So where in the world have we been? I know I’ve been kinda phoning the Crafty Tuesdays and Team Up Thursdays in, and it isn’t as if we don’t have all kinds of stuff going on…but I thought September was a crazy busy month? I think October is at least three times as busy.

I just dumped my camera and uploaded a mere fraction of the photos from October and realized I gotta lot of explaining to do.

We’ve been soaking up our autumn and getting into the groove of school, ballet, and lots and lots of soccer. Em is progressing nicely on the soccer field – at the very least she is trying very, very hard.

Mama has been playing on Sundays too, and I don’t know if I’ve been progressing or not but I got cranked in the head with a soccer ball last Sunday and dropped like a sack of potatoes, saw a few stars, and still have a tender spot on the side of my head. Not my finest moment, but I’ll be there again Sunday…clearly that ball knocked all remaining common sense out of me.

Let’s see, what else? The girls and I had a visitor last week. My cousin, whom I haven’t seen in probably 10 years came out to SoCal to visit us. We had a great time. I found that we don’t live that far from the Reagan Presidential Library, so we took a little trip up there for the day.

Yes. It is very gorgeous up there. And we saw a whole bunch of very cool stuff and got to go into the decommissioned Air Force One…

…and saw a replica White House (that is to scale and even the carpets and chandeliers are perfect replicas!).

It was fascinating. I’m already planning a trip back there with the girls and maybe one with my Brownie troop if they are interested.

We also took some time to run around and stretch our legs…

Addie totally “tricked” Andy into tagging him by telling him, “I just want to give you a hug,” which of course stopped him in his tracks, and as he stooped down to get his hug, she tagged him and said “I tricked you! You’re it.”

Yeah, she is a stinker.

We learned about Andy’s zoo (he works for the St. Louis Zoo).

We found a British Tearoom that serves Cornish pasties and celebrated Andy’s birthday with an afternoon tea.

(The pasties were good…but not “Aunty” good. Still, if some Yoopers come visit, we’ll gladly trek back out that way!)

It was a really fun week, and even though our time with Andy was short, the end of the week also brought home our Daddy. I can’t even tell you how happy we ALL were to see him.

So this week we are enjoying our Daddy time and I was feeling all relaxed and calm. Until today. Today I realized that even though October does indeed have five weekends, I do not have another week before Halloween, like I keep thinking I do.

Next week! Next week is Halloween! Along with Halloween parties, costumes (that I need to make!!) and trick-o-treating, we have more visitors coming next week, and a Carnival for the PTA in the middle of all of this. I think I need to stop feeling all calm and go get to work.