Since October's almost half over now, I thought I'd better get around to sharing my pictures from September, LOL. Over the summer, George spied a woodchuck in our backyard on a couple different occasions. He was the only one who saw it at first and we had fun teasing him about seeing things. It turns out that there really IS a woodchuck who visits our yard, however. We've all seen him a few times by now, and at the beginning of September, I got some photographic proof:
It's kinda hard to see in this picture, but the woodchuck is eating a small sunflower that was growing with our zinnia ~ he stripped all three of our sunflowers of all their leaves, and then ate the blooms, too. I guess he likes the taste of sunflowers!
On Sept. 3rd, Labor Day, the five of us drove up to Illinois Beach State Park near Zion, IL for the day. It was a gorgeous day and we had a lot of fun:
Nick wanted us to bury him in the sand, so we did:
I thought I'd better post this picture just to prove that Emmalie didn't spend her entire time at the beach reading, LOL:
Besides the woodchuck, we also had another backyard visitor in September ~ a hummingbird! We saw it probably 5 days in a row, mostly sipping from our zinnias:
September 20th was Ben's 7th birthday! :) Here's the birthday boy with some of the cupcakes he took to school for his class:
He got to make himself a fancy birthday crown at school. Here he's posing with his balloons:
We had a little party that night, just our family and our neighbors across the street. We had some pizza for supper and then Ben opened his gifts:
Ben with his best buddies Jack and Ryan:
Ben loved all of his gifts! He received a little racetrack and cars from Jack and Ryan, Lego sets from Emm and Nick, a little stuffed bunny that Emmalie knit, and from Mom and Dad: a pink gorilla Webkinz he really wanted, a book, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and a scooter! Here he is, trying out his new scooter:
(By the way, I realize he's not wearing a helmet in the photo above. I'll admit, I didn't even think about it that day. Rest assured, he
has been wearing one ever since, whenever he rides his scooter.)
Later that evening, we all had cake and ice cream. Happy Birthday, dear Benjamin!:
Make a wish!
The birthday boy with his buds:
With Nick (and his two new stuffed animals):
With Emm:
With Dad:
and with Mom:
The following week was Homecoming at Emm's school. Their theme was "Blockbuster Movies". Monday was Pajama Day, but I didn't get any pictures because she changed into normal clothes after school for set build and work. Tuesday was Western Day:
On Wednesday, each class was supposed to dress up as characters from a certain movie. The juniors had Finding Nemo, and we had the perfect thing for Emm to use, thanks to my sister Christine!
Thursday was Red Carpet Day, and Friday was Black and Gold Day, but I didn't get photos of her outfits those days, either.
On the morning of Sept. 29th, George and I drove Emm to school at 8am for set build, and then we went over to a forest preserve near here to walk. The fall colors were so beautiful!
Later that day, we picked Emm back up and our family headed over to Congo River Golf for Ben's birthday party:
Ben with his friend Nicolas:
Six of Ben's friends were able to join us that day. Here he is with some of them on the practice green:
The weather was perfect, and everyone had a blast! We did have one mishap, however ~ one of Ben's friends was trying to get her ball to go uphill. She swung her club hard, hit the ball, and it went flying... BONK!... right into Ben's forehead. Ouch! We got him an ice pack, and after a few minutes, he was okay:
The course we were on was high up!
Ben putts:
After 18 holes of mini golf, we headed to the party room for pizza, cake, and ice cream:
Ben's golf cake:
Ben received many nice gifts from his friends, including a new game, money, Hot Wheels, and more Yu-Gi-Oh cards:
Our September blooms included...
Sunflowers (until the woodchuck got them, that is):
Zinnias:
Cosmos:
We had lots of goldenrod spring up by our shed:
Hostas:
Sedum:
More sedum:
More cosmos:
Butterfly milkweed:
Chamomile:
Petunia:
The forsythia bush had pretty fall leaves:
We finally got a few cucumbers from our garden. This one was the biggest:
At the end of the month, we brought our potted cherry tomato plant inside one cold night, and later discovered that this tomato hornworm was on it, eating the leaves and tomatoes!
