first day of school.

The night before school started, I asked the boys to lay out some new clothes for their first day. I came back to find Kosty's old clothes and this note: "PS Mom I donte like the shrts that you bot me."

That kid knows how to make me laugh, really hard. The good news about my laughter is that he lightened up a bit afterwards and decided maybe a new shirt wouldn't be so awful after all. He did hand select every single one of his new shirts, after all. That's the only way he would have it. 

Kosty was serious business when we got to school. I walked him in, and he quickly put his backpack on his chair and sat down to do a worksheet in silence. It never ceases to amaze me what a rule follower he is at school. I mean, seriously tries to be the most perfect student at all times. And it must be exhausting, because he sure lets loose at home! 

My visiting teacher, Heidi, told me last year that they have a family tradition of cookies and milk and talking around the table about the first day of school. I loved the idea so much and couldn't wait to start it in our family. The boys liked it but they aren't so much a fan of plain sugar for a snack, so I bet they would be much more excited about homemade bread...

california. day 5 & 6.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was waking up and walking down to breakfast at the hotel with Brayden. Sometimes Jer & Kosty came, but mostly it was us. He would order his food, and then sit right in front of the TV with the news on. Like an old man. Ha. We spent the day in Huntington and then were lucky enough to have some real beach time with the Glaziers. All year long my kids have been talking about playing on the beach with them so I'm so glad we were able to steal them away from their real life one last time! It was so nice just to sit back and relax on the sand while talking to Lori and watching the kids play all afternoon. We did more eating and playing that night and then the next morning we had to load up the car and check out of the hotel. We wanted to make a full day of our last day though, and we really did. We went to see Brave, went shopping, had lunch and stopped at Sprinkles before we were ready to hit the road. Til next year...

california. day 4.

For some reason putting pictures in order on the new blogger is super tricky and so I just don't. We decided to try Crystal Cove Beach after hearing lots of good things. It was so nice (even though we had to pay for it) to be able just to drive up and park in a big empty parking lot. We lugged all our stuff down the mountain and when we got to the bottom, the lifeguard stopped us and strongly encouraged us to go back up the mountain, drive 3 miles down, park again, and hike down again. She said it was much better for surfing and boogie boarding and so since those were two of our main objectives we made the trek. I'm glad we did beacuse we had the whole beach to ourselves, and it was awesome. Kosty had a great time burying me alive (with a little help from Brayden), Jer got to surf, and we tried to get some pictures of our last official beach day. We hit Balboa island later that night after dinner and had to do the traditional loading up at the candy shop. 

california. day 3.

My friend Lori recommended to go to Corona Del Mar beach and check out the tide pools at low tide. So we did, and it was so so gorgeous there! The water was the most beautiful I've seen in CA. We saw lots of tiny crabs, anenomes, mussels, and one giant black sea slug. Then we went and got lunch at Wahoo's and said goodbye to Mark & Cede. Since it was Sunday, we tried to lay low the rest of the day and gear up for one last full day at the beach.