Once again, I love fall. I also love staying home and not doing things for several hours a day while the big kids are at school. It’s a good balance.

Sunday:

Pirates at the cider mill

Pirates at the paddleboard rental place

Tiny pirate at the ice cream stand sandbox

Monday:

I suspect the farmer actually paints these himself

Linc is very helpful while I’m editing #not

Wait. No. Stop. Come back.

Tuesday:

Applauding for The Price is Right because he’s a GOOD BABY

This corner of my house = a snapshot of our life

Yo ho ho and a bottle of milk

Wednesday:

Shopping cuddles

Brutus likes the new rug

This is not what I mean by babycakes, babycakes.

Thursday:

Wait for new IDs is way more relaxing when someone else can walk the baby up and down the halls

My bloggy thing at Boscovs was fun and delicious

Linc loves headbands

Friday:

Yay SPORTS

Fridays, man.

FRIDAYS, MAN.

Saturday:

Peewee soccer is adorable

My assistants waving goodbye to a mini session

Saturday mini session success, even with a nursing break in the middle.

So E was gone on an underway this month that ended up being twice as long as it should have been because of the hurricane. To apologize for the unnecessary sea time, work gave him a few days off, which means not only has he been home to help/enjoy all weekend, he gets Monday off too! That means a whole extra day of FALL FUN to do FALL FUN THINGS.

FALL FALL FALL IS HERE. I LOVE FALL.

Sunday:

PUNNY LICENSE PLATES ARE MY FAVORITE

Empty baseball stadiums are cool

Somehow a grocery trip still costs $100, even when I buy hardly anything

Monday:

Beaching it up

So happy when Sissy comes home from school

I love his little Judo outfit so much

Tuesday:

This week’s weather can stay forever

Prima Ballerina attitude already

Dogpile on the baby seems like a fun game

Wednesday:

HALLOWEEN AND CHRISTMAS WHAT IS HAPPENING

I went just for swim diapers

More soccer

Thursday:

View from the top

I bought a basket AND a cart to organize my stuff…so why isn’t it organized?

Setting up a new reward system

Friday:

I did not go chasing any waterfalls

Grump faces

Winner of the farmer’s market

Saturday:

MORE SOCCER

Important errands

A very windswept session at the park

It was our first week of All The Stuff and it was pretty much as exhausting as I was expecting. On Thursday morning, I got the kids on the bus then crawled back into bed with Linc until he started hitting me in the face at 9 am. I’m actually HOPING for some rain this week, because if the weather is bad I don’t feel guilty staying home all day. If only I could convince Linc the TV is super interesting and he should sit still and watch it for an hour or two…

I took about half as many photos this week as I usually do. I started Weight Watchers so I’m on my phone tracking what I’m eating (or trying to figure out if I can afford to eat another cookie) a LOT and it keeps dying. It’s hard to take photos with a dead phone.

Sunday:

Totally normal grocery shopping face

Wrap nap at the lake

Doing out best midwesterner impression with some Hand and Foot

Monday:

Grabby little toes

Mermaid

I don’t even know what I was trying to take a picture of, but the saddest baby in the world interrupted it.

Tuesday:

You dropped this, let me just crouch and get it like a REAL HUMAN

Tired girl

This is all I could see of Evan’s soccer practice because it was POURING

Wednesday:

My new make up adviser

#lakelife

Having fun pretending he’s not a baby but he IS STILL A BABY

Thursday:

I woke up like this

She’s obsessed with tying things

Working mom life

Friday:

Kinder orientation bus ride, like a pro

Weirdos at Target

It was like 90 degrees in his room but he won’t sleep without the blankie

Saturday:

Crafting! He’s like, “What is this even? We never do this at home.”

TAKE THAT YOU STUPID ASS THORN BUSH

WEIRDOS

THIS WEEK IS THE LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL. It’s not even real days, just half days. We also have every possible kind of appointment. Luckily swim and soccer are over, so we just have to get through dance and the recital and then we are ALL FREE. I cannot wait to just NOT DO STUFF. I could sleep past 7 am! Linc can nap whenever he wants! I DON’T HAVE TO MAKE PACKED LUNCH.

