a month in pictures

October was really horribly busy. As usual I always think we're going to be so calm and happy at the beginning of every month, and then we end up doing an insane number of things.
Early in the month, a very wonderful friend came from church to do a little bit of Chinese drawing.

 Romulus worked very hard the whole time.

 So did Gladys.

 It turns out to be rather difficult to control the brush. Especially if you talk more than draw.

 And then you have to work very hard to unlearn how to hold the brush.

Then, we did have at least one bath over the course of the month. Really grateful for the double sink.

 And Marigold continues to climb and get into absolutely everything she's not supposed to, like the kitty food, or my makeup, or spices in the kitchen, everything in the bathroom etc. etc.

 And the baby learned to climb up stairs this month. And to stand alone.

 And then Matt had a birthday. Here we all are waiting for him to blow out all 40 candles.

 It took a long time to light all the candles.

 You can see he was excited to have a thrilling party.

 And then Gladys turned FOUR mere days later.

Here she is waiting to go out to lunch with her dad.

 And then we had more cake and ice cream.

(A la Kim Kardashian, she changed her dress for each event. #ThingslastinglongerthanKim'smarriage This party. BWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.)

 After cake princess dress. Note the beautiful pink icing.

 And then we painted the school room. It's NOT mustard. Its saffron.

 How saffron it is.

 Or maybe turmeric.

 Then Marigold turned TWO!!!

She was given some lovely hair clips which she wanted all in right away.

 And a princess dress, and a whole lot of dolls dug out of the doll bin downstairs wrapped dubiously by her adoring brothers and sisters.

 And then she was SO pleased to have candles to blow out! 

Honestly, she looks so sarcastic all the time, it was surprising for her to be so obviously happy.

 

 Gratuitous baby.

 And then it was Halloween, or Reformation Day, whichever you like better. We celebrated the German Reformation Day on Sunday with Sausages and Saurkraut and beer. I hope next year we'll celebrate the Swiss Reformation with fondu. Anyway, we didn't take pictures because we were just eating a lot. The next day was an endless day of costume finding and general freakouts.

 The traditional Chili Pepper. First you're a chili pepper, then an Angry Bee, then whatever you can find out of the dress up box.

 In this case Romulus was Peter from Narnia. He is nearly every day.

 Alouicious was Batman, with hot chocolate and a large bag.

And then we had a lovely visit from one of my college roommates, of which I totally neglected to take any pictures. But that was technically November. Gasp.