The Official October Recap

Here we are...

Goodbye October, welcome November.

October is my favorite, FAVORITE, month of the year.
I'm afraid I let much of it slip by without adequate documentation,
so today I'm giving October its due with a big ol blog picture dump...

It is the prettiest time in our little village.  

A while back I promised a village tour, this will not be it, 

but I did manage a few phone pictures while on walks...

{on the way to a hayride + trip to the pumpkin patch for the fall festival}

 {today all these trees are bare}

{The little bridge that crosses over to the village chapel in the background}

{The village square} 

This is where we sit for ice cream in the summer months, soon this fountain will freeze.  

We walk past it each morning and afternoon on our way to and from school,
occasionally pennies will be dropped in and wishes made.

{One of many pretty Tudor homes}

  

{Tudor architecture downtown}

{The Inn}

Where we go almost daily to check on the "animals"

Charlie loves the deer, moose and buffalo mounted heads in the "hunting-lodge"

themed lobby.  The inn is our favorite place for breakfast too.  In the winter we bundle up and
walk there to eat in front of a big roaring fire, in the summer we sit outside on the little patio.

{Trip to roadside pumpkin stand after preschool and a lunch date}

October also brought Friday night instructional soccer.  

Charlie was too young but I signed him up anyway.

Daddy "coached". Though 3 year olds aren't really coachable.

Big brother helped too.

 Charlie gave it his ALL for the first 15 minutes each week,

after that he wanted to cuddle.  I was probably a little over zealous to sign him up so young.

I should have waited till he was 4.  Live and learn. But he sure was cute.

In other sports, October marked the official start of the winter swim season.

{Though Andrew has been back in the water since September.}

Now it's nightly practices and weekend meets.

Lots of wet towels, chlorine smelling hair, lost goggles, and 

double dinners b/c after practice this boy is hungrrrrry!

I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen.  There are few things I enjoy as much as filling the house with yummy smells when it's damp and chilly outside.  With all the pinning I've been doing I had a rather ambitious agenda to bake, craft, host parties, and add pumpkin to every conceivable recipe (soup, pancakes, french toast, doughnuts, cookies, pasta, you name it there is a pumpkin version recipe on pinterest), but I barely cracked a dent in that list and that is ok.  I did make a lot of pumpkin bread {my Mum's recipe}, tried these pumpkin spice doughnuts, and this fun skeleton treat for Charlie's Halloween party at preschool...{link here for instructions.}

I used my FAVORITE brownie recipe...

I've blogged it before, but it is soooooooo good, I'm blogging the link again.

I have zero self control when these are in the house.  ZERO!

{The downside of too much time spent in the kitchen...}

{...so sometimes we eat out for dinner}

{and other times, for lunch, in the middle of the week...}

{at a cute bakery in Glendale, Ohio, where we can watch and hear the trains go by}

I celebrated my birthday at the end of month...

and Charlie sang to me the entire day.

He's so proud to know all the words to happy birthday he just couldn't help himself!

We managed to squeeze in a little pumpkin carving the Saturday before Halloween 

with Mindy, my dearest friend in the whole wide world, and her four sweet babies...

   I had ping pong eyeballs, plastic fangs and rats and 

some inspiration from Martha and then we let the kids make their own interpretations...

{Not exactly what Martha had in mind. No one will be pinning this one! ha!}

After carving and playing we came in for lunch.

I served my friend Merret's, Autumn Harvest Soup along with Ham + Havarti Biscuits.

Yum.  I will post the recipe soon.
Mindy thought it tasted very Parisian.  Coming from a French teacher I will take it!

Sorry this post keeps on going and going...almost to Halloween..  

Anyone still reading? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone??  

On Halloween the elementary children come home for lunch
 and change into their costumers.
Then we all walk back together for the parade...

I had a slightly disgruntled Harry.  I forgot to get him a wand.  oopsie.

We also had a slightly disgruntled baby brother who was feeling wiped out from the antibiotics 

he was taking for an ear infection.   So yes, my three yearold watched the parade with a paci.  

And I feel no shame.  Whatever it takes.

Thankfully a good nap for C and a little perspective for Andrew 

and we were back in business by the time trick or treating rolled around.

And that was our October.

Friday night we celebrated Andrew's good report card 

by skipping swim practice to go out for pizza and yogurt. 

How can the first quarter of school be finished when it feels like I was just posting pictures 

of the boys running through the sprinkler?!

This post took too long.

I vow to be a better blogger in November.

Ha!  I've heard that before!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blogging just wouldn't be the same without you.

PS. Still cooking with pumpkin too...Pumpkin spice doughnuts {again} for breakfast!

Happy Saturday!

{in case you missed the doughnut recipe above, here is the link again, 

cause I know you've got a craving now!}