November

 Lukas has done such a good job in 1st Grade! Can you read his message?

A quiet afternoon at the park by the river.

We made a book for our favorite bible verse songs from Steve Green's albums, "Hide 'Em in Your Heart". We posed for various songs. But this first one is something we do every night during family worship :)

Oh dear, who gave that 2 year old scissors?

We three kings decorate for Christmas. Mama let us do it before December for the first time ever.

October

Lukas got a $20 gift and chose to use it to buy "real" fishing supplies. Here is that delighted fisherman:

 

And the siblings I managed to keep alive:

Girl hair! Braids! This was her first, for which she sat very still! So a few days later when she requested 2 like I usually do on myself, I was willing to give it a try and again she sat quite still! Good job Frida :)

Lukas, remember when she was born bald and you were so disappointed she didn't have "girl hair"? Now she does!!

Play-dough creations:

Breakfast goes into Frida... quite... slowly... Here Theo is helping it along. What a sweet friend.

We went for a bog walk and Frida fell in the bog. Lukas was lightning-quick to the rescue!!! He put himself right in and pulled her out. Mama did see her veer into the reeds, but was certain Frida had some purpose in driving her bike off the path. I guess she just wasn't looking! Good thing Lukas saw what actually happened instead of assuming something else was happening like his Mama. Here are the hero's and victim's shoes after a bath in the washing machine:

We're into fancy threads lately:

Daniel moved this helpless bird out of the road two days in a row. It seemed to disappear after the second day. We felt sad for the bird! But we know His eye is on the sparrow. 

Happy Halloween! This year we went trick-or-treating in our own neighborhood and enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones.

September

One of the great moments of the year was finding this crayfish in the river by one of our favorite places to bike, run and play. Frida is potty trained!! So we often take a potty along if we're going out for a while. What a perfect place to put your crayfish!!

 

Daniel made a tasty batch of grape jam from our grapes and Jack's (the neighbor). We love to munch on the grapes, but when they suddenly ripen to perfection we can't eat them all fast enough!

Fishing became the obsession of the summer. Earlier Lukas was catching minnows with a net and quite good at it! Then Papa made these poles with the boys for an excursion on Grandpa's new boat:

And we took those poles for a try at our favorite fishing spot (Lake Hiawatha). Here a week earlier, we saw an elderly woman with not a bit of English pull out fish after fish as we sat and ate our picnic one hot evening. She and Lukas chatted non-stop for almost 30 minutes. The words were not understood on either side, but they became fast friends that day.

This day was a bit cooler, with blankets required for the picnic, but by the time we took to fishing the sun warmed us a bit:

Magnetic shape tiles and animals were the name of the game for most of the late summer. Of course now, in early November, we haven't seen either of those out in a while. Surely they will re-surface at some point.

We have visited Madeline Island many times, but this was the first time we camped there. I asked the Lord for 2 things: friends with whom Lukas could ride freely around the campground, and for the rain to hold off until the last day (it was predicted mid-trip). God did both! Lukas had a GREAT time biking around like a free man, and Theo was brave enough to join him some of the time too. They did a great job looking out for one another, and very effectively used the walkie-talkies to communicate with us :) And the rain started right at 12:01 a.m. that last day, so we had lots of nice fires.

Grandma's been inviting us to the apple orchard near her house the last few years but we are usually too busy during apple season gathering apples and pressing them. This year we finally went, and had a great time! She took the kiddos Friday and we did again Saturday.

And I didn't get any photos of the cider press events this year (as usual, we're too busy to stop and take photos!) but these are the different varieties that went into it. No pears this year, must have been an off year for the generous pear-sharing neighbor's trees.