Early October

October is one of my favorite months and we tried to enjoy all that the beautiful weather had to offer.  We were still dealing with major road work immediately outside our house, including a giant hole dug on the front walk to replace the gas line.  It was fun for the boys to watch, but it seemed like it would never end!

 

 

We were more settled into our routine and that included taking care of Mairin.  One morning, when Mairin was loudly protesting her nap, Ben sat outside her door to read a book to her.  How sweet is this kid?

Mairead started with a program called Beyond TOPS, which allows children with developmental disabilities to engage in soccer and other sports.  The fall is soccer season and we went to TOPS nearly every Saturday.  The program pairs up a high school student with each child, and they run off together to play.  There is no formal game- every kid does what she/he is comfortable with.  Mairead loved it.  This whole program is amazing.  It brought a tear to my eye nearly every weekend to see all of these kids giving their Saturday mornings to children who need them.  It is truly a joy to be there.  Soccer takes place in Wilmington and they are always looking for volunteers.  So if you have a middle school or high school kid who would like to find out more, you can visit their website at http://www.wilmingtonyouthsoccer.org/Page.asp?n=32698&org=WILMINGTONYOUTHSOCCER.ORG 

October means Halloween, and Halloween means lots of crafts.  Thanks to Rachael who sent a big box of fun Halloween stuff!  The kids had a great time decorating spider webs and making bats to hang around the house.

I don't even know how this happened.  We were driving home from Parlee one day and the kids found these in the car (they were for a Halloween Party).  They made some pretty great hats and the kids laughed hysterically for the entire car ride home.

We paint pumpkins instead of carving them and each year the kids get more into the project. 

If Daddy and Grampy are not doing any projects around the house, Jack finds other things to fix.  This horse can be a race car, a rocket, or whatever the superhero of the day might need. 

This was a sweet moment after school one day.  Mairead had picked up a book at the Book Fair and was reading it aloud on the car ride home.  We pulled into the drive way but she wasn't finished the story, so we stayed in the car until she said, "The end."

                                                                Soccer is exhausting.