So far, her favorite is...

With the different types of art forms that she has been practicing with over the last few months in her art classes, her favorite so far has been acrylic paint.

 These art classes have brought her to life and we are so grateful to have the opportunity to take the classes with our friends and to have the opportunity to watch our girl SHINE!

California Historical Sites!

For Ryder's fourth grade class, he was asked to research a registered California Historical Landmark (CHL) and to research it and prepare to present it to his class, with a creative way for presenting the information.  He chose two sites, no. 218 Barton Mound, and no. 225 Flores Peak.  Both were marked as historical to commemorate the first LA county Sheriff to die in the line of duty.

We made an afternoon of it on Saturday.

First we headed to Barton Mound, which is right off the 405 freeway, next to Irvine Spectrum:

Do you see my boys to the far left videoing...

Eden and I took a little walk while the boys did their videos.

Then we headed to Flores Peak, located off of Santiago Canyon Road, and can be seen while wallking the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary:

 After Ryder and Kit had gone all of their videos and information gathering,  we decided to eat at the Silverado Cafe, in Silverado, which is also a historical landmark, no. 202.

On the way to the Silverado Cafe, we drove past the California Historical Landmark of the location of the mining city of Carbondale, no. 228:

We had a full day of making memories together and enjoying seeing not one, but 4 California Historical Landmarks.

It was so fun to learn about the area where we live and to have fun while we did it!

Read Across America Week!

This week was "Read Across America" week in celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday!

The kids had activities each day:

Monday:

The kids dressed up as what they want to be when they grow up.

So I give you "The Baby Nurse" and "The Coach":

Tuesday: 

Cat in the Hat Day, aka: stripes and more stripes:

Wednesday:

Wacky hair day:

Eden went for an "garden" theme:

Thursday:

Dress as your favorite book or author.

I give you Fancy Nancy and "History":

Friday:

Crazy socks day:

(Which the style for 9 year old boys is pretty much crazy socks every day...)

As much as these weeks make me a little nutty, I look back and see how much fun the kids had and I have to just smile.❤︎

Dreaming about Friday...

I work most Thursdays and I have to say that I spend most of the day dreaming of Fridays, having a Date day with my Kit...

Last Friday we ate sushi and talked about upcoming adventures and checked in with how we are doing...

I can't imagine life without this man. We have worked to get to where we are today, fighting for each other and for our marriage to thrive and be in a healthy place, working on our communication and serving one another always. Life without Kit would be so incredibly painful, because life with him is incredibly good!

It must be Wednesday!

She sets out her leotard before school and she talks about her gymnastics class all week.  It must be Wednesday!

She loves it so much and I love that we can watch her enjoy something so much!

Animal care Center of Irvine

On Saturday, we spent lots of time at the Animal Care Center in Irvine with our Girl Scout Troop, learning about animals, how they are cared for and rehabilitated, and how they are then adopted out to families.

 The bunnies were a huge hit...

 Then we went into the cats and kittens section...

The girls loved giving treats to the dogs...

 Eden fell in love with this German Shepherd and did not want to leave it...

 So she left with this Rollie Pollie instead...

It was such great learning experience for my little animal lover and I loved how her heart is to care for any living thing around her...

Finishing up Volleyball

On Friday, Ryder's team went to the playoffs for Volleyball.  The day before the boys had won against the undefeated team of the league and they were feeling so excited.  They ended up in 4th place, but I have to tell you, I am so proud of these kiddos.  They played so well, most for the first time!

He is already talking about playing next year...