Zoey started pre-school

Grant goes to 1st grade

Maggie's a big 4th grader

Good luck in school this year!  Say good-bye to summer activities... it's homework time!

Maggie celebrated her 9th birthday with friends at a frozen yogurt store. 

It was all you can eat yogurt... but mostly a little bit of yogurt and lots of candy!

The girls enjoyed eating frozen yogurt with each other and playing games. 

Happy 9th birthday, Maggie!

Maggie's actual birthday was on a Sunday this year, so she got to celebrate with friends and family!

This summer, we spent a little over a week in Utah with family.  Me and the kids drove all by ourselves!  Between my sisters and I, we jammed packed the week full of activities.  It was nice for the kids to spend time with their cousins, help my parents pack up some boxes so they could move and attend a family reunion.  

Color Me Mine.  Grant made a snake. 

Maggie made a piggy bank.

Zoey made a penguin

Touring the Taffy Town Factory.  Did you know that Salt Water taffy is actually a low sodium candy? It's called "Salt Water" because when it was first sold on the boardwalk, the sea mist would give it a salty taste.  It's not actually made with salt water.  

We all had to be semi-sterile to tour the factory. 

Mrs Cavanaugh's Chocolate factory. 

We don't have any drive-in movie theatres near us so we were glad to go to this one in Utah, even if we had already seen Despicable Me 2. 

The Tracy Bird Aviary with our friends, the Linton's. 

We attended the annual Butterfly ceremony to honor those who have passed on. 

The butterflies are supposed to "fly away" but it's kinda cool when they stick around for awhile. 

A cool show about bubbles.  Grant got picked as the volunteer to go inside a giant bubble. 

Cousins Laura and Garrett got a turn too!

Maggie's turn

Zoey's turn

Zoey successfully completed her 2nd year of swim lessons!

Grant really got into body surfing this year at the beach.  It was fun to watch him take off in the water!

One new thing we did this summer was attend the Monday night summer campfire at the Santa Monica Mountain's visitor center.  The park ranger would put on a little program and then we'd make s'mores.  The kids loved it!

We did an interesting and new thing this summer.... Crayfish trapping!  The crayfish (or crawdad or crawfish) have taken over the Santa Monica river and are endangering the natural population of the Chub fish.  The Santa Monica Mountains Ranger's offer a program where the you can go help catch these invading crayfish.  We actually met up with 4 men who use information gathered from this experience for their university studies.  

This is what the crayfish traps look like in the water. 

We were going to collect them in this bucket

This is the chub fish, which the crayfish like to eat. 

I didn't care so much for touching the crayfish... 

But all of the kids got used to it.  Maggie even got used to their pinching, which didn't hurt too much by the smaller crayfish. 

With every crayfish we caught, we were supposed to measure it's length.

That's a big one Zoey!!

We were also supposed to report if the crayfish was male or female. 

Grant is measuring his crayfish.

All these crayfish trappers deserve a slurpee!

The Endangered Species club

I think overall, we caught about 300+ crayfish.

Good job, Grant!

We started the summer off by picking vegetables and strawberries at our local farm.  Grant was astonished at the size of this zucchini.  He really wanted me to buy it, but I wasn't sure what to do with all that zucchini!

The avocado's proved difficult to pick!  There was lots of climbing of trees and team effort involved.  A lot of work for one avocado but so much fun!

After a hot day picking produce in the sun, we went home to make homemade strawberry freezer jam... mmmmmm!

Grant was chosen as a volunteer in this magic show. 

Maggie completed her first sewing project... this adorable pillowcase.  She picked out the fabrics herself, too!

This was a cute library show, probably our favorite show put on by these amazing balloon artists.  The kids (and adults) really enjoyed it!

Maggie had a blast going to Girl Scout camp with cousin Laura this year!

Dodger's game with family