7-Quick Takes: November

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Pro-Life Poster Contest

October was Respect Life Month, and our parish hosted it's annual Pro-life poster contest.  My only complaint is that there is only one winner per age group, and there are so many beautiful entries that I wish they had at least a first and second place!  In any case, the winners were announced at the Fall Festival, and Galadriel won for Level 3.  

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Piano Recital

As soon as we got home from the Fall Festival, we headed over to (another) church where Arwen and Galadriel had their first piano recital!

They were so nervous!  My parents were able to make it, which made it all the more special.  The girls did super!  

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My sister was out of town last week and Bilbo was in charge of dog-sitting.  Poor little Cricket was too lonely, even with Bilbo playing in the yard and taking her on walks in the afternoons, so we just brought her to our house for a couple of hours each day.

Sam loved chasing her around--so much smaller than our labradoodle!

She was loved and carried around so much that she had to be happy to go back to her own home to rest!

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One of my very favorite times of year is the octave of All Souls, when the Church grants a plenary indulgence to a poor soul in Purgatory each day for nine days, if you visit the cemetery and pray for the dead.

We tried to stop after Mass each morning, but a couple of days we forgot and made a post-dinner dash out in our van in the pitch darkness that is now 5:00pm!  One night I told the kids to get into their pj's after dinner and then told them we were going for a drive to the cemetery.  There's something so exciting about being out at night in the dark, especially if you come home for hot chocolate!

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Sam is pretty obsessed with balls.  We rigged up some low hoops for him one afternoon and he was delighted!

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Eowyn in the schoolroom

Quite the serious 3K-student!

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I'm trying to embrace Daylight Savings "Fall back"...but as much as I tell myself it's cozy and build fires and make hot chocolate, there really is something HARD about it getting dark so early and having such long nights with so many children.  Luckily, the holidays are here and that brings a whole lot of cheer.  It looks like we might be traveling for Thanksgiving if we can all stay healthy and the weather holds!  I'm sure I'll keep you posted! 

16 Months

Today Sam is 16 months old!  He is starting to talk more, which is incredibly cute and makes me convinced that he's a genius.  What are these advanced words? Well, "up"...and "ball".  Genius, right?

Those words actually really sum up his life right now: he loves me to carry him around, and he loves to chase after a ball.  If my older boys are outside playing, he toddles around near them chasing his own mini ball.  It's a great stage--unless he just runs off toward the street or a huge mud puddle.  In fact, yesterday I had to chase him down in a neighbor's yard where my boys were playing football with a friend.  Sam saw them and took off for the fun.

Teething woes.  My kids always have terrible teething between 1 and 2 years.  They get their teeth late, and then they all come crashing through before the second birthday.  Poor Sam has had a few rough days with teething, and has a big fat new molar to show for it!

And that's about it for this little boy.   What a cutie.

Happy Weekend!