The Rest of September

Randomness from September:

Noah drilling the princess chair:  working with daddy as daddy takes the tv off the wall

 Bella's ballet class

 and her other dance class:  wiggles and giggles (AKA:  tumbling for preschoolers)  She loves this class because she gets to do somersaults

On Sept. 13th, Garrett won free tickets to the Ringling Bros./Barnum and Bailey Circus.  We got free parking, free tickets, got to sit in one of the Intel boxes and had free snacks.  Not a bad gig!  Last time we went to the circus was when we just had Maggie and Lydia, maybe Paige.  But it was the full 3 ring circus and it was crazy.  This one was only one ring and wasn't as spectacular as the previous one.  But, it was still fun and the kids all enjoyed it.  In the above picture are "dancing dogs" which they all loved. 

 This one was basketball players on unicycles.  Something I've never seen at a circus...

 Us in the box

 in our seats

 I think their favorite parts were the elephants

all the performers at the end

 some good old-fashioned "daddy wrestling"

 Lydia's hip-hop jazz class.  I had her in tap at the beginning of the year and she just didn't like it anymore, so after about two weeks, we switched her back to the hip hop.  She was in heaven--she really likes it. 

 Noah trying his hand at cutting with scissors.  He did pretty good for his first time. 

 Still chugging along on our letter crafts.  Yes, we are way behind.  We just did "O" a couple of weeks ago.  We'll get there...

These two crack me up.  They play really well together and have a lot of fun.  But Noah's getting to that age/stage where he just likes to mess with Bella.  Like tackling her, and wrestling with her.  The other day, he was taking his tractor and ramming it into Bella's Polly Pocket RV that she had spent a long time setting up.  He's having a lot of fun being a pesky little brother.  She's pretty patient with him for the most part. 

 Trying to teach Paige to ride a bike.  Yes, she's almost 8 and still can't ride her bike.  I'm also very embarrassed to admit that she can't tie her own shoes either.  Yes, we are slacker parents. 

 Bella having a turn

 For an activity day girl activity, the girls and their dads went on a hike.  These are the girls

 and with their dads

 Playing on the playground

 I think they had a good time.  Lydia loves doing things with her dad. 

 For FHE, I made a schedule for the year to help us keep track of who teaches the lesson.  I always take the 1st Sunday, Garrett gets the 2nd Sunday, we rotate kids on the 3rd Sunday, on 4th Sundays we watch a family home video and on 5th Sundays we have family game night.  So at the end of September we played some games.  First we played Funny Bones, which we used to play as kids.  It's pretty funny. 

 I think the game was made in the 60's, but they haven't updated it, so I found one on ebay a year or two ago. 

 Maggie and Paige

 Noah and Garrett

 Paige and Bella

 Lydia and Garrett

 Maggie and I

 then we played apples to apples (disney version).  Really fun game, too.  I love Bella's face here. 

We also played a game called "Stare", (didn't take any pictures of that game)  where you look at a picture for about a minute and then you have to answer 6 questions about it.  It's a fun one that really tests your memory.  Fun times!  And yes, we do have family home evening on Sundays instead of Mondays.  We usually have some sort of dance class on Monday nights, so we've found that Sundays work best for us.  It's much more relaxed on Sunday's too because we don't feel rushed with Garrett coming home from work late, and having to eat dinner and get a quick lesson in.  We really like it on Sunday.