I have big plans to wear everyone out with tons of lake visits and hikes, so we won’t actually be doing NOTHING. But I will definitely enjoy letting the kids eat popcorn for lunch on the regular.

We have just a few more of everything to get through before summer. A few more days of school, a few more soccer practices, a few more end of the year things, a few more days where it’s not 85 degrees. I’m focusing on how busy we are so I don’t think too much about how Linc is going to turn one NEXT MONTH, although now that I’ve started planning his party (theme: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star) I am not quite so sad about it. Plus we’ve got this whole babywearing thing so I can keep pretending he is a baby as long as I can keep tying him on my back.

Sunday:

Hiding in the car because I do not enjoy soccer in the rain

Rocking her game in a tutu

Getting a swim in before the HUGE storm

Monday:

From the neck down I felt very fancy on Monday

Dreaming of escape at the vet

God bless the iPad during swim lessons

Tuesday:

Shopping list

We match our wraps to our outfits

That spatula is covered in very spicy chimichuri. He loved it.

Wednesday:

Unimpressed

She made up a story to read me. Obviously it included mermaids.

Family fun night

Thursday:

She said she’s going to be a seed scientist when she grows up

THAT IS NOT NAPPING

Soccer life

Friday:

Cake making helpers

This one is for sale but I am not really sure I want it to leave

Watching tires is not super exciting

Saturday:

Super Evan to save City Hall!

Lobsters are the best beach wrap

I always lose but I still love cribbage

I have some killer allergies right now that are making it impossible to sleep and stay asleep unless I am completely upright. It is not a very comfortable way to sleep. And because Linc still gets up a few times a night, losing ANY of my quality sleep is sucky. I have plans to maybe possibly sort of try to get him to sleep through the night over the summer – preferably before we go on vacation in August – but I might be too lazy to make that happen. Fingers crossed he just starts doing it on his own and I don’t have to make an effort.

We went to the lake 6 out of 7 days last week. Then we went again today. When I wrote the (large) check to pay for our membership for the summer I thought “Ugh, this is so much money just to sit on a beach when we could go to so many other beaches for free.” But I am eating those words for sure. I’m eating them right along with the beer I drank on the beach today while I watched my big kids play in the water and the baby chewed on a shovel and I chatted with my mom friends. It’s perfect. It’s my favorite place in Connecticut. And next year it is the FIRST membership we buy instead of the last.

Appologies this week and every week for the same 5 lake pictures over and over and over.

Sunday:

Never tired of lap naps

Wine, baby, kids in the lake

So many of my favorite things in this one photo

Monday:

Unimpressed baby is unimpressed

BFFs

She calls this Mommy Hair

Tuesday:

Don’t tell the big kids we went to the lake while they were in school

Waiting for roadside assistance (aka Daddy) to fix our flat

I’m going to make his hair do this all the time

Wednesday:

There weren’t any store windows on my walk home so I used my phone to see if he was asleep. He was.

3-6 month shirt

Begging for cheese from the deli guy (obvs it worked)

Thursday:

I let him have half an oreo while I put away a giant pile of laundry

100% Linc

A beautiful day for soccer. Why doesn’t it ever RAIN?

Friday:

We walked down to pick up a friend at preschool, so Caroline dressed appropriately

I found this on my phone. I did not take it.

So many fish!

Saturday:

Laaaaaaaake

Running away to go eat rocks. Whatever kid.

The rare big kid smile!

We have a packed week coming up with end-of-the-year school stuff, appointments, regularly scheduled things, field day, plus at some point my husband is going to get promoted and we’re all supposed to go. Since he’s currently on night shifts and we’ve barely seen him I’m not EXACTLY sure when that’s going to happen, but I’m told it definitely will. Probably. Maybe. All I know is in between a zillion must-dos this week I will be at the lake.