A month gone by

With all of the Irma excitement, the month of September seemed to just disappear. We made it back home safely and were extremely fortunate that our house had no major damage. We must not have lost power for too long either because everything in our freezer was still in its original shape--nothing had that "melt into a big clump and then refreeze" look to it. I was SO thankful that I didn't have to go grocery shopping to replace everything! Pops and Steve made a visit to our house while we were gone and sent us a few pictures so we would know what to expect when we got home.

some torn screen on the lanai roof

one downed tree

a fallen piece of soffit

I found a few more pictures from our week in NC. We spent three of our five days up on our property,  but it was cool and rainy for two days and we started going stir crazy in the hotel! One of the days we visited a small local museum and even wandered around Walmart for a change of scenery. (You know I'm bored when I go to Walmart for FUN!!) The kids entertained themselves for a little while in the arcade room, without us putting any money into the machines! :)

This is Garcia's favorite place to sleep--on a pillow above our head.

We picked out a couple of new card games while wandering around Walmart, so Andrew and I played SkipBo a few nights once the kids went to bed.

We have some HUGE trees on our property. Andrew loves this one of him and Harper trying to hold hands around one of them. 

The rest of these pictures are just random shots I found on my phone's camera from the past month.

Harper pretending to be Grann...

and Ryder being Pops!

Harper and Andrew hanging out in the Vanagon as they waited for Ryder to get out of school.

Ryder inherited a couple of new Lego sets from one of my coworkers. Her son has outgrown them and was kind enough to pass them along to my Lego fanatic!

Harper with two of her best friends on a school field trip. I had to work that morning, so I was glad that my mommy friends could be there and send me some adorable pictures!

Maisie spent last weekend with Pops and Grann because Steve and Ali were out of town. In an effort to keep the kids busy and wear them out, Grann and I took the kids to the library that morning, then the playground, then McDonald's for lunch, and then back to Pops and Grann's house to play and relax. I think I was the most exhausted one in the bunch!

Maisie, looking like she's velcroed to the climbing wall!

Harper has gotten so tall!

trying to have a little "quiet time" at Grann's

We closed the blinds, pulled out the sleeping bags, and turned on Lady and the Tramp, hoping the kids would fall asleep. Of course it didn't work--they were up and down and back and forth. I'm pretty sure that Grann and I were the only ones to see the entire movie!

dinner at our house, followed by a slumber party!

Ryder didn't have school this past Monday because of staff development, so I took the day off to be home with him and Harper. It also worked out that I could watch Maisie while Grann was at work. Although these three kiddos love each other and get along really well, they learned that 3 is not the easiest number when it comes to keeping things fair and even. We had to work really hard to come up with things all three of them could play together so that no one would feel left out. Ryder was kind enough to let the girls help him dig out some of his dinosaur eggs. They each did two eggs, so that easily killed about half an hour! Future paleontologists! 

Tonight after dinner the kids were begging to play outside before bath time. The last few night have started to feel a little more like fall, with a nice breeze and slightly cooler temperatures. They tossed the baseball around and then ended up tackling each other!