First day of school

All fun summers must come to an end... even in California!

 Maggie and Grant on their first day of school for 2012!

 Maggie goes to 3rd grade.

Grant starts kindergarten

Maggie was excited that her friend Sivan is going to be in her class this year. 

Grant contemplates what he will learn in Kindergarten this year... 

It's gonna be fun, Grant!

and the party goes on...

As if the American Girl store wasn't enough birthday for all of us... we partied some more for Maggie's 8th birthday at Grandpa and Grandma's house for pizza and cake.  Lots of present opening below...

Happy Birthday... American Girl style!

For Maggie's 8th birthday, we celebrated at the American Girl store in Los Angeles.

 Maggie invited one of her very favorite cousins... Laura!

 First, we had lunch in the cafe... which was just darling!  And totally accommodating not just to guests, but their dolls too!

Laura and Kanani, enjoying pink lemonade!

And the menu was delish!

Laura and Maggie

The cake... to die for!

 How cute is this? A birthday girl with her cake and ice cream. 

Definitely an all girl fantastic outing!

Maggie has been wanting to get Julie's ears pierced... she even saved up all her money for it. 

And she came away with quite the birthday loot!  Fun times for all!

Carpenteria

My friend Rachael and I braved camping by ourselves.  My aunt and her family were a few spots down from us, but it was us and the kids roughing it without the husbands for 4 days!

Staying warm around the campfire.

I think our tent was a little small for us, but we stayed nice and toasty warm all snuggled up next to each other.  The kids loved sleeping in the tent. 

Our camp was covered with burrow holes made by these curious little groundhogs that would poke their heads out once in awhile to see what we were up to. 

When we weren't in our camp, we were at the beach.  One day, Uncle Randy taught Grant how to boogie board. 

And of course, he had plenty of time to build one of his famous sand sculptures!

Random summer 2012 pics

Zoey and Brevan hanging out on the hammock. 

 A couple of times this summer, we made it over to the library for their weekly shows.  Grant volunteered to hold a member of the reptile family... a lizard, I think!

And Maggie volunteered to help hold a snake... very brave!

 This summer we discovered our pool!  We've lived at this place for 4 years and this was a first for us!  We enjoyed many swim days at the pool!

 We also hit up an old favorite and travelled down to the OC Fair for a good time!

The kids loved this ride the most by far!

 Lots of days spent at the beach, where Maggie liked to create her sand art. 

 Grant was on a mustache kick this day!

And Zoey wanted to be just like her brother!

Maggie's photoshoot

Since we moved here 4 years ago, I anxiously awaited the day when our friend Tracy would take these pictures of Maggie for her baptism.  I had seen the photos she did for the girls that turned 8 before Maggie and they always turned out gorgeous!  I couldn't wait for Maggie's turn!  I was so pleased with the outcome.  Maggie was pretty miserable during the shoot on a hot, August day, but somehow Tracy managed to get some gorgeous shots of Maggie.  

It was hard to choose just one, but this one is my overall favorite!