September 2019

Over Labor Day weekend, we went beach camping with our usual group of friends at Carpinteria.  We played on the beach, did camping stuff, and looked at tiny stingrays and birds on the nature pathway.  It's a great group of people, so it was a great weekend!

Celeste and Mara are Grubby Buddies

Connor the Mermaid

Cornhole Champs

Stingrays

Connor kept the littles busy while we packed up.

Celeste turned three!  Once she woke up enough, she was very excited.  It was also her first day of preschool!  She started attending Whiting Woods Montessori right here in our neighborhood, and had such a great time.  We celebrated later with cake and presents, including her own set of Calico Critters!
  

Waking up...

Happy Birthday!

First Day of Preschool

They ran out of toppers at Baskin Robbins, so I used her Paw Patrol toys.

The very next day was the first day of school for the rest of us.  Connor started high school as a 9th grader, and Elise started 7th grade, Evan 5th grade, and Corinne 2nd grade.  I taught Insects to Evan's class on Tuesday mornings, and Trees/Biology to the middle schoolers right afterwards (I had a team teacher for a few weeks, but she had to quit, so I ended up doing Trees/Bio twice a week.)  Celeste started out by staying home with a babysitter, but then the babysitter also quit, so she went to the Montessori on Tuesdays and came with me to class on Thursdays.  It was crazy, but it worked pretty well.  This was also our school's first year at the La Crescenta campus, which made the commute and parking much easier for our family.
   

Insects Class

First Day Ice Cream!

Corinne was super excited to start AYSO Soccer!  Her team was the Pink Panthers, and she quickly established herself as a great goalie (no running, and she was fearless at tackling balls!)
   

Of course, Evan started up games with fall baseball again, and had a great time.  It's the only activity I never have to push him to get ready for - he loves it!
    

Ryan took us down to Orange County to the Nixon Presidential Library one Sunday.  The kids got to be Apollo 11 astronauts, and Corinne got to make calls from the Oval Office.
    

President Brown

One afternoon, a poor Uber driver got stuck on our hill.  It's not clear how this happened, but apparently it took several hours to get the car down without rolling it!
  

In doing my genealogy picture wall, among other things, I got digital posession of these awesome old photos:
  

Noah Thomas Guymon Sr., b. 1819

Louisa Ann Rowley, b. 1837

Harriet Drucilla Black, b. 1871, and Willard Richard Guymon, b. 1864

Anna Eleanor Jamison, b. 1895, and Willard Morley Guymon, b. 1893

Erinn Colleen Murray, b. 1977

Erinn C. Murray and Brian Michael Murray, b. 1950

Janet Guymon, b. 1953, Erinn C. Murray, and Brian M. Murray

Because of her trouble with the letter "r", Corinne started speech therapy at Play to Learn with Miss Carol.  Corinne LOVED it.  I think it was the highlight of her week.  Unfortunately, she made such fast progress that she was done with therapy by Christmas, but she was more confident and sounded so much better!
  

Every so often, Kaitlyn and Kiana come over while their mom is working during the day.  We try to get some homework done, but mostly the girls just play and act silly.
  

Cherry Tomato

Kiana

Connor started seminary a couple weeks before school began, and he was really sleepy at first.  One time, I tried to send him to practice piano or do homework or something, and I found him asleep on the ground outside.

Also, as a high schooler, we now had to turn in more documentation for all his classes.  For piano and PE, he had logs to fill out so he could get school credit for his practice and exercise.  At first the exercise was walking home from seminary, but it started to get cold and dark in the mornings, so he ended up working out with his friend Eric at the YMCA instead.
     

  

  
The Standages did not return to school this year, but they did arrange several field trips.  September was the L.A. County Fair.  The two oldest kids took off with their friends early on, so I was back to the good old days, with me dragging two kids and a stroller baby through the 100-degree heat all day.  We did have a good time, though.
  

Piggies!

Rope Making

Honey Sticks

This fig beetle landed on me, then took off and landed on Evan.

Clay Bricks

In preparation for Corinne's birthday party, I made a trip to Vons to get a dozen balloons.  When I got to the van, I opened the passenger sliding door, stuck the balloons in, buckled Celeste, then closed the door and walked around to the other side to discover that the van was locked, and my keys were in my purse tied to the balloons inside.  Luckily I had my phone, and after trying AAA for a moment, I decided to just call 911 (since it was hot and Celeste was buckled inside.)  I heard sirens in the distance, then nothing.  Then sirens again.  After about 15 minutes, two fire engines and several cop cars turned up - apparently they had gone to the wrong Vons by mistake.  Anyway, they worked on opening my doors for a long time before giving up and breaking the front passenger window.  Celeste was hot and sweaty (and mad), but she was okay.  I gave her a big drink of water and thanked all the first responders before they left.

Strangely, the very next week at Vons, a lady did the exact same thing a few spaces down from me.  I let her borrow my phone and tried to calm her by telling her my story.  She was able to get ahold of a relative with keys, thank goodness.
   

Cooling Down in the Vons Parking Lot

Corinne had a great birthday pool-party.  I hired a friend's daughter to act as lifeguard (she had been doing Junior Guard for years,) and we had about 15 kids there.  They swam, decorated cupcakes, and played games.  It was just right.

  

The broken window was repaired same-day by a remote window guy right after the party ended.  Unfortunately, the very next morning I ran over a metal bracket thing while picking Connor up from seminary, so AAA came to tow my car away for tire repair.  When I told the AAA guy my locked-car story, he scoffed at the firefighters and told me he could have opened the door in two minutes.

  

I've been letting the hose faucet outside the boys' window drip for the past few months, to see all the birds it attracts.  It's been a lot of fun, actually.  We've seen: hermit thrush, fox sparrow, California thrasher, wrentit, spotted towhee, California towhee, California quail, and a bunch of other birds getting drinks there.
  

Ryan did his fatherly duty in September by taking Evan to a U of U / UCLA
 football game at the Rose Bowl.  Then he took Elise and three of her friends to Hurricane Harbor to (belatedly) celebrate her birthday.
    

Ella, Alia, Elise, and Vivienne

The "toilet bowl" ride was their favorite.

One weekend, our neighbor John was showing his house as part of a fundraiser event (his house was designed by a famous architect, so people really wanted to see it.)  My kids decided that they should sell Ryan's La Croix sodas to the throngs of people coming up the hill.  They started at $1 per soda, but ended up increasing the price to $3 as they started to sell out, and nobody complained.  They got compliments like, "Well, good for you, being little entrepreneurs!"  Elise did supply runs, while the more outgoing Evan and Corinne did sales.
      

   
Random September Photos:
    

Corinne got gum stuck in her hair, so I had to cut it out.

Two days later, Celeste thought she'd try using scissors on her own hair.

I made guacamole while Ryan was at Hurricane Harbor

For some reason, Ryan approves of the use of plant-based meat.  It totally took off in popularity this fall.