We have a 2nd grader in the house!

Well I can hardly believe it’s here! The summer seemed to go by in spurts – super fast one minute and then crawling by the next. Of course, Eli has been so excited to go back (almost as excited as I was!) and today, the day finally came. He was up at the crack of dawn (seriously, 5:30am and he was ready to go!), dressed and ready for school. He designed his own T-shirt this year, with the front saying “2nd Grade” and the back saying “RULES!”.

This year Eli has the same teacher that he did for his 1/2 combo class last year, which will have its pros and cons, I’m sure. I’m glad that he’ll have someone who knows him, who understands his quirks and know how to work with him. But I’m also nervous that he’ll be so comfortable in the class already that he’ll forget his first-day manners. I’m sure he’ll do fine, I’m crossing my fingers!

Here are the fun first-day photos we took this morning. West was there, ready to go with his lunchbox, but of course, he doesn’t start preschool until next week. But he was excited to accompany Eli to his class!

I’m looking forward to having some more quiet time to get some projects done around the house, and to be able to have these two not fighting with each other all day. Absence does make the heart grow fonder, after all!  ::wink::

Day at the Beach

Last week the boys and I headed out to the beach for the day. Can you believe it was our first trip to the beach this whole summer? I know, I’m a terrible Californian. :)

We were going to go with friends, but when the weather looked like it was going to be too cold, it ended up just being us. We went down to Newport, where Nathan likes to go and found that it was pretty crowded. Thankfully, we found a good spot and set up camp.

The coolest part was the parking. Yeah, weird, I know. But they now have this app that you can download that lets you pay for parking straight from your phone, lets you watch your time so you can stay on top of it, and you can even add more time from right under your beach umbrella. It sure beats having to take the kids out of the water and walk them back to the car to add a couple more quarters to the meter!

Eli spent most of the day with his boogie board in the water. Even though the water was cold, he loved the huge waves that were coming in and just rode hard out there for at least 3 hours!

West and I spent the day throwing the ball back and forth, eating our lunch, and building sand castles.

But the best part for West? That would be knocking the castle over!

We had a really fun day just enjoying the great weather together. The boys certainly slept well that night!