Well, you can already see pictures from Halloween HERE, as usually it was a fun time.

Echo’s wedding dress photos are HERE.

October was also Ken’s birthday… his 40th if you can believe it! We kept it low key, just as the birthday boy requested. He is not a big party animal. But he also was given an award for his hard work involved in getting his mental health under control and advocating for the association that helped him. We got to dress up and everything!

It was a fun sort of duo season month with time to jump in leaves (and rake them up, slightly less fun)…

And a bit of snow to toy with as well.

We even had TWO foreign visitors, Jeff flew down from Canada to hang out. Never a bad thing, friends and family flying down when we still can’t return ourselves.

And Karyn!!! A shorter visit than her normal yearly visit but we packed in the fun and hugs and … shopping of course!

We had our yearly pumpkin patch trip with our friend Trish and her two kids. Always fun and thankfully on a day when the weather mostly cooperated.

Ken made pumpkin pie from scratch.

The twins took on acolyting at church.

We worked on all sorts of school stuff from crafts to book work and more.

We had the Novaks over for VR fun.

I continued my obsession with Neko-Chan pictures.

We had a bonfire with the Schwartz family and I got my cat fix.

I worked my buns off at the YMCA, with the family in tow, of course.

Emanuel and Trinity even got their YELLOW belts!!

And I crafted, my sanity is very closely tied to crafting it seems.

Of course more images to enjoy. Fall really was pretty last year!

Back to the reflection on the rest of 2017 and September. First off, September was my month of HONEST PHOTOS. So if you search out those two words you will find weekly posts sharing that little experiment. No filters, no cropping.

This is a picture heavy month so I may split it up into two posts, plus there was the Renaissance Festival, which I will share separately. Good grief, I just made more work for myself!

Let’s see… YMCA was visited… often, as usual. This was the tail end of our summer stuff, plus a continuation of things like my work outs and the karate classes.

Neko-chan won our hearts even more, this time with OUTINGS! Yup, we chinchilla proofed our bathroom as best we could and try to let her out once a week at least. She seems to approve, though getting her into the cat carrier is a trick at the best of times.

We spent lots of time outside, with the loss of our summer walks to the YMCA we took as many as possible to the front lawn of the nearby Catholic church. They have Poke stops there as well as a lovely yard to sit in.

We started our new school year relatively quietly, really with the year round schooling and the kids really enjoying ongoing pursuits (like the nursery rhymes) there isn’t a huge need to “start fresh” in the fall. But we did do pictures and such.

We even had a lovely special lunch.

There were a few new supplies and of course full time in the classroom once more.

Sunday School started up again, I am now a substitute teacher for the little dudes.

The siding was replaced on the house.

And on the inside we put shelving into the schoolroom that can be adjusted.

Dinner out with the godson was a family affair this time.

But we also got in some fancy dress date nights.

We finally got to meet our new niece Maevowyn. You will remember her baby shower from my post way back when. Just Ken and I went to visit since Shandai and Ravyn have a smaller apartment and we have a larger family. I am one proud aunty. You can see a photo post HERE. But first a teaser. 

And visited an amazing yarn exhibit.

I got in some crafting myself.

Echo got her school shots going.

And I got an awesome mug.

Fall fun.

A busy, people and activity filled month. Be sure to check out the overflow and the baby post and and and. Love to everyone who made it to the end of this monster post!

Whatever that means… Echo turned 7 in August. And summer continued to happen.

The twins did the Splash and Dash at the YMCA. This was the last year they could register and the first I had heard of it. It was just a fun thing and they did enjoy it. I think this year Ken will do a fun run with them. The other three with the rest of the clubY kids who were there were around to cheer them on.

We spent a lot of time at the YMCA in August. Lots of walking in the sunshine to do what we could do there. Zander chose to do schoolwork over club as he really does get bored. They are so quickly aging out of the program really.

Don’t forget karate!

We did try to see the total (well mostly here) solar eclipse. We went so far as to make viewing boxes… but weather conspired against us. So we went from an eclipse viewing to playing in the warm rain! Not a bad trade off!

Of course we worked on getting used to our newest member of the family. She is so fun to photograph (if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram you would be well aware of this already!).

Emanuel took a week off the family and went to a camp with his friend Aidan. It was so odd to only have 4 kids!

We made as many beach trips as we could on our sunny free days. Sometimes including friends like the Schwartz boys and their mom Renee.