A HUUuge Catch-up Post

So, naturally it has been nearly a month since my last post and the things worth mentioning are abundant. I'm using my "old" phone to write this, because my biggest reason for a shortage of posts has been the fact that I can't find a blogging app that works on my shiny new iphone 7.... Anybody out there know what to do about this? Or am I just a dinosaur for keeping a blog now anyway? I do like this space and I'm not quite ready to abandon it but given that I don't have much computer time in my week my only hope of quickly capturing a photo and words here is to do it from my phone. Hmm. 

Anyway, moving on, to late September where we left off. 

Caroline started preschool mid-September at the prettiest little church in the prettiest little village about 10 minutes from our house. 

There is a little playground up the road where we usually meet up with C's class at noon and then stay and play for a bit or get lunch at the quaint little diner next door. The weather has also been so gorgeous this fall that I spend a lot of time feeling pretty abundantly blessed to be spending a chunk of our week at such a beautiful place. Caroline mostly likes school and Matthew loves the playground and going shopping ("fopping") with me while it is just the two of us. Good times for all. 

M also can usually be found with his Tiger under his arm these days: 

He's also a good little artist:

C has rapidly learned, on her own time, how to write all her letters and can now spell her own name without prompting. She writes very legibly and like Amy at this age wants me to spell out long sentences for her. 

Again, the beautiful weather has been such a blessing. We've enjoyed many a morning home on non-school days with chalk in the driveway or taking walks with the wagon. Going shopping for craft supplies is another favorite: 

C has developed a lot of indepence lately, from helping herself in the fridge 

To playing alone in her room or working on a project at her new little desk 

She has her whiny moments, but on the whole is pretty awesome company these days. 

In other newsy news, I have to tell you that we found a new home for poor Chester. He is going to be a great dog someday, really great, but we totally couldn't hack it. I am too thoroughly a cat person. I am too much of a control freak and am way short on spare time. Ditto for Don, and the dog got too big for the kids and they were overwhelmed.  So, rookie mistakes all around but thankfully we found him a better situation where he's getting the attention he deserves. Blah. Enough on that, it was a delicate subject here for the whole 2.5 months he was with us. 

In happier news since then we had a great volunteer pumpkin grow out of the compost pile, and some lovely late-season flowers:

What else?

The cats are much relieved and now feel free to move about the premises again. 

Oh, here's Matthew's other BFF, found at Stop and Shop:

We went on a family hike, lovely!

I found an awesome chair at the side of the road on garbage day - score! It is now blue and in William's room, though I don't have a finished picture. 

We spent Columbus Day weekend at my folks' house which was delightful as always, and among other things we spotted this incredible caterpillar: 

I deep-cleaned the couch post-doggy which was highly satisfying, and also got new pillows and lamps for the family room. All that plus the new paint (did I mention that project?) and it is looking much better in this main room of our house. 

Not sure what sort of maneuver C is doing above...

Found some fall decorations and on the whole things are looking pretty decent around here. 

There ya go... I've left things out I'm sure but at least I've gotten a bit caught up. Sending any readers out there who are still with me a big thanks and wishing you a Happy Fall!