Fall is in the air!

I saw a funny saying on the internet recently: "Adulthood is saying 'but after this week things will slow down a bit again' over and over until you die." I feel like this sums up my life exactly! Just when I think we can't get busier, we somehow do. But, luckily lots of our busyness this fall has involved some really fun things! And we are looking forward to a whole different kind of busyness when we add a new little girl to the family in January! The kids are excited for another baby sister and Russell was especially pleased that he has guessed the genders of his siblings 3/3. 

To backtrack on what we've been up to over the past few months...

At the end of August, we celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We were able to go back to the temple for the first time since covid, which was really great. We also celebrated my birthday the next weekend. The kids had fun picking out some gifts for me with Ricardo and they also planned a birthday party complete with a pinata. Ricardo was simultaneously doing his army reserve weekend (virtually from home due to covid) and was able to go to the pool with us in the afternoon. It was a great and low-key birthday! 

We were able to celebrate more for our anniversary a few weeks later with a little trip to Destin. Despite being raised in Florida, neither of us had ever been there before since it's so far up the panhandle. We loved it though and are already making plans to go back with the kids. The little beach towns nearby are adorable and we had fun renting bikes and biking from town to town and down to the beach. We also enjoyed renting a jet ski one day and riding around in the bay. The water in Destin is gorgeous but we found that we went during the wrong time of day for pretty water in the bay due to the timing of the tide. It looks pretty murky in these photos! The water at the beach was so clear and beautiful though-we saw countless fish and stingrays. They travel in packs but luckily keep their distance! My mom was kind enough to take our kids for the weekend, which we appreciate so much.

Also, in September: Caroline started preschool. We're doing a little co-op group like we did with the boys when they were her age and it's been so fun. She asks every day if today is school. It's only once a week :)

Thomas continues to catch frogs and lizards for his reptile collection. He caught this pretty lizard in September- a blue-tailed skink and was SO excited.

He tell us he wants to be a vet someday. He is still loving kindergarten, which makes me happy since he can be such a homebody. He is a great listener and always gives me a good report on what the teacher said at school etc. He's also obsessed with seeing friends walking home while we drive home and keeps his window open so he can call out to everyone he sees on our way.

Russell has not changed and is still not interested in touching any real animals, but we did have this birdcage in our garage for a while and he and Caroline liked to pretend she was his pet.

Pet on a leash.

Thomas and Caroline also have a special bond.

Russell is quite the artist and loves to draw and create things. One day I found no less than 50 pictures on my phone of several different playdough birds he had made. That's really the only trouble with his art and creations-he wants to keep absolutely everything! We are always trying to compromise on what really needs to be saved for the future. :)

He also got his first orthodontic appliance installed in September..the first day or two were tricky learning how to eat and talk with the expander but then he got used to it. He was happy that after practicing he could maintain his British accent.

Ricardo's cousin came to visit in September with her kids and we had fun hanging out with them at the park and pool. 

In October Caroline's preschool group went to an adorable pumpkin patch/farm for a field trip. Florida typically hasn't had great fall activities in the past, but I feel like in recent years things have really changed. We did another corn maze/fall festival a few weeks later with my parents and it was also so fun! We have our plans set to return next year.

My fun sister-in-law throws a Halloween party every year for the family. We had lots of delicious spooky food, games, and a not-so-spooky Halloween movie. The kids had a great time with their cousins!

More Halloween festivities at Legoland "Brick or Treat." We enjoyed using our passes to take Ricardo to Legoland since he never go to go when we went during the summer. The kids had fun trick or treating around the park and taking dad on their favorite rides.

Falling asleep mid-page on the way home.

On Halloween weekend we went with my parents to a beautiful farm for a fall festival. It's nice to live close enough to meet them for things like this. We wished we could have stayed longer but we had to cap it at 2.5 hrs to be back for our trunk or treat!

We hurried back for our trunk or treat and got ready in the car en route to the party. 

Russell was thrilled that we won 'best family costume.' It's been fun to continue doing family-themed costumes each year, the kids still enjoy it and already have plans for next year's idea!

Russell also helped a lot with our trunk. I told him he could help me make a treasure chest out of cardboard for our cave of wonders. He told me no worries, he could do it by himself without any help. He does have lots of practice making other cardboard costumes and it turned out so great!

The highlight of Thomas' day was holding this bearded dragon pet that someone brought to the party.

They got plenty of candy trunk or treating and then we just stopped by a few friends' houses Saturday night to trick or treat and we were done!

Sunday was nice and low key and we had dinner with Ricardo's family and then carved our pumpkin in the nick of time for Halloween night. In Florida, it's not worth carving it early anyway since it rots so fast.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!