Our September

The month of September has been a busy one for us so far, between getting into a routine with Drew's school schedule and Jim's busy time at work.  Jim has been working a lot of long days, so he has been tired, and we have been missing him!  Drew is enjoying kindergarten, and we have been impressed that he is already learning to read some words.

I celebrated my birthday this week, but it was a bit of a different birthday.  Jim opened at work that morning, and then came home to pick me up to go to a funeral.  The husband of one of our former colleagues at school passed away last week due to complications from heart surgery.  This teacher was Jim's sixth grade teacher, and we are friends with her daughter and her family.  It was a very nice service, and we were able to see many former students and other people we do not normally see.  After the funeral, we came home for the afternoon.  It was Jim's first (partial) day off in two weeks, so it was nice to be able to spend some time with him.  We went out for dinner with Jim's mom that evening.  Maddie cried the whole was to the restaurant, but she calmed down once we got there, and we were able to have a nice evening.

Jim got me this new ring (it is actually two, stacking rings) for my birthday.  The stones are Drew and Maddie's birthstones.  I love it! 

 One other thing I asked for was a current family picture, so I set the camera on a table and set the timer.  My family humored me and posed for some pictures before we left for dinner.  You can probably tell from this picture that I got my hair cut quite a bit shorter a couple weeks ago.  I am enjoying my shorter hair, and I love having a style that doesn't go into a ponytail every day!

Our church's new youth pastor has a little girl who just turned one, and she and I share a birthday.  Her party was this past weekend, and I decided to use up some of my fabric stash and make my little "birthday buddy" a soft fabric alphabet set with a bag to store the letters in.  I made a duplicate for Maddie while I was at it.

This is a drawstring bag I made using this tutorial. 

I cut out paper letter templates, and then I used them as a pattern to make some fabric letters.  I sandwiched batting between two layers of fabric, and then I stitched around the outer edges of the pattern, using a triple stitch.

After I did the stitching, I cut around the outside edges of the letters using pinking shears, and I used some small, sharp scissors to cut around the inside edges of the letters.  I think that they turned out so cute.  I am planning to make Maddie a set of numbers too.

I used this tutorial for making the letters, but I made my letters bigger than the ones in the tutorial.  Mine are about 3 1/2 inches tall.

 I took the children to Krispy Kreme on Wednesday for their "Talk Like a Pirate" promotion.  I dressed Drew up in a pirate costume from the Dollar Tree, and we headed to Krispy Kreme after school.

 He tried to open the door with his hook.

 His friends were there, and he was excited to see them.

 He was so excited to eat his doughnut that he was busy asking me for permission to eat a doughnut while the worker was giving him his free dozen.  I had to make him turn back around to thank the worker and talk politely to her.

 The happy pirates.

 Our baby girl who has a cold.  She probably would have loved to eat a doughnut!  Both of her teeth have popped through, and she is just starting to crawl this week!

 Watching the doughnuts go by.

This month has been full and doesn't show any signs of slowing down as we head into the second half, but we are thankful for all the good things in our lives that are keeping us so busy, and we are thankful for our family.  We are blessed!