Sophie's 6th birthday party

Sophie is a wonderful friend Tatum met in kindergarten last year.  She had her 6th birthday party at the Children's Museum downtown and the kids loved it!  They started with a craft which I didn't get pictures of.  They made mobiles out of material, string, etc.  Then they headed on a tour of the museum.  Here's Kaitlin...

and Tatum in the wildly painted house!

Tatum and Kaitlin, two peas in a pod.  They just love being around each other, such a cute friendship.

Posing on some of the artwork. :)

Time for some birthday singing and treats!

Here's the birthday girl!

 

So much fun with the birthday girl!!

Ty's first day of his second year of preschool!

Look at this big stud!  He couldn't wait to get back to school!

Such a proud big sister.  Ty was so excited to see all his"bros" in his new class and start playing and learning with his new teacher Ms. Cullison.

Obviously there was a lot to thumbs up about. :)

And here's his new classroom and friends.  He loved it so much, he didn't want to go when I got there to pick him up at 11:30.  Normally he stays till 12:30 but they weren't doing lunch bunch the first few days of school.  I got a big, "Aww Mom, can't you go home and come back later?" :) 

Happy Birthday Cameron!!!

We headed up to Irvine for Cameron's birthday party.  It was at a train park in Costa Mesa and Ty LOVED it!  Here's Cameron, Tati and Ty.

I was afraid the kids would fall off the train since there were no sides on it but they did great.  I only rode around once and then they were on their own.  Here's Sierra, Tatum, Laura, Kylie and Jeff.

And the conductors!

These two are just too cute.  Tatum and Mattie love seeing each other, even though it's not as often as we'd like these days.  They'll be BFs forever, just like their mommies. :)

 

Happy 3rd Birthday Cameron!

Jenny did an awesome job making this egg free cake, it was delicious!

And Ty just loved this park.  We'll definitely have to get back over there the next time we're up in Irvine.

Creekside Teacher posting and first day of school!

Tatum was both excited and nervous to find out her 1st grade teacher and class.  They post the class information two days before school starts and it's quite an event!  We missed the event though and went over to the school after dinner.  Kaitlin was there too and the girls got to go check out the lists together.  They were really sad that they wouldn't be in the same class this year but we told them that they'll still have the play ground to meet up and play. 

These two are such great friends and it's cute to see them interact together. 

It's the big day!  The first day of 1st grade!!!  Tatum picked out her first day outfit all on her own.  Such a big girl!

And here's Tatum with her friend from last year Sophie.  Can you believe these two are both 1st graders?!  The height difference is crazy but no matter, they're great friends and we're happy to have each other in class.

And Daddy came to the first day too!

Here we are, waiting in her new line. 

She was a little nervous but we promised to stick around and walk into class with her.

Here's Tatum with her friend Destiny.  These two met at school last year and we found out that Destiny lives a block away in our neighborhood!

This year Tatum is in room D8, the same room as last year.  And that's because she has the same teacher as last year, Mrs. Kirchmeier!  She was thrilled to get Mrs. Kirchmeier since Tatum absolutely loved her last year.  I on the other hand, wasn't too excited about it since it's a K 1 combo class and I was worried about Tatum being with younger children.  Will they learn the same things as the other 1st grade classes?  Is she in this class because she can't perform or isn't as smart as the other 1st graders?  I had lots of questions and I was looking forward to Back to School night!  But we were all relieved to see when we walked into her D8 that there were desks for the first graders, and small tables like Tatum used last year for the kinder level.

She was so excited to have her very own desk and her own space!

Daddy had to get going to work so we said our goodbyes...

and all the kids sat down on the mat on the floor to meet Mrs. Kirchmeier.

She really is the best teacher and we're just so excited to get to enjoy another year with her.  To throw in another twist, Mrs. Kirchmeier is pregnant and is leaving at the end of October for a few months.  But she'll be back for the last 4 months of school and as much as the class will miss her, they'll have a wonderful long term substitute and they're a great class so they can handle it.  What a fun and wonderful first day of 1st grade!!!

Camping at Lake Cachuma

A friend had suggested we check out camping at Lake Cachuma, a lake not far from Santa Barbara.  As we drove into the campsite, the temperature gauge read 94 degrees!  It was going to be a hot weekend but we were excited.  And here's the view from our campsite.  Beautiful!  Garrett and the kids walked down to the water to check it out.

Here's the path down to the water.  The kids said it was mostly rocks down there and Garrett said it wasn't worth fishing on the shore.  But the kids enjoyed running down there and throwing rocks in the water.

 

After some dinner, we enjoyed smores and some quite time by the fire.  Or silly time at least. :)

Ty missed all the fun since he was pretty tired from the ride up.  Just Tatum, Garrett and I!

  

The next morning we packed up and went down to the lake doc and rented a pontoon boat with our neighbors.  Kate, Dan and Jack decided to come up and camp the same weekend we were there!  They have a motor home so they were staying in a different part of camp, but we were so excited to have some friends join us.  Look at this view!

We headed out towards the damn and started fishing...

 

Jake and Tatum.

Since the fish weren't biting, Ty got hungry for some strawberries. :)

We decided to explore the lake so the kids took turns driving.  Here's Jack manning the boat.

We found these little buildings on the water and they turned out to be outhouses!  We all took our turn!

My turn to drive with Tatum

Then we finally found a place where the fish were biting and Jack caught the first one!

Then Garrett!  The "kids" decided to make up two teams, Garrett and Ty against Tatum and Jack.  Who would catch the most fish?!

 

Then Ty caught one!

And Tatum caught one!  She wasn't sure about posing with the fish for a photo but her teammate helped her out and held it for her.  Garrett caught another and so did Jack.  It was neck and neck until Jack caught one that as he reeled it in, got away.  Garrett said it didn't count but we all agreed that team Jack and Tatum won. :)

Headed back to camp.

The next day we decided to drive out to a waterfall we'd heard about.  It was a beautiful little park and a nice hike.

The waterfall was a bit dry but the kids loved it!

The best part was on the walk back, we passed Merida from Brave!  I didn't realize it was her until she'd passed us so here's a picture of her back.  But she had her bow and arrow and everything!

Then we stopped in Solvang, a cute dutch town, with beautiful buildings and windmills. 

We headed to a dutch brewery for some lunch and a cold drink.

And then ice cream after of course. :)

It's hard to see the kids here but they're on the steps.  Fun town!  We really loved this campsite and hope to go back again.  It's just a long drive from SD, I think it took about 5 hours.  Might be better to go in the spring when they stock the lake and it's not too hot.  We'd also rather stay in the camper side since the tent side was pretty crowded and the bathrooms were busy.  But lots of family fun!

After a long drive home, we came into our house to find our dining room table outside, and...

And our patio furniture inside!  I called my mom immediately since she had been watching our house and she's just a horrible fibber.  She was at our front door laughing!  She had been down at a garage sale at the Warner's and since they've been TPing our house a lot and Garrett got them back, they were looking for revenge.  They asked my mom if they could come into the house and change a few things around.  She agreed, being the funny lady that she is, and also suggested they move the outside furniture in and the inside furniture out.  Ugh!  They got us!  We

Cali actually really enjoyed the switch!  We left the furniture like this for a few nights and even enjoyed a few meals outside.  It's good to switch things up a bit sometimes. :)