All right blog, let's do this.

The kids are out of town. I have hot tea and three butterfingers at my disposal ready to help me conquer this cloud of black guilt hanging over me.....also known as my blog. My third baby, my forgotten, my beloved.

Yes, we had summer. It was sunshine and birds and freedom and it was wonderful. End of summer.

Enter fall. It is rarely having a night free to type on my computer unless it is October 26th and my family has been on a Father/kid campout since Friday. It's all of the things that October entails. I won't list them, they're always the same and they are always laced with the smell or taste of pumpkin. I agree with Anne of Green Gables; I don't want to live in a world without Octobers.

Backtrack to September. Known for the fair and the hint of the pumpkin yet to come and the start of a sports season I really care nothing about. But the fair? That we do.

Leg hiking, deer-licking. Awkward all around.

Never awkward, always ready for a picture.

First Broadway musical for this girl.

First pet named Rocky. First big disappointment of his life once he realized this pet you can't....pet.

Trip to the Ozarks over Fall Break. 

Horseback riding in Branson. Yes, it's our second home.

Last but not least, pumpkin day at school. She is not embarrassed of me yet, and she told me that 

"I think the kids in my class kind of like you." Bless you child. And just so you know, the only reason I have been homeroom parent for you since pre-k was for this precise moment.
I have forced their hands and I'm not ashamed to admit it.

Halloween 2013. Sock Monkey and Boba Fett.