Let us go then, you and I: October Catch-up

Clara has sort of stolen the stage on the blog, but I did have lots of pictures and things to post about from October! Now that we're into a new month and onto a new child, though, I'll try to condense our October happenings into a post or two. So here we go . . .

1. It's not exactly new to October that we have some cute kids (yes, I'm biased). Also not new: I was still pregnant. But I took pictures to document both the cuteness and the pregnancy!

Lydia

36 weeks pregnant (photograph courtesy of Josiah)

The duo

The trio

2. We went to the McCormick-Stillman Train Park for the annual train fair.

Daddy and his girls--L on left, A on right

Our neighbor Tim has a display of model trains set up there each year, so we enjoy visiting his tent and seeing all the other cool train set-ups. The kids especially like one in which they can push buttons to make trains and signals go.

We walked through the indoor museum area, too, and then Jeremy took the kids on the carousel.

Abby didn't cry this time, but she didn't feel comfortable taking her hand off the pole to wave, either!

After some play on the playground, Jeremy and the kids rode the train, and we let them try out the inflatables briefly before we went home for lunch.

These are also the last pictures we took before Abby's fateful accident in which she "lost" her tooth (got it jammed up into her gum) later that day.

3. The girls' hair is out of control--in a good way, mostly. Lots of people comment on it every time we go out.

Lydia

Abby

I loved when it started curling last year, but little did I know to what fullness of glory it would grow (and we may not even be there yet!).

4. We have very little in our garden right now (we pulled most of the summer garden out before we left for Michigan in late July), but our basil surprised us by growing to astronomical proportions with little to no help from us. Last year's basil was sickly. I'm not sure what made the difference with this year's!

Basil

We have two sweet potato plants and a pepper plant still growing, too. But I think we've decided against doing a winter garden. Maybe we'll plant some lettuce and a few vegetables--we'll see. Our lemons are yellowing, though, and we're excited about the neighbor's blood oranges that hang over into our yard as well!

Sweet potato plant

5. Jeremy and Josiah have had ups and downs with the soccer team and practices. A few especially wild kids have stretched Jeremy's patience and his coaching skills. They've also taught Josiah some new words and influenced him to try some new-to-him bad behaviors and attitudes. But Josiah has also learned some soccer (and maybe teamwork?) skills, and he even made two goals in a row a couple games ago.

There he is, after the ball!

Go Sabertooths!

Grandma and Pa came down for a weekend to see him play and spend some time with us. We really enjoyed their visit! They even babysat the kids two evenings in a row so Jeremy and I could go out to eat. It was our last chance to do so for a while--Clara came the very next weekend!

6. Aunt Bobo (my sister Elisabeth) came to visit for four days after she was in Los Angeles for a friend's wedding. We all enjoyed having her here, though the time was brief! "Aunt Bobo is funny," Josiah often says. "I like her. When she's coming back to our house?"

7. Good family friends from Dubai--Mr. and Mrs. Penman--came to dinner Wednesday, Oct. 28th. (Their son was the friend whose wedding Elisabeth attended the previous weekend.) I had hoped to go to that wedding, but with my due date so close, we couldn't be gone. I'm glad we got the chance to see the Penmans, though! The kids took to them right away--wanting to roughhouse with Mr. Penman and read books with Mrs. Penman. (And they missed Clara by just over a day!)