If there is one thing that can be said about you, Fiona, it is that you know your own mind and are not easily convinced to walk any path but your own. The Force is strong with you, Cinderella.

This Halloween is kind of a dream come true for your Daddy. Putting this costume on for the first time tonight, he said, "How did I make it this long in life without owning this costume?"

Now that you can buckle yourself into your seat, I sometimes get surprises like this when I open your door.

Given that I see this exact view very often lately, it's good that it's such an adorable view. The day that those baby curls are gone will be a sad day. (Hopefully far in the future)

Z and V are neighbor girls from down the block. Being a country kid, neighbor kids stopping by and asking to play is not something I was ever used to. It's kind of hard for me, as an introvert, to take, to be totally honest. But they are a good fit for you, especially Saoirse. So I push my own limits to embrace it. They're about to add another baby girl to their family, which will increase the ratio in our two families to 6:1 in favor of girls. Liam seems happy to soak up all the female attention.

The temperature was cold today, cold enough that Saoirse, although she was the only one not too squeamish to touch pumpkin guts, still did complain a bit about how cold it made her hands. One of these years we really need to buy some proper carving tools. But your dad did his best to turn your "art" into jack o'lanterns.

You all indulged me today, heading to the Dexter Cider Mill so we could taste yet another set of cider and donuts. What can I say? Fall is my favorite time of year. The cider and donuts were excellent, but the line did not make everyone happy. Not the 13 month old who would rather be walking around, for instance. The barn light made me swoon, but the crowds kept me from enjoying it to the fullest. Photographer problems.

Another beautiful fall afternoon at the park, another day of my beautiful girl in purple from head to toe.

W and K came over after school today so that their parents could go to parent-teacher conferences, then stayed for dinner. Supervising all six of you while you played outside, making the most of the last pleasant fall days, I was struck by the madness of it, as I am sometimes. Four starts to seem normal after a while...but six?! And yet some do it every day. I was glad we could get outside, at least. And glad for pork ragu that cooks slowly all afternoon, and pumpkin cake to celebrate our ten year anniversary, and pumpkin beer shared with good friends.

No corner of this house is free of toys left behind.

Reading before bed is usually Daddy's job. Occasionally, though, he goes to play soccer or something, and it's my turn. On this night, Fiona insisted on "reading" to me, and she was her usually funny self doing it. Rowan played a very good apprentice and captured it for me.

Stunning sunset on our way home from Chicago.

I've spent a fair amount of time just like this on this trip. :)

Having grown up in such a small town, surrounded by cousins, aunts and uncles, grandparents...it's a very different experience for me having my only nephew (so far) live almost 5 hours away. We make an effort to see each other frequently, but I still miss having them closer. This visit was a nice chance to spend time with him without being distracted by having to take care of all of my own little ones. I had fun getting to know him a bit better, seeing what an incredibly active, funny little boy he is.

Home for the next few days. It's been 14 months since we had a vacation away from the kids. I plan to sleep well, eat well, read a lot, and run on the lakefront for the next few days.

Grandma's here! Some of the happiest words in the English language. You guys have all really lucked out in the grandparent department, getting four grandparents who adore you, pay attention to you, spoil you, and most importantly, spend time with you. You won't know until much later just how lucky that is, but you know right now that you love it.

Stripped beds, because lice has found its way back here. Poor Saoirse, she appears to be as irresistible to lice as she is to mosquitos. At least after last year we know the drill. We made our way immediately to Rapunzel's boutique, and luckily everyone else in the family passed the inspection. Treated and done. And a mountain of laundry done, just in time to turn over all the kids to Grandma Donna.

This afternoon I was using the time during the baby's nap to take a self-portrait for my Elements of Design class. I had this nightgown, which was actually my wedding nightgown, on. But then Fiona joined me, gushed how beautiful it was, and promptly insisted that I take it off so she could put it on. Then she commandeered my photography project, jumping from the head of my bed over and over again while I sat at the foot and took pictures. After each round, she would come and look at what we got, on the back of the camera, then try again until they were perfect. It wasn't the photo I was planning on getting done while the baby slept, but I love it when my girls want to collaborate on a project, so it is pretty perfect to me.

Every year in the fall we make at least one trip to Three Cedars. They have animals in a petting zoo, a wooden train that kids play on, a corn box (like a sandbox but with corn), great cider and donuts, and my favorite: the cider slushy. This was your first trip there as a kid that actually gets to play, Liam, because last year you were just a bundle in a baby carrier. It had rained, but it was warm. Your favorite thing there were these tractors. I can already imagine you and I making the trip there next fall, just the two of us because all of the big sisters will be in school.

Although learning to ride a bike is one of those things that pretty much everyone does, it still felt mystifying to me. At the beginning of this summer, neither of you girls were riding on your own, still. Seven felt a bit old, and you were heavy enough that when I tried to help you, it was really hard for me to catch you if you tipped. So it was your dad's job. I joked with him this spring that there are classes for this now, you can outsource it. He scoffed, said there was no way he was paying someone to teach his kids to ride, this is what Dads do. So I watched you guys learn all summer, in bits and pieces when you felt brave. Sure enough, now you can both ride. This was the day that Rowan really took off, riding in big circles in a parking lot, learning to take off and stop. What a glorious day for it.

