Other Sept Happenings

Here are some other highlights from September, starting with an amazing example of Pierscen's bathroom singing:

I received a surprise call from my brother Joey, who never ever calls me - thus the surprise, and said that he and his friend were on their way to Texas and would be passing through. Their intention was to drive straight through, but that would mean a 20 hour drive. I told him he better stop and stay the night - especially because he would be in ABQ around 10 pm. 

He made it around 10:30. I threw a pizza in the oven for them, which I partially burned, but they ate it anyway. We talked for a little bit, then left them to crash. Joey is the first sibling to come visit. He wins! It was great to see him, even if it was brief. 

In the morning Pierscen started to go downstairs, then came running into my room. "Mom! There are two humans sleeping downstairs!" Hahahaha. I didn't tell him they were coming, so it must have been a pretty big shock. I am relieved that it was two humans instead of two monsters though. ;)

Below Pierscen found a praying mantis in the backyard and managed to get it to climb onto his rake and brought it in to show me. 

One thing I love about Pierscen's school is that each day they put out this whiteboard telling the parents what the kids learned and did. It makes it really helpful in asking them what they learned because we have prompts. This day was one of Pierscen's favorites: The VOLCANO!!!

He made his own volcano out of clay, and they made a volcano erupt using vinegar and baking soda. And the giant volcano finally opened and will remain open for the rest of this unit. Hooray!

Yet another trip to the gardens, but this time something awesome happened in the butterfly pavilion. Pierscen walked in and within seconds, he had a butterfly fluttering around him. It landed on his stomach and slowly worked its way up until it actually landed on his nose. That really startled him!

Then there was this fun day... Devry locked me out while I was taking out the trash. She put the security stick back in the sliding portion so I couldn't get in. I could only open it about an inch and plead to Pierscen to come rescue me. He responded, "But mom! I'm looking at a book!" Priorities, mom. Come on!

One really fun thing about September was that soccer started! We actually missed his first game which was during Pie Festival. Each Saturday they have a practice right before the game, so there is nothing during the week. That is really nice - and there's nothing on Saturdays! 

P's first game was hilarious. He stayed by the goal as the "defender", but when the ball came his way, he was hanging on the edge of the goal daydreaming and let it roll right by. After that I called out to him, "Pierscen? Do you know what you are supposed to do? Your job is to stop the ball from going in the goal. Don't let it get passed you!"

His eyes got wide as he realized what a defender actually did and he started running back and forth in front of the goal saying, "Oh no! Oh no! Oh no!" We were laughing so hard! I am heartbroken I didn't get it on camera. He looked like a cornered, panicked chicken. 

He had a great first game and was super excited about the post game treats. Go Red Robins!

Just an adorable picture of the little lady in the house:

One morning I came back from a run and found this tiny guy on the fence post. I almost squished him with the gate. I'm glad I spotted him at the last second! 

The last Saturday of the month, Ryan and I had to divide and concur. P had a pancake breakfast fundraiser for his school followed by soccer. Ryan took P and D to that while I headed to the "Company's Comin'" service project at the balloon museum. It is a big project to get the area around the Balloon Fiesta park cleaned up before the Fiesta started the next week. It was a good way to spend the morning and I got this awesome shirt out of it. 

I finished with the service project in time to head to Pierscen's game. It is really fun to watch these little 4-year-olds!

That 8 week fitness challenge group I was a part of started another challenge and I opted to do it again. I really like having accountability and teammates to help stay on track. But in addition to the "official" challenge, I extended the challenge to all of Ryan's siblings and in laws, minus the buy in. To my surprise, everyone but one of them said they would join. Ryan's parents are even doing a good chunk of it. Hooray for a family effort to get healthier! Ryan has been begging me to make some "aaproved" granola since even the "healthy" stuff is usually made with brown sugar and or cane sugar. I finally decided to give it a go and made a recipe using only honey. I added raw cashews, dried apples, raisins, sunflower seeds and flax seeds. It's actually pretty delicious stuff. 

Here's just a funny picture of Devry on our sheep skin rug. Sheep skin is amazing. 

Paleontologist day at the school was pretty incredible. When I picked him up he ran over to me and said, "Mom! Today in the back there were hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, and HUNDREDS of dinosaur bones!" They learned all about being paleontologists, then they went in the backyard and excavated bones. How cool is that?! Then they assembled their own paleontologist kits. I missed a magnifying glass and bag of small sea shells that had been in the kit in the picture below. Pretty amazing stuff. 

Random pictures but I really love this shirt and I really love this girl in it. :)

And lastly... we headed to the zoo for the first time in a really long time. This sea lion is always really fun to watch, but this time it was interacting with the kids and it was awesome! 

The mountain lions were pretty cool too. One of them paced back and forth above us several times and Devry gasped and pointed appreciatively. It was a good trip. :) 

P still has a way to go before his paws are as big as a polar bears, but he is growing leaps and bounds in everything else he does. Sure love this kid.