Settling In.

Week one of school, and Labor Day weekend are now behind us, and it feels like school has really started, and it's truly fall. If you can ignore the 90 degree temperatures (which I can't. It's awful.)

The kids are happy in their classes. Last Wednesday when we were walking to school, they ran ahead of me and jogged all the way to their classrooms, hung up their back packs and were hanging out with their friends, not caring whether or not their annoying mom came over and kissed them goodbye. We've gotten into a good afternoon routine as well, making sure the piano gets practiced and homework gets done.

After school activities have also ramped back up. I have to say, I'm so glad they're not doing soccer this year. It's a lot of time and a lot to manage for two kids who don't truly enjoy the games. Ellie is sticking with gymnastics (which is only once a week) and Adam has moved from t-ball to Little League. They use a pitching machine at this level, which is a big difference and stands to be a challenge, but he's in love with his new helmet and bat and all of the gear. He may be a bleeder and a crier when things don't go his way, but he's a good team mate and a kind friend. We had our first batting practice tonight and he was his usual outgoing little self, chatting up all the other dudes. Ellie will also start back up with her Bio-Nerds after school class next week, it was one of her favorite things last year. Feels nice to be getting into a routine, and back with our friends and classmates.

First Day 2019!

Off they go, my sweetie pies! Adam has the same teacher as he had last year (same teacher Ellie also had for kinder and first. It's her fourth year teaching, and I joked with her last year that I hope she'd go four for Ford) and Ellie has a teacher who is new to the school. Both kids were incredibly excited this morning, and they each have last year's school bestie back in their class again. Ellie's class looks to have fewer of the rowdy boys who drove her bonkers last year, so that's a relief. Can't wait to see what the year holds for them!

Last Week of Summer!

Well, we did it, we survived summer 2019! And had a great time doing it. Our last week was spent mostly trying to get things back in gear - we bought all of our school supplies, organized new back packs and lunch boxes, figured out first day of school outfits, the usual.

Here they are, apres swim, having some popcorn and observing the butterflies in Gigi's yard.

We also did a lot of stuff with friends - it's nice to have neighbor kids in and out having fun, and on Friday, we took it up a notch and went down to San Diego County to visit an animal sanctuary called Lions, Tigers and Bears. They have about 30 animals on the property, and all of the big animals are rescues - most of their back stories are incredibly sad, as they were part of the exotic animal trade, or bred to be used in cub photography (usually the animals are then destroyed at 12 weeks when they're no longer cuddly enough for photos) or one tiger was used as a brood mare, and had over 200 cubs before coming to the sanctuary.

They offer tours throughout the week, and it's a great way to learn about the animals and what they do for them. During the tour the animals can come over to the fence for a snack, which most of them do (they are very firm about how no one ever touches the animals or goes into their cages, but obviously, since they're not trying to release them back into the wild, it's okay if they learn to come and be friendly at the fence) and it was so awesome!

Moon Bears coming for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

Bob cat time

This guy actually roared at us, which was amazing! And the cougar, Pumpkin (not pictured) actually meowed at the keeper when she came over with the food and meowed to get her attention.

Jaguar having some enrichment activities. She loves pinecones, and even big cats do "if I fits, I sits" with cardboard boxes.

The most amazing part? I paid into a raffle and won the chance to feed an animal of my choosing! So, I picked the tiger. This is me and Maverick.

It was SO COOL. Even though he's enormous, he still was very delicate taking the meat off the fork. I wish I could have reached through and petted him on his big, beautiful head. But I did not, because I mostly follow rules. The kids had such a fun time, well worth the extended drive. Summer fun memories for all!

Mid-August

How is it possible that next week is our last full week of summer vacation? We've had a such good one!

Last week the kids went to probably their best week of summer camp, at Camp Ford! Such nice counselors, many activities, plus matching shirts! They went to Soak City, to the Fair, and to ride a bicycle built for many people. And a scavenger hunt!

Meanwhile, Tim and I went out to various dinners, laid around our house like lazy turds, and went two stepping with friends one night. He was still at work during Thursday and Friday, so I maxed out on just enjoying the quiet of the house.

We went to the beach this week for my birthday!

It was very sweet to watch Ellie and Gigi out searching for good rocks and beach glass on the shore. And since it was my birthday, when I came to search with them, they pointed to pieces on the sand so that I could pretend that I found them. They are so kind to me in my old age.

