Sliding Into Summer

The last month of the school year turned into a marathon at sprint speed of parties, activities, assessments times two. Can we tell you how excited we are for the kids to be at the same school, on the same schedule in the fall?

Clara “graduated” from her preschool class (Green Bears) at All Saints By the Sea. We ended the year with the mom and kids campout at El Capitan Canyon. Clara had her ups and downs this year, she is our shy, tomboy, perfectionist— it can take her awhile to find her groove. It was amazing to watch her in the thick of it with all her (adorable) classmates living it up in the wilderness…well, wilderness Santa Barbara style. To see all the ways our baby girl has grown in confidence, kindness and friendship this year was incredible. Here’s to kindergarten!

Ben loved his first year at Montecito Union and he ended the year reading and writing (short stories, non-fiction, poetry) like a champ. His favorite activities were basketball games at recess, technology class and science. He won two silver medals in chess and is now teaching Clara how to play. We are so thankful for all the opportunities to learn and grow with great kids— it makes our rent/square footage ratio worth it. (This is his self-portrait at the start of the year and at the end). 

The kids played their first season of T-Ball on the A’s. It was kind of the rag-tag team of the league. But all the kids had such a sweet spirit that they just had fun playing. All of Ben’s buddies from school were on another team (the best in the league) and it was a season of learning about sticking with your team, loyalty and sportsmanship. In the end, all Ben and Clara really wanted was the trophy— which left us wondering if we could have just ordered them off Amazon and slept in all those Saturdays.

This is the only couple picture ever taken with Mark wearing no glasses (Leah just wanted to see what it would look like-it looks weird, right?).

Love from all of us!