October highlights: pumpkin patch, 13th anniversary, soccer championships, Krista's visit, Halloween

this pose was completely her idea

once again, woefully behind on this recap, but my motto for this season is "just keep swimming, just keep swimming" so here we are!

1) pumpkin patch. in keeping with our Columbus Day tradition, we visited my favourite little pumpkin patch since the girls were off school. it's smaller than some of the other local patches, but it's free to get in and I'm a sucker for comparing the girls' pictures in front of the sign each year. I may or may not have placed an order for Target drive-up for Victoria's pumpkin outfit and a Halloween shirt for Greta that we picked up literally en route to the pumpkin patch. (then of course it was chilly so Greta wore her sweatshirt over the new shirt anyway.) 

a month shy of 10

a month shy of 7

22 months and not feeling the photo shoot

3 months and equally unimpressed

Elizabeth was devouring craisins like her life depended on it

hauling buckets of food up for the goats

they quickly realized they were at an impasse unless they started working together instead of against each other! (cue my mom voice: "so what does this teach us about life?!")

hayride fun!

the more I tried to cajole Elizabeth into smiling, the more she pulled this face

looking back at this picture now, I suddenly realize how Cece got paint stains all over her coat

the girls spent at least twenty minutes playing make believe here, while Elizabeth just ran back and forth squealing with happiness

from what I could gather, the game revolved around some type of orphan storyline, as all the best games do

from this angle it's hard to tell, but yes, she could breathe unobstructed!! 

cutest pumpkin in the patch! 

2) 13th anniversary. our marriage is a teenager! we had a perfect little day date while the older girls were in school, and our neighbor came over to watch the babies. I've been wanting to visit the Heinz History Museum for years. a somewhat underrated measure of compatibility is one's approach to museums. fortunately, Nick and I both are the type to inspect every item on display and read the attached information. it was delightful to take our time doing this without needing to corral the kids! afterwards, we grabbed a quick bite to eat at Wholey's Fish Market (their crab cake sandwich is incredible), and picked up a few staples at the attached grocery store, to wit, local Marburger Dairy sour cream and onion dip (the undisputed winner from a tasting contest Nick and his buddies held over the summer). 

gorgeous roses from my groom!

that green turf is the exact spot on which Franco Harris caught the iconic Immaculate Reception during the 1972 playoff game between the Steelers and the Raiders

the original set from Mister Roger's Neighborhood!

thirteen years later, so grateful to be married to my best friend!

our old VCR/DVD player bit the dust after one too many tiny toys shoved in the tray by a toddler who shall not be named, so I found a Walmart deal on a DVD player and had it delivered so I could keep up my thirteen-year streak of watching our wedding video. we have the entire high mass on one DVD and most of the reception on a second; my absolute favourite part of this tradition is seeing family and friends who live out of state, and some who sadly have passed away. plus the girls work themselves up into a frenzy waiting for the moment when we finally "smoochie smooch"! 

photo courtesy of Christina Garber Photography

one of my favourite moments of the day: when Nick crowdsurfed over the bridal dance to get to me at the end of the night

3) soccer championships. Cece's combined first and second grade team played in the diocesan tournament the last weekend of October. she was one of only three first graders on the team, and with our team being stacked so heavily with second graders, they won or tied every single regular season game, so I figured we would do pretty well in the tournament. (they played just against other schools with a combined first and second grade team; the diocese has a separate division for the larger schools to compete for individual grade-level team championship titles.) Nick was playing for weddings all day, and knowing that the forecast was for cool weather with a chance of rain, and knowing that we would be there for a minimum of three hours for the 3 games in the first round, I opted to leave the babies with Kim (sitter extraordinaire). Greta decided to stay home too. 

it was such a fun day! the Saints won all three of their games without allowing a single goal to be scored. Nick was able to get away from the chapel to come watch some of the first game; Cece's face lit up when she saw him! Cece had some great defensive plays, and one of the other first graders scored his very first goal of the season, to our thunderous applause. 

super cute snacks one of the other moms sent for the team!

"Saints on three!"

we moved on to the semifinal game, and ultimately, the final. Cece played goalie for the end of the final game and upheld the shutout: not a single goal scored on our team for the entire day! our sweet kiddos are the diocesan champs! after the trophy ceremony and lots of celebrating, we drove home to find that Kim and Greta had made a pumpkin roll and cleaned the house in our absence. what a day!

a team photo before playing the final game (after four hours, we gave up trying to keep the kids from playing in the dirt in between games, so they were absolutely filthy by this point!)

4) Krista's visit & Halloween. my poor sister had a horrible case of mono in August when the rest of the family came to visit, so she rescheduled her trip to come out the week of Halloween. of course we missed her during the Geigerpalooza shenanigans, but honestly, I'm so glad we had dedicated time just with her! and she got to experience her very first trick or treat. we didn't participate in it growing up, so my first time was in college with Amelia's niece, and then not again until having kids of my own. I read somewhere that Halloween is one of America's last remaining community festivals, and while there certainly can be a macabre side to it, in our town it's a great chance to meet new neighbors and smile at all the kids in their cute costumes. 

my baby sister with my baby baby! I could not love this more!

Krista arrived the evening of the soccer championships, so got some extra dirty snuggles from Cece!

baby snuggles while the older girls were at gymnastics

and then, Halloween! Greta and Cece initially proposed a superheroes and villains theme. Krista went all in as the Scarlet Witch from the Avengers, and across the country, Kelli and Milo went as Superwoman and Batman!  Elizabeth and I both dressed as Wonder Woman; Nick was the Joker (fully committed to his role with green hair gel and a truly terrifying cackle), Greta was Harley Quinn, Victoria was Batgirl, and Cece ended up going rogue as a cheerleader. it was so cold that we bundled Victoria up in the stroller after the first few houses. Elizabeth was completely entranced by the whole experience, although in the interest of time, we ended up having her ride in the stroller too after we visited the houses on our own street. as we've done in prior years, we stayed out the entire two hours and just left a bowl of candy in front of our porch. 

her little cape just slays me!

super sisters

our neighbors always have the best setup; this year was a bee theme, with full size candy bars stashed in the honeycomb!

from over 2,000 miles away: coordinating cousin costumes!! cutest little Batman I ever saw!