Tim also took the kids bowling with our friends, I arrived in time to eat the last mozzarella stick

Yesterday the kids spent the day with Mimi and Poppy and then we met up with them for a performance by the Air Force band, starring an old family friend! Did not take any pictures, but I was really proud of how well the kids behaved during the show. Very nice little audience members! And then today, we continued our time of art and culture by going to the Tar Pits and LACMA.

This statue has no nails in it

This whole installation is made of human hair

This is 8,000 pieces of paper

This is Ellie walking our friend Piper down to stand under a giant boulder. Modern art is crazy, y'all.

And tomorrow we're going to a baseball game! It's so fun to pack in the end of the summer so that the kids think the entire summer was awesome.

BAD NEWS PORTION.

Despite the cuteness of this picture. our time with Sky was only three weeks. He is truly one of the most beautiful creatures I've ever seen, but it was not a good fit. Our cats hated him, HATED him, and he was acting up in bad ways. Our agreement with the rescue org was always that he would have to fit in with our family in order to stay, and they were very kind about the fact that he wasn't a good fit and took him back in hopes of finding him a place where he can be either an only cat, or have a kitten friend his same age to wrassle with. We all just wanted the cats to be happy, and Lucky and Taco weren't happy with Sky, and he wasn't happy with us. There were some initial fireworks from Ellie about Sky having to leave, which is completely understandable, but she has since come around. I have been joking - will this be a lesson about how if you love someone but it isn't working out, you can't stay together, and she'll cut loose a bad romantic partner in her future OR will she someday tell her therapist "when I was eight, we adopted the most beautiful kitten and then my mom gave it away while I was at my Grandma's house." Who can say!

Happy Campers

The kids have been at their day camp for the past almost two weeks, and they are having a blast. They are each with a friend (super cute - on the first day a counselor introduced themselves to the boys, and after Adam and Judd introduced themselves back, Adam goes "we're friends. Best friends!" Noted, my dude) and the camp is very intensely outdoorsy. They've gone horse back riding, they've gone to the tidepools in Dana Point, they do slip and slides and rock wall climbing and archery and skateboard and all sorts of other wholesome activities led by nice young men and women who go by funny camp names. This year Ellie and Lexi are with Decade, and Adam and Judd are with Hero.

Scrawny McSunburn, on his way to the slip and slide.

Ellie, whose mean mom won't let her attend camp in one of her regular teeny weeny bikinis, because her mean mom doesn't trust that she won't come home totally roasted.

A very filthy foursome last week when there was some sort of scavenger activity with dinosaur dust and cavemen hunting the kids.

A shot from beach day - Adam and Judd are the two in the lower right corner (Judd has his back to the camera)

They are loving the whole experience, and I am loving #1, that I have the entire day to myself and that #2, when they come home, they are so happy and tired that I feel no guilt in having them shower, eat dinner early and watch TV until bed time.

Also pleasing to me: this three pound dingus, with his stripey back, his spotted belly and his weird little feet. That's right, I talked Tim into a third cat! His name is Sky and we all love him (except for Lucky, who isn't really into other cats who want to be in her business. She hisses at Taco almost every day for bothering her, what's one other obnoxious cat pest?)

Man, I haven't updated in awhile, so I missed out on informing you all that while I had a girls weekend in Ojai, Tim got to take the kids to Disneyland with a friend of ours who works for The Mouse. My beautiful family, all having a great time on Space Mountain, as you can see. 

Week O' Camping!

Summer is in full swing around here! We had a really nice Fourth of July swimming at a friend's pool, eating lots of grilled meats and potato chips and desserts (and drinking frozen gin and tonics for me and Tim. The kids got Gatorades, which they like just as much as I like gin.) At the end of the night, we did sparklers and set off some small fireworks in the culdesac, and then the kids were asleep in their car seats before we got home. Most of the long weekend was us staying up too late with friends and all taking power naps during the day so that we could gear up for another evening of fun.

We also bought a trampoline for the back yard, and Tim and I put it together (and then half took it apart to move it across the lawn) without even wanting to dissolve our marriage! And the kids haven't concussed themselves yet!

Ellie and I ended our long weekend doing goat yoga with some friends. Ellie was into the goats, not into the yoga, and DEFINITELY not about them trying to stand on her.

