Our dear little girl has what can only be described as “the look.” I don’t know how this started, but it cracks us up. She will totally do it when asked, “Kellen, give me the look.” What do you think?

When I taught Kindergarten my class learned this song. I was so pleased the other day when Jay came home singing this song too! So far . . . 2nd grade is the BEST! Thanks, Mr. Hanna!

Lately Jay has been enthralled with the Toy Story movie. Grandma gave him a Woody doll a few years ago, but Woody hasn’t felt much love until now! Jay has taken to sleeping with him, (along with Bear and green blanket mind you) and this is how I found Woody after taking Jay to school.

I love this kid!

So Jay’s been requesting that I put curtains in the livingroom for some time now. He gets a little scared when it is dark outside and he doesn’t like it. So, being the great mom that I am, I put curtains up. I don’t know about you, but ANY home project ALWAYS turns into more time than you really think it should take. This project was no different. I bought the first curtain rod from Target and installed it and hung 4 different curtains to see which I liked best. I then decided that the curtain rod from Target just wasn’t sturdy enough to hold the heavy curtains. So I took EVERYTHING down packaged it all up, and returned it. Next it was off to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to pick up more of the curtains I did like, and get a sturdier curtain rod.  Back at home I drilled more holes, installed the second curtain rod, hung the curtain panels. Today I finished this never ending project, by adding the hooks and ties to hold the curtains back! See what I mean? This was over the course of two weeks! But now the project is D-O-N-E!

You’re welcome, Jay!

I haven’t talked to them since they’ve been in Egypt, but it looks like their mission was accomplished!

Last weekend I had a blast! Debbie and I have been planning this weekend and waiting for it since spring. We went on our first scrapbooking retreat with CM consultants Gina Stary and Cindy Neal. It was so fun to have Debbie fly in late on Thursday night and stay with us. Then after getting Jay to school and picking up some Coffee Bean, we finished loading our stuff and handed Kellen off to Grammy and Grandpa who would take care of her until Mike could get off work about 4. We arrived at the Roughley Manor in 29 Palms right at 2pm. Then it was a full weekend of scrapping, chatting, eating, and we even got massages! I finished 38 pages of Kellen’s baby book. It was so refreshing to spend time with Debs (and my dear friend Sandra and her mom) and be able to pour myself into my project without any interruptions. It was hard coming back on Sunday. Even though I missed Mike and the kids, I could’ve used another day. Here are some of the pictures from the trip.

This was the room dedicated to all our scrapbookin’ fun. Everyone had their own 6 foot table to work on!

Here we are working hard!

And of course the wonderful Gina Stary who is such a dear friend!!!

Mike sent me the cutest picture of Jay and Kellen while I was gone! It made my heart smile!

How is it that my boy is now in 2nd grade???? He really did some growing this summer and I can sure see a big difference between the end of first grade and now. I’m so proud of him. I had mixed emotions today, sending him off. He seemed to enjoy his teacher, but felt a little shy with all his classmates again. I’m sure he’ll warm up quickly enough. I know 2nd grade will be a great year . . . I just missed my boy today (and so did his sister.)  Oh and in case you were wondering, the apple was for his teacher, and the flower for his principal! (Gotta start off on the right foot with everyone.)

Here is Jay with his teacher, Mr. Hanna.

The traditional picture in front of the sign had to happen after school today because this morning was so busy with everyone coming for the first day.

And of course, Miss Kellen needed to get in on the action!

Yesterday afternoon we went and visited Great Grandma (Mike’s grandma). She looked great, and we had a nice time seeing her new place and chatting. Kellen just loved running around her room trying to see all Great Grandma’s interesting things!!!

Last night we headed down to Seal Beach. It seems like every year we have this tradition of going to the beach in the evening right before school starts. Kind of a celebrations of the start of school and a way of saying goodbye to summer. The last two years we’ve gone to Balboa Island, but this year I’ve been having an itch to go to Seal Beach. I grew up in Cypress and Seal Beach was my beach growing up. I have such good memories of that beach and was even a member of the winning team of a 4-man volleyball tourney on Dolphin Ave. This must have been 1991 or 92???

Anywhoo . . . we went with the plan to walk down the pier. I had forgotten how COLD and WINDY the pier gets, so we didn’t make it all the way, but it sure was beautiful. What was new to me was the little playground! So cute with all the tiles. We even found the tile of my doctor’s family who delievered both Jay and Kellen!! (Nicest doctor in the world!)

Dr. Bustillo’s tile is right above Kellen’s head in this photo on the top!

Being down in Seal Beach brought back such fond memories. Even driving down Los Al Blvd. brought back lots of old youth group memories. Ahhhh, what a nice way to say good bye to summer!