Finley is SEVEN! And we are exhausted.

I don't know why it's never hit me before that the week of Halloween --> Finley's birthday is like the Olympics of parenting, but three near-catatonic adults on the couch on Sunday night (and several snoring dogs) are all the proof I need that it's a fact.

That's not even accounting for the Walters family tradition of having the tree up the week after Halloween...

Seth and I snuck in a quick date night (to see Bill Maher in Baltimore, which was awesome) somewhere in there, but mostly we've been squeezing in fall activities

which included a number of Halloween parades,

Halloween at the beach,

and Halloween in our front yard, after the neighborhood haunted house was way too scary.

Plus yard work. 

And then we rolled straight into birthday week. (Which magically coincided with testimony week, make it to the polls week, and "Dad brought home a donut the size of a pizza from his hunting trip" week.")

It gets harder every year to process just how big our babies have gotten. Seven feels particularly grown, 

and the annual retelling of the birth story now evokes such long-ago memories, I almost don't even cringe when Seth fetches the salad tongs.

We were so lucky to have Jayne here to help (by which we mean, do most of the work) to celebrate our big girl (plus the onset of a very late fall).

Finley expertly capitalized on working-parent-guilt and demanded sushi (Mr. Chicken Nuggets was unenthused),

a laser tag party,

and both cake and cupcakes. (Jayne outdid herself this year, and the red velvet was the best I've ever had, no kidding.)

A fantastic and exhausting and sugar-saturated time

was had by all, and we finished off the week as fall evenings were meant to be spent:

with our new stok firepit (strong recommend) and a complete disregard for fire safety.

Also, Finley got a nail stamper and decorated her brother's nails and this might be the photo of the week. She told him he looked "very handsome."

A Cast-Free (Finally!) Fall

Well, it's been a month, and it's finally starting to feel like fall. More importantly, we survived an entire month with The Cast, and it is finally off! (Thanks in absolutely zero measure to Finley's adherence to the concept of non-weight bearing.)

Not that that saved me from an incredibly stressful Art on the Avenue with Cleopatra in a wheelchair.

We spent the month trying, mostly without success, to find activities conducive to limited mobility,

(although Jayne and I did discover, to our surprise one rainy afternoon, that this movie was pretty good).

We snuggled cats,

and dressed for all the big occasions, like walking the dog 

and visiting the grocery store.

Once the cast was off, though all bets were off.

We fall-ed hard at Great Country Farms, with some of my favorite Moms and the always-clutch Grandma Jayne (who helped navigate our first-ever, wildly terrible, big kid corn maze),

a pumpkin cannon (thank goodness for Scott),

and a day off school to spend with good friends. (Not pictured: one thousand apple cider donuts and a gallon or so of hard cider for the ladies.)

Seth fished the KBF National Championship this weekend in Shreveport, with his sainted Dad and less saintly service dog in tow, and though it didn't end the way he wanted, he caught some big fish and had a great time wrapping an awesome season. 

Meanwhile, I knocked out a few miles at the Freedom's Run marathon

and Jayne brought the kids up for their first-ever official kids' run. Which included "real medals" and  superhero accessories.

Upon their return, and in the middle of the Sunday scramble to get ready for the week, we celebrated Seth's end-of-season tournament/ upcoming first week of work with a trip to Medieval Times. Which had never (believe me, never) been on our bucket list, but F+F had an absolute blast.

It's possible that they were not the only ones.

This coming week promises big change (Seth's job), big lifts (mine, with more Congressional testimony looming), and hopefully big laughs (and cooler weather). We are grateful for grandparents, leaf blowers (pictures next week- the kids and I just discovered the magic), cast-free six year olds, and all things fall.

(Almost) Fall, Y'all. Plus, A Cat.

We bade a final farewell to summer at the lake with the Blackledges on Labor Day, as has become our accidental custom.

And then an even sadder goodbye to Jayne.

We made a quick trip to NC for the retirement of friends-who-are-family

and to see these hooligans and their menagerie in Southern Pines,

Upon our return, Finley broke her ankle (jacking around) and Seth won Parent of the Year for taking two kids and a dog to the ER,

Ford got promoted at swim school and we celebrated with a trip to Pistone's,

and, for no apparent reason, we got a cat.

Her name is Daisy, and we rescued her because the kids wanted a pet of their own and because she was going to be put down due to an apparent reluctance of people to adopt a black cat in any proximity to Halloween. People are the worst.

So is this cat, who eats the dog's food in front of him, scratches the furniture, and wakes everyone up at 5am.

We have desperately needed a weekend at home to recover from allthethings, and we're currently enjoying one. We vacuumed lots of animal fur, did 60 loads of laundry, and had date day with these goofballs. Which included carousels, sushi, McFlurries, and a very dangerous set of escalators at the Mosaic Target.

(Some of us also stole Finley's crutches, and reminisced about shirtless golfing with friends.)

Others spent Sunday working hard:

Although our  style is currently cramped by crutches and trips to PetSmart, we're enjoying school and (slightly) cooler climes and having everybody home for a weekend for a change. Cheers to fall, y'all!