I hope you always know how lucky you are to have each other. In my mind, I imagine this picture in a frame somewhere...your dorm rooms? In a frame that your own kids pick up and point to each one, naming their aunts?

For the first year after Liam was born, I took pictures of all four kids in a chair on the 10th of every month. I decided this month it was time to shake the series up, and just take a picture of you all, regardless of where it was. So I took you to the park across the street and lined you all up. Yes, I got an okay picture of all of you. But this is the one I ended up loving instead. Three sisters lined up and ready, and when Daddy walks the baby in to join you...this is what he sees. I can't tell you how much I love to see you love each other.

We rarely play board games. It seems every time you guys get one, pieces are lost before you ever manage to finish a game. This old box with the Twister game came from your grandparents' house when they moved to Cleveland and gave us stuff they didn't have room for. It has sat there since, but today Fiona opened it. This led to another aspect of how you play board games: you are not really interested in me teaching you how to play them. You prefer to make up your own rules. So this is your game of Twister, one person spinning and telling the other person what to do next, like it's a series of moves rather than having to do each move at the same time. It's a bit less twisty that way, but you all still seemed to enjoy it.

Sometimes we get to school early for pickup, and the day is so beautiful that sitting in the car seems like a waste. Fiona and you both want to move. Fiona wants to pretend she goes to school, too, and play on the playground with the big kids. And you want to practice walking and pick up leaves. Today we did that, and I got to talk to Sarah while you played. It's new this year, having Sarah be part of our school experience, too. Not that it makes any difference to you, of course. She's been part of your village since the day you were born, so she's just family to you. May it ever be so.

You guys get each other. There are lots of things that you do, playing with him, that I think will be a bad idea. I think you're being too rough, bouncing him around too much. I think you're practically dragging him when you help him walk with his shopping cart. I think you're driving this car too fast, and he's getting whipped around. Then I'll look...and he's laughing. Apparently he likes the way you play, craziness and all. He couldn't ask for a better big sister.

Waiting in the pickup line at school. Every day when I say it's time to go get your sisters, you ask, "Will there be a line?" No matter how many times we do it, you keep hoping it will be different today, I guess. The line bores you. When your sisters were in kindergarten, you almost always fell asleep in the line, even though I wished you wouldn't. Last year we had to circle until the last possible second, hoping Liam would sleep. You would play, or pretend to read. This year you don't want to stay in your seat at all, you want to climb up and be with me. Today you were so excited when I said, "Well, this will be the last year you will have to do this wait. Next year you'll be in kindergarten, and just Liam will be waiting with me." Your face lit up, so thrilled that I was afraid you misunderstood. "Next YEAR," I repeated. Yes, you got it. That was awesome. "Will you tell my sisters that when we get them?!" I'm not quite ready for you to be gone all day with them, so I'm glad there's another 11 months to go, my baby girl, even if it does mean you have to be bored with me on a lot more afternoons.

You were telling me about a Garfield comic strip that you thought was hilarious when I took this. You girls discovered Garfield this summer, on our camping trip in Muskegon. None of you can get enough, and you love explaining the jokes to me. A lot of times when I try to take a picture of you, you get a little stiff because you're trying to smile nicely. This, though, this is your real smile, which is always what I'm actually looking for.

I think you're having a growth spurt. You've been easy to feed, ever since you started getting solids at 6 months. But last week you were cranky for a couple of days and I couldn't figure out why. Then I thought to offer you more food than usual, and you took it all and seemed happier. Whoops. It would be so much easier, sometimes, if babies could talk. You were really funny eating these noodles, pushing one end into your mouth and sucking the whole string in, bit by bit. And of course, you had to go straight to your bath afterwards.

Tonight was Rowan's first time having a friend sleep over, and we started off the night with an impromptu trip to Blank Slate for ice cream. Rowan and G. got matching chocolate fudge brownie faces. The butternut squash ice cream was fantastic. Then home after ice cream for playing horses, then pizza, then Kung Fu Panda in the basement. Rowan and G. both were fast asleep within ten minutes after me turning out the light at 9:30. A successful first sleepover.

You love doing dishes with Daddy. When you were tiny, he would strap you into the Baby Bjorn while he cleaned up and loaded the dishwasher. It didn't take long before you started fussing if he started without you. It was sad when you were too big, really, to be strapped in anymore, because you grabbed things now, and your feet would touch the sink. Now that you're on your own, you put things and take things out. Sometimes you climb right up on the open dishwasher. It's your chore with Daddy, something you do together every night.

We went to pick apples tonight. Two bags full, approximately 100 apples. Cider and donuts, which we were hard-pressed to keep away from the bees. You and your sisters climbed hay bales, rode tricycles, and got completely filthy. Your brother joined in on getting filthy, and added a new bruise to his forehead when I was not fast enough to stop him from face planting. You climbed these old tires and sang, "I'm the king of the castle, you're the dirty rascal." Every time I look at this picture I smile, remembering it.