September Summary

Gotta love September.  The leaves are starting to change colors.  The weather is changing and even on hot days the air feels crisp.  Summer was really busy so it was very nice to find September without so much to do.  However, we still found things to keep us busy.  Here's a glimpse of September.

BACK TO SCHOOL

School started late this year on September 9th.  Sadie started 5th grade and is in Mr. Widmer's class.  Sadly, this will be the last year that we have a child in elementary school.  Next year both Curtis and Sadie will be in middle school.  Where does the time go?

Curtis is now in 7th grade and fortunately for him, no longer the low man on the totem pole in middle school.  He's trying out the advanced Language Arts class this year.  His teacher for that class is Mrs. Buhler and Curtis really clicks with her learning style.  He loves that.  Also, he has discovered that Mrs. Buhler is a Christian, which I am very excited about since he will have her for two periods a day both this year and next year.













CALIFORNIA ROAD TRIP
After the kids got back into the swing of things for school, my Mom and I drove to California to see friends of ours that live in or near Roseville.  We left Thursday morning and came back Sunday night.  All in all we spent about 19 hours in the car.  An added bonus of the trip to CA was that I got to spend a lot of uninterrupted  time with my Mom on the drive which is something we don't get a lot of.
I stayed with my friend Jeni and her family.  I've mentioned Jeni before in an earlier blog. She and I were friends when we were very young and we just reconnected last fall on Facebook. I did get to see her for a few hours earlier in the summer.  But, it was so nice to stay with her for a few days and get to know her again.  We hung out, went to soccer games, made jewelry, ate lots of yummy food, and went shopping.  Apparently, we have the same taste in clothes because we both bought the same skirt, shirt and sweater.  Good thing we live in different states and don't have to worry about showing up somewhere wearing the same clothes.

BIRTHDAY PARTY!

The best part of September is Sadie's birthday!  My baby girl turned 11 this year.  To start her birthday off on the right foot we had pancakes for breakfast.  She took chocolate chip cookies to school to share with her friends.  For dinner Sadie requested a "cheesy dinner".  So, we settled on a homemade six cheese pizza.  It was pretty yummy.  Dessert was a pumpkin roll cake with cream cheese frosting.  Sadly, I did not realize I only had two candles left until it was time to sing Happy Birthday.  Instead of blowing 11 candles out, Sadie tried to gently blow the one candle 11 times before she blew it out.  Silly Girl!  After dinner and cake Sadie requested that we play family games.  Lucky for her, she received the game, "Taboo" for her birthday.

Presents!                                                                      

Sadie loves to play games.

Sadie was very surprised to find these earrings wrapped up.  She showed them to me on a shopping trip in August.  I bought them while she was in the store with me without her knowledge.  Tricky Mom!

Pumpkin Roll Cake with one lonely candle.

A few days after Sadie's birthday she invited three friends over for a slumber party to continue celebrating her birthday.  The girls ate pasta for dinner, followed by cupcakes.  Then the giggling ensued and Curtis and Erik retreated to our bedroom to hide out.  The girls played some games.  Giggled some more.  Tried to hide around the hallway corners and scare each other.  Did a little more giggling.  Watched a movie and finally drifted off to sleep on various couches and air mattresses in the living room.  Surprisingly, the four girls were all sleeping by 11:30.  Maybe all that giggling wore them out.

Hannah, Sadie, Makayla, & Ellen