September was a blur . . .

I'm a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad blogger. But I have excuses. Tons of them. Siena's school starts early. SO early (I'm tired). I started a new job, part-time, from home. And, it turns out, I like it, mostly. But it doesn't leave me with much spare time. Except for watching Gilmore Girls on DVD. I have OODLES of time for that. We've had the cold from H-E-double hockey sticks. Snot is flowing freely around here. I'm the primary president in our ward (translation: I'm in charge of the children's organization for our congregation) and the program (45 mins. of talks and songs around a theme on Sunday) is coming up. Excuses, excuses - I got 'em.

So, I repent. AGAIN. Does it count if you have to do it more than once? Enough babble.

This was our September:

We went to Lazy 5 Ranch with Shelley, Maddie, and Matthew. It's a wild animal park where you can ride on a wagon and feed the animals. It was fun and definitely an adventure. Now, if someone asks me if I've ever fed a giraffe I can say, Heck Yes!

I love the look on Shelley's face in this one.

The girls loved the petting zoo too. There were tons of baby goats and they sat and talked to them in high-pitched cheesey voices. I wonder who they learned that from?

September is festival season in Charlotte. We went to the Greek Festival and enjoyed greek style donuts (here's the recipe), watching the talented dancers, and the all-important bounce house. A couple of weeks later we went to the Festival in the Park, Charlotte's "grandaddy" of festivals. Lots of fun rides, bounce houses, performances, booths of local artists, and fair food. Ever had a funnel cake? You really should. Mmm, mmm, mmm. We found some cute "fairy crowns" (Siena's term) at one of the booths and the girls had fun with them until they discovered how much fun pulling your shirt over your face is. There were non-stop giggles that came from that one. I'm pretty sure it will never get old.

The weather has cooled to the perfect temperature - 70 degrees. So we've been spending lots of time at the park. Talia insists that she is a big girl and can swing like one. I oblige as long as I can keep chanting "Two hands Talia, hold on with TWO hands!"

We collected rocks.

And drew on the sidewalk with chalk while wearing mom's running shoes.

On a more practical note, I joined the PTA. I did. I can prove it (Siena's favorite new challenge to us - PROVE IT!) - I have an official card. I went to a meeting and joined some committees. I felt old and responsible but happy to be involved. I'm going shopping for denim jumpers tomorrow (ha, ha, ha).

Something unusual I've decided to record for posterity: Charlotte ran out of gas for a week (because of hurricanes Ike and Gustav). It happened right around the time of the bail-out debacle so it felt like the world was quickly going down the toilet. It was really strange to drive around and find that station after station had bags over their pumps. We stayed home, conserved, and went stir crazy. On a reckless run for take-out, the gas light turned on so I got up super early one Saturday and hunted down the only station around that had anything to sell. Two hours later they were out. Crazy times we're living in.

September was fun, event-filled, stressful, and over way too fast. Slow down, October, s-l-o-w down.