1st Day of School

Connor & Emma started school last week. It was a day of mixed emotions for me. I don't want them to grow up so fast but I was a little excited to have a little free time (is that bad??) Connor started 2nd grade and has Mr. M this year. I'm glad Connor has a guy teacher this year - I think he'll do really well and Connor thinks Mr. M is the COOLEST! Emma has a very sweet but strict teacher this year which I think will be a perfect fit. She has lots of cute friends in her class and seems so grown up now that she's in 1st grade.


Emma is all about fashion. Last year I just shopped for her and then she wouldn't wear half of what I bought. This year we went shopping with my sister, Julie and her daughter, Shaelee and also Grandma. It was a fun girls shopping day and I was really proud (or should I be scared?) of Emma -- we were gone the whole day and she didn't complain once. I'm afraid she likes shopping WAY too much!


Connor is such the GQ little man. He would wear anything I bought for him but of course he is loving the plaid shorts and anything surf related. He looked so handsome and grown up when he walked into his classroom. He's getting so stinkin' tall that I'm afraid he'll probably outgrow me by the 4th grade. Oh, well, I guess that's not really much of an accomplishment =)


Anyway, it's now just Alli & me during the day and she asks me (or tells me) every day where we are going. She starts a 3 day preschool in September and is really excited about that. I'm sure she'll be bossing everyone around in no time!

Happy Birthday to Emma!!

Our sweet Emma turned 6 last Thursday. We started out her morning by piling presents all over her!! She loves little animals and all things girly. After the presents, we took the kids to Lego Land for the day. Here are some fun pics of her special day.


Where's Waldo - I mean Emma in this pile of presents??



Lego Land was fun - the rides were geared to smaller kids so all of us could go on the rides together.

Okay - so my favorite ride that the kids got to go on was the Volvo driving school. There were two separate courses - one for the 3-5 year olds and one for the 6-13 year olds. The two older kids headed to the big kids course and Alli to the little kids course. They all got to drive their own little Lego cars and it was too cute. Dana said when Emma turns 16, she's all mine to teach!! She was the craziest driver and it's a good thing those cars don't go very fast =)

Here's our Birthday Girl!!

Connor was an awesome driver and he even got his Lego Land driver's license after the ride!

I was a little worried about Alli driving by herself since she'd never done it but she did great and had a huge smile on her face the entire time.


Since we were at the beach, we made a beach birthday cake and decorated it with sand (graham crackers), shells and sea creatures! Hope you had a GREAT 6th birthday, Emma. We sure love you!

San Diego was a BLAST!!

Thanks to my sister CERISE we headed to San Diego last week for a quick vacation before school started. We stayed in a condo right on the beach and it was so much fun!! My kids all loved the beach and it was so relaxing to just sit and watch them and, of course, read my Stephenie Meyer books (yeah, I'm addicted and have already finished Breaking Dawn...sooooo good). Anyway, back to the vacation. Dana was lucky enough to go golfing at Torrey Pines (where the US Open was just held). He loved the course but said it was BRUTAL!! We also took the kids to Lego Land on Thursday for Emma's 6th Birthday. I can't believe my little Emma is 6 years old and now in the 1st grade. Happy Birthday to Emma - our little princess!! Here are some fun pictures of our awesome week!

Alli loved playing at the edge of the water but wouldn't go much farther than that - thank goodness!! She was usually completely covered in sand and loved digging in it.

Emma is a SEA SHELL lover! She was constantly scouring through the sand trying to find any shell she could. She got a little braver by the end of the week and would go out in the water until it was almost to her waist.

Connor is a WATER lover and learned to boogie board. He's such a natural athlete and once he learned how he spent all his time catching waves!!


Here's a super cute picture of Emma and Alli with their cousin, Kenzie. They all play so great together and we love spending time with cousins.


Connor and his cousin, Steven both love to golf. Luckily, so do both of the dads so they both got to go golfing and had soooo much fun!



Cerise has two older kids - Ashley and Bradley. They are both such awesome cousins to my little ones and we really appreciated having them there to help with the kids. Also, Ashley loves the Stephenie Meyer books too so she went with me at midnight to Barnes & Noble to get our books!!