Layla was excited to resume ballet and tap classes this fall. She is in a small class with four other girls, two of whom are close friends, and they all wear masks and social distance. It’s such a small world, her teacher, Ms. Brittany, and I grew up dancing together at The Dance Studio in Sammamish. Layla got a kick out of going through my old dance album and seeing us in pictures together!

With Maggie

With Clare and Maggie

Here’s what we were up to in September:

Phoebe Roomba turned 1 on the 24th

Avery went to his friend, Sebastian’s, 14th birthday party. They had fun Go Karting and eating pizza.

Kieron at school

My genius plan to keep all the devices and cords separate. No two boys have the same kind of device and none of the cords are compatible!

We put Avery to work staining the fence. He did quite a few panels and earned $40.

Phoebe, trying to earn the respect of the kitties.

My personal chef – he’s getting quite talented!

Layla had a few playdates. Here she is with Britton.

And Maggie

And Clare

Another day, another puzzle.

Mini puzzler

Jonathan loves Phoebe kisses!

At Clare’s birthday party

Science project

Socially distanced Boy Scout meeting

Waiting for Kieron at his riding lessons

Silas’ Cub Scout troop went on a 20 mile (downhill) bike ride on the Snoqualmie Trail.

We spent as much time as we could on Lake Sammamish in September between the rain and smoke. Here are a few pics from our last couple outings:

Avery managed to flip Kieron out this time!

Our last day on the water we took Avery’s friend, Dalton with us. It ended up being a memorable trip. We tubed up to the north end of the lake and let the kids swim for a while.

All was well until Kieron slipped when he was jumping in one final time. He fell back and hit his head on the front seat of the center console and started bleeding badly. We sat him down and I put pressure on it while we drove ALL the way down the lake.

As I’m sure you know, head wounds bleed a lot so we were all trying to stay calm while Kieron soaked his towel and cried. Meanwhile, Dalton mentioned he was starting to get a pretty bad headache

We got the boat on the trailer and loaded up the kids. Then Dalton threw open the door of the car and threw up. Off we went to Urgent Care. I checked both Kieron and Silas in (Silas slipped off a kitchen stool earlier in the day and we almost brought him in but decided against it, so since we were already there we thought we might as well get them both checked out to be safe). Dalton threw up again in the Urgent Care parking lot. It was turning out to be quit an adventure!

Waiting for the doctor. In the end neither boy needed stitches! We weren’t surprised about Silas, but we were sure Kieron would need some. Turned out he ended up with what was more like road rash than a deep cut, it just looked worse. Happy boys!

Here’s the before and afters of our floors. I think they turned out great!

After – no more orange!

We replaced our drawer knobs with pulls for a more updated look

One of the “silver” linings of the water damage that occurred at our home was that we were forced to vacate the house while the floors were refinished. With the kids all doing remote school and Jonathan working remotely, we decided to rent a VRBO on a lake. What a coincidence that we ended up on Silver Lake. It’s a perfect little kayaking and paddle boarding lake in Everett. Unfortunately, the weather didn’t completely cooperate with our plans and we had a bit of rain and cool weather, but we still made it out on the water as much as possible. It was a great way to end the summer!

Charging station

We brought Barbies to keep Layla busy during school

The grey house is the one we stayed in.

Avery on the SUP

‘Sup, bros?

Avery went out one morning before school