Samantha participated in the 5th grade debate and had to defend her position to not reopen the oil platform, Platform Holly.
She did this in front of parent and faculty judges.
These are smiles of relief because these two won the debate!
Maximizing the soccer carpool time with a stop to do homework and eat chocolate croissants.
Then dropping one group of kids off and picking up the other!
Felt very loved on Mother's Day!
Samantha gives me the best cards. We spend a lot of time in the car going to school and activities (and I like to judge other people's driving 🤣) and we make it fun by calling into radio stations to win prizes. We've gotten pretty lucky including winning free tickets to see J Lo 😎.
Todd also is a good card giver ❤️
And the winner this year might be Thatcher, "Ronda, with the beautiful eyes..." 🤗 My little poet!
I love all my handmade gifts!
Samantha sculpted me. I'm a little worried about my legs 🤣
Sam and I did a mother/daughter spin class at StarCycle.
Reunion weekend with my favorite happy hour crew. Laurie and Holley don't live in SB anymore and as our kids have gotten older and gone in different directions with schools and activities, our regular Friday get-togethers went away. When the kids were younger I would protect those Fridays and say we weren't available for anything extracurricular, but now they are on more focused teams and if you want your spot, you gotta do some Fridays.
I see Holley a lot because of work travel but it is always nice to see her in SB!
Leanne was nominated for an entrepreneurship award and....
She won!
So deserved for how much she does for the community.
Continuing the celebration at the Miramar.
Leanne's mom passed about a month prior and we paid tribute to her at her ranch in Santa Ynez.
Leanne organized a beautiful celebration of life.
Angela used to throw barn dances here so that's exactly what she did in her memory.
3rd grade passion project
Todd (I mean, Thatcher) made a bat box. 🤣
We headed down to Riverside to meet my parents for lunch.
Anyone else have a kid that ALWAYS spills his drink at restaurants?
My mom was going through cancer treatments but was up for some grandkid time.
Visiting with their neighbors.
Short and sweet visit and thankfully my mom has made a full recovery over a year later.
Ron wearing my mom's wig. 🤣
Meeting with these lovely ladies to discuss upcoming events for the GSF!
Sam's passion project for school was to learn what it takes to be an interior designer and our friend, Sarah, was so kind to take Sam under her wing and show her the ropes.
Samantha participated in Nite Moves on Wednesday nights when she was available.
Samantha Fallon 11F Santa Barbara CA 23:21 7:31 7 1/7 F11-14
First in her age group and 7th overall for females. Not bad for a 5k!
Joining the cutest cheer squad to cheer for her friends.
Lot's of school and neighborhood friends run each week.
While waiting for our table at Arigato, we headed to the Public Market for drinks and the kids ordered appetizers.
Which ended up being very large appetizers.
It made our tab cheaper at Arigato, so that's a plus.
Also, whenever we go out as a family of four, I'm demoted to the backseat.
Had to take a photo to show that Thatcher was wearing pants. That never happens.
Alicia turned 40!
Sam was proud of learning to french braid her own hair!
Thatcher getting a head massage before soccer practice.
Still plugging away at piano and every once in a while she'll play for others.
This is a good audience to play in front of.
Lollipop sleeps with her eyes open if Thatcher is next to her in case of any sharp moves. 🤣
Checking out school projects at the Academic Showcase at Peabody.
Thatcher (and Todd) were excited to show off the bat box.
The only kid in the classroom who left a note to not touch his project. 🤪🤣
Sam's passion project was still in process.
We miss Mrs. Heffernan ❤️
One of our wild rabbits.
Sam and I called KIIS FM 111 times to win tickets to J Lo. 🎉 The excitement quickly dissipated when Sam realized she wasn't that familiar with J Lo's music. 😬
Samantha's dance evaluation makes me so happy. I never thought she'd add in dance with how into sports she is.
Vela's birthday party!
Loving Vela's outfit here!
Biking down to lower State St. with this crew.
This crew entertained themselves.
Side note: Amelia is an incredible gymnast!
She performed her whole floor routine for all of State St. to see!
Todd and I like to send each other random/funny/embarrassing personalized license plates we see. This fell in the random category.
3rd grade scavenger hunt field trip around town.
This was very cool as it was constructed by an ancestor of Thatcher's teacher, Mrs. Craviotto!
I chaperoned the trip and one of the clues was inside the SB Art Museum and there was a picture of Russ on the cover of a brochure. Definitely a sign!
So proud.
🐶
