Here’s a little peek at what we were up to this past month!
We had an epic October with an abundance of nice weather. We have never spent as much time outside in October as we have this past month. The kids and I were in the yard at least a couple of times every single week, and we did quite a few outings as well. I also took Annie on a few outings, just the two of us. We finished the fall soccer season and had Halloween to round out a very full, very fun month.
I took the kids out in the yard as much as possible this month. I had my camera out half a dozen times, and there were many other times that I was chasing Annie and playing soccer with Tommy without it, too.
Tommy had a day off of school with beautiful weather. The kids and I made what ended up being our final excursion of the season to Green Meadows.
Tommy and Olivia wanted pumpkins from Green Meadows so badly. I was pushing the double stroller, which meant that they had to pull the wagon for pumpkins all the way out to the patch and all the way back to the car. I was so proud of both of them for hanging in there and pulling the wagon the whole way.
Then we met up with friends at Jerry Smith for a few hours. It was absolutely crazy to go to both places in one day, but it was worth it.
Unfortunately, the double outing overdid it for Olivia, and she was under the weather for a few days afterward. The next night, our whole immediate family was planning to go to the Jack ‘o Lanterns at the Racine Zoo. I ended up going with just Tommy and Annie. I’m still bummed that it worked out that way. Hopefully, we’ll all be able to go another year.
Annie and I played hooky on a day that everyone else had work or school and went to Lake Geneva. I hadn’t been just to wander in many years and had never been in October when the colors were so good.
We finished up the fall soccer season in the middle of the month. It was such a great season. We’re looking forward to picking up soccer again in the spring.
The kids and I went back to Jerry Smith, this time with Jake.
Annie and I made an excursion to Frame Park while the fall colors were at their peak. I never feel like I do justice to the fall colors in my pictures. We have such sweeping expanses of bright colors, especially in the parks and driving through the countryside. Our outing to Frame Park is the best I’ve done with capturing the color in a long time.
The girls and I checked out Thompson Farm for the first time. They added a farm park this year.
We made our final farm outing of the season a couple of days later with Jake and my mom. We went to Swan’s one more time.
The older three kids had a Halloween night event the same night that Jake had a high school reunion. We wandered downtown Kenosha before the reunion started. It had been years since we had been down there together, especially at golden hour.
We had a gorgeous day for trick or treating this year – 55 degrees and sunny. Tommy was a skeleton warrior for trick or treating and Master Chief from Halo for school, Olivia and Genevieve were both queens, and Annie was a princess. Annie napped straight through trick or treating, but she got to dress up for the girls’ music class.
Annie and I wrapped up the month with a visit to the National Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe. The shrine sits on a gorgeous piece of property, and the fall colors were still gorgeous.
We also visited the Dunn Museum and their Bob Ross exhibit. I kept seeing advertisements for it on Instagram all fall. It made for a great stop as part of our outing with the shrine.
You can find all of my baby/toddler updates for all of the kids as well as general family updates and other family-related posts in the family section of the blog.
