School days

Before the holiday craziness begins I figured I should finish up this post that I started ages ago.  You already know how I feel about our school, but I recently went through my phone and found some of my most recent favorite school snapshots.

I arrived to pick the boys up one day and found this, every single picnic pal-er engrossed in Ms. Jennifer's story.  

Three friends walking to our field trip in the park.

The fabulous Ms. Jill (known to some of us mamas as "Jill the Thrill") telling the kids that a flock of Turkey flew over the school the night before and it was their job to collect all the feathers they dropped on the flight over.

Teachers should get paid millions, ya'll!

Ant hill park after our Thanksgiving pot luck.

And these two cuties...

Last year they were just babies...and now...so big.

We start kindergarten tours in January.  This baffles me.

Thanksgiving

And just like that, its December 1st.

So here is a little recap of our Thanksgiving week.  Brian had the whole week off (!!!!) and we actually tried to get a spot at Rincon, but it was packed.  So, plan B.  We hung out at home, caught up on chores.  The boys went to school on Tuesday and Brian and I had a day date that consisted of Christmas shopping, lunch and going to my office.  We are so fancy, no?!

Wednesday morning we drove up to Grandma and Gpas house for Thanksgiving.  We had lots of fun just hanging out and enjoying family time.

Brian and I drove home last Thursday night and let the boys stay until Saturday.  They had fun and we enjoyed almost two days at home cleaning and pulling down Christmas decorations in preparation for the boys' return.

Saturday, around lunch time, we met Grandma, Gpa and the boys at the Camarillo airport.  This was only Scott's second time flying with Gpa, and Owen's first.  I was a little concerned because Scott was a  little freaked out his first time.  Grandma said that Owen was slightly concerned in the very beginning and kept saying, "we gonna fall down."  But then he fell asleep.  And Scott got to play co-pilot and had the time of his life!

Waiting for our babies

There they are.  I took a little video of them landing and showed Scott afterwards.  He was stoked and has asked me to watch it again, several times a day.

The tree was up when the boys got home, we didn't waste anytime, we got right to decorating.

Christmas magic.

My favorite ornament of 2014.  Ok so maybe its our only new one, but still my favorite.  So many great memories already made in our RV.

Ornaments are truly one of my favorite things at Christmas.  Its like a fun little scrapbook of memories.

I know it will be a whirlwind month, but I can't wait to experience this Christmas season with our little family!

Safety Day (better known as cupcake day)

Last week at school we had safety day.  A few parents organized a day where the police department, fire department, CHP, the forest service and EMS came to school, complete with trucks and equipment.  

Scott met up with his buddies first thing and I basically didn't see him the rest of the day, except for from behind the camera lens.

His friend's dad is a police officer (the mom is one of the parents who helped set the whole day up) so naturally the boys started in the police car, and spent much of their morning there.

Hopefully I never see these dudes show up anywhere in the back of a cop car, ever again!

Owen hung out with his good friend Liam.  They met smokey bear (from afar), got in the fire truck and the police car.  One of my favorite things was at one point Owen befriended one of the forest service officers and proceeded to get a private tour of their rig.  He asked questions about everything and got detailed explanations.  They probably spent about half an hour together.  It was so cute.

Two of my best girls.  Andy had just gone to a "make your own deodorant etc." class and today was her first day wearing it.  She really wanted us to smell it.  This is how we roll.  I can't wait to get the recipe and make my own.

After safety day got done we did a little unexpected running around, which is a long boring story, but ended up meeting up with our friends for lunch at shark's, and then going across the street to the local cupcakery for their 5th anniversary celebration.  Complete with free cupcakes and a tour of the bakery where we got to decorate them.

Friends and frosting!!!

And sprinkles.

It was just too cute.

Photo op with their finished products.

Then they got down to business.

The local paper was there and they snapped a picture too.  The kiddos made the Acorn on Thursday, which they could not have cared less about, but I was excited.

Several times that day all the kids declared it to be the best day ever!

School Pictures

We just got our school pictures back.  Every year I say to myself that I don't need to buy them, same cheesy blue back ground, totally posed, I would way rather have "real" pictures.  But then we do them, and I'm a total sucker.  

Owen, 2.5, Ms. Dana's 2 day 2s class (2014-15)

Scott, 4.5, TEAM class (2014-15)

They are looking so grown up these days, and I know I'm biased, but I think they are turning into quite handsome little dudes.

November so far...

We kicked off November with a rain "storm" after we trick-or-treated on Halloween night and woke up to this rainbow right out our front door.  

Since then its been lots of the usual routine as well as some holiday prep.

I'm on a cashew milk kick right now and have turned out a few of these babies every week! Yum!

I also discovered a new little lunch gem in the neighborhood.  Joi cafe's menu is completely plant based, gluten free and organic.  Music to my ears.  And my tummy.  My first time I had their pad thai, to.die.for.  I've since been back for their rosemary smoothie and bob marley zucchini pasta!

This little guy has been cracking us up, always into something these days.

We went up to Ojai with Mimi and Papa and Parker, Auntie and Eden one Friday for some yummy lunch at Papa Lennon's.  These two enjoyed some cousin catch up time over pizza and sorbetto. 

 We celebrated our friend Adam's birthday with friends.  The only picture I got of the grown ups was one I stole from Bonnie, the rest are of the crazy kiddos, of course.  Another group of ALL BOYS.

Playing in their hideout.

An old lifeguard tower turned playhouse made for a whole evening of fun for this crew.

Hanging with my honey.

Malibu sunsets.  Sigh.

The next day we had a little football and brunch with this guy and his wife to be.  Its been far too long since we've hung out with Uncle Aaron.

And he held his own with a table full of little dudes. 

 This lucky kid even got a chocolate covered strawberry.  #chocolatewasted

Mischief:

Since its dark at like 5pm these days we have had to come up with some creative and fun indoor stuff.  Enter living room science and the tornado tube.  Owen dug it.

A little stop at the Thursday Farmer's Market after school.  We went for eggs, but left with plums, apple chips and honey sticks for snacking as well.

Last weekend we headed out to pismo with the family.  I did a terrible job of documenting the weekend, whoops.

These two love a good camping trip though.

Welcome to Pismo.

My guys heading out for a ride.

I joined them like once.  Too much motion sickness material for me.

 The boys came home from Pismo with nasty colds so today we are home from school taking a sick day.  At about 9:30 I started to realize that they are pretty much recovered.  I guess you can always use one extra rest, stay in your pajamas day right?!

 So much for a sick day...

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving.  I'm off to try to get some things done, like maybe order our Christmas cards so they don't go out two days before Christmas yet again!  Wish me luck...