swim class!

Swim class has started again for the year! We went on Tuesday first and there were a million kids there.  Today it was a bit smaller so I took some pictures.  Caleb mostly sat on the stairs unless the teacher came over and got him.  But he had a great time anyway.  He and a little girl named Lilly made funny faces at each other, she also would not leave the steps.  Jack is like a fish now and always finds a friend to swim with for the day.  On Tuesday he won a licorice whip for winning one of the relays. And Weston sat on my lap smiling at all the other mothers and trying desperately to gnaw on something.  His first tooth broke through today!!

La Purisima Mission

I love La Purisima Mission! It was so fun.  Its really beautiful there.  
Here's the inside of the church.  When I first walked in it smelled like old wood, just like the smell of my Grandpa's work shed.  Made me homesick...

We roamed all over, looking at the fountains and gardens.
It was both Village day and Mountain men day at the mission.  So there were lots of people there dressed up and doing all kinds of presentations.

Here's Jack with one of the Mountain men and he explains how to throw a tomahawk.
Here's Jack pulling the tomahawk out of the wood block.  He hit it two out of the three times that he threw it.
Matt did 3 for 3, he's such a mountain man!
After all our mission fun we went to Andersens for a bowl of pea soup. Of course the kids got cheeseburgers...

Quiet

I love the quiet.  The boys are all asleep and Matt is at church with the guys playing pool and foosball (sp?).  

Its almost time for us to start school again.  I'm planning on starting on Sept. 2nd.   Last week I went to my homeschool groups new year kickoff meeting and that always gets me excited about getting started.   So I made a posterboard for Caleb that we will use for his 'letter of the week' worksheets and poems that we are learning etc.  I also bought him some preschool workbooks and new paints and puzzles.  Jack will be learning American History this year.  Its a good year to do it with the elections coming up.  Jack will also be taking a chess class and an art class with our homeschool group.  Those classes are on Monday, Tuesday is swim class, Thursday is Calebs soccer class and Friday is Park day with our homeschool group.  Jack is also playing AYSO league soccer this fall. 

And of course before all of that we will celebrate Caleb's 4th birthday on August 31st! We are going to take him to the Santa Barbara zoo.

Now I'm going to go read before someone wakes up and the quiet is no more.

Tuesday

On Tuesday we went to our friend Eva's house to play.  The boys played on the slip 'n slide and Weston sat on a blanket in the grass. It was a nice warm day in Santa Maria and all the kids had fun.  

Then later that evening we got our first Harvest Basket. Its full of all kinds of lovely fruits and vegetables from organic farms up north.  The basket had all kinds of good things like figs and tomatoes and watermelon and onions and eggplant and even organic ice cream (mint chocolate chip which is Caleb's favorite).  I love the look of it all in this big basket.  It makes me want to live on a farm and grow my own food.

The face and a bath in the sink

This is 'the face' that Caleb used to make.  You know when you say 'Caleb make the face' and everyone laughs.  Anyway, Weston has been making his own 'the face'.  However, it doesn't work to tell him to make 'the face' so we have to try and run and get the camera.  The pictures don't totally capture the cuteness of it but they will do for now.  He looks so sweet with his little lips pursed together.

There's really no connection between 'the face' and these pics.  He can sit up now so I can just put him in the sink for a quick rinse off.  It has to be somewhat quick because he's figured out how to splash water everywhere. 

Montana De Oro

We went to Montana De Oro park yesterday. Here's the boys walking on the trail that leads down to the beach.
The beach is covered in these rocks and the boys love climbing all over them.
There are tons of little tide pools that have crabs, hermit crabs and starfish in them.

Wish you all were here!

Wednesday afternoon

What could be better on a nice summer afternoon than blowing some 

bubbles?  I bought some at the Dollar Store the other day, 3 containers 

for a dollar. Ok so they're scented: Lemon, Pineapple and Blueberry which

my boys could care less about but 3 for a dollar come on, I had to.  Anyway, 

this first picture was Jacks idea...he wanted to make an exaggerated blowing

lips face.

This was one of the biggest ones he blew.

He really looks harmless doesn't he?  I had to tell him about 20

times to stop blowing bubbles directly into Weston's face.  Later

I found big dry droplets of bubble liquid in Weston's hair and his hands

were sticky with it too.

Weston didn't really care that Caleb was blowing bubbles directly in his 

face though he did seem to be making an excessive amount of spit bubbles.

He just sat and watched them float by.

Look at that cute profile...