This whole working parent business is no joke, you guys. My job is really hard sometimes and really exhausting sometimes, and parenting is also hard and exhausting sometimes, and I have been prioritizing rest and sleep and stress relievers like yoga and reading and church, because I want to be the calmest, healthiest possible version of myself when I’m doing all this teaching and parenting. And it’s mostly working, I think, though one side effect is that I have not been prioritizing this blog, like, at. all.

But here I am! And I felt inspired to go for it this evening and edit some photos to share to show you all (and remind myself!) that this fall hasn’t been all late hours in the classroom and mornings full of toddler tears, and dismaying political news. No, actually we have had some really lovely family moments this fall and I want to share some of them with you 🙂

Let’s rewind all the way back to earlyish October when we went to a really fun farm with the boys to pick pumpkins! It was a nice crisp, cool day. It might have been the first really cool day we got around here. And the farm had so much fun stuff for kids: a big pit of cork kernels perfect for sensory play complete with slides to slide down into the kernels of corn, a hay ride across the farm to the corn maze, animals to see, hay bails to climb, and of course, pumpkins to pick. We brought home four little pumpkins to carve.

Then it was Halloween and Calvin and Henry were a cute pair as Blue and Steve from the show Blue’s Clues. Calvin was SO excited about his Blue costume! James and I went in very minimalist costumes as Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper, also from the show. We took the boys trick-or-treating downtown where some local shops were giving out candy and toys and then we went back to our neighborhood street for a little more trick-or-treating, though we were one of only two families who went trick-or-treating on our cul-de-sac.

We took our post-election blues to the zoo to treat the boys on Veteran’s day because we had no school. Last May we went to the North Carolina Zoo for 22q at the Zoo Day and we only got to see the African animals side because the NC zoo is HUGE. So this time we got to see the other half with the North American animals. Here, Henry and Calvin are making friends with a stranger while checking out the cougar. We had a great day at the zoo. The North America side has some cool playgrounds for kids and the animal habitats and all the areas in-between are really beautiful.

The next week Dr. James came to my class for career day! He came to talk about his work as a biomechanical engineer, but the kids were most impressed by the lab materials he brought in. Especially that pipetter.

Had a nice lakeside picnic and a little fall hike at a gorgeous state park near us. Calvin was a trooper and did a lot of walking, though I did end up carrying him by the end of our hike! Fall has been just gorgeous here in North Carolina. Something we didn’t really have back in our part of California.

November is 22q awareness month and November 22nd is 22q awareness day! To help raise awareness, I sent all my coworkers info about 22q and asked them to wear red with me on Nov. 22nd in honor of Calvin and other 22QT’s like him. Look at all these teachers who wore red with us! And there were even more that were not there for the picture!

We enjoyed visits with both sets of Calvin and Henry’s grandparents during Thanksgiving break. My parents came to our house for Thanksgiving along with my uncle and cousin. Then the next day we headed to James’ parents’ house to spend the weekend with his side of the family.  While we were visiting James’ parents in North Georgia, James’ mom took us to a little magical spot in the woods where we got to visit a neighborhood of play houses fit for fairies and hobbits and also little boys who like to explore. In the pic, Calvin and his cousin Nicholas are stepping out of a little hobbit house in their matching puffy coats. So cute!! This place is called Sleepy Hollow Whimsical Fairy Garden.

And that pretty much catches me up to now! And it’s about to be December! Bring on the Christmas season!

I hope you and your families had some lovely moments together this fall too. Feel free to share some in the comments 🙂