A fourth child...

...may be found wandering the house with a lollipop in hand.  Never mind that her mother has no idea  where she may have found the darned thing.  That's just what happens the week of Halloween in the life of child #4.  They might find a lucky piece of loot in any corner of the home.  They might be able to get away with stunts the first child would never dream of!  All because mom has been zapped of a good portion of her parenting energy by child #4.

Come to think of it.... maybe mom is zapped of her energy because she was dealing with a big chili dinner at the church last week!  Creating centerpieces that are now beautifully scattered around our home (a perk of doing church service)

Or organizing Grant's preschool Halloween party and putting together Halloween goodies for teachers:

Yes... life with four small children and all of their school happenings can be overwhelming at times. But overwhelming in a good way.  I love SO much the stage my kids are in.  I love that they are my little friends.  We have so much fun after homework in the afternoons.  Before and during homework is not so pretty.  But a favorite activity afterwards is Mad Libs.  If you were to enter our home during a mad libs episode... you'd encounter uncontrollable laughter and silliness beyond description.  Dane and Evelyn are really so funny and come up with the cutest words to make these stories a hoot.

If ever an exclamation is required, you'd better believe the response is "Have Mercy!!"  -- from Uncle Jesse on Full House.

Love that my kids are still interested in art projects.  We don't have the time we used to, but we try our best to fit a few fun projects in each week!

Evelyn drew these faces and I thought they were darling.  She is so creative.

October is winding down and it's been a good month around here.  Albeit a busy one.... hence my wandering one year old and her lollipop.  Nothing wrong with a little sugar and freedom to roam here and there, right?