Thatcher's School Pictures

I may have to start going to school on picture day for Thatcher. His second year of preschool (his first year he started school after photos were taken for the year) he removed his tie and messed up his hair. This year, the tie stayed (because I told his teacher it had to) but he is not doing his best Thatcher smile! Oh well, there is always next year which will be KINDERGARTEN! 

Happy 8th Birthday Lollipop!

Lollipop celebrated 8 years last week!

Beach run on her birthday.

I hate to interrupt all these beautiful photos of Lollipop with an injured seagull but it was horrifying. The poor thing was crying so loudly. I called the wildlife rescue and they said they would send someone out to help it. I followed up later with the person that said they were coming out but they never called me back so I am not thinking things went very positively.  

Back to Lolly. Not as spry and in shape but it happens to all of us...

This dog loves food so much that she actually lunged towards the lit candle and we had to grab her real quickly. Not the smartest parents to think Lollipop would actually blow out a candle...

We removed the flame and made her listen to us sing Happy Birthday. How annoyed does she look at having to wait?

Every year I send a photo of Lollipop to the reputable breeder we got her from. Yes, we got her from a "breeder" and yes I said "reputable". Way back when, Todd and I tried to rescue an Italian Greyhound and they said we were unfit because our home at the time didn't have the fenced yard they were looking for. So we did try. Anyway, she told us that Lollipop's dad, Emery, passed away in his sleep last year at 13 and was extremely healthy up until then. His show name was "Lorenc's Rhinestone Cowboy" and he was the number one Italian Greyhound in the US and in Canada at one time. He never lost his good looks she said. Lollipop's Mom, Daphne, was a beautiful AKC Champion with a show name of, "Kimson's Harlequin Romance" and went to a new family that had four other Italian Greyhounds. She has not heard from them in a while so she didn't have an update on Lollpop's mom. So, the moral of this story is Lollipop comes from a Champion Show Dog background which I think automatically makes her a Champion Show Dog.

Definitely a Champion Show Dog. 

Newscaster Sam

She's a little rusty on her delivery but I give her credit for creativity, holding the "TV" on her head and pretending to read a script as I looked at her papers afterward and they were blank!  

Team GSF: The Painted Cabernet Fundraiser

My friend Elena and her girlfriends put on a fundraiser for the Gwendolyn Strong Foundation at The Painted Cabernet this week and it was so SO fun! The Painted Cabernet has been on State Street for, I think, over a year now and we have yet to go because honestly I didn't think it would be that fun but I was wrong! I'm excited to go back!

You basically start with a blank canvas (and wine) and follow the instructors direction to do the featured painting of the evening OR they are totally fine with you going off on your own and painting something else. 

I started off following what the instructor was teaching. 

Side note: I am sitting next to Marina of YummyMummyKitchen.com which is so not fair. Who wants to sit next to a real artist at one of these things?! 

Five minutes into her painting it already started looking like a masterpiece. 

Mine.

Hers.

Mine.

Hers.

I may have been acting out some frustration at this point.

And then BAM, I made a lion which solidified that I was no longer following the instructor because we were supposed to be making this:

The featured painting, "Looking Up"

My painting started to look like a preschooler finger painting.

No comment at this point ;)

The hostess with her own interpretation.

And then suddenly I thought my lion looked more like an owl and that's what I went with. 

Artsy right?

And seriously, Yummy Mummy decides to do an owl too?! 

Mine.

Hers.

At least someone stuck to the featured artwork, nice job Laurie!

I texted a photo of my owl to Todd and he showed Thatcher who said, "he needs claws." So, those were added in.

Voila, my owl!

Never sit next to Marina while doing art. Darn her!

Such a fun night for a great cause!

Thank you Elena and friends! 

Players' Academy Educo Soccer

The Players' Academy Educo warm-up with Coach JJ is my favorite to watch. 

Samantha's School Pictures

Random September Photos

It's not very nice to eat ice cream in front of Lollipop and not share. 

Samantha tried out for the Educo Players' Academy soccer program which consisted of four sessions to see if she would make the cut and we found out last week that she was one of 10 girls selected out of the 40 that tried out in the first round!  

Almost two hours of straight soccer drills makes for a tired and sweaty kid. 

Afters school ice cream dates. 

On Thursdays, both kids have soccer practice and we spend over 2.5 hours at Willowglen park.  I go crazy and so does Samantha.

The Blue Wave Dolphins are having a great season and learning so much from Coach Jules. 

Thatcher has been on fire on the soccer field. He loves playing! 

P.S. The drought makes for ugly soccer fields. 

This particular week they both scored 5 goals total. Samantha has 6 goals so far this season and we've lost count with Thatcher, probably over 15 as he just scored five in one game yesterday. 

Date night at The Public Market. 

and Arigato. 

Thanks to the Paskins, we now have a Giants fan ;)

Double date night with the newlyweds, Valerie and David, at the new Villa Wine Bar

And another double date out with the Scherman's to Lucky Penny. 

Coach Jules had to miss one of the games so Coach Todd did a great job stepping in! 

After soccer lunch at Hollister Brewing Company. 

Family date night at Harry's. 

The Santa Barbara Mission on an early morning run. 

Twins. 

These

Two

Love

Birds.

The battle against friends on the soccer field.

TJ turned 7!

Drinks at The Marquee studying up on the flamenco show we were about to see at the Granada Theatre. 

We saw, "Nomada" featuring professional flamenco dancer Manuel Linan.  

The kiddos stayed home with our babysitter Jordan who always sends us cute updates.

Evan, Thatcher's preschool friend, turned four!

Date at Intermezzo. 

Taco Truck Pizza!

Sporting cat ears. 

Celebrating Laurie's birthday paddle boarding with friends. 

At the Scherman kids birthday party!

Cloud 10 fun!

These types of photos scare me though….

Movie night at the Paskin's. 

1st grade school work

The spelling is interesting.

Very interesting...