Thanksgiving

The Girl had a Fall Feast with the entire kindergarten class! As one of the rooms moms, that was a bit of a beast to plan. But it turned out so cute. 

We flew out to Grandma and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. 

The Girl made cookies with Grandma. 

We spent hours and hours coloring adult coloring pages Aunt Cassidy brought. The kids loved it. They really did sit and color for 2 hours straight. I, on the other hand, colored a lot longer. Let's just say my hand cramped. But I got some cool wall hangings for the Girl's room out of it.

 And we played indoor mini golf in black light. 

Good times.

Beach

We got out of school early one Friday and decided to hit the beach. We hadn't been in so long. The sun was hitting the water just right, so I took a few pictures. 

Ended up using one of them for our Christmas card. God bless camera phones.

Halloween

It's the end of a short era. My kids no longer tolerate coordinating Halloween costumes. *sigh*

The Girl decided she wanted to be Draculaura from Monster's High despite the fact that she has never seen this show. She loved the costume - I found it a tad creepy. And the Boy saw this Fire Swamp costume online from a show called Ben 10 even though, and there's a theme here, he's never even heard of that show. Ever. *shrugs*  Fine with me.

The Man and I attended our yearly Halloween party at the Harris' which was, yet again, a ball. They had a Nirvana cover band. I'm not gonna lie, I was concerned about how much Nirvana a band could play and it still be fun to dance, but it was awesome! We went as the Spartan cheerleaders from SNL. Always a heckuva night.

Walk-a-Thon

This year the Girl got to participate in the school walk-a-thon.  She lost a shoe somewhere in the middle of it, but managed to recover it with a little help from friends. 

The Boy walked 3 miles! Such a fun school event!

Lip Sync Battle

I am such a dope. We hosted a lip sync battle party for a friend's birthday. It was a total blast and everyone performed something. And IIIIIIIII....didn't get one picture. Brilliant, no? That's too bad, because The Man and I made a great Rhianna (him) and Eminem (me) as we lip synced (is that the word?) The Monster. I'm hoping we can make this an annual event!

He's a Wolfman

The Boy worked quick and hard to earn his Wolf in Scouts. I'm pretty proud of him - even more so

seeing him stick his tongue out for the picture during the ceremony. 

We haven't done a thing in his scout book since.  I'm such a good mom. A note about his leaders: they are saints. Can you imagine dealing with a large group of 8 year old boys? 

Migraine

I have such a sweet boy. While The Man was away on mancation, I managed to get a pretty bad headache. After I put the Girl to bed, it really hit me. All I could do was sit on the couch and whimper in pain. I wanted to lie down, but that made it worse. Eventually, I had to throw up - that was all the Boy could take. Having googled home remedies for headaches, he ran downstairs and promptly made me an ice pack to put on my head. After he handed it to me, he sat down and said a prayer that I would feel better.  It was so great.

I imediately knew what I needed to do to feel better. The ice pack helped enough that I could lie down. I went to bed early, leaving him to put himself to bed - which he did. I was so proud of him for wanting to help me, figuring out how, and then having the knowledge and the wisdom to use prayer on my behalf.  He has such a good spirit.

Tooth

Unfortunately, the Boy seems to take after his mama in the teeth department. I must have redneck in my DNA and passed it on to him. Nothing but trouble, those teeth. 

The icing on the cake was that he was growing an EXTRA tooth up in his gums. It was basically sideways and causing all kinds of havoc on his front, adult teeth. So it had to be surgically removed.

 I think I was more nervous than he was. He took it like a champ.

Soccer Season

It begins.....and he scored a goal his first game!

He's decided this is the end of his soccer career. We are now free of all team sports. Kind of bittersweet for me.

First Day of School

A kindergartener and a third grader.

She is excited. He is excited. I am excited!

Anniversary

For our anniversary this year we decided to do something other than dinner. So we took a trail ride along the beach. 

Beautiful, no? After 16 years of marriage and two kids, I'm not sure who has the bigger butt...

LEGOLAND!

Due to rain (during a 3 year drought) we had to postpone our May vacation until August. It finally came. LEGOLAND! I don't want to write too much about it. We stayed two nights in the Legoland Hotel and it was a blast! The park was a day filled with legos, food, roller coasters, and a robotics class for the Boy!

By the end, they were tuckered out. We drove down to San Diego Zoo the next day. They were so tired and whiney, I took about three pictures of that part of the trip. 

 We will definitely do Legoland again. Such fun!

Soccer Camp

We did the British Soccer Camp again this summer, though we did not host a coach due to some upstairs bathroom flooding and kitchen re-remodeling we had to do. Ugh. But the Girl got to participate this year! (She is dressed as a bunny because it was costume day.)

The Boy had the same coach this year as he did last! We love Coach Charlie! And the Girl really liked Coach Ryan.

They both worked hard during the week and had a good time. The Boy won a camper of the day award on the last day even. The Girl, however, decided that she did not want to play soccer again.  I concur. It was not her "thing".

Swim Lessons

This year we switched our swim lessons to Avila Bay Club. 

What a tremendous difference that made! The Boy worked on all different kinds of strokes, and I no longer fear that the Girl will drowned within seconds of being in the pool.

Fourth of July!

 It looks like this is becoming a tradition in our family. We hit the Blues game on 4th of July weekend. Their fireworks show is pretty darn good and sometimes the only show you can see since the rest are done at the beach and the fog almost always rolls in before it starts. (Who wants to see foggy fireworks?)

This year we also attended a party. I have an incredibly generous friend named Leann. Their family hosts this large, very fun shin dig every year. They had food, bounce houses, snow cones, a DJ, and fireworks. They are amazing people and we had such a good time!