One of the most appealing aspects of our townhouse when we decided to buy it was that it backs to the woods. We have a beautiful deck that is perfect for evening meals, afternoon reads, and checking out the local wildlife. We have had glimpses of deer though I've never been quick enough to grab my camera. We see birds a plenty - robins, doves, hawks, vultures (one which I scared and it flew off with a snake in its mouth...totally cool!), orioles, woodpeckers, and cardinals. There is one particular cardinal that loves to peck on our windows as he checks out his reflection.
We used to see rabbits all the time until we got our cats; Xander used to think it was the Easter Bunny and his siblings hopping around back there. For the past year the only rabbit that would venture into our yard was our neighbor's rabbit 
but I took care of that by accidentally running over and killing him. That's a whole other story, though, that I still have a hard time talking about.
Of course it was out of the woods that we received our two cats, Princess and sweet Googie.
And every once in awhile we'll see turtles.
I love living so close to a big city like Baltimore and yet still see such wonderful wildlife. Unfortunately with the good also comes the bad. We get tons of spiders, the scariest being the humongous one I had a run-in with in our basement. This thing was so huge that at first I thought it was a fake one left over from our Halloween decorations and I couldn't figure out why it wasn't in the Halloween bin. I quickly found out how real it was! Xander and Noah watched me try to get that thing for 20 minutes as he crawled under stacks of books and magazines, and hid under toys. Eventually I got it with David's shoe and the looks on the boys' faces as their mother became a crazy woman, whacking that thing about a million times and screaming in terror, was priceless!
There are the ticks that I constantly have to remove from our cats as well as, occasionally, some of the kids.
The frogs come out in droves whenever it rains and I've stepped on a few as I've raced to the front door. The best was the one that I inadvertently kicked as I ran and boy, that little frog went flying!
Of course there are our nocturnal visitors that love to get into our trash and eat the leftover cat food. David wants to shoot them but I've brushed up on my broom swinging abilities as an alternative.
Really, they are kinda cute!
But then there was the morning that I brought in groceries, unloaded all of them in about 10 minutes, walked back out to my car to get something, and upon walking back up to the house saw what I thought was a piece of rope on top of my flowers. Turns out it was a snake skin...some horrible, gross snake had slithered his way across my front yard in that 10 minutes that I was in the house. Thank goodness it wasn't while I was outside.
But of course where there is one snake there are sure to be more...and this month we have had several. Savannah almost stepped on one on our front porch and we have had two in our backyard. 
Googie got ahold of one of them and had a grand 'ole time turning it into a toy.
Saturday was the first Saturday that we've been able to attend both Savannah and Xander's games as a family and boy, what games they were. We started off at Xander's game with the X man playing goalkeeper. I'm not too big on my kids playing in goal because I'm always afraid they'll get kicked in the face. But Xander wanted to give it a try and he did a great job...no goals were scored on his watch.
Xander eventually made it out on the field and got to battle it out a couple times with his special friend Emma who was playing for the other team. It was hilarious when she realized that she was playing Xander; she stopped short, stared at him, and then started telling everyone on the field, including Xander's coach, that her boyfriend was on the other team. She's #10 for the orange team, in front of Xander on this play.
Xander scored 2 goals in this game, including the winning goal.
Two crazy fans!
Next we headed to Savannah's game where I was flying solo as coach. Needless to say, I was extremely nervous to run the team by myself. Our girls had taken a pounding the previous week but they were much more lively this week and ended up winning 5-0. One of those goals happened to be scored by the cutest girl in the world and would have made any highlight reel. With her big kick she sent the ball flying up and over one defender and the goalkeeper; I was so glad I was wearing sunglasses because I definitely got teary-eyed with that one. Unfortunately for pictures Savannah's field is much bigger and David can't move around to get better shots with two little guys needing his attention on the sideline.
Our water boy.
After several years of watching Savannah and Xander head off for a fun, exciting day of school, it was finally Noah's turn! On Monday Noah attended his first day of preschool!
While taking the traditional "first day of school picture" Noah decided to do a little photo shoot for me.
The first two days of preschool are gradual entry to give the kids a chance to get acclimated to the classroom, the teachers, and the other kids. So, Monday's class was just an hour and I got to stay with him, watching him explore the classroom.
His two fabulous teachers, Miss Barb and Miss Jill. Savannah had them when she was in the 3's and they are absolutely wonderful!
September brings not only the start of school but the beginning of Keepers as well! To kick off the new year we met at the Washburns house for our first meeting celebrating "The Virtuous Woman". This whole year of Keepers will be focused on the traits found in Proverbs Chapter 31 which Catherine did an excellent job introducing. The first trait we focused on? "She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands." (Proverbs 31:13); the activity - calligraphy. Okay, so maybe a tiny bit of a stretch but it never hurts to work on one's penmanship.
The girls completed a calligraphy page that could be hung up in their rooms. Not too shabby, Miss Savannah!
One of our favorite things to do in the summer, obviously, is swim! Some days are so miserably hot and humid that swimming gives us the only cool relief of the day. 
Savannah and Xander are such great swimmers; Xander could swim by the time he was two so they're both like fish in the water. But I've been slacking on teaching Noah...until this summer. By August Noah was swimming on his own!
The first week of school is officially ended and here are a few favorites so far:
For Xander it was all about the school bus. At 7:30 on Tuesday morning Xander started begging me to leave for the bus stop. Considering the bus does not come until 8:25, I felt we should stay at home for awhile longer but it was hard to convince him.
He ran to the bus stop and just could not wait for its arrival.
Standing in line, waiting to board.
And there he goes, a huge smile on his face!!!
Xander mentioned that some other favorites so far have been resting time, especially if he gets to sleep on the couch, eating a hamburger in the cafeteria, and playing at recess.
Savannah absolutely LOVES her teacher which is obviously a wonderful thing. She enjoys reading in class as well as her writing assignments. She is also extremely happy to be back with all her friends.
As for Noah, well, I think his face says it all - having to say goodbye at the bus stop was not an easy thing. 
I have tried to keep him busy the past few days (unfortunately preschool does not start for another week) but he tells me several times a day how much he misses Xander.
Our summer of fun ended on Monday, August 30, when Savannah and Xander started school, Savannah in 3rd grade and Xander in Kindergarten. Both kids loved having Grandpa Schaeffer here to walk them to the bus stop and send them on their way.
Only on the first day it was just Savannah riding the bus;
Xander's first day of Kindergarten was a 2 hour orientation that didn't begin until that afternoon. Although Kindergarten is all day in Maryland, the first day is a gradual entrance. Xander was EXTREMELY bummed that he couldn't ride the bus the first day (that is what he is most looking forward to) but as he and I headed off to orientation I could tell he was getting very excited and just a tad nervous.
Some first day school work.
A trip to the cafeteria and a free chocolate milk.
His teacher Miss Tomcanin who seems really great!