This week both kids have been in different camps. Ellie has been going to the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach, which rehabilitates marine mammals (hence the name.) The kids get to spend a week learning about the animals, how they're cared for, and about the importance of ocean conservation. They made fish smoothies for harbor seals (in the Bass-o-matic) and cleaned out the enclosures, they dissected a sea urchin, and they worked in groups to design a device to help clean up ocean trash. They did not actually get to touch the harbor seals or elephant seals, because they're wild animals that they want to release back into the ocean, but they did each get to work learning about one animal. Ellie's was a harbor seal named Guinness.

He's the cute blob in the middle.

Today they all went down to the beach, and she reported that they saw a seal and a couple of dolphins. She really had a good time, since it was all about animals and science.

Meanwhile, Adam has been in afternoon camp at the YMCA. It's dinosaur themed, so they usually do a dino related craft, in addition to water balloons, a lot of out door play, and having the occasional sno-cone. It's nothing too intense but it gets him out of my hair and also reminds him that he has to listen to adults other than me. It's been nice that they have their camps at different times, because then I get some alone time with each one of them (we took our gift cards from the gift bags Mimi made for Jake's birthday party and went to Starbucks) and they get some time without their sibling, which has helped with their urges to annoy the hell out of one another (and me.)

Next week they don't have any formal activities, so we are setting up fun things to do with friends. We've been keeping on a good schedule every day, which helps everyone's sanity (mostly mine) and it's nice that they're big enough to entertain themselves so that I can get some work done (that's right YouTube, you babysit those kids for me!)

Summer Fun.

We've been taking it easy around here, now that we've made it back home and summer vacation has officially started. I'm trying to keep us all on a good routine of getting out in the sunshine, moving our bodies, having some reading time every day and practicing the piano, along with letting the kids play Minecraft and rot their brains as they so desire. And we're trying to do fun stuff when we can. The kids and I made a list of stuff we'd like to do as "special treats" and we're trying to check them off as we go.

Saturday night Ellie, Lexi, Kristen and I went up to LA to see Harry Potter the Order of the Phoenix at the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl orchestra performs the score live to the movie, and it was awesome! Lots of people in costume, including a whole group dressed up with Voldemort, Umbridge, Lockhart, Mad Eye Moody. They let the girls take pictures with them, and then gave them "I must not tell lies" temporary tattoos. Very cool! The girls loved it, though were exhausted by the time we made it back to the car.

Meanwhile, the boys went and played nine holes.

One of the things they wanted to do was visit an American Ninja Warrior-style gym, so we did that on Monday. They have open gym for an hour in between classes every day, which worked out perfectly for us. The kids had a mostly good time - some tears about slips and falls and not being able to do everything at the gym, and I had a couple of heart attacks watching them climb and jump around above my head, but we might do it again. Ellie REALLY loved the aerial silks.

Adam's lack of gymnastic training did not help him on the silks.

But he did enjoy the running and climbing portions

Yesterday for lunch we did a picnic in the park. Invited a ton of friends, but only one other mom was able to make it (much to the kids' chagrin. Look folks, I sent out a solid dozen text messages, people have stuff going on!) Adam and I walked over to the kinder-garden to check on the remaining sunflowers and cut ourselves an ENORMOUS bouquet. We also watered the remaining stalks, so should have a second huge crop to bring home and let Taco gnaw on.

The other thing we've been doing this week is getting back into swim lessons with Coach Grant. The kids had a lesson on Saturday morning, and then we're doing lessons Monday, Tuesday and today in the afternoons, as a kind of bootcamp. It's nice because while one kid is with Grant, I can swim with the other one, and then by the time lessons are over we have about 10 minutes before they blow the whistle for safety break and everyone has to get out. It's amazing though, how exhausted the kids are by that hour of swimming. I mean, I get it, it's late in the day and they love being in the deep end so they are actually swimming the entire time, not just bouncing around where they can touch. Adam asked to take the swim test yesterday so that he could get a green wrist band (which is how the Y designates that your kid is sea worthy enough to be out of arm's reach.) He had to do the crawl stroke for the length of the pool without stopping or rolling to his back, then climb out on the wall, jump back in, tread water for 30 seconds, and float on his back for 30 seconds. He passed! He's thrilled, and I am very proud of him, as well as being thrilled because sometimes I don't want to be in arms reach of him, especially when he's being a real splashy maniac. Also is a credit to Grant, who pointed out that it wasn't that long ago that he had Adam and Tim in the parent and me classes, and now here he is, swimmy fish boy, and his sister, Mermaid Girl.