Late Fall

I had a birthday and turned......not 40 yet!  I was surprised to receive 2 Cafe Latte cheesecakes and a few visitors throughout the day and evening.

We took a hockey player, Alice from Wonderland and a cute little lady bug out begging for candy.

Our nephew Chad made it to state in cross country and ran in spite of his injured leg.  We were glad to cheer him on, but hated to see him in pain!

  

All the Connelly kids minus Serena who was at show choir practice.  Aren't they all beautiful?!

We spent two nights with Shari that weekend to help her celebrate turning 50 and I took ZERO photos of her or the wonderful folks we stayed with!  It was a great weekend and I guess I was enjoying myself too much to take photos of it!

Weekend With Friends

Right now a weekend with this family isn't super exciting to Ayla since it means 4 BOYS are coming to visit.  Give it a few years and it will likely be quite exciting!

  

Kaia doesn't yet mind and she didn't hesitate to play the game of Life with the boys.  Ayla felt that reading was more worthwhile.

The above photos were so cute to me that I couldn't decide which one to post, so I posted all three.  We have a similar photo of Ayla with one of the older brothers when they were about the same age.  However, those photos are so embarrassing to A and D now that I won't post them even though I want to!

After our company left Kaia went hunting with Daddy.  They sat in the ground blind and Kaia played hockey on Craig's phone until even that lulled her into sleep.  Daddy was surely disappointed that they didn't bring home a deer.  However, I don't think it would have made Kaia any happier than time with Daddy did!

Duluth

Before hunting season was in full swing hubby let me have a weekend off.  It consisted of an incredible body wrap, some delicious meals out and relaxing with a couple of good friends at my awesome sister in law's home.  On Saturday we meandered up North Shore Drive and enjoyed fall's last hurrah!

Little Bit

Our Miss Kaia is loving 4K.  One of her projects was to live with Knufflebunny for a week, write a story about it and share some photographic evidence.

  

At our house he played with pollys;

Helped clean the kids' bathroom;

And had supper with us at Axel's  Bonfire Grill.  This turned out to be quite the adventure as poor KB got left behind!!!  Good thing Daddy drives to the cities every day!

  

Kaia had her first field trip to a pumpkin farm.  Here she is on her first bus ride.

Cutest jailbird ever!

Micah 2013

I still have a son and yes, I did take photos of him.  Favorite?  

I'm leaning towards this one, although I wonder if the fact that his elbow is cut off ruins it.......

Thanks for your input. At this rate I might get some photos printed a mere two months after taking them!

Kaia 2013

She was so exuberant this year that I deleted all but these three photos.  The smiles were sooooo fake and the poses were downright hilarious.  Are any of these wall worthy or shall I go back to the drawing board?

Ayla 2013

These are the best of my third attempt.  I can find stuff wrong with each photo.  Am I being too picky?  Which is your favorite?

Part Three

We went through our quirky teen years together and 20+ years later we are still friends.  Awesome.  Michelle and her 3 darlings came from Reno for several days this past September.

The fact that our kids like each other is icing on the cake.

Next up; 2013 photo shoot.  It didn't go so well this year.  Kaia is into fake smiles and posing. Ayla is into open hostility.  After three tries I think Ayla is starting to realize that doesn't work.  It doesn't make her Mom give up.  It makes her more determined and prolongs the agony! 

The Past Ten Months Part 2

We cheered Micah on at his last track and field day.  I still can't believe his elementary school days are a thing of the past :(

This part of our experience deserves and in-depth post, but I just can't do it right now.  I can't even look closely at all my photos.........Grandma Mary was diagnosed with cancer at the end of May and died seven short weeks later.  We had a lot of special family time and these are some of the photos I loved.  When I feel more ready to process the events of our summer I have lots more photos and some stories to share.