Oh, October. . .

 

I need to get better at writing little updates on here! The time just gets away from me. As I'm typing this, I'm thinking back on my day, and I'm fixating on the things that have bothered me (whiny children, dog accidents, messy house). . . But as I look through these photos, I see a beautiful life that we've created here at this house. And I'm feeling extra blessed tonight. Take a peek :)

The weekend before last, we went to a fall festival at one of the churches in the community. It was an awesome event - hay rides, pumpkin painting, free food, horse rides, kettle corn, bounce houses, music. We had a nice time!

The boys were still in their church clothes, and of course the first thing they wanted to do was paint pumpkins. By the way, Nolan loves to wear ties! He picks out his outfits, and he will be known to wear a plain white t-shirt with a tie on a random weekday. :)

One morning, we decided to make Shay's pumpkin bread with marshmallow buttercream frosting. The boys helped me measure and bake, and it turned out really tasty! We gave it an A+.

Out on a walk collecting acorns (they're each holding one up). Look at Ephraim's face! :)  It is  impossible to get them both to smile and look at the camera!

I've added a few fall touches to our house in the past couple of weeks. This is one of my favorite paintings - a watercolor of a couple walking alongside Lake Michigan in the fall. I love that Gold Coast Chicago skyline in the background!

This lit-up pumpkin might be my favorite decor piece of any season. It looks so beautiful at night! I bought it at Michael's last year.

My friend Sharon dropped off a pot of mums and two pumpkins for our outdoor decor :) Such a fun surprise!

On a Friday night at-home date :) We've been watching a lot of "Last Man Standing." Not the best show in the world, but funny and easy to watch.

A few days ago, I tried making French macarons for the third time. I was so pleased with how they turned out! They are not easy cookies, and this is the first time they looked authentic. And man alive, the chocolate ganache in the middle was delicious!

I'm getting excited to make another batch! However, that will have to wait because our kitchen is under construction! We started tearing it apart TWO YEARS ago, and it's remained in limbo ever since. Steve had a short fall break this week, so he had some time to work on it, and he's made a lot of progress!

 

It's going to look so nice when the retro look is updated!

I brought these donuts to MOPS on Tuesday. Mmm!

Two-year-olds and stickers, haha! 

Yesterday, Nolan made his name out of Duplos. He has been doing some really incredible building lately!

He still LOVES school time at home. He looks forward to it everyday, and he really stays engaged and interested in all of his workbooks. We did some uppercase and lowercase letter matching with ice cream cone cards this week, and he rocked that activity. He also knows how to write and spell all of the names in our family with no help. I love this stage!

 

Last night, we were a little stir-crazy and went for a drive through the country to see the fall leaves at their peak. Pennsylvania is gorgeous right now! 

As cute as they come!

Thanks for checking in with us :) Hope you have a wonderful weekend!!