Septiembre

In September I finally did something I have been wanting to do for a while- I started my own dance class! I teach on Wednesdays just in the main room of our house and I surprised myself with how excited I was about it. I got a group of Rory's friends to be my first to try it out, and it went better than I could have imagined. This month we did a Princess themed ballet class and each week we have a different prop and theme: flowers, fairies, princesses, and mermaids. 

The first weekend of September we headed to Las Vegas for an overdue visit with John and Ashleigh. We drove down late on a Thursday night. While the men worked on Friday, Ashleigh and I took the kids to Shark Reef, which I hadn't been to before. Siena did insist on wearing her little mermaid costume and we got a lot of compliments for it. That night we tried to watch the new Mulan movie, but the internet at their house was struggling so instead of enjoying it on their newly mounted TV (done expertly by Stephen) we ended up just going to bed. 

Saturday we got Pinkbox donuts (drooling just thinking about it) and stayed home and let the kids run wild. Later in the afternoon we went out to a little creek in the middle of nowhere and collected rocks and caught crawdads and frogs. We had our work cut out for us trying to keep Ada from eating rocks and leaves and trying to keep Lincoln from throwing rocks at anybody. Rory and Siena adventured on their own in their own little universe. We picked up Costco pizza on the way home and it was the best little adventure. 

The weather is starting to cool down in Arizona, but it's still pretty warm here. We've tried a couple of walks and park days, and they usually end with very red-faced babies. We finally checked out a new splash pad, it's a little far from our house so we hadn't been before, and it turned out to be amazing. The girls loved it so much we went twice in a week. Ada loves the water and I love watching her bear crawl around. Rory spends all her time sliding down the pirate ship slide. Ada pulled herself up on this fence to get a better look at the ducks, and then got distracted chewing on the fence. How this baby has not gotten Covid yet is beyond me. 

One Sunday I was able to take a luxurious nap while Stephen took the girls. Rory took my phone on a little picture taking adventure, and I love the results so so much that I need to encapsulate them forever in this book. Here is the installation I entitled "Lazy Sunday" by Florence Marsh. 
 

Fruit she picked off the tree prematurely and then hid in her little hideout. 

She pulled off her bandaid to take a picture of her owie. 

Ada in the dirt. 

Then she added dirt to her head because of course she did. 

An action shot of her kicking Ada. You can feel the love they have for each other. 

Surprisingly good picture of our clementine tree, and this is probably the one she picked to hide in her clubhouse. 

Rocks piled on the swing. I thought it was an artistic choice but she later informed me that those were her babies and she was pushing them on the swing. 

A good one of Ada finally! Proof she loves her some of the time. 

An array of our back porch treasures and some cute little photographer toes. 

The bracelet she recently got back from Naomi after leaving it at her house for months and months. 

And last but not least, her favorite subject of all, Dad. Coming in clutch with the silly faces. 

Dance class has been a huge hit and I love seeing how excited Rory gets about helping me with it. She was definitely feeling herself on mermaid week. One night she got in trouble because she kept coming out of her bed and one of the times I tried to send her back she said, "But this is very important! Maybe at dance class we can pretend to be Cinderella and have our dress changing and we can twirl! Sound good?" 

Marisa asked me to make a cake for Graham's birthday party at the end of this month and I was so excited to try it out. I made a peanut butter graham cracker cake and decorated it to go with his race car themed party. It definitely took a while, but I was so happy with how it turned out and it tasted amazing. Stephen is always a huge help with my design ideas and he totally came up with the grass drip and the checkered flag collar at the bottom. It was fun to be at the party and here people oohing and aahing over the cake before they knew that I was the one who made it! 

On the last Wednesday of the month we had a little show for our moms to show off the princess dance they learned. I taught them a ballet combination to "I See the Light" and it turned out adorable. I am excited to see what this next month of dance has in store for us!