Little Joys of September

Here are some of our family’s behind-the-blog highlights from the month of September as well as some of the ideas, foods, and fun finds that are bringing me joy right now. Note: This post includes affiliate links. See my disclosure to learn more.

I spend a lot of time here on the blog sharing fun kids activities, recipes, tips, and philosophical ramblings with you. I love writing about all of those things. However, there is a lot more to my life and my joy than fits into the posts I write each week. I want you to get to know a little about the girl behind all the posts here and give you a little glimpse into my family’s life from time to time, too.

To accomplish this, I’m going to start writing a post once a month that recaps what we’ve been up to lately. In it, I’ll also share with you some of the random things that are making me happy in life: recipes that were amazing, impulse buys that I don’t regret, books my boys have loved so much we’ve read them a million times, brilliant ideas that I wish I’d thought of first. I’ll be writing about them all in my new series I’m lovingly entitling “Little Joys of…” It’ll be like we’re having a fun little lunch date where we get to sit down, catch up, and share what’s good in life right now.

So here it goes….

Little Joys of September

Little Man started preschool.

Summer is officially over. Gone are our free-form summer days where we could go and do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Now our days are much busier with preschool, soccer practices, and lots of other activities that keep our schedule pretty full. I can only imagine what it will be like when I have multiple kids in school every and involved in extracurricular activities. It makes me want to guard family time really carefully.

Little Man LOVES preschool though. He attends an early intervention speech program run by our school district, and I’ve seen his speech improve so much over the past year. I don’t credit it all to the program, but I think it’s been good for him academically and socially. His favorite part (and mine) is that the bus picks him up from our house and drops him off each time. Hooray for not having to cut Little Brother’s nap time short to go pick Little Man up from school.

Ran our 5K race…finally.

My husband and I have been running 3 times per week all summer, and we had signed up for a 5K race in August. The only problem was that when we got to the race 10 minutes before it started, we realized that the front wheel of our jogging stroller had gone flat…grrr. With no pump on hand and thus no way to fix it, I forfeited my race to stay with our boys while my husband ran. I was super bummed, but I promised myself that I would sign up for another race before the end of the season to accomplish my goal. We finally did another race a few weeks ago (no stroller malfunctions this time, thankfully!), HOORAY! I’m not much of a runner, so it’s a big deal for me.

Said goodbye to the crib.

We knew it was only a matter of time. Little Brother has been a climber for a long time, but for whatever reason he had never climbed out of his crib…until a couple of weeks ago. After he climbed out once, it was all over. Even if I got to his room before he climbed out, he would tell me, “No, I do it, Ma,” and proceed to hoist his little self over the railing. Then, he would tell me triumphantly, “See? I be careful.” As much as I appreciate him being careful, I figured it would be better if he didn’t have to climb. We bought a twin mattress, and then we realized that we could just take the front off his crib and leave him in the same bed…so we’ve stashed the mattress for future use, and he’s adjusting to life with only three railings. So far, so good.

Got back to my roots.

In the midst of busy September, we took a week to go visit my parents in Central California. I grew up at the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and as much as I have come to love living in Utah, there is something wonderful about going home. We went to the farmer’s market, visited the zoo, and spent a day up at one of my favorite lakes. It was magical to watch my boys experience a place that holds so many childhood memories for me. Plus, they LOVED being at Grandma and Grandpa’s house.My dad taught Little Man how to cast a fishing line in the backyard in preparation for our lake trip, and he got a little obsessed practicing over and over again…for hours. Of course, he felt like he could practice best when he was sitting in Grandpa’s fishing boat in the side yard. 🙂 It was a long drive to get there (13 hours), but it was completely worth it.

Things I’m Loving:

One of the best things I took on our 13 hours road trip was this paint with water book from Melissa and Doug (affiliate link). I don’t buy a lot of extra toys for road trips, but I usually try to find a few small, new things to keep the kids attention for a little while. This one got a lot of bang for the buck. Both of my boys loved it…I just should have bought two.I made these delicious beignets with the teenage girls in our church’s youth group a few nights ago. If you need a good fall treat, give them a try!

I’ve been looking for a few more fall decorations (because I only have, like, two), and I found these cute little pumpkins this morning at Ross and I’m loving them…except for the fact that the dye on them turned my fingers orange. Handle with care…

My boys have been obsessed with this book (affiliate link) since we got it from the library a few weeks ago. It’s a simple I-Spy style book filled with cars and boats and dogs and all sorts of funny things (plus, I’m pretty sure the illustrator has a soft spot for Singin’ in the Rain and included a little homage to Gene Kelley).
Favorite quote right now:

Favorite finds from around the web:

25 Free Printable Road Trip Games from The Joys of Boys
We used a bunch of these on our California road trip and they were awesome!

Why do leaves change colors? (preschool science experiment) from Gift of Curiosity
I can’t wait to do this experiment with my boys.

5 Ways to Promote Early Literacy from Because I Said So, Baby
Because you all know how I feel about reading.

Are you telling or tattling? from Three Kids and a Fish
I love this way of teaching little ones to differentiate between when to tell and when to just let something go.

How many chances will I have to hold my baby? from Making Motherhood Matter
Good food for thought.

Alright, I’ve been sharing a lot during our little virtual lunch date here. What are YOUR favorite things right now? Do tell!

I regularly link up here.