September

With school starting at the beginning of the month, we've spent the past few weeks settling into a new routine of school, gymnastics, and dance in addition to the normal things like going to work. We had some really nice sunny days and now have transitioned into rainy fall weather. 

School is off to a great start! Haleigh is in Kindergarten and loves it! She runs to her class as soon as we walk in the door, grabs her pencil box and sits down right away. If it were up to her, I would just drop her off and not even come inside! It is such a change from preschool when she was so timid and cried the first few weeks of school. Her Spanish is improving significantly as well and she loves to throw in a Spanish word here and there when she's talking to me, followed by "Mom, that's Spanish for ________."

Annaliese is in second grade. She wants me to walk her all the way into her classroom, wants to talk to everyone on the way in and could care less if it's 8:30 and class is starting. There are only 4 2nd graders, so her class is a combined 1st/2nd grade class which means she gets to be in the same classroom as Elias this year! So far, it seems that math is her favorite subject, followed closely by P.E. (which Grandpa teaches) and art. 

Annaliese said the opening prayer (in English and Spanish!) at the Welcome Back School Potluck.

With Haleigh and Annaliese back in school, Lydia and I have started running again which also means so playtime at the park if it's not raining. Lydia also really likes to play games, so we've spent a lot of time playing Candy Land, Sorry, Spot-it and Uno! 

Lunchtime...she's eating a cucumber!

Checking out the goats at Hovander.

We've had so many sunny days that we typically hang out at school in the afternoon when we go to pick up the girls and will stay and play on the playground there. We've also made it to a new park in town, Waypoint Park, and Kyle took the girls down to the Nooksack River at Hovander Park one day while I was sleeping. 

Waypoint Park

This is the playground at school. 

And then there's our time spent at home, playing in the backyard, reading books, coloring and working on getting Lydia potty-trained (hence all the pictures of panties and no pants!) 

Just doing a little sweeping...cleaning up Haleigh's mess!

On the way home from our run at Lake Padden...Lydia and Shelby were both pretty tired!

Annaliese bought this Hatchimal from the store at church. Each week she earned $1 or $2 for things like memorizing the Bible verse or bringing her Bible to church. This cost $50 and she's been saving for a long time!

Eager anticipation!

Movie and Popcorn night

We ended the month with a date night! Kyle and I went the Demolition Derby in Lynden at the Fairgrounds. It was cold and windy but we had so much fun! It is such a crazy thing for people to do! Watching the tractors come in and tow out all the cars was also quite entertaining. Thanks Mom and Dad for babysitting!