October in a Nutshell

O.K. so I haven't exactly been "on the ball" with updating the blog lately.  Quite frankly I have dropped the ball on keeping it up to date.  I wanted to wrap up October in one post, so that I can begin November posts  before we turned our calendar to the December page.  Here are some of our October highlights....

• New Playset--After a ton of research and contemplating what we wanted in a playset we finally had one built in our backyard in October.  It was finished on October 6th and we have already spent lots of time enjoying it.  Carter climbs the ladder to get to the upper deck on his own and will go down the slide over and over again.  Addy enjoys the "big kid" swings and loves to pretend she a pirate sailing on a ship while she's playing on the top deck. 
















• A Visit Home--The kids and I made a trip to southern Indiana during the third weekend of October.  Derek was heading to Phoenix, Arizona for a conference, so I decided to take the kids to visit their grandparents.  We spent four days with Grandma and Grandpa Schum.  As usual, we packed a ton of activity into that time including a craft fair, the Gasthof for lunch, trick-or-treating to our relatives houses, and a trip to Mesker Park Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa.  Monday afternoon we headed to Grandma Freihaut's house to visit her for a day and then we headed to Terre Haute to meet Addy and Carter's new cousin, Kerrigan, who was born on October 13th.  We really enjoyed spending time with so much family and seeing everyone!  It was exciting to meet a new member of our family and Addy really enjoyed getting the opportunity to hold her new baby girl cousin!

Derek admiring his new niece!

Addy is proud of her new cousin!

• Tanner's Orchard--We have loved this place ever since our first visit with Addy as a baby and the thought of not making a trip there this year made us sad.  So, we packed up the kids on a warm Sunday in October and headed north of Peoria to check out Tanner's.  They have a super playground that both of the kids loved.  We also got to do the new pedal carts, which Derek loved.  Carter enjoyed seeing the goats and riding on the pony.  Addy enjoyed running  and play on all of the fun equipment.  One of the highlights of the morning were the apple cider donuts--yum yum!  We left the orchard with two perfect pumpkins and a box full of yummy goodies from the store.  It was a great day!
• Parent Teacher Conferences--At the end of October I met with Addy's teacher for my very first Parent/Teacher Conference as a parent.  It was a very interesting experience being on the other side of the table for the first time. Addy is doing a great job at school. Her teacher did say that she is a bit chatty at times.  Hmmm, I have no idea where she gets that from! :)  We were very proud of her for getting such a wonderful report from her teacher.


• Halloween--This year Derek officially dubbed this holiday as Halloween-a-palooza this year.  It seems like it was a marathon event this year.  We had several parties beginning with a Mom's group meetup of about 13 kids (all under the age of 4) and their moms at our house on Thursday morning.  Then later that night we attended our Mom's group Halloween party which was held at a local church.  Over Halloween weekend we hosted a weenie roast to break in the new fire pit that Derek built in the back yard.  We finished the Holiday off with an evening of trick-or-treating on Monday.   The kids got lots of candy, had a great time, and we were all exhausted when all was said in done.

Trick-or-Treat!

Addys pumpkin--she drew the face and I carved it out.

So, that's October in a nutshell.  In the next few days I hope to post several Thanksgiving/November posts and then I will deem myself officially "caught up" on the blog.  Hopefully I can post a little more regularly during the holiday chaos!  Bear with me!