why so few pictures?

Why am I not taking pictures these days?  Ack!  I just got out of the habit and need to pick up my phone and take a few more throughout the day.  

One perk of young kitchen help ... they just improve with age :)  I'm now on a solid upward swing and the future trajectory looks promising!  ha!  

Luke loves washing veggies.  Mostly he loves playing in the water, but veggie washing is as good an excuse as any.  Enter sweet potatoes as the evening's victim.

His sense of satisfaction at a job well done is my favorite part.  He loves to get those potatoes clean, and then when one of the sisters asked at dinner, "Can we eat the skins?" he all but jumped out of his seat to reassure her that they were clean!  I served these with homemade fried chicken nuggets.  yum.

Thursday morning Lydia and I went to visit a friend and her newborn twin girls. Oh so tiny, and oh so precious.  And OH SO LOVED!

And we spent Friday evening at the international school's Fall Festival.  Bouncy houses and prizes and cotton candy and ..... whew!  I was glad to get home and turn them over to Matt for bedtime while I ran out to buy some picnic supplies for our Saturday at the elementary soccer tournament.  thankfully, the needed fruits and nuts and raisins were all available at our complex gate - can't beat that for convenience.

I'll have to gather up some friend's pictures from the tournament and get them posted.  And this Monday we start week #11 of our school year and the leaves are gone from my favorite fall tree and today in the car we even talked briefly about getting out some Christmas tunes.  whoa!