It's All About Laura

Over the near-decade that we have been at Christ the King School, a LOT of things have changed. But one constant in the First Grade curriculum is to start the year off with the "It's All About Me Tee" poster. This glimpse of Clare's is a bit poignant on this, her first full day of high school - but it also shows me that at 14, she's really not so different from her 6-year-old self, which is truly heart-warming. This look at Danny's (and an updated look at fifth-grade Clare) made me chuckle, both because Danny is also pretty consistent but mostly because of my comment about wondering what Laura's project would look like. In the blink of an eye, we found out.

Favorite subjects:
P.E.
Math
Library
Art
(In other words, not a ton of overlap with her siblings.)

Places I like to go:
Disneyland
Slingshot
Xdrenaline
Pool
(Note the recurrence of places that involve action.)

Things I like to do:
At home: Playdates (preferably with Meghan)
At school: Be with friends
In the community: Play soccer

This is my favorite:
Food: CAKE!
Song: Ways to be Wicked (from Descendants 2; biting my tongue from making comments here...)
Movie: Descendants 2
Book: Isle of the Lost (Which is the first Descendants novel. Herein lies the one flaw with this project - these types of answers easily vary from month to month or even week to week. Oh well!)

In summary, Laura is very much her own person, and her own Seymour - and we like that just fine!

First Day of 5th and 1st Grades

Incredibly, yet another new school year has rolled around! Laura is off to First Grade with Ms. Bradshaw, while Danny heads into Fifth Grade with Mrs. Nagle. Should be a good one for both!

Laura the Pianist

Laura has been asking about piano lessons for a while. I'm guessing it's a combination of having seen her older siblings attend lessons, as well as her continued attraction to music. Based on our neighbor's glowing recommendation, and the wonderful convenience of the teacher's location (five minutes from the house!), I made an inquiry and secured her a slot for this year. She was thrilled. I would say the first lesson was a great success, too, and hope it's the beginning of a long career!

California Dreamin', Summer 2017

I suspect the days of our lengthy summer travels to visit grandparents are numbered, but for now I happily report on our 14th summertime tour to Fallbrook/San Diego. As usual, it did not disappoint! In fact, if there is any trade-off for managing some teenagers, it's outweighed by the adults' ability to relax and steer the agenda.

Over the course of our 12 days, we did a LOT. This included 5 trips to the beach; a day at Disneyland; a day at the Del Mar horse races; a day in San Diego with Parlin where we visited Old Town and USD; shopping; eating, and time at the Morlan compound. 

I also spent a blissful day with my Uni girls, learning to surf with Terri and then hanging at the spa with everyone.

Quality time with so many quality people. I don't necessarily love summer, but I do relish times and trips like these!