Phew! September.

I look at my calendar and see that I am posting this just in the nick of time. With the start of October just a few hours away, I am happy to report that I have made it through our first start of school September almost completely unscathed.

September was a month of many firsts for the Doyle family. We had a beautiful week on the Outer Banks with the Starrett cousins. This is Danny’s mother’s side of the family. We all met in Duck, NC. and had ourselves a week long family party complete with sun, beach, and of course, Jim Doyle Margaritas

Danny and his family have taken vacations on the Outer Banks since he was four (I think). So this place was old hat to him. We went together with his brother Jimmy and his wife Christine a few years back, so I had been once as well…but this was an OBX first for our girls. Hopefully not the last. Annie and Charlotte are both taken with the ocean. They’d like to get right in a swim around. Charlotte also seems to find the ocean very soothing, as so many do…here she is sleeping away with the sound of the waves crashing in the background. Annie on the other hand, was most enamored with the hot tub at the house. I know there are rules about not putting kids in the hot tub…well I lost. Over and over. We completely wore out our bathing suits with this trip, and it was totally worth it!

Cupcake making, and glow stick raving are a couple of the other activities we shared with our cousins!

And of course, the adults….we had our fun too.

Upon returning home (insert sad face) we had to prepare for the next day which involved sending Annie to her first day of preschool!!! She is really loving it, and we love her preschool too. She had to miss the first week to be in NC, but her teacher, Mrs. Foote, informed us that she just fit right in, didn’t miss a beat, and we knew she would. My fear that she wouldn’t get up in the morning and get clothes on readily is subsiding. She does put clothes on, with a little prodding. She doesn’t eat breakfast though, and that’s a familiar story for me. I didn’t either, but she’s got a great teacher who will let me send a little snack for her (before they have their formal snack). It’s a really fun preschool, packed with lots of activities. In fact, just today Mrs. Foote, brought her horse Hubert and all the kids rode him! So very fun.

Charlotte has really starting walking, really really. And she is just turning into such a big girl! I’m sad that she’s not a baby anymore, and that perhaps she’s my last baby, but I’m happy that she’s a beautiful, cheerful, smart, cuddly toddler. Who can eat a cupcake in such a way that makes her daddy proud.

It’s definitely fall here in Ithaca. Apple Harvest Festival is this weekend, Danny has raked the first of thousands of piles of leaves from our lawn, I made an apple crisp, and the margaritas are being shelved in favor of red wine around here. I’m hoping that I can get to writing more as the nights get longer and colder…