The Start of the "Ber" Months

September: the start of the "ber" months. The start of my favorite time of the year. The start of all things cozy, nostalgic, and wonderful.

Except, it's been 90 degrees.

That hasn't stopped us from still doing all the fall things (with a little bit of summer mixed in).

We started our official kindergarten year and our co-op started picking back up too. To start things off, we had a NOT-back-to-school party at our house. Almost the entire co-op came over and we had a big breakfast celebration and tie-dyed totes that we plan on using all year. It was... chaotic, but also fun :) And now our co-op is back on track to meeting once a week. We have a lot of fun things planned for the year!

The next week we had apple day, which was a lot of fun. We picked apples at our friend's house, painted with apples, played games with apples, made caramel apples, and read about apples. Everyone brought an apple treat too. Then, of course, we came home and made all the apple things :)

And we have been having so much fun with kindergarten and preschool :) Couch time and table time has been a great design for our family. Our couch time is full of so much reading about every topic under the sun. And Isla loves moving to the table to work on her "kindergarten stuff"!

When we aren't at co-op or doing school, you can find us at the pumpkin patch. Even though it's been hotter than hot, we still go and just pretend it feels like fall. The kids LOVE this place and we usually spend 4-5 hours there at a time!

The highlight of September was our Ready Family trip! This year we explored Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. It was a lovely weekend with the family. Lake Geneva is a cute little town where we ate lots of good food, spent time on the beach, shopped all the quaint stores, swam at the hotel, and enjoyed time together. The kids love their cousins and they had such a fun time with them. I'm thankful to Nana and Pop Pop for gifting us such a memorable weekend :)

On the way home, we drove right through a state park so we decided to stop. A spontaneous hike turned into a fun adventure! Isla hiked the 2.5 miles by herself (while Ewan and Eleanor rode the 2.5 miles on their parent's shoulders). It was so exciting and has inspired us to do some more family hiking in the future (and maybe camping if I can convince Michael).

Then to top the month off, I piled into a 12 passenger van and headed six hours to Tennessee with my mama friends for a homeschool conference. I have never done anything like this; in fact, I have never left all three of my babies for an extended period of time... ever. It was a big deal for me and took some bravery and faith on my part. I was nervous, especially since Eleanor is still nursing once a day and clings to her mama like velcro, but Michael and the kids did amazing! He even braved taking them to the pumpkin patch (with the help of his mama). And my cup was filled! My friends and I cried a lot, laughed hard, barely slept, listened to amazing speakers, met the celebrities of the homeschool world (yes, we have those), ate delicious food, and even stopped the entire conference with a fainting situation (don't worry, all is well). It feels like my soul has been given life and I'm encouraged for the year ahead with my children and my village.

Otherwise, when we aren't making family trips or homeschool conferences, our days have been full and sweet :) Lots of books, baking, nature, play... slow and simple!