September Round-Up!

September is over and we're already a few days into October. Before we get too much farther into the month, I wanted to be sure and post my round-up from the happenings of September!

Brenson is still taking guitar lessons with Mr. Muns once a week. Each month he's making progress and showing improvements, which is exactly what we like to see! He is beginning his second year with Mr. Muns as his guitar teacher. 

LEGO Club is still a fun monthly activity for us. I always enjoy hearing my kiddos share about their creations with the other participants. 

Brooke and Brecklyn are fully participating now, and it's so bittersweet to see how grown-up they are becoming. 

We often have gorgeous sunrises to enjoy, but I personally think the best sunrises happen in autumn. One morning we woke up to a foggy and bright sunrise, which means cooler weather is coming soon!

Toward the beginning of the month, I took a trip with five other gals to a ladies retreat outside of Kansas City. The retreat began on Friday evening, so we planned to leave around noon to have plenty of time for the four hour drive plus stops. Chris took the day off work so he could do school pick-up and childcare while I was gone. That morning - during the two hours and forty-five minutes that all the kids were in school - we found ourselves feeling so strange about being home alone, haha! Things sure have changed!

For the ladies retreat, Tia rented a van so we could all ride together. "All" included Tia, Antha, Rebekah, Lisa, Kristen, and myself. Everyone met at my house, and we headed out on our adventure to KC around noon.

The retreat was held at the camp Brianna attended a few months ago, which is also the camp I attended for several years in middle school. Lisa was a camper back then as well, and she has been a counselor there for the past two summers. Antha's girls have also been campers. It was fun to be there, for sure!

There was a nice turn-out for the retreat, and we really enjoyed getting to know each other better!

Of course, we all wanted to stay in a cabin together, but we were one bottom bunk short. I volunteered to sleep on a top bunk, which I thought would be no big deal. Famous last words, lol. Really, everything was fine until I tried to come down from the top bunk after a sleeping for a night on a two inch mattress. It was a harsh reminder that I'm not 14 anymore. Of all the things Tia and I have experienced together, I never thought we'd share bunk beds!

The Oklahoma crew

Love my friend Antha!

The retreat ended around noon on Saturday, and we headed for home. I'm so glad we were all able to go, be fed spiritually, and bond over the hike up the hill and yucky camp bathrooms, haha!

I've been trying to be more present at school this year since I have a little more "free" time and all of my kids are students there now. One day, the twins and I decided to surprise the big kids for lunch. We've done this before, but the twins are just now getting to an age where it's not overwhelming for me to do it.

Bren was impressed that we wanted to eat with him!

Really, he was very excited!

I thought it was so fun to observe the difference between 2nd grade boys and 4th grade girls. Bren's friends just kind of looked at us and went about their business of eating. Brianna's friends all wanted to pick the girls up, have them sit on their laps, ask a ton of questions, etc. So interesting! 

Brianna was thrilled we were there! 

One of the not-so fun things that happened this month was that Brianna sprained her arm at school. She was in PE when a boy in her class got really rough and she ended up falling on her wrist. She thought it was ok and didn't even go to the office to get an ice pack. The next morning, she told me what happened and said that her wrist was really hurting. I decided to give it another day before getting it looked at. When she was still complaining about the NEXT day and it looked swollen, I took her to Urgent Care before school to have it xrayed. Thankfully, it was just sprained, but she did have to have it wrapped for 10 days. 

I totally understand that accidents happen, but Brianna felt like the boy in her class had intentionally pushed her down. She wasn't the only one that felt that way because her friend Gavon's mom also texted me that Gavon said he almost punched the boy when he pushed Bri down. Because of this, I felt like I needed to talk to Mrs. S (the building principal) about what happened. She had no idea an incident had even taken place, so she talked with Mrs. S (the PE teacher) to find out what happened. They both came to speak with me in the pick-up line later that day and apologize profusely. I wasn't trying to place blame upon anyone . . . I just felt like everyone needed to be aware that even though the PE teacher didn't really see what happened, this boy (who has a history of being a pain to Brianna) had actually hurt her this time. 

