Better late than never?

In a surprise twist to no one, our fall calendar has been jam-packed - which means I'm majorly lacking on updates here.  So I'll be doing my best to highlight how our past couple months have been going, knowing that my memory is hit or miss!

Soccer season is just about over - one more weekend of games for the fall!  All three kids played on rec teams, so our weeknights and weekends have been full of shuttling kids to and fro.  Maggie and Evie continue to grow in their skills... Ben's team is mostly just adorable 5-years olds running in clumps, but he was soooo excited to have a jersey with a number on it this year.  His favorite part of soccer is shaking hands at the end and saying "good game."  Like literally the second the game ends, he runs to half field with his hand out.

Evie with two of her besties

About 2/3 of Ben's team

When you're stuck at your brother's game,
you perch

Corner kick

Rrrreally tried hard to teach Ben that you don't
take the ball away from your own team...
still working on that

Now that soccer is over, both girls will be starting basketball at Guardian Angels.  They are pretty excited to start - we are a bit overwhelmed, more of a time commitment than we realized!

Maple continues to bring great joy to all of us!  While not everything is perfect, I don't think we could have asked for a better dog.  She's really smart and easy to train, is doing great with crate training, and loves belly scratches.  I have to restrain myself from buying her new toys every time I'm at the store, I just want to spoil her all the time!

Besties

She loves when her family comes home

Jamie is one of the class advisor's at work, so he had to do a bunch of work for their homecoming weekend this year.  We all went and walked in the parade, the kids got a kick out of it!

Hanging with the Husky!

One of Ben's favorite friends from school

Proud daddy

We got some really great seats to Miguel Cabrera's last game.  I knew it would be cool, but I was surprised by how emotional it was!  I think half the stadium was crying at one point!

Nice shot from the first base line
(through the netting)!

Jamie was so happy

With our buddies!

Ben had a field trip to a petting farm so he and I had a fun little day together!

On our "straw ride" because he learned that
hay is for eating

Feeding the ducks

We got to pick out a pie pumpkin at the end!

Most of my photos are just random updates!

Fr. Brian finished his doctorate and is now back in Michigan!
We will be calling him Father-Doctor

Got to go on a fun trip to the zoo with her buddy

Jamie's final concert to see The National (it better be)
for a while.  He and Justin went to a music festival in Cincinnati -
Jamie found his people (they're as obsessed as him)!

I love Maggie's teacher - she has cool projects and often 
sends photos of the kids

Working hard in preschool!

Daddy daughter date to a football game

Ben's favorite place in the whole world -
the car wash

Ben still really loves painting his nails, and his sister loves doing it

Chaperoned a field trip with Maggie's class
 to our courthouse and police station -
it was a really great outing!

Do you know how hard it is to do curved lines on an
etch-a-sketch?  This is true love.