First Day of School

Today marked the first day of third grade for Faith and kindergarten for Shane!  While I think we could all use another month of summer vacation, we needed to get started per our charter school!  And everyone else in Ventura is starting too, so it made it more bearable!

 

Since it was the first day, there was quite a bit of eagerness and excitement and cooperation!  While I hope the excitement will last at least through the week, I do know that the entire year will not go as smoothly as today did!

 

Shane was thrilled to be given actual work to do after watching Faith over the years!  He did well and commented that kindergarten is pretty easy so far!

 

For each of the kids, I break the school work into three parts: On your own, with your sibling, and with mom.  The with your sibling assignments I think are going to be special as it puts Faith in charge of reading something (and of course commenting and asking questions, done totally on her own!) to Shane!  Today she read his Bible story to him.  It's also great to see Faith being able to do so much more of her work independently!  It's going to be a great year!!

Soaking Up Summer!

In an effort to soak up as much sun and beach time as possible in the last week before school started, we went to the beach four times!  Living so close makes it easy to just venture over for a couple hours or more!  The kids continue to savor their time there, and it's enjoyable to watch the older two kids start to learn how to navigate in the ocean waters!

 

Steve was able to join us Friday and Sunday afternoons since he was off of work!  It was way more fun having him there of course, and it was nice for him to swim with Faith as it allowed her to venture out a little bit deeper than I would allow her to on her own.  And he showed her how to dive into waves and other important ocean swimming skills!

 

Olivia was pretty excited that a wave created this personalized mini pool in which she could splash! 

Faith and Shane running back into the ocean!  Faith was pretty much in the water the entire two hours we were at the beach yesterday!  We are hopeful to squeeze a trip or two in this week too! 

A Saturday to Remember!

This past Saturday Shane had his final t-ball game for the season.  While the A's were not the most skilled team in the YMCA league, they definitely had fun!  Since soccer practice has already begun, it felt like it was time to wrap up the season!  Shane finished strong by having his two best hits of the season in the final game!  And the best part about the season coming to a close was the pizza party after the game! 

 

If that was not enough excitement for one day, Grandma Poelstra and her three sisters (two of whom are from out of state) drove up to visit us!  We made sure that they had the complete Ventura county experience as we ate dinner at Padaro Beach Grill!

 

Having just spent a few weeks with her own grandchildren, Aunt Sonja knew the best way to entice that kids to sit by her at dinner was to order a malt!  And of course it totally worked!

 

Seeing how successful Sonja was, Aunt Sylvia took Faith with her to order a malt too!  Again, the kids followed the ice cream and enjoyed sitting by Sylvia!  It was a treat to see all of the aunts again and hear all about their kids and grandkids!  What a great day!!

Beach Day!

Now that it is August and school is on the horizon, we finally made it to the beach in Ventura!  It was such a fun day I really would be surprised if we didn't make it back there later this week!  For me it turned out better than expected as I was unsure how it would go taking all three kids without Steve, and I am not a big fan of sand as it gets everywhere and in everything!  But it went smoothly on my own (it helps so much that the older two can help carry things!), and I had the kids cleaned (showers!!) and the van vacuumed and Olivia in bed for a nap all within 45 minutes of arriving home!  Not too bad!

 

Olivia was unsure of the sand at first, but after an hour she was covered from head to toe in it!

 

Our friends came too!  The kids played together so well, and my friend Julie and I sat in our chairs under the umbrella for most of the time!  What a life!

 

It was so cute to see the two little girls playing, the boys running in and out of the water, and the two older girls riding the waves on their boogie boards!

 

Faith impressed me with her skills in the ocean!  She is confident out there but not overly so!  She takes the waves well, but she doesn't go out farther than either her or my comfort zone!  Hearing that some of her friends who are a year older did junior lifeguards this summer has made her think about doing that next year!

 

Shane loves to be around his friend Miles and talk superheroes and just be little boys together!

 

Until next time Pacific...hopefully it will be soon!

Trip to the Fair!

Even though this was a bit of a busy week with Vacation Bible School at our church, we could not miss out on going to the county fair!  The only day all week that really worked for us to go was Monday, so as soon as VBS was over, we headed home, put on sunscreen, and headed over to the shuttle bus to take us to the fairgrounds!

 

A highlight each year is the giant slides!  This slide is the kids slide; Faith also went on the giant slide in the other area of the fair!  Shane wisely just went on this one!

 

We met a few of our friends from church (and of course VBS!) at the fair, which worked out really well and was very fun!  This family has two boys - one just older than Faith and one just older than Shane.  The kids of similar ages ended up going on rides together since they older two wanted to do rides the younger two did not!  And poor Olivia just took in the sights from the stroller!

 

Truck driver Shane!

 

One of the reasons we really wanted to go to the fair was to see our neighbor Kelly's pig!  She has raised a pig for the fair for the last eight years!  This is her final pig as she is leaving for college at the end of August!  The kids always enjoy being able to talk to Kelly there!

 

Something new this year - all the kids did the tractor pull activity!  It was harder than it looked, but they could all complete the task!

 

A shot from VBS!  This was my partner and close friend Melissa!  Together we were "captains" of the 5th and 6th grade class of kids.  It was a nautical theme this year - Gangway to Galilee!  It was a fun-filled week, but I'm glad it's over!

Grandma Camp!

Last week the older two kids spent a few nights at Grandma Poelstra's house!  They had a great time doing fun things, eating all of their favorite foods, and spending time with Grandma and the aunts and uncles in the area!  One day they went to the Long Beach Aquarium!  They loved seeing all the many different sea creatures!

Another day they went to the beach with Aunt Renee, Uncle Joe, and Uncle Russell!

 

With the summer we have had (broken arm for Faith!), this was the kids' first time at the beach since Memorial Day!

On Saturday Steve and I drove down with Olivia as we had a birthday party to attend in Bellflower!  Grandma watched all three while we went to the party!  Olivia was thrilled to see her siblings again!  She missed them, but I think she enjoyed the extra attention she received at home more than she missed the big kids!