September 2020

September was another fun summer month of beach days, pool time and even our own giant slip 'n' slide. 

We finished the playroom wall (and new light). 

We spent time at Moonlight State Beach (and, of course, Handel's ice cream). This time Landon had a blast on the boogie board!

 

The kids found the Garage Band app on their school iPads and have enjoyed learning about music and different instruments. 

They even set up their stuffies for a rock music performance (B on drums, L on guitar).

We had planned a trip to Big Bear to celebrate Daniel's birthday with Peter, Amber and the cousins, but, due to a nearby fire that was threatening the area (not even COVID-19 related!), the trip was cancelled. The kids were SO excited about the trip, so the adults decided to have a staycation. The kids had so much fun that the youngest 4 said from now on they would much rather have a staycation than go anywhere on vacation! They watched Loony Tunes at Peter/Amber's until 11:30pm then had a sleepoever, woke up and went on a bike ride down to "the fountain" to get hot chocolate, donuts and breakfast burritos, finally used out giant slip & slide at the local park (thanks to the dads' engineering/Jerry rigging skills), went on a pontoon pedal boat around Harveston lake, had a water balloon ambush/fight with the dads, enjoyed brownie sundaes, watched "Beethoven" on Daniel's new projector in our backyard theater and had another sleepover (this time at our house), more playtime and screentime (and somewhere in there the dads played pickelball and the moms got mani-pedis). 

 

 

The girls wanted a turn in Luke's chariot, so Peter took them around the cul de sac. 

Backrubs on the pedal boat: Zoe & Daniel rubbing Brooklyn's back and Auntie Amber giving Landon back scratches

 

 

This little boys enjoys reading as much as his Grammie. Even when he's eating, he sometimes has a book in hand.

Sometimes he even offers to read to Brooklyn, which she rarely turns down. 

Brooklyn was assigned to do a science experiment, so we made "Elephant Toothpaste" (after watching a Mark Rober YouTube video about the world's largest elephant toothpaste). 

Cotton candy makes an outdoor movie THAT much better!

 

We did another family bike ride down to get donuts, hot chocolate and breakfast burritos (and stopped to play on our way back). 

 

 

Landon busted out the Snap Circuits after forgetting about them for several months. He can now do them on his own!

Brooklyn's favorite form of exercise is forward rolls. She sometimes creates tumbling courses. 

Sleepoevers!

 

Brooklyn created an Olaf scene out of marshmallows and toothpicks. He was watching TV and holding a cane. 

Daniel found out that he has PVCs and needed some testing on his heart. He even got to wear this CAM for 7 days straight. 

The kids made chalk drawings for Kindness Counts Week. 

Landon finally completed building "the claw." He can move it around, use the knobs to move the claw forward/backward, up/down and open/close it to pick real things up. 

Go 9ers!

FroYo and donuts!

 

Landon did virtual Chess Masters camp for a few days, and while he was online playing  Brooklyn wanted to play chess against me. 

The night before Daniel's birthday the kids snuck out of bed when Daniel was in our bedroom and decorated. It was very exciting to be up past bedtime and sneaking around, but I think the actual decorating was the most fun for them. He was taking the day off of work to help the kids with school, and the kids thought it was SO funny to decorate his "teacher chair."

The kids helped make breakfast, Landon played video games with Daniel during school breaks, he opened gifts/cards, had his favorite dinner and homemade pizzookies followed by a backyard movie. 

 

Brooklyn randomly asked me one day how the first baby survived without a mommy or daddy, so we got to chatting about evolution "a long, long, long time ago", which ended up with, "so was Papa a monkey?" 

We even got to spend a day with the Rogers family, and, boy, did we miss them!

 

Brooklyn made a final decision on her Halloween costume, Mal from "Descendents." Landon wanted to be a character from "Fe@rleSS_," a movie that isn't very popular and therefore didn't have costumes to purchase. He thought he wanted to make this costume until we went to pick up Brooklyn's costume. I grabbed the last one in two different sizes because she's right in between, thinking she would try each on and I'd return the other, but by the time we got to the car Landon had decided he was also going to be Mal. They love wearing the costumes together and playing "Descendents."  

 

(Mal casts spells, and right before she does her eyes turn neon green, so the kids asked me to edit the picture to look like they were casting spells.)