Once Upon a Summer

I shan't bore you with woes and miseries of my inner mind as the summer draws to an end and a kindergartner and newborn are upon us.  Instead here's some pictures.  

We've been keeping busy this last half of the summer, just chilling here in Camarillo and soaking up the friends and sunshine.

Below, Amaryllis aka Rapunzel, photographed wearing bubble wrap as hair:

Always interesting fashion choices from these two girls.  Knee high socks paired with boots, tucked in shirts, and a fedora for some extra swag.

No, I haven't given her the American Girl doll yet...

More fashion moments:

Helping teach a cooking class (me? ha!) to the little tweens at church:

 Couch fabric selection + 5 weeks to make the couch = cranky pregnant lady with nowhere to sit.

Some much needed hair cuts:

Lots of nesting and home furnishing and rearranging and projects.  The entire downstairs of our new house is tile (it's a California thing) so we got a ginormous rug to warm it up:

Like I said, lots of sunshine:

And lots of new changes.  Kensington got a big girl bed, she looooves it.  

BABY SHOWER

aka: Santa Barbara Mommy Retreat

My mother-in-law and friend Kelly are pretty awesome.  I didn't want a "real" baby shower so I asked her if me and some friends could come hangout at The Bartlett Estate pool all day, kid-free.

Being the hostess she is, she made sure we had a great spread of spa food ready for us and treated us to pedicures, is that cool or what.

I think it's just what every mom needed at the end of the summer.  I loved looking across the salon and seeing Annie just in her moment:

My parents are in Chile serving a mission for our church (here is their blog if you want to keep up with them).  My mom kept saying she felt like even name-brand food was packaged smaller and the actual contents were smaller too, even though it was the same price as in the US, if not more.

So she sent us a picture of this oreo.

  

 And Char sent us a pict of the american Oreo below.  What do you think?  Yep, the American one goes from the top of "America" all the way down to the "one dollar".  Those poor Chileans, missing out on extra oreo goodness while us Americans get fatter and fatter.

Speaking of fat Americans.

 Food trucks are the new thing, haven't you heard?  You go to a park where they all line up and you gorge yourself on riduclously overpriced ginormous gourmet food.  Jake's was a triple decker with macaroni and cheese, inside a grilled cheese.  I ate the other half :)

 Another outfit from our fashionista:

Tea parties are back!  And so are princess dresses.  Just when I thought those days were over for Amaryllis, they have reemerged with Kensington, so fun:

And yes, more beach and more friends.

Q: "Why do we even bother putting out blankets when the kids just get them all sandy?"

A: "I guess it's just for ambiance."

I'll try to post some picts of our house and my full on maternity energetic nesting mode, but that seems like a lot of work, and I've hit the unenergetic lethargic fat wall, so I probably won't :)