i can’t believe october is almost over! we have some little boys pretty darn excited about halloween, and christmas has already started exploding in shops here in london. daylights savings has hit us (hello, 5am wakeups, and 5pm darkness, ugh!) and the year is winding down … wild. time feels so interesting as a parent – fast, slow, slippery, heavy, sticky, sweet. i’m so so glad i get to spend my days with moses and gabriel and watch them grow in every season.

some photos from the past couple of weeks —>>>

we’ve been spending at least an afternoon a week with some little pals whose mom has been very sick in her pregnancy. this has been a huge joy for moses, who adores his friend zoe. i couldn’t pick which of these darling photos of the two of them to post, so here’s seven…! ha.
 
 
 
the kids asked for a photo with this cool car!

moses’s school had a “harvest festival” at the church with which the school is affiliated. it was the first time i had been in the church and i was taken back by how gorgeous it is! every student in the school made a bee and learned about how bees work together and work with the earth. at the festival there was words and music about helping each other as brothers and sisters in a community, and being grateful for all we have. it was beautiful!
 
moses had a week off of school (what we call in england, “half term”). his homework over the break was to collect things outside and make them into a collage. he asked if we could make an elephant out of coloured leaves. why not?!
 
some pretty autumnal snaps from around the neighborhood:
 
 
a morning walk in hyde park with gabriel, who was very excited about his stick find:

a couple of saturdays ago we went to a pumpkin patch outside of london. the tube line we needed happened to not be running that day so we got to enjoy a loooong bus ride…!

we made it! and the boys were thrilled about all the pumpkins. i have to say, though, one thing i miss about living in the usa is the festivity around autumn. it’s just not the same in the uk!

 
 

the best part of our excursion to the pumpkin patch was definitely this big tree swing there. so much fun for everyone. i love these faces!
 
 
the next day was stake conference (a bi-annual meeting where a group of congregations meet all together), which meant that ian didn’t have his regular sunday meetings (he is a counselor to the bishop of a young adult ward in our stake, and usually is at the church for many hours each sunday). this was a treat for us, and we had an awesome day together as a family. after our church meeting we went to kensington gardens and collected leaves (for mo’s elephant collage pictured above!) and fed the birds. i had chosen to put away my phone for the entire day (which felt amazing!) and so i just have a few snaps from ian’s phone, but i want to remember how delicious that afternoon in the park felt. it was easy and colourful and fun.
 
things got a little crazy feeding the birds – we were completely surrounded in eager fowl. moses even got to feed some birdies directly from his hand! exciting stuff.
 
 
since mo wasn’t in school in the mornings during half term, i signed him up for a couple of football classes. he had a blast.
 
his favourite part was, of course, the “animal races.” here is is being an elephant and a lion!
 
a bit more pretty autumnal-ness:
 
snapshots from a walk through chelsea to go play at the soft play area at the national army museum (maybe my kids’ favourite place in london right now!):
 
mo has been really into taking photos with my phone lately. he takes some shots of the world around him, like this one that shows off our little bit of halloween decorating…but mostly he just takes hundreds and hundreds of selfies. haha!
 
last week my sister saydi came to visit!!!!! i was sooo excited to have her here in london with me. it was a little bit crazy juggling the kids, my intense desire to just be with my sister, and some back-and-forth from london to writtle (where her best friend lives) but it was so wonderful.
after she arrived on a tuesday morning, we took her to kew gardens! it was a glorious fall day and we tried to kick her jet lag in the butt by being outside in this gorgeous place. (i think kew gardens might be my current favourite spot in london – it’s been such a haven for me lately!)

 
 
 
 
the next morning we woke up nice and early and went to sunrise yoga at the sky garden. i’m so glad i got to experience this with my sister! (i had been a couple times before, several years ago.) it was really neat to slow our minds and stretch our bodies as the glittering night became a cool blue morning around us.

the next day i took the boys out to writtle and amy (saydi’s best friend, who is basically a sister to me) took us to this gorgeous garden area called hyde hall. unfortunately the weather was pretty awful for exploring a gorgeous garden area, but we still took in lots of beauty and had an adventure!

gabriel was really into “reading his map.”
 

 
and there were some giant pumpkins and a cool display of different squashes, which delighted both boys.
 
 
^^ check out that rain-bedazzled spider web! ^^

 
 
we went back to amy’s house (which is seriously one of my very most favourite places to be!) for a delicious dinner with amy and her girls ^^ love those schwartzes so much!
the next day saydi and amy came into london and we met up to cross the millennium bridge and go to the tate modern.

after, we dropped off the boys at my friend’s flat (she owed me some babysitting!) and we rented bikes and rode through the parks. it was exhilarating and awesome and we didn’t take a picture! the crunchy leaves were blowing in the autumn wind and we were all three delighting so much. we had cream tea at a cute little tea room and then met up with amy’s husband for a pizza dinner in soho (ian was really awesome to pick up the boys and get them to bed while we enjoyed).
the next day saydi took family photos for us, we got to enjoy yummy dishoom (a very popular indian restaurant) breakfast together just the two of us, and then as the rain came in we drank tea while playing with the boys and chatting with ian at home. saydi got in on our family pumpkin carving session that evening, and the next day (sunday), i took the boys back out to writtle to enjoy more time with my sister and the schwartzes. we were so bad at taking photos – i just wrote all that that happened and can’t believe we don’t have any pictures of any of it, ha!
here’s some pictures of the completed pumpkins that i snapped after saydi left. we were all so happy she came and so sad she had to go back home.
 
 
then it was on to jumping in the leaves for my dad’s birthday (that is his beloved birthday tradition):
 
and now tomorrow is halloween eve!
october 2019 was pretty great.