Hi

Here's what we've been up to lately. :)

Joy has been our loudest chicken, by far. While no neighbors complained to us, we were not comfortable keeping her and becoming a nuisance! Our friend Dr. Jeff just moved out to a ranch and has a few chickens himself, so he took Joy for us. Thankfully, Joy is also the one who least likes to be held (and the hardest to catch), so the kids weren't too attached to her. :)
Bye, Joy!

During our week off from school for Thanksgiving, the weather was hot! It was 80 degrees on this day we went to a park:

And now the house is mostly decorated for Christmas!

Oh, and this weekend we rebuilt our back fence, which was 80% rotted and close to falling over. Levi told me "the knocking down part was the funnest."

Levi is 6

This boy. He is joyful, easy going, all boy. He makes us laugh every day. 

So thankful for him.

This week

Lulu came to visit over the weekend! She was in Los Angeles for a few days for work, so she extended her trip through the weekend so she could stay with us. The kids were so excited.

Tuesdays I pick Levi up from school at 12:15, and we hang out locally until the older kids get out at 3:10. Yesterday we were at a park. He rested on me for a while, and I relished it because he doesn't do this that much anymore.

First day 2014

Levi's first day of being one of the "older" kindergarteners (a "sun"):

Nate's first day as a 4th grader with a new teacher and a classroom full of many new-to-the-school kids. He said his first day was awesome! Thank you, Lord.

Lucy's first day as a 2nd grader, with the same sweet teacher:

Little entrepreneurs

All summer, Nate and Lucy have been having fun making bracelets and other creations on their Rainbow Looms, which are looms used to loop little rubber bands.

Here are a couple of bracelets Nate recently made:

So Lucy decided she wanted to sell some of her creations. She made a sign and price tags, and she grouped her creations into prices (50 cents, $1, and $1.50) according to how awesome she thought the creation was. 

We set up on a blanket by the mailboxes around 4:00/4:30.

Nate held the sign (and emphatically held it out whenever a car drove by). Levi declared himself the "pointer": when a car drove by, he stood there and pointed at Lucy. That was pretty cute.

I had told Lucy to expect maybe two or three people to stop by (I didn't want her expectations too high!), but over ten people came (either walking up or driving by, stopping, and coming over; one lady shopped straight from her car). 

Now they have the bug and are already talking about the next sale. Nate told Lucy how she could improve her sign and also thinks we should make a separate sign to put out earlier in the day saying when the sale will begin. He also thinks maybe he'll sell some of his creations (I think he has a harder time parting with stuff he has made, but he can't deny the appeal of big profits... Lucy made over $18, which is 36 weeks' worth of allowance!). Lucy plans on using her money to buy more loom bands to make more creations. 

Beach

We aren't usually beach-goers around here, because 1) going to the pool is so much easier and 2) Jon doesn't love the beach. But I told the kids at the beginning of the summer that we'd go, so yesterday we packed up, stopped at CVS to buy some clearance body boards, and headed out.

The body boards were the biggest hit ever. I showed them how to do it (which may have been part of the awesomeness of the day), and they rode waves for hours. HOURS. They didn't even want to come in for lunch--hello? My children not wanting lunch?

We went to Crystal Cove, where the waves were the perfect size and the water was very pleasantly not too cold. 

I convinced them to ditch the body boards for a little while so we could take a walk and see some creatures. They liked the sea anemones.

It was a fun day, and I will try to take them a couple more times before school starts September 3!

Camping 2014

We went to Santee Lakes again this year to stay in their lakeside cabins. This is the version of camping that Jon can get excited about. :)

To me, the stuff kids love about camping isn't just sleeping in tents. It's about undivided attention from Daddy, riding bikes, getting dirty, starting fires.

We went with Jon's family this year (his parents, Janel and her kids, and Jennifer and Mark). The cousins loved playing together all day.

It was a great trip!