First Day of School at St. Brendan, 4th and 1st

The kids started school today at their new school, St. Brendan Catholic School. They were so so nervous but so so ready to get it going. Nervous about being the new kids and learning the system at a new place but excited to meet new friends. A couple weeks before school started, a sweet mom of one of the 4th grade girls, Rossanna and her daughter Ilaria, emailed us to see if we wanted to meet up a couple times before school started. Such a great idea! Ella was thrilled to meet someone before school started so she would have a friendly face. Also, there was another new 4th grade girl starting which was even better and we were able to meet with her a couple times too! The 1st grade class had a little meet and greet at the park near our house before school started which enabled Luke to also meet some of the kids. All of these made them feel so much better about being new! One of the best things about this school is its only 2 minutes from our house! I'm really happy about that!
Here we are on the first day:

 This is in front of their school. They only went from 9-10:30 the first day but I think it went really well and they are ready for tomorrow!

Seward slides

We know school is coming up soon (they start their new school August 26th) so the kids and I have been trying to do as many cool things around the city as we can. I had heard from a few people we have met here that the Seward slides in Castro and really fun. So, we mapped out our destination and headed over there one day. It was a huge hit! We have gone back several times already. AB and I even went down them several times! We learned the trick to going super fast was using wax paper so the next time we went we brought some with us and yes, it definitely works!

The sweetest landlords and a tour of San Francisco

Our landlords are John and Ellen. They do not own the house we live in but do all the repairs. They live in the neighborhood with us. After we moved in they offered to take us on a tour of the city to help us figure this place out and show us some pretty unique places only people that have lived in San Francisco their entire lives would know. So, the tour first started with a visit to a neighbor's backyard where they have chickens! The kids loved holding them and feeding them corn.

Then we loaded up in their van and started the tour. It was really really great! They took us everywhere! Over the bay bridge to Treasure Island where we got some fantastic views of the city and the FOG!

They drove us all around the Embarcadero where all the large ships and barges were docked. They also drove us down Lombard street and let the kids stand up through the sun roof to enjoy the view! They loved it!

After lunch, they took the kids to Ghiradelli Square for some enormous sundaes!

They then took us down to the Presidio to the Wave Organ, a systems of pipes that stick out into the ocean and come up on the beach like an Organ. The sound of the waves hitting the pipes sound like music. Really neat! Here we got a nice group picture before heading back home. We are so lucky to have such nice landlords....I think its rare in this city!

Penny Toss

The kids and I have had lots and lots of time together that last couple of months since moving out here. We have pretty much done everything we can think of inside this house and the kids were bored one Saturday night. So, I remembered a game I used to play with my siblings (and my dad and mom!) which we called Penny Toss. We had three old coffee cans (which I don't think they even sell anymore) and a bunch of pennies. We would throw pennies and try to make them into the can, whoever made it into their can fist got to pick up all the pennies on the floor....first one to run out of pennies lost. Pretty simple game but hours and hours of so much fun! So the kids and I played and again hours and hours of fun! They loved it. The only problem....I wish we had the same old coffee cans they were really the best! And yes, Annabeth added some excitement/chaos to the whole game! We have played it many times since!

Our first offical beach day

After our first trip to the beach, we knew we wanted to head back soon because it was so much fun. This time we were prepared to get wet and sandy!
We drove down to Ocean Beach which is right off the Great Highway. It was a very quiet, warm day. We threw out our blanket and set up camp.

Annabeth loved the water as much as the big kids did! When the cold water would hit her little legs she would squeal and smile so big!
 It didn't take long and the kids were wet and covered in sand......did I mention COVERED in SAND! Luckily we have the perfect shower downstairs in the playroom to wash all these sandy kids off with! We had such a great day and found lots of sand dollars to take home with us! Can't wait to go again!

Camping out at Home

We really want to do some serious camping here in CA on the beach but since we aren't quite ready for such an adventure, the kids and I camped out on the back deck. Ella and Luke had such a good time helping me set it up and AB couldn't get off of that mattress. She LOVED it! I wished I would have recorded some of her squeals. So sweet how much she loves playing with Ella and Luke these days. We ate snacks, played card games and laughed way too loud! Our neighborhood is so quiet you can hear everything! It is a very usual neighborhood in SF and we love it that way!

A Ferry ride to Sausalito

The kids have been dying to ride a boat across the bay...actually they want to go out in the ocean but that will have to be a trip when Lyle is with us not sure I can do that one alone with these kids! So, one afternoon we braved our way to the Embarcadero where we caught a ferry ride over to the little town of Sausalito. It was about a 30 minute ride across the bay.

It was a really cute little town where we had lunch and walked up and down the boardwalk looking at crabs climbing on all the rocks. It was a fun day and I was pretty proud of myself for getting us there and back safely!