Annnnddddd now we are onto October… and October of 2015 was a doozy. Not only did we have Halloween to contend with (and 5 costumes of which were all somewhat handmade), but a very important wedding. It is not every day you get to be in a THEMED wedding in a park for a friend who is more a sister to you than pretty much anyone on the planet. AND see her looking gorgeous and feel rather pretty yourself to boot. HERE

Halloween this year was the year of all handmade… each and every costume had at least a touch of our personal handy work on it. HERE.

Echo and zombie (?) Alex

October is also Ken’s birthday and Canadian Thanksgiving… both of which we celebrate.

There is the usual, swim lessons at the YMCA thanks to Nana and Baba… and Home Depot…

Homeschool, of course… when are we not learning something new…

October just happens to be the month when the trees in our backyard look their finest. And then when the ground looks its most amazing. I could not resist a full on photo shoot of everyone and everything. You can see the rest of the leaf pictures HERE.

We really had a crafty and active month.

Spiderwebs

As well as some time with games indoors…

Working on our spelling

With company as well…

Evan

Jeffrey!

Fun with Scouts…

And Sunday School of course!

I have to admit, I love October more when we are in Minnesota… the colours here are so… amazing!!!

 Top it off with random images and what a great month!

Well with sunshine and fun locations comes excessive images… sit back and enjoy the tail end of our summer of 2016 (seriously not the same ring to it as the summer of ’69).

Boys in the basement gaming… like college all over again!

A little bit of workbook fun.

Alien in her cowboy boots.

A wizard and his staff.

Tails!

A princess!

Mermaid!

Poor Sean!

…and back in the basement.

5 year olds want CONES not CUPS!

We seriously love this museum! It was hard to weave out images. I hope you are enjoying the excess!

Working as a team… sort of.

Making Uncle Sean work!

My family. A hole is always filled when our Canadian friends who are family anyway visit.

We broke him!

At IKEA

And of course… MORE Wild Kratts.

Yup, that is my husband on the Schwartz family roof.

CROCHET

And a selfie to end…

When I started this blog it was with a commitment to keep it going through thick and thin… There have been a few varations on posting… Once in a while when the kids were wee… daily sharing when the homeschool life was new and fresh… month chunks at the end of the month… and now, a full on battle to chase myself back to current. I have actually found great joy in reflecting on these months long gone. It is amazing to see, now removed, how highly productive and honestly HAPPY we were back in times when I was SURE we had accomplished so very little. 

September was a busy month. We finished up our visit with Jeff that overlapped a day with Sean.

Learning a little TaeKwonDo

Which at the same time had Ken, myself, Shandai and Ravyn at the Renaissance Festival.

Of course since we had Sean down we had to go do fun things… a trip to the Minnesota Historical Society… where we apparently took way too many pictures. But the temporary Hmong exhibit was amazing! 

Plenty of fun times at home (of course with computers included).

The weather was absolutely lovely so plenty of time was spent outside in the pool…

At the park…

We even squeezed in some school time.

Wild Kratta

Art

Ken won beer for a year… FROM OUR CHURCH!We started a new year of schooling… well tried out some new ideas and photographed our one and only stating of a grade level that we do each year!

We even started up in scouts again!

Be sure to check the overflow link… I took so many pictures of the festival and the museum. It is such a waste NOT to share them HERE.