The Zorio Family: September 2015

September began with a fun event at Dawson's school...The Grand Event. It is their celebration of Grandparents Day. Grandparents (or anyone special in their lives they think is grand) are invited to come see them in their classrooms, eat a special lunch in the cafeteria, and visit a few places in the school. Then (the best part) we got to take Dawson home early!

Dawson was thrilled to have Grandad, Nana, Pop, Lolly, Me, Carter, and Nora Kate all come for the Grand Event.

That evening was The Taste of Blount. It was great weather to be outside sampling lots of different food in the park. The plates for tasting were placed on Frisbees...and the kids enjoyed running and playing with the Frisbees in the grass!

Carter loves to help me in the kitchen AND he loves green beans. Here he is as my smiling helper breaking the beans.

Dawson had another event at school the following week. Thankfully this was in the evening so John could come too! It was iReach night where the kids got to show us all the fun stuff they have learned to do on their iPad and we had a scavenger hunt! We were happy that it worked out for Carter and Nora Kate to stay with Lolly and Pop so we could enjoy a little one on one time with Dawson. Above is our iReach night selfie...Dawson thought this was a little cheesy.

Unfortunately September was a sick month for us. Carter, Nora Kate, and I got sick and just could not get over it! My kids who never lay around, spent a lot of time resting on the couch.

and doing breathing treatments

and getting extra cuddles

It wasn't fun, and I honestly haven't felt that yucky for that many days in a long time and I know the kids felt just as bad!

But thankfully we got better, and were able to have some more fun...

John and Grandad took the boys to the Tennessee Valley Fair again this year. They have been talking about it since last September so to say they were excited was an understatement!

They had a great day at the fair, and they have already decided that next year Nora Kate will be big enough to go too!

Dawson came home from school one day and was telling me all about his day, and I just kept staring at his mouth...he was missing a front tooth and wasn't saying a single word about it!? I asked him and he said, "Oh, it fell out in music. It's in my school bag." As if it was no big deal! What?!

Well, it was a big deal to the tooth fairy because she brought him not the usual 1, but TWO gold coins for a front tooth. That got him excited. Here you can see his big gap where his tooth used to be, and he's holding his gold coins.

The middle of September was Spirit Week for Dawson's school.

The first day was Career Day...he dressed as a farmer since that's what he wants to be.

Then their was Wacky Tacky Day...he was not a fan of wearing mis-matched clothes. I finally convinced him that "everyone else was going to be doing it" haha!

Then their was wild hair day. I really wanted to spray color in his hair or make it stand up, but this was about as wild as he wanted it...

Carter (in his pajamas still) had to jump in on this picture!

Then HAT day! Dawson was thrilled to get to wear his Bass Pro Hat!

Friday was Raccoon Romp, the schools big fundraiser.

Here he is with Lolly and Rocky the Raccoon.

The kids could walk or run laps to earn money for the school. I told Dawson he could run or walk, but that he didn't have to run the whole time. He WANTED to run the whole time though! In the 30 minutes he ran 3.25 miles!

Here's his class after Romp

The next day was a classmate's birthday party. John kept the little's at home for nap while I took him to Tumble Bears for the party. He had a blast with his school friends.

Dawson with the birthday girl!

After the birthday party, John and I went to the UT game.

Me and Alana.

Me and John during the game.

Go Vols!

I'm not even sure now what this picture was about, but I'm pretty sure Nora Kate was just being silly (and cute) and I had to snap a picture!

We ate lunch with Dawson at his school. This is a big treat for Dawson, Carter, AND Nora Kate. Here Dawson picked a classmate to sit with us!

Look how happy Carter was!

These three are still LOVING their playset!

We had a playdate and picnic at the park with Charlie.

Dawson earned an award at school called the Raccoon Track's Honey Pot Award for being a good leader and making good choices. His reward (along with the other winners) was to get to have lunch with Dr. Dalton the principal.

We were doing a little birthday shopping for John when these two decided they were starving so quick pit stop in the food court!

Ever since the 4th of July Carter has claimed he wanted John to have a Fireworks themed birthday party. So we did! (sorry, neighbors-at least it was brief!)