September is a always busy month in our family. Four family birthdays, the full swing of school, state fair and the last minute crunch to finish up summer projects. Kansas has notorious weather that tends to turn from 100 degree heat to 40 degree "fall" in the blink of an eye. It seems like we are constantly rush, rush, rushing to get things done before October hits.
Sean's 6th birthday started out the month. Normally, we have a nice organized gathering of as much of the family as we can and then try to include a few friends. This year, his birthday fell on Labor Day weekend and everyone had plans to be elsewhere. We had a small pre-party with Doug's parents, then on his birthday we just had a family day that included a trip to the YMCA to swim and out to Dairy Queen for ice cream cones (his favorite treat.) Sometimes keeping it simple is just as much fun as the big events.
Next up was the annual
Kansas State Fair. We love going to see the exhibits and enjoy the rides. This year was even more fun as the kids were old enough to get excited about more aspects. Three of us had our art exhibited, so it was neat to track them down and see them displayed.
Aidan with his
Pointillism-inspired collage (middle row, second from top)
Sean and Ella in front of his self-portrait.
I entered the
dress I knit for Ella in the hand-knitted garment competition, but didn't place. I also didn't get a photo of it there because I had kids running in different directions in the Domestic Arts building.
On the evening we went to go on rides, Aidan ran into a classmate at the fair with his mom. She offered to take them around to do big kid rides while we took Sean and Ella to do little kid rides. Ella got a kick out of most of the things we tried.
We had an unfortunately incident involving the giant yellow slide this year. Doug and Aidan planned on riding it, but when we got there Sean and Ella also insisted they wanted to ride it. I tried talking Sean out of it, as he really didn't like it in the past, but he was determined to go. Um, yeah, not a good idea. Poor thing barely weighs 38 pounds and since Doug had to hold Ella on his lap, Sean had to ride solo next to them. He almost got air on the the first drop, so he freaked out and tried to turn over to his tummy to hold on to the burlap sack. His face smacked down on the slide rail and left a doozy of a bruise for days. He was in tears by the time he got to the bottom and says he will not do that again! Eeks. He didn't even want to walk near it the rest of the time we were there.
After we had our fill of the Fair, we made a quick trip up to visit my family for a weekend. We wrapped up the month by finally putting together the yard sale I had wanted to do all summer. I talked about it for months and slowly sorted what I wanted to purge out of the house. Aidan wanted to set up a lemonade stand for the sale and Doug was happy to fulfill that wish by building a magnificent lemonade stand out of leftover lumber from the bathroom renovation. He put a lot of work into it and Aidan really loves it. He had it open for business the day of the sale and then asked to set it up the next day too. We were so touched by the generosity of people who stopped to buy a drink and treat from him. He's hoping to get a couple more days of business before it gets too cold. I guess we will store it in the garage after that so he can use it again in the spring.
In addition to the fun stuff we did this month, I finally faced up to some dental problems I'd been neglecting. I had to get a root canal done at the end of the month and will need to go in for a crown and some fillings soon. Pregnancy was really hard on my teeth each time, but this time it was the worst. Actually, it's probably because I had areas that really needed a crown in the past but didn't get it. Instead those areas got worse and now it is no longer optional. I'll be so glad when it's all done, but just dread the time getting it fixed. Eye on the prize, right?
Well, that catches up most of our summer! I have a blog's worth of knitting projects to share and one with the bathroom renovations.
