yesterday we dropped Sam off with Grandma and Grandpa Coop and took Lucy to see a movie. It was a great experience to be just with Lucy. I miss that one on one time we get with her. She is such a good little girl, that sometimes gets the brunt of Sam's tantrums, simply because she is oldest. But yesterday it was all about her. She wanted sandwiches for lunch so we got grilled sandwiches, and she wanted popcorn for the movie, so we splurged and got popcorn. The movie (Big Hero 6) was great, but too intense for Lucy. She sat in my lap for the 2nd half. But in the end it was still a good movie. I think sometimes she forgets there are other movies besides princess movies and Wreck it Ralph. I still think it was a fun experience for all of us!

And here is one last pre-church picture. Lucy looks so stylish in her dress and boots. Turns out this girl has grown out of all her winter shoes. So we got her some church boots yesterday. Next up winter boots for her and Sam. Sheesh these kids never stop growing!

And now we are pretty much up to date. I have one last class on Thursday and then we are home free for the rest of the semester. I am just hoping we stay warm enough. Today we finally turned on the heat in living room.