school starts

mason and dahlia started school yesterday. dahlia was so cute and put on her easter dress for the occasion. she was very excited and looked adorable. she has the same teacher that mason had when he was in kindergarten. i am so happy to have her again. she is really an amazing teacher. dahlia loved her first day and today as well.

mason hates new things and had a complete meltdown while we were walking to school. he did cheer up a bit to find that two of his favorite friends are in the same class with him. it is nice that they will all be together. he would not let me take a photo of him yesterday so his picture is from today. he was much better this morning and we managed to get him off to school without any tears.

the two separate pick up times is really awful so i am completely exhausted by time we get home. this will only get worse i fear in the next few weeks when connor starts school. we also will be starting our after school activites. ugh. i am tired just thinking about it.

sea world

we decided to go out of town for our last weekend before school. we planned a quick weekend getaway with jen and ray and their kids. we booked a hotel in san diego and got tickets for sea world.

i was so excited to go. we drove up on saturday and then went to sea world on sunday and drove home from there. we only got to stay one night but it was very fun. the hotel had a pool. we changed into our suits and went swimming right away after we checked in. the kids loved the hotel. mason said "this place is amazing," making me realize that my children are pretty deprived. we never stay at hotels, and this was not a super nice hotel like miles and i used to stay at. we all went out to dinner at a restaurant in the gas lamp district. it was cool. i liked walking around.

today we woke up early and went to sea world. the last time we went to sea world we only had mason so it has been a really long time. everyone was super excited. it is also jen's birthday so that added to the celebration.

mason wanted to go on a real roller coaster because his friend archer had been on one so uncle ray was nice enough to take him on manta. yikes! his first grown up roller coaster. he was so brave. i was actually too scared to take him on it myself. after it was over he was cute and said he would go on it again but maybe not right now.

connor's favorite ride was the sky buckets. they gave you a beautiful view of the bay. all the kids loved the sesame street section where they got to climb through rope mazes. they would have loved to spend all day there. we saw most of the shows. i liked the sea lion show the best because it is funny but they are all good.

it was such a great day. i really wish we could have stayed another night. i am sad tomorrow is school. i don't want our summer to end.

swimming & steel drums

more swimming today. this week is all about fun. mason, dahlia, and bodhi had gym class in the morning and then we all drove to orange county to swim at zena's house. jen was watching zena for a couple of days while christina is working so she was with us. the pool was completely empty. i love it when it is like that. we had so much fun. mason and dahlia swim without their floaties now. they are pretty good. it makes me a little nervous but i like that they feel comfortable in the water.

after swimming we met christina and went to the park for a concert. there was a really cool steel drums band playing. i loved it. we got take out from el pollo loco so we all had a picnic while listening to the music. the kids loved the park. they quickly made some friends and were dancing around in a circle. it was pretty cute.

summer bucket list

my sister christina had a good idea before school got out to make a summer bucket list. a list of all the fun things we wanted to do this summer. well, here we are with only six days before school starts and i have a whole list of unfinished things. how sad. i think i will have to extend the summer list until the end of the season. even if school has started it still is summer. right?

one of the items on the list was a picnic in the tree house. so today we did just that!

here is the list i made:

1. sew puppet theater
2. go to the movies - see monster university - done
3. go swimming at christina's - done
4. go to the river - done
5. go to sea world
6. read 5 books - have 4 done
7. go for a walk to the top of our street
8. explore the neighborhood on foot
9. teach mason and dahlia to play basketball
10. make a lemon pie
11. go cherry picking - done
12. have a picnic in the tree house - done
13. go to the beach - done
14. go to the aquarium
15. go the natural history museum - done
16. go to pretend city - done
17. paint my toenails - done
18. read a chapter book to the kids - in progress
19. build a sand castle - done
20. sew a summer blanket
21. buy a popsicle maker
22. make sorbet
23. eat sushi
24. grill pizza outside

beach day

it is the last week of summer break for us and i refuse to sit home. today we had a great day. we went to jen's house in santa monica and then drove over to the beach. we could have walked but with all the beach gear i think it is worth the $8.00 parking fee to just park as close to the sand as possible.

the kids were so funny. they were on a mission to gather as much seaweed as possible. they had a huge pile. they would get so excited every time they found another piece to add to their collection.

the beach was not crowded at all so it was a nice day to be there. when the kids got too cold from the water we went back to our towels to warm up on the sand. they literally rolled around in the sand to get warm. so funny. mason was stuffing sand down his shorts. gross. dahlia and bodhi had a sand tea party. dahlia was making delicious sand cookies. delicious.

when we were completely exhausted we went back to jen's house for bathes and dinner. a perfect summer day.

swim party

today was fun and also a little sad. we went to a swim party at my friend's dad's house. we have been to lots of pool parties there and they are always so fun. he has just sold his house though so this was the last pool party. how sad. he really does have the best backyard for entertaining. a giant pool with slide, an outdoor kitchen area with a sink, grill, and bar. not to mention the company is always so nice and fun.

the slide going into the pool is definitely the favorite part though. we must have gone down that side at least ten times each. the kids loved it. i loved it too. i was happy to go with them. the kids and i were in the pool the whole time. we stayed pretty late and had some dinner. then it was time to say goodbye. sigh. i am going to miss that house.