First Day of School!

This morning was the first day of school. All the kids were very excited! They were up bright and early, eager to wear their new clothes. We all walked over to school together. Julia was so ready to get to her class. We dropped Ryan (2nd grade) and Amber (5th grade) off at their classes first, then went to Julia's kindergarten class. I'm excited to hear the report after school about how it all went for them.

Blast from the Past!

I was looking through some old pictures, and came across these from Easter 2005. Sometimes it's hard to tell how your kids are changing and growing, because you're with them all the time - and it happens so gradually. It's fun to look back at old pictures and see how little the kids were.

Camping Trip

We went on another camping trip. Lots of fun and lots of work. We went for 2 nights to a campsite that's across the road from the beach. We spent most of Friday at the beach and the kids had a blast! Our friend, John, brought his kayak and let everyone who wanted to go out for a ride. Dave, Ryan, Julia and I went out on the kayak on the ocean and looked at the kelp (seaweed) forests. Amber didn't want to kayak; she spent the whole time on the boogie board. Jared loved playing in the water and the sand. We camped with a bunch of families, so the kids had tons of other kids to play with. They loved it! We need to catch up on some sleep now.

Bike to the Beach

We had a really fun Enrichment Night this week. We rode our bikes down a canyon trail to the beach and had a BBQ. There were 15 women who did the bike ride, and others that joined us at the beach for the BBQ. The bike ride was so fun!! It takes about 45 minutes to get down the canyon. The trail starts out paved, then becomes a dirt trail with some rocky patches. We crossed a stream bed and got a bit wet. The weather was perfect and the scenery was beautiful. At the bottom of the trail we just rode our bikes across PCH and were on the beach. We roasted hot dogs and had corn on the cob and dessert. It was lots of fun!!
(P.S. They had a big flat bed trailer at the bottom, to drive all of our bikes back home - so we didn't have to ride back up the canyon!)




My friend, Stefanie, gave me some pictures that she took.

Museum Day

I took the kids to a Children's Museum last week. I had been there when Amber was young, but hadn't been there with the other kids. We met my friend, Tracy, and her kids there. The kids had a great time!! There were a lot of dress up clothes and different stations: space, medical, restaurant. They also had some animals - turtles, iguanas, snakes, birds. Jared loved watching the animals. The other kids loved dressing up and playing in the different areas. And it was only $4 per person! Afterwards, we ran into an Art Museum that was across the street. Luckily we were the only ones there - we had 8 crazy kids running around. They had a special "Surf" exhibit - so all the paintings/photos were of the beach, surfing, etc. It was a fun day! (cell phone pictures again)

Beach Day

I took the kids to the beach last week. We met my friend, Tracy, there with her kids. We went to Zuma Beach. It was my first time at the beach with all 4 kids and no Dave to help. We had a fun time - Jared was the hardest one. He loved the water!! But he had no concept of how the waves work. He wanted to follow each wave out - not realizing that another wave would come and soak him. He was also a wanderer. He kept trying to climb up the ramp to the lifeguard station. Amber and her friend found a big sandcrab. They had fun searching for sandcrabs. Jared zonked out the minute I put him in the car. (Note to self: Apply sunscreen better.) P.S. I did not bring my big camera - just snapped a few shots with my cell phone camera.