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Monday, October 27, 2014

THE week


You guys, this is the week.  The beautiful, magical, perfect week of autumn when the leaves are all changing colors, clinging to branches, and then gently falling to the ground.  It is dry and cool and still warm in the sun.  It is the week that makes me love autumn unlike any other season, even though it means that winter is around the corner, and winter just might be cold and long like it was last year.  But this week I am not at all thinking about that, because all you need to do is step outside or open a window and be overtaken by the beauty of this season.

We had our neighborhood Halloween party and pumpkin carving competition this week, which is always the official kickoff of Halloween week.  Theoretically, it would help me get everyone's costume together so we are all ready for the big trick or treating day to follow, but my children have for several years embraced this as an opportunity to have two costumes in a single year.  Clever little things.  The girls decided they wanted to be "the goddesses of Olympus," which was one of those proud moments that made me realize that we are succeeding in raising nerds!  I love it!  Zosia was Athena, goddess of wisdom, perfect for her, as Zosia is Sofia in Polish, and Sofia means wisdom.  Lily, with heavy coaxing from Zosia, decided to be Persephone, and I am quite certain she never really knew exactly who she was, nor how to pronounce her name, but man did she look cute with that wreath on her head.  We spent the afternoon looking up toga tutorial videos, and right after painstakingly pinning and tucking their sheets just so we went to the party, where the kids immediately started running around like crazy and the togas came apart immediately.  I think that the gods and goddesses of Olympus did not run around like crazy.  We didn't really have anyone else's costume together, so I'll just have to surprise you how everything turns out on Halloween.

We went on a long meandering walk on Sunday, enjoying Halloween decorations and fall colors.  Lily has been carrying a doll or two in a sling for the past three days, and she is the *best* mother to her little babies.  She carries them, and puts them in carseats, and nurses them when they're fussy, and puts them down for naps.  I took the four littlest kids with me to the grocery store on Friday, Lily with two babydolls in a sling, and I think we were quite the spectacle, parading around the store with babies and slings and tiny little people everywhere.  And yet people were absolutely delighted to see us, smiling and waving, and even walking up and saying "Congratulations!"  You know, it really is true that there are good, kind people everywhere.  Sometimes you have to look around a bit, but they're there.

Happy fall, friends!

1 comment:

Lauren Oliver said...

I miss that time of autumn sooo much. We don't get it here until... well, never (some years). If we're lucky, we may get a strong cold front the week that all the leaves fall. But otherwise, not really. Such a shame, no? Enjoy it for me!

Also, Lily and Zosia look smashing in their costumes. I love the wreath! =)