After the kids have left...

for school, I have some time to myself. This is the first full week of school but I've done some errands and shopping for more shorts for Tyler. I do need to have the Pilot's oil changed , get my hair cut and eyes examined but that will get done when I feel like it.

This morning I felt like a short mini-photowalk after taking Josh to school.

Hockeyfest 2011

Woohoo, hockey is almost here!! Hockeyfest is the event that the LA Kings present to kickstart the season with introductions to the players, coaches etc with fun events like a funzone for kids/adults, family skate on Staples Center ice and autograph sessions.

My kids are not huge hockey fans but they still had fun. Josh got to ice skate, both kids made fun videos with Drew Doughty and players card. There were several Q & A sessions with players, former and current but the best one was the kids press conference asking questions to 4 players. Very entertaining.

This event just gets us amped up for the season and training camp begins this Saturday!! :)

Hector in the penalty box. Two minutes for poking.

Tyler showing his support.

Go Kings!

Riding the wild snowboard.

Ice skating.

Relief

After almost a week of heat and humidity, our weather is nice and cool again.

The sky after the rain.

Pretty

This morning I woke to thunder and rain which was kind of nice. As I drank my coffee, another brief rain deluge came down and Josh was excited to go outside. By the time he got out, the rain had stopped and we were left with the just rained smell.
The clouds opened up just for a quick glimpse of sky and sun.

A glimpse of sky and sun.

Today was karate and instead of taking my usual knitting, I brought my camera and took some pics of the area.

school

It's really nice that both boys' schools start on Thursday which may seem odd at first but it gives the kids a chance to ease into school. Go to school for 2 days and hey, it's the weekend!! :)

Tyler had some stress and anxiety in the weeks leading into school but thankfully, the first 2 days were non-eventful. Middle school seemed like such a huge obstacle but Tyler and his friends made it thru unscathed (for now). I didn't take pics of Tyler because I didn't want him to feel self conscious

Josh enters the 3rd grade and had no issues either. The homework for both kids will amp up so I'll be busy too. :)

So here is Josh before entering school and he looks confident.

Sunning

Our last day of summer was yesterday so I thought since both kids enjoyed the ocean the day before, we could go swimming the next. They were all for it but after 40 minutes, Joshua had enough and was cold. He promptly asked for hot chocolate and mini marshmallows.

While I was preparing his hot chocolate, Josh found the the sunlight streaming in and lay right down to warm himself like a cat. :) I ran and got my camera to catch my little guy sunning himself. He's still so very adorable.

Photo Essay

I'm gonna try something a bit different today. I shot a series of photos of this kid on the beach because I liked how he positioned himself among these piles of seaweed.



His parents sat about 5 feet back and were talking with their friends so I don't think they were keeping a sharp eye on the guy but he was definitely close by.



I was watching him Ihis back was to his parents and he would pull a piece of seaweed off & put it in his mouth, then throw it away. I saw him do this several times so I finally alerted his parents that he might be putting seaweed in his mouth.



They were really nice and kind of laughed about it saying he likes to pop the seaweed between his fingers to get that salty sea water spray. They made sure he wasn't eating it and thanked me anyway.



This little boy reminded me of the curly headed toddler son in the movie Parenthood that he did silly things throughout the movie ie. spinning, putting a bucket on his head and butting the wall. :)

Hot Flash

After such a cool and nice Labor Day weekend, a heat wave descended upon us so I whisked the kids away to the beach. I noticed the temp gauge in the car was 83* and just a mere 3-4 miles later, it dropped to 77*. That made a big difference and it was a lovely day at the beach.



Perfect, actually with warm sun and a nice easy breeze to cool us down and the water was cool (at first) but great too. Josh usually can't last more than 30 minutes being wet but we stayed for 3 hours. :)

The kids romped in the waves while Tyler ventured out further into the waves to try his bodyboarding skills. They had a great time burrowing into the sand to make waterways, tunnels and bridges.

 Joshua caught a massive sand crab too.



Tyler found a long 8 foot piece of seaweed attached to a rock to haul around.



It was a great way to end our summer although we have one more day before school starts.