September 2015

Ava wanted to read a book with this boy.

Hannah checking to make sure our oats are all safe to eat.

Thanks, Hannah. Glad to hear they are safe but they will actually be going into the garbage can.

Spontaneous party at our house. We were going to go swimming on Labor Day, to enjoy the last day our community pool would be open. Unfortunately the weather turned so we decided to just invite a bunch of people to our house for a potluck BBQ.

The adults enjoyed eating and chatting upstairs.

and outside.

The kids had fun downstairs.

This basketball thing is one of my favorite purchases ever. It is fantastic for things like this where we have a lot of kids of different ages. They all love it. The boys spent the whole time playing this.

Katie and Kailyn hung out in the bedroom.

I think we were able to get all the moms and some of the big girls.

Look at all of these cute girls that get to be friends.

Later in September, I went with Ava, Hannah and some friends down to the Botanical Gardens. The gardens were gorgeous. Hannah was not in a good mood and refused to look at me or smile.

They had a great play area where the kids could dress-up...

or play in the water. We weren't really prepared for the water because I had no idea they had a play area but the girls didn't hesitate getting in and having fun. Hannah is still refusing to look at me.

Ava is more than happy to pose for a picture.

Ava also started preschool in September. I am doing a co-op preschool this year. It has gone great. There are six kids in the class and we meet twice a week for 2 1/2 hours. Ava has loved it.

Hannah loves Mangoes. Who doesn't? They are SO good.

But don't even think about taking one. I was cutting that mangoes up for everyone but looks like Hannah is not letting go anytime soon.

Yep, another mess by Hannah. She is really good at dumping things out. Not so good at cleaning them up. Here she got a hold of poppy seeds and dumped them everywhere.

Chase lost his first tooth. He had mentioned that his tooth was lose and then on this night he was wiggling it and said, "Mom wouldn't it be funny if I just reached in and went like this (pulling on tooth) and it.... (suddenly he realized he had just pulled out his tooth) ...it fell out!!? Mom it really fell out!"

It was one of those days. Nothing seemed to be going right. Ken had been out of town all week and I was feeling stressed. I had just gotten done with cub scouts (which is super exhausting) and was heading home when I got a call from the girls who were at home babysitting. "Mom, the laundry soap spilled." Me, "OK, clean it up." "No Mom, like it is all over the floor and it looks like an ocean in here." Yep I came home and a whole thing of liquid laundry detergent had spilled all over our laundry room floor. I spent the next 3+ hours cleaning it all up. Thanks to the girls quick thinking, they had stopped it from flowing under the machines and under the flooring (we have some missing trim), it wasn't as bad as it could have been. We didn't get a picture during because our hands were covered in soap and were too worried with keeping Hannah out of the mess but here are pictures taken right as I am finishing up. We have no idea how it happened (at least that is the story I got). This is not the way I would recommend cleaning your wood floors.

Another preschool field trip for Ava. Going on a nature walk and watching the river.

Some pictures of Caden at Cub Scouts. They were trying to work together to make a pyramid.

The boys moved up a belt. Chase to high blue belt and Caden to red belt.

Chase teaching Hannah a few moves.

Hannah has discovered the camera. We don't get many normal pictures like this anymore.

Now they are like this. Every time she sees the camera she squints her eyes...maybe it helps her smile bigger.

Face painting at the last Fun Run of the season.

Art craft at the library.

Kailyn on her way to her first babysitting job.