The Crafts

It's an interesting dynamic in our house. Parenting a middle schooler all the way down to a threesome tyrannosaurus with two others in between. At the end of each day we collapse on the couch and I think, "phew, survived another one." A good parent gets up and tries again...or so I've read. And that's what we've been doing.  Kate sang in her first ever middle school concert. The kids did a great job after a trimester of practice. In middle school students are lined up by last name rather than height. Kate blocked a few kids standing in the front row. Love my tall girl. We received our first snow storm of the season...in early November. I love winter, I love winter, I love winter...(trying to convince myself.) The snow has since melted but I snapped some cute photos of the girls playing before it disappeared. And after a couple of hearty Thanksgiving meals with various families (three Thanksgivings in all), we drove up to Wapsie Pines and picke...

This Halloween was a great one for our family, primarily because we gained a lot of independence from last year to this. Everyone was able to walk around on their own, knock on doors without assistance, and we didn't have to worry about tipsy little baby feet falling off front steps. We visited with neighbors, collected lots of candy, and collapsed in a heap by the end of the evening...after the annual candy swap, of course. This year CJ dressed as a swimmer (SWOON!), Natalie was a pet vet, Maddie was Catboy from PJ Masks, and Kate and I wore blow-up suits and danced our way down the sidewalk. Kate's trick or treating days came to an end this year but she went out in style, kind of. Oh, and Matt didn't dress up but he was along for the ride. And because I neglected my blog for so long, I thought it'd make sense to post LAST YEAR'S Halloween pictures because I probably never got around to blogging about it. Trying on costumes at Target is always FUN!!! ...