BABY SHOWER

Today we had a baby shower for my fourth sister, Katherine Ann (Poch) Brown. I love her dearly, and it was so fun to shower her with gifts and love as she nears the day when her first child (a boy!) will enter the world. I am so excited to welcome another nephew into the world!! I should have taken more photos at the shower, but here is a picture of her with her mother and my two sisters and I.

MY OTHER KIDS!!

Of course my own children are my favorite, but I wanted to show you a few more of the kids in my life. These are the youngest that I teach - 3 1/2 and 4 years old. They are great singers and are even learning to play the piano at this precious young age! We have lots of fun together every Saturday morning. This is only one of the four classes I teach on Saturdays, but I didn't get a photo of all of my adorable students in their Halloween costumes. I have one more Saturday with them, a recital this week, and then I'm on my maternity leave for 6 weeks! Hard to believe it has come so quickly!!

SEA LIFE FIELD TRIP

I recently scheduled an outing to Sea Life in the Mall of America (formerly Underwater Adventures) with a group of homeschoolers from our church. I admit that my choice of destination was somewhat determined by my oldest child. I knew Ian would LOVE it, even just since last fall when we went last!

Because we are an educational group, we got an amazing discount. In addition to that, we can get the behind-the-scenes tour, in which we see all the tanks from overhead, see the animals being fed, and we even got to go into the prep kitchen and see for ourselves how they prepare the food that the sea animals are fed.

I wasn't supposed to take pictures... that's why it's blurry ;)

This is the jellyfish tank.

And afterwards, Ian was able to purchase a long-awaited toy - a stuffed harbour seal. We've been looking and saving for a little while, and finally he found it! Needless to say, Henry the Harbour Seal has been adopted into our family and goes pretty much wherever the rest of us go!

FAMILY GETAWAY

Tom, the kids and I took a short retreat at the ministers cabin in Alexandria MN. I didn't take any pictures of the cabin itself but here we are, enjoying the fall colors just down the hill in the gazebo by the lake.

BIG BOY HAIRCUT

Ian and I have been tiring of combing his gorgeous blond hair every day... so we buzzed it.