October

October was BUSY. There is school, leaves to rake, winterizing to do, festivals to attend. We always fit in time at the hunting shack, plus there is Halloween and all the fun Halloween events.

Let's start with school. Remember the artwork I shared in the last blog post? Here are photos of BOTH kids' artwork. Victoria thought it was cool that a) she was next to Delaney and b) both hers and Alex's are blue!

The Piedmont staff have such nice touches that make you feel welcomed and excited!

We held the annual walk to school event, with some dedicated volunteers:

Alex earned a student of the month award for his class!

We had forgotten about the annual flower, fruit, and vegetable show. By October, our gardens were pretty much done for the year! Victoria ran out that morning and grabbed one small remaining cucumber. When we arrived at school we saw what some of the other students (i.e. their parents) had put together: beautiful baskets brimming with vegetables, complete arrangements of flowers. Wow! There was no way our tiny cucumber would compete. She hid it in her backpack and went off to class. As I was leaving the school, I noticed that the FIRST grade table, however, had almost nothing on it! I ran downstairs to Victoria, who was glad to give the cucumber for her brother to enter instead, and he won second place! Family creativity and teamwork 💓.

Their teachers will often share pictures and I love seeing the kids during their day, like this photo of Alex in front of the classroom.

And this fun party. Alex has so many of his friends in this class, including Lucas, Oliver, Cassius, and Jack!

 

Victoria's class earned a PJ and stuffie day and she brought "Victor," the dog she has had since she was a baby.

The kids and I walked home when we could, and I laughed when one day I caught up to them (they often run ahead) and they turned around and pretended they were smoking ... hahaha silly kids!

The kitty bitties continued to grow ... 💓

And we all love having each other to snuggle with!

They can't help but crawl into every place they can find.

Or ON every place they can find (this railing stunt gave me a heart attack).

The puppies stay cute and sassy:

And we had a couple Brittany play dates with friends!

This photo was actually taken in November when Alex got a huge bag of kettle korn at Festival of Trees, but it got lumped in these photos and I couldn't resist! :)

We spent time at the hunting shack!

Uncle Adam showed the kids how to look for (and find) deer sign like scrapes and droppings. It was so cool to watch my brother pass on his knowledge.

The kids found a big "cave" left behind by tree roots!

The puppies love the shack!

The kids made a fort in the bedroom.

We shot some clay pigeons. Here is me shooting!

and ... drumroll ... Ms. Victoria's first time shooting a shotgun.

Here are two video clips showing her completely nailing the clay pigeon Adam set against a tree stump.

Roger was with for some of our wheeling adventures.

The kids and I decided Inga needed an experience at the UMD hockey game. Somehow I didn't get a picture WITH Inga but she was there ;).

V made pancakes with her signature shapes.

And played with cousin Addie.

The Reed family sojourned to a local corn maze. It was WET. And MUDDY. Our cars slid sideways across the parking lot. But we had fun anyway!

And we warmed up at a restaurant in Carlton after:

The kids participated in a summer reading challenge conducted by the library, and got invited to City Hall to meet the mayor and city councilors. Both kids were there but only V would be in the photo.

And finally ... Halloween.

The kids wanted to be black cats for Halloween, just like their kitties.

Victoria was AMAZING at pumpkin carving!

We couldn't figure out why Piper kept walking around the table whining. After about half an hour it dawned on me ... she is used to getting pureed pumpkin with her food, so of COURSE she thought the pumpkin carving was all for her! LOL ... we fed her pumpkin guts and slices of pumpkin as we pulled them out. She was so happy.

Alex has the orange cat and V the white cat (cats ... of course).

We trick-or-treated in Cloquet the weekend before. Check out these adorable kitties (and I, having two *black cats* had to be a witch. Of course.).

We convinced the pups to wear their costumes.

One of my favorite school events: the Halloween parade!

V and Delaney!

For the first time ever, there was trick or treating at City Hall! Here the kids are with the mayor, who was dressed as ... Enger Tower!

They went around with Kat, their black-kitty-friend.

And following tradition, we convened the 'hood for neighborhood trick or treating.

 Good night!