Scenes from October!

November has been a doozy of a month and I am back to the desperate game of catch-up... The good news is that means less wordiness in these posts and more pictures! We did a lot of fall festival-ing again this year so I'll save the bounty of pics from those for a post all their own. Which means this one will be a fairly random assortment of moments from October, starting with...

One of Lilee's own superhero creations!

Just some after school sweetness for these two sweetnesses.

There was a phase when she was going to sleep with socks on her hands...

You do you, Lilee, you do you.

Always happy for some face paint!

And dog walking!!!

Sweet Leia, a good friend's dog.

And introducing the beginnings of another superhero ccreation-

She's brave, she's fierce, she's
Lion VEL!

Maelee checked out a cookbook from her school library so we spent a weekend trying out recipes! It was fun and delicious.

The discovery of dozens of monarch butterflies in our courtyard.

A double date with Cindy & Tim! We've been wanting to do this for YEARS! So glad we were able to work it out.

My trusty taste-tester.

Proud of her puzzle skills!

Maelee wrote a Lion Vel book for Lilee. It's awesome.

Silly besties.

 Posing for her star as the Star Student in PE!

 Helping out with the annual baking of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies!

My little climber. :)

Toward the end of the October we got to make a quick trip up to DE that was filled with lots of fun. After a couple hours enjoying the fall festival at Fifer Farms, we had dinner on Fri night at Tom & Viv's with my cousin's family, my folks, and Mary Catherine and Susan & Stephen. The next morning, we went up to Lewes for the wedding of one of my cousins on my dad's side! It was a sweet and simply backyard celebration and we were so glad we could be a part of it!

Always a favorite- the gator!

The sweetest cuddle bug.


Growing up too fast!

We are deeply missing Too-Dad at our gatherings anymore, but are so grateful we still get to see Mary Catherine.

With Cheryl, the beautiful bride, the next day.

Loving the sweets and traditions!

Many of the Metheny crew!

Such a fun day and fun weekend with so many special family!

And to cap off October, we even got a date night, thanks to our sweet neighbors for offering to watch our kids!

First Days, Grandparent's Day, and Gotcha Day!

September had three especially noteworthy days- the kiddos' first day of school, Grandparent's Day, and Gotcha Day!!! It was a pretty full month altogether but these days, in particular, left our hearts pretty full.

Soaking up one last day at the pool on Labor Day before school starts!

"Jitter Glitter" the night before!

Priceless first day of school video

of Lilee HERE!

Video of Ollie HERE!

Video of Maelee HERE!

And off they go to school for the first day!!!

Ready for a new school year!

And just like that, our sweet little bun starts Pre-K!

BFFs Lilee & Chloe- so happy to be in school together!

Celebratory ice cream after very successful first days for all three!

And then we had the pleasure of enjoying more sweetness at the end of the week!

Might be hard to read from the cake, haha, but it was a happy Grandparent's Day getting to celerate these two over dessert!

Then toward the end of the month, on September 28th to be exact, we got to celebrate the day we *got* our Ollie boy as our son. Of course in many ways, we feel like he's been part of our family for so much longer, but in other ways we can't believe it's already been a whole year. It has not been an easy road to navigate, but we are so excited to see what God has in store for our family. Ollie has been such a sweet addition to our crew!

Helping mommy taste-test the frosting on his "Gotcha Day" cake!

All good celebrations must include CAKE!

Some of our most special friends to celebrate the joyous occasion with us.

And some pretty special family, too!

Our celebration ended up needing to take place on the 27th, as Steve had to travel on the 28th, but he was able to leave late enough the next morning to enjoy some celebratory donuts with our sweet boy.

Capping off the night of the 28th with ice cream!
We sure like to mark special occasions with sweet treats!

And a sweet three days in September they were!