September!

I'm almost caught up :)

September was a great month. Chris and I joined my parents and my sister Katie at the temple on Labor Day. This was my sister's day, as went through the temple for the first time and she received her endowment. Julia watched Lizzie and Cate for us. It was a truly special morning and I was so happy that Chris and I could be there to support her.

Cate had her first day of school. In our preschool co-op, there are three moms from the Montgomery Village Ward and three of us moms from the Quince Orchard ward. We rotate between our houses--classes are every Monday and Wednesday, 9:30am-noon. I teach once every six weeks. It's a really great system. Best of all, it's F-R-E-E!
Cate was so excited to go to school that day, she was ready to go at 7:15am! (She is excited to go every day, really!)

Lizzie was a bit disappointed that she wasn't going to school that day :) But she felt better once she got into a picture.

After school picture of Blake and Cate (with the Lizzie photo bomb)

We went to Valley Forge, PA this month. Every so often, Chris gets to work at a different site. Two years ago, Chris had to spend three days in VF so we joined him for that trip too. Here's a picture from VF 2011:

And VF 2013:

I wish this trip had been another three day trip, so we could have done a bit more around the area. BUT, one thing we had this time that we didn't have last visit: AUNT KATIE! Katie drove up from NJ to meet us at the King of Prussia Mall and the girls were so surprised and happy to see her. We did lots of shopping for Katie (aka mission clothes, accessories, shoes) which was lots of fun!
Aunt Katie had plenty of quarters for a ride :)

One of the girls' favorite moments of the month was dressing up for Krispy Kreme doughnuts! We got two free dozen doughnuts for dressing up like pirates. Such a sweet deal! *pun intended

Later that night, we drove to New Jersey. We had one last weekend to spend with Katie before she left for the Mexico MTC and the start of her mission.
This weekend also happened to be Irish Weekend in North Wildwood, and Katie sang the National Anthem at the start of the festival on Friday morning. She did a wonderful job and many people came up to her to tell her she was amazing.

Later that night, we went to The Ravioli House to celebrate my dad's birthday! Everything was delicious, as usual. The whole restaurant joined in to sing Happy Birthday to Dad. Happy Birthday, Pop-pop!

Katie wanted to get a good picture for Intsagram, so we had a little photo shoot outside of the restaurant.

On Saturday morning, Katie was kind enough to watch the girls so Chris and I could enjoy a breakfast date. We walked to Samuel's Pancake House= awesome! I love going there (I used to work in the adjoining candy store oh so long ago).
When we returned, we headed down to Cape May Point. I've been meaning to take the girls there forever, and I'm so glad that the weather was beautiful that day!
The sunken ship

Pretty quiet since it was late September

The ONE AND ONLY TIME you will EVER see ME wearing sneakers on a beach. Just had to put that out there.

Katie and the girls went swimming, too!

We decided to go over to the Seafarer's Festival in Wildwood Crest. There were tons of vendors, lots of food stands, and fun things for the kids!

The girls got their face painted.

They loved the bouncy house, too.

Sunday was bittersweet. At church, Julia and Joe performed a special musical number "I'll go where you want me to go"--Julia played the guitar while Joe sang. Katie spoke next and it was a beautiful talk, straight from the heart. I don't think there were many dry eyes in the congregation.
After church was finished, we transformed the back of the chapel into a buffet line with tables, chairs, and LOTS of food. If there's one thing we know, it is: to have plenty of food when feeding a crowd. Some branch members also brought food and desserts, which was so nice! Looking around the room, you could see everyone smiling and enjoying themselves. That was our goal ;)
After the luncheon, we took pictures outside of the church. As you can see, it was quite a process. (Mainly involving my children :D)

In the end, we managed to get one decent shot.

Katie with some of her friends

Before we drove home to MD later that Sunday night, we went with my family to meet President Corbitt in the Vineland Chapel so he could set Katie apart to be a missionary. The spirit in that room was so strong. We bore our testimonies to each other (again, no dry eyes here). That was the last time we saw Katie...she will return home in March 2015.

Katie is now at the Mexico City MTC. I created a blog for her entitled, "The Field is White." (http://hermanakatiejett.blogspot.com) Please check it out! I'll be updating it whenever she sends an email.

That was our September, a very memorable one indeed!