costume parade

Here is the bunch of them, dressed up and ready to knock on all the neighbour's doors.

Clara had a costume change later in the evening. She's fancy like that.

cut it out

2018 version of pumpkin carving included some intricate lines from Joe (again), snack time for Clara, Annie exhibiting great enthusiasm for the guts, scary faces from Henry, and maybe a bit of bewilderment from Janie.

As always, Happy Non-Spooky Halloween!

reading buddies

These are my pals and we're reading the Tale of Despereaux and getting emotionally invested in the lives of mice.

baby seat

Look... no hands! Janie likes to sit here... baby is indifferent.

We're feeling okay. I'm almost 39 weeks and, okay, may be feeling my advanced maternal age... so 40 may not be the new 30... some days I feel like it's the new 80. Anyway, no, I'm fine. We're good. We just want the baby to get here already (except for Janie, who will be sad to lose her chair).

practice baby

Before having another baby, it is important to always, always, always bring a practice baby into the house to see how the littlest people are going to react. So... good news! They loved this one! So did I... so happy to see dear Rachel and her new little. Janie claimed the baby as her own and much loving and smothering took place. (And, thankfully, both mother and babe were cool with it.)

So now... on to our own baby. Any time, please.

baby makes cookies

37 weeks around here... and hungry for cookies.

across the country

Joe made his school's cross country team this year, and today was the meet. It was a chilly day (see Jane)... the rain and sleet stopped in time for the running... but not the wind and the cold. Still, we cheered (well, I did... Janie hid under a blanket) and Joe did great and had fun. Hurray!

sunny days

We still have some left, and we're spending them in the backyard.

when she grows up

This will come as no surprise, but Clara wants to be a princess when she grows up. Or, she adds, a spectator.

harvest 2018

While Dad and Jason are still harvesting, and have been since August, our harvest took... a couple of hours? Beautiful weather today, so the girls and I dug up our beats and carrots and peppers and the rest of our tomatoes. It's not abundant, by any means, but it is delicious.

This tomato plant... a volunteer that came up through two cement patio squares and flourished, giving us more tomatoes than any other of our plants. He's a determined fellow. 

thanks

We walked off our turkey dinner today with a hike at Tews Falls. It was a pretty walk (also pretty busy with a zillion tourists), but you know when you accidentally take your kids on a 2.5km hike and they get too tired to move and one parent is already carrying a kid and the other parent is super duper pregnant? That's when big brother steps in to save the day (thanks, Joe). Anyway, this is our gang and this is what we did on Thanksgiving and we are all thankful.

happy thankshenry

We celebrated Turkey and Henry today (not necessarily in order of importance) with the whole Kantor clan. Making us extra thankful today was having cousin/Fr. Greg with us to celebrate Mass. We feasted on his words before we feasted on the food, and both banquets were deliciously filling.