What an awesome month!

We have had a great month, transitioning from summer to fall and finally getting back into the swing of things around here. Both Alex and Rory have amazing teachers at school and the greatest friends any two kids could ask for outside (and inside) of school.

September was a month of play and work around our house. Pat has been busy painting the interior of our home, trying hard to remove the kid finger prints and dog drool that seems to have taken over our house. He has gotten a nice chunk of it completed but there is still plenty to go. What has been completed looks so wonderful. I love the new colors and can't believe how much better it looks already. We are hopeful that the project will be completed soon.

The girls and I have tried hard to have weekly cooking projects, which they love but Mom and Dad's waistline seems to be struggling with. Additionally we have had a number of special Halloween focused art projects that they kids have worked on. I feel like I spend a good part of almost every afternoon setting up and cleaning up whatever project we take on that day...and the art is really starting to pile up! Any takers? Between what they bring home from school and what we make at home I think we could keep all of your refrigerators covered!

Alex had a very special playdate where she invited all of her school girl friends to our house for lunch and a ton of play. The girls had so much fun together and did a great job of including Rory and the other little brothers and sisters in on their play.

Alex's birthday celebration started with her special day at school. She brought in pizza and cookies to share with her class and everyone loved it! Alex loved all of the attention and having Mom and Dad and Rory spend most of the class day with her.

We made a visit to the Children’s Museum with our good friends this month. The kids had a great time putting on a puppet show for the moms and created more art...again any takers? I think their favorite part though was when they went loose in the play areas. Oh what fun they had!

We did manage to get in a little swimming, although I think the swimming days are numbers. I am fairly sure I will not get back in...Too cold for me....although the kids might make an attempt again. I am always surprised that they will get in the pool and spend as much time there as I allow, no matter how cool it gets!

Alex celebrated her birthday multiple times, as you all know the kids in this family have lots of birthday fun! Why limit it to just one day? So in total Alex celebrated at school, celebrated at home on her birthday, celebrated with Gigi and Baba and Aunt Mine and Kyle the day after her birthday and for the grand finale had a huge birthday party with all of her friends in October. For the last birthday party we took her friends to Mother Nature's Farm and had a lot of good outside fun, pumpkin picking and decorating, hayride, bounce house, hay maze and plenty of dirt. She had a great birthday!

Our little baby Rory has grown up right before our eyes. Overnight she has become potty trained and NEVER has accidents. I have even started allowing her to wear underwear outside of the house. We are so proud of her and she is even more proud of herself. She can't wait to tell everyone she sees that she gets to wear underwear now. Rory also moved into a big girl bed this month as her reward for being potty trained. She has made the transition wonderfully and is enjoying her new freedom of getting out of bed when she is ready.

With the cooling of the weather we have had the opportunity to enjoy more outside activities again. The girls love their almost nightly trips to our community park and we made a trip back to the Phoenix Zoo. With all of the outside play you would expect them to be sleeping a little extra right? Oh no, I think they are so excited to wake up every morning and start their days they can't sleep! They have endless energy! Lucky for us we have the next 6 months to enjoy this beautiful weather!