October and Gardner Village

Kid's Book Club this month discussed The Witch of Blackbird Pond.  It is seriously one of my absolute favorite read-alouds with my kiddos.  Sometimes in our homeschool we get so busy making sure everyone is getting their school work done, that our family read aloud time gets short changed.  One great thing about doing the book club is we always make sure to read at least one good book together each month.  The kids are reading stuff on their own, but read aloud together is my top favorite thing about homeschooling.  Next month is The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  The kids are already begging for more (which is my goal!)

We do have a little discussion each time.  It's nothing too deep, but I like to hear what they thought about the book and why they did or didn't like the story and characters.

I know I shouldn't take pictures during church, but I wanted to document this tradition of Abe drawing pictures with whichever squirrely two year-old we have at the time.  For now, it's Peter.

Faith had her final cross country meet this past Saturday.  She loved the whole season-- she just loves to move her body in general.  I hope she'll do cross country again next fall, but for now, I am beyond thrilled that cross country and soccer (for George) are done.  During the whole summer and the first half of fall, Abe has been working farmer's markets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings-- in addition to Friday nights and most Saturday evenings.  They are also done now, so I'm feeling a great relief to have him around a little more often.
Abe is good for me.

A little sneak preview of what's coming for the Fox family for Halloween.  Bethany is our make-up artist, but we've promised not to tell anyone yet.

Okay, you've dragged it out of me... we're going to be foxes!
It seemed the natural choice.
And we could buy costumes in bulk!

My sweet Faith with her most wonderful best friend Emma.  This was Emma's last week in Primary as she is moving on to Young Womens.   I know Faith will miss her terribly, but at least they'll still be together a lot with book club and the robotics team.

Peter enjoying his favorite meal as of late-- grapes and peanut butter.  Frankly, that's as well-balanced a meal as anyone in this house is enjoying these days.

Yesterday was a bad, bad, bad homeschool day.
There was anger.
There were tears.
There were threats.
There was despair.
Thanks to Abe, The Tradition Czar, we packed up the traumatized family and headed to Gardner Village for our annual witch hunt.  After my earlier outbursts, I felt remarkably calm and I quite enjoyed myself.  I especially enjoyed getting this little sweetie bundled up in her sweater ensemble.

My spider phobia seems to be increasing, so I'm proud of myself for sitting this close to an obviously fake, oversized spider.  Yet it was disturbing, nonetheless.

If you've followed my blog over the years, you may recognize Clark's girlfriend.  We try to find her and give them a moment each year.

I'm thinking Cannon may try to make a move on her while Clark is gone on his mission.

We met up with Barbara, Allison, and Caroline there to get a flash drive with our latest family pictures on it.  New pictures coming soon!

We stopped for ice cream on the way home and Clark and I shared our traditional pumpkin pie shake from Arctic Circle.  I think we've done this every year since he was about 12.
.....thing I will miss when he's gone.