Fall Photos at Gillson Park

A neighbor very kindly dropped off a gift card for a photo session that she could not put to use; we decided to give it a try and have some fall family pictures taken!  I'm so glad we did - it was a beautiful fall day and we ended up using a few of the pictures on our Christmas card.  These are some of our favorites!

Fall Activities - Keeping Busy!

We kept ourselves busy this fall.  Here are some highlights of what we were up to!

Building Star Wars Legos! 

Erik taking in a Bears game with his buds

We got together with 4 other couples to compete in our school's trivia night, which requires a creative theme!  Can't say we scored very well (tough questions!), but we had a blast and rocked our costumes.  Ha ha.

Cassidy took a Young Rembrants drawing class and created some wonderful artwork 

Gavin loved playing soccer this fall 

We do our best to get to church each Sunday...usually Tyler ends up running around in the vestibule, but on this particular Sunday he looked amazingly angelic (not the norm!).

Gavin had fun with t-ball 

Cassidy's class lead the all-school Mass, with readings and songs

We spent a day at the Shedd Aquarium, one of our very favorite places!

This seal got CLOSE!  So neat.

It wouldn't be fall without some fun in the leaf piles!

We even got a little snow in November

Tyler enjoying bathtime...he's in a phase where all toys have to line up on the ledge, they are not allowed in!

Halloween 2014

Our kids always look forward to Halloween!  This year, Cassidy knew months in advance that she wanted to be a peacock, and she enlisted Grandma Reder's help in creating her costume.  It looked amazing!  Gavin was set on being a Star Wars storm-trooper and Tyler was Superman.  Erik and the kids carved pumpkins, Tyler and I watched Cassie and Gavin in the costume parade at school, and we made it out on Halloween night with friends for trick-or-treating (despite the cold temps, rain and even tiny hail that fell as we walked the neighborhood!).  The highlight, as always, was the "reptile house" a few streets away - they bring kids into their garage and let them hold their friendly reptiles.  This year it was only a snake - the bearded dragon from years' past isn't around anymore.  But, the snake was a hit, and the full buckets of candy kept the kids going for a while afterwards!

Cassidy had her first big project in 2nd grade - a haunted house book report!  She had to read a mystery book (she chose Bunnicula) and then create a haunted house poster with window flaps that listed all the story elements.  She had fun designing it!

My Time with Tyler

Now that both Cassidy and Gavin are in school for a full day, it's just me and Tyler at home!  We usually take on some activity or errand in the morning after we drop the older kids off at school, then after lunch Tyler takes a nice afternoon nap.  I wake him at 2:30 each day and we head back out for school pick ups.  It's definitely a quieter day than I've been used to for the past few years, and we do miss Cassidy and Gavin while they're at school - but it's also nice to spend some quality time with my little buddy!  Here are some photos of how we spend our days...

Off to school...Tyler is often still in jammies and loves to carry an old lunchbox to be just like the big kids!

We take a morning moms & tots gymnastics class with friends!

Mommy and Tyler

Tyler loves to play the "train" game on the ipad.

Being silly in Mommy's slippers

We occasionally have playdates with some of our good buddies (this is Sam)!

The duplo train is always a fun pasttime.

Being silly again in a hat he's outgrown

Tyler loves to stand in the fridge and rearrange it for me!

We go to moms & tots music class at SFX twice a month; this was on Halloween.

Dancing and running around - he loves it!

Our quiet lunchtimes together...I'm savoring this precious time, I know it goes fast!