Where did October go?

Hard to believe that October will be over in an hour and a half.  Fall seems to have just arrived and now the weather report says possible chance of snow tomorrow.  Our school year is zooming by as well.  With the new baby coming in January, I wanted to get a jump on things so we began in July.  It feels good having completed 12 weeks of school now so we should be half way through the year by Christmas.

Another thing causing this fall to fly is my pregnancy.  Having been told back in June that my due date was January 15 left me with the feeling of "Oh, that's next year. Forever from now."  Well forever is quickly approaching as I know how the holidays just roll from one to the next and my pregnancy update emails tell me I am now 29 weeks along.  Only 11 to go!  In some ways, I cannot wait to meet our newest little Brooks, but more often than not I feel overwhelmed and completely lacking any sense of readiness.  We decided again to not find out the baby's gender and it seems we also lack a desire to talk about name choices.  Will we just decide what to name him/her by what he/she looks like?!  Thankfully (or actually somewhat to my detriment), I'm not much of a Type A personality so I feel ok saying it'll all work out.  That is until crunch time and I'm so frustrated that nothing is in order and I blow a gasket.  Maybe I should write out a loose plan on how to get things in order by mid December.

Enough of that.  The first holiday of the holiday season is seen by many to be Halloween.  I'm not against the costumes (kid-friendly of course) and fall festivals, but holiday seems to imply "holy day" which Halloween certainly is not.  On bad days, I wonder why we even bother with Halloween.  There's money spent on costumes, allowing my children to outright beg for candy, and then my job to distribute said candy over the next several weeks so said children don't make themselves sick.  (And also try to muster self control to not eat that candy myself!)  Guess it comes down to creating happy childhood memories as my brother said recently.  And gushing over how adorable my kids really are in their costumes.  Get ready for some treats. No tricks here.

First stop of the evening was a nearby church festival with Doc McStuffins, Queen Guinevere, Baby Dragon and Snake Eyes

Doc even loves dragons

As Rylan has always hated hoods, hats, etc., we were shocked that he was ok with his dragon head

Ready to get more candy

One of a few "games" to "win" candy

Doc was happy to get fruit snacks

Trick or treating on our street meant a visit to see Mattie Steinert

Home at last!

And more Doc when it was time for pajamas

Excited to wear this shirt for the 5th time!

Baby #5 filled out this pumpkin rather nicely.