September

Checked out the sundial bridge and parks in Redding.

Aftermath of kids lunch preparation.  Sometimes the kids make their own lunches, and when I get back from drop off, it looks like a tornado hit my kitchen. :)  I'll gladly clean it up if they continue to make their own lunches.

Speaking of little chefs, this is a typical morning at our house.  Noah comes down and scrambles himself 3-4 eggs, sits down and reads the Friends magazine for breakfast.   Funny kids.

We took Noah's snake trap (he got it a few years ago for Christmas) to the cabin and we actually caught a snake!!  We put a dead mouse (also something we caught in the trailer - yuck!) in the cage and when we came back the next weekend Noah saw a snake in it.  He was beyond excited.

I don't know what type of snakes are up there, so I wouldn't let the kids play with it (there are LOTS of rattlesnakes up there).  It didn't have a rattle so we just let it go. 

Playing at the lake.

Finished sanding, staining and sealing all the countertops.  So much work, but I love how they turned out, so I guess it was worth it.

The vanity Adam built and the countertop I poured.

My big boy Noah turned double digits in September.  How did that happen?!  Man, time flies.

 

Noah loves unusual presents, so he loved this time counter thing,

and this Newton's cradle pendulum.

 

He also got this knock off goPro camera.  He's been taking some interesting videos. :)

My mom sent him some bugs for his bug collection and grandma Connie sent him a fun ball game (I'll have to get that picture from Adam's phone). 

 

Traditional birthday breakfast for the birthday boy.

We went with a snake theme for his cake this year. This cake was fun to make, and I still can't believe it came together so well. Everything but the head was vanilla cake (the head was fondant).  I used 3 round cakes and carved them into the shape I wanted.  After crumb coating and chilling a few times I covered the whole thing in fondant.

All covered in fondant.  After that I used an onion bag and pressed it into the fondant to make the scales.

After that I shaped and detailed the head, and then watered down some food dye and painted it.   This was a fun cake to make and Noah LOVED it.

Noah got to spend the afternoon with his best friend.

We took the kids and Evan to Upper Clementine to play in the water.  They had a blast.

Noah and Evan exploring.  So cute.

 

I think he had a great birthday.  I sure love this sweet boy of mine.  He just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter (along with a little louder). 

My friend Heidi, has a little hiking group that she has been inviting me to for a couple years now. I've never been able to go since I always had a kid home or needing to be picked up from school.  This year ALL my babies are in all day school, so I was finally able to go.  A sad day because it means I don't have anymore babies :(, but nice because I got to go hiking.  We hiked Martis Peak in North Lake Tahoe.  Beautiful hike and views of the lake.

A little snow already.

Near the hike is a fire lookout and a fire chief happened to be there so he showed up their old equipment and told us about the lookout.

All the mountain ranges written on the walls.

Went to the pumpkin patch with Noah (that's where he chose to go for his sluff day), so we picked up all our cool pumpkins for the season.  The crazy wrinkly/warty one is my favorite this year.