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!

Pictures

Some pictures from this week!

We took the children to their first "real concert" on Saturday at the Segerstrom Center:

It was pretty long. Here are the boys two hours into the show:

Sunday was our 12-year anniversary! Jon and I went to 10th Street beach to walk. We hadn't been there since that fateful night 15 years ago when I stepped on glass and had to get stitches! (And then he had to call Mama and Daddy at midnight to tell them what happened and take me to the ER.) Then we went to a delicious dinner at one of our favorite places, The Sundried Tomato. 

Here are some chick pics:

On Tuesday, Lucy's class performed their play. Lucy was one of the fish in The Fisherman's Wife. It was really cute. (That's her flute case she's wearing around her neck. She knitted it.)

Some pictures

Our final trip to Disneyland using our annual passes:

Nate worked up the courage to go on a kids' roller coaster (Goofy's Flight School) and was so proud of himself. He went twice.

Checking in

I'm sorry my blog posting has slowed to a trickle! Here's what's going on here...

- I can't remember if I posted about it on here, but I recently joined a team of three girls who took over the children's ministry at church. It is going fine and means just a bit more work each week than usual. Team leading has its benefits (less work for everyone) and its drawbacks (things slip through the cracks when each person thinks one of the others is going to take care of it and/or sometimes one person seems to do more than the others).
- I'm still working one day a week at the graphic design studio in Long Beach (Vision Design Studio) and also from home. It's still going well and I enjoy it. I'm not really a proofreader anymore (though I do help with that sometimes); now I'm a "special projects coordinator." I help coordinate one of the big ongoing projects (i.e., as soon as the June project finishes up, we have to start preparing for the September project, then December, then March) our company does for our biggest client. I like it.
- The children are all doing well at school. I think Nate is fitting in better in class now that he has been there a while (it's the same class, same teacher as last year). Lucy loves 1st grade. Levi is having the kinds of adjustments you would expect from a child starting school for the first time--figuring out how to get along with new children, how to deal with kids who are sometimes mean, etc. It's all going very well, though.
- We are going to Virginia for Christmas. Yay for solidified plans! :)

Now we're off to AWANA!

The next stage

I'm sitting alone at the computer at home. Quietly. With a clean house. I have never, as a mother, uttered those three sentences together.

We are in the second full week of school, and things are going well around here. We're settling back into the school routine well, and all the kids are enjoying school. Nate was excited to get back to see his teacher (same teacher as last year) and was excited about some of the special things about 3rd grade. This is the first year they do an overnight field trip (camping--in May). Lucy is loving 1st grade, as I knew she would: all the things she wanted to do last year she now gets to do (knitting/hand work, Spanish, more painting and art, etc.). She also is excited to read. Levi is adjusting well to school, though I can tell he's tired. He came home on the first day and said, proudly, "Mom: I didn't punch ANYone."

As for me, I'm enjoying the quiet. Last week was a busy week with not much time at home, so today is the first day I've actually had more than an hour or two here. Now that I've done all that was on my list (it was a pretty long list!--but work gets done quickly when you're by yourself) and am waiting for the last load of laundry to finish drying, I'm kind of in between thinking about a) starting some sort of sewing project or b) just letting the clean house stay clean.

The high dive

A friend lives in another section of Irvine and has access to this fun pool with two diving boards. The first time we went, Lucy almost got enough courage to try the high dive, but then the pool closed for private swim lessons and we had to leave. This week, we went to that pool again. The big surprise was that Nate was the first to jump off the high dive! Here he is on his first jump (and there's also Levi doing a little flip from the low board):

Lucy got to the end of the high dive board at least ten times and had to turn around and climb back down. Then she finally jumped; she ended up jumping at least 10 times after that. Levi climbed up once and turned back around, but he climbed up again and jumped. He jumped off only twice because he said it was just too high. Here's a video of one of Lucy's jumps and Levi's second jump (it's pretty long because Levi lingered for quite a while... haha):


I need to remember to turn the phone sideways when I take videos--sorry!

Hi

Well hello there. I am here to write a post because I love my Nannie and I know she visits this blog every day.

Life has been busy lately. As any mom with school-age children must already know, it's a big transition to "school life." While the days of babies and toddlers are long, tiring, patience-trying, exhausting, and busy in their own way, transitioning to life with school-age kids means a different kind of "daily grind." The morning rush. Much more mileage on the car. Much more "needing to be places." I am glad we at least don't have multiple activities outside of school and church. (Even if each of our kids had just one sport or activity, it would be too much driving, too much schedule, too much money for me! As they get older that will probably change.) Also, since Levi still isn't in school, I'm only halfway to experiencing the perks of this stage of life, too (easy errand running, quiet mornings, etc.).

Speaking of Levi being in school, though, I do think he'll be starting his first year of kindergarten in the fall! (Journey School does two years of kindergarten, so this first year would be kind of like junior kindergarten.) He will be so excited. :)

Favorite video ever

Colleen and I sang a song with the kids (6 of her 7 grandchildren) for the Christmas program at church on Wednesday. Halfway through, an unexpected visitor came on stage, and Levi wasn't too happy.

Favorite from 9/22/12

Love this.

June happenings

Hello Nannie and Mama! :)

Life is rolling along over here. We had a really wonderful visit with Mama earlier this month, though it was way too short.

During Mama's visit, Jon and I celebrated our 10-year anniversary with a one-night trip to La Jolla. Jon always picks the BEST little trips for us! We stayed at the La Valencia hotel. If you click on the link, the first picture is basically the view from our room!--we were unexpectedly upgraded to a spacious suite with a gorgeous view. We had a lovely time walking around the cute downtown, window shopping, and eating some good meals (sushi for dinner, a delicious breakfast at Cody's, and artisan pizza for lunch).

While we were gone, the children had a FANTASTIC time with Mimi. (In fact, after Jon and I got home, at least one of the kids asked if Daddy and Mama could go on another trip, please.) They each picked a couple of "surprises" Mimi had planned, including swimming in the spa after dinner (after they figured out that "going in the hot tub" did NOT mean taking a bath), going to the Spectrum, eating at Chipotle, riding scooters and bikes while Mimi sprayed the hose, and generally just having the most fun possible.

Mama pointed out a cool benefit we've gotten out of homeschooling, especially the past couple of months when Lucy hasn't been in preschool: the three children often play together. That doesn't sound like much, but having all three kids together--all the time--has created a comfortable dynamic that wouldn't be there if one or more child was in school for most of the day. They do still fight (some days a lot), but they also play games that include all three kids a lot. I like that.