The crazy thing about this was that about a month prior to this, Avery had fallen off the monkey bars at our house and broken her wrist. Then, a couple weeks after that Chloe fell off her scooter at home and broke her wrist. Brianna's wrist incident happened during our annual gospel meeting at church, so the three of them all had their wrists wrapped or cast in something!

If you have to have a hurt wrist, you might as well have one at the same time as your friends, haha!

Sometimes the little girls are just so cute together. They have such a special bond with each other, and it's so fun to watch that evolve as they get older. They {sometimes} love the camera, and on this afternoon they were hamming it up for me!

Brecklyn, Brooke

The lighting was catching their eyes perfectly!

I love Breck's serious look here :-).

Laughing faces!

One Sunday, Bren gave me this note during church services. I was almost offended until I read the parenthesis. I love his heart!

September is the month that the Rogers County Fair comes to town. Chris and I have lived in our town for 15 years, but have rarely attended the fair. It's just not really our scene! However, we took the kids last year, so they thought we just had to go again this year. 

We went on a Friday evening and saw a beautiful sunset!

The real reason we went that night was to see Bren's guitar teacher perform with his band. Bren really enjoyed watching him, and the girls had a great time breaking it down to the music :-).

 
One evening we went to McAlister's to eat, and I noticed that the light from the window was really lighting up Bren's eyes. I couldn't resist snapping a few pics.

This is his fake smile, but his eyes are so blue!

Love his laugh!

I told him that his eyes were beautiful, so he gave me this look, haha.

Lovely children :-)

Love these two!

A little over a year ago, I started reading chapter books to all the children. Sometimes, we have a hard time finding time when everyone is available to read, but we try to always have a book going. This month, we read When You Reach Me. It was my first time reading it, and I think I was as interested as the children! Don't tell them, but I did a little reading ahead.

The weather this time of year is always so beautiful. The little girls and I took advantage of it one day and had a lunch picnic at the lake. Love my little sidekicks!

The same day that we had a lake picnic, the kids' school had McTeacher night at our local McDonald's. We try to support the school when we can, so even though Chris was out of town for the night with work, I took the kids out to dinner. The place was NUTS, my kids were jazzed to see their friends, and I thought I was going to lose my sanity when the kids at the table behind us starting crawling on the floor and grabbing at my feet (blech!) BUT, we supported the school and had a nutritious dinner. Or something.

I am trying to soak up the time I have with the little girls home while the big kids are at school. I'll miss this so much next year!

Brianna helped her friend, Abi, celebrate her birthday at a pool party this month. I am SO thankful that the kids took swim lessons this past summer and are good little swimmers now. Bri had a blast at the party!

Getting four kids ready for school and out the door by 7:30 every morning has been a bit of a challenge at times. Sometimes when I'm in a crunch for time, Brianna will step up and help me do Brooke and Brecklyn's hair. She's such a good little helper and can braid as well as I can!

Movie night is always a hit with our crew. We don't do it very often, so maybe that is why it feels special.

We go to Sam's for groceries about once a month, and I'm always happy when I find clothing I'm looking for. The twins needed new jackets for the fall, and we found these at Sam's for a great price. Brooke's little pose cracked me up!

And finally, the big kids ran in a race on the last day of the month. It was a race for elementary and middle school aged kids in a town nearby. There were a handful of students from the kids' school who participated, so their PE teacher was there to cheer them on. Brianna and Brenson were both disappointed with how they ran, but I was proud of them for participating in and finishing the race! They were competing against kids much older than themselves and that had a lot more racing experience. 

September always feels like a month where we really get back into our routine from the summer, and we have definitely been able to do that! It feels good to be more used to our day-to-day life, and we are looking forward to another great month!