Family Photos

This year we didn't have to drive to a park or forest preserve for our outdoor family photos....We did them in our new yard!   This was our first morning versus evening session.  Pretty sure this was only possible for my two guys since we didn't have to commute.  These pictures put the undeniable fact in front of my face that William is growing up!  Not only has he passed our shoulders, but that face has no baby left!  At least he still lets me cuddle him!

Halloween

William had an idea for his Halloween costume in September and set up a make shift workshop in the screened in porch.   He made steady progress for weeks then got busy or distracted and almost didn't finish!  A few last minute hot glue gun fixes and he made it!   

First up, though, was the school Trunk or Treat.  Turnout wasn't great from the early registrants so the principal said that if the junior high kids came with their trunks, they could get an out of uniform pass and pizza party.   William wasn't ready to debut his custom costume, so he wore last year's knights costume.  I also packed his dino costume from the year prior, and he ended up wearing it and hugely impressed the little ones.

Preparations for the evening with help from Dad.   William went back to Brookdale to trick or treat with two of his friends there, and John and I set up the solo stove in our driveway to see what the new neighborhood was like.   

 

Pool Fun

Although we didn't move in for about four weeks after we bought the house, since we were having the wood floors redone, we did enjoy hosting a few pool parties during the month of September.   And then once we moved in, I was able to enjoy the lap swims I had dreamed about!  Thanks to lovely weather and the pool heater, we were able to swim until the second week of October.  When the pool company came out to close the pool, it was a cold, windy, sad day.  Already counting down the days until our May reopen!

In short order, we all became experts at cleaning leaves off the covers and in the traps!  There isn't a lot of chemical maintenance for the water since it's a salt water pool, but we'll learn more next season when we have 5-6 months of pool season instead of two.   Closing day involves the pool company draining the hot tub, lowering the water level to flush all the pipes, removing the diving board, basketball hoop and stair rails, and plugging up stuff so it doesn't freeze.   I'm getting used to seeing the pool covered.  It "helps" that it quickly got cold and we haven't been in the back as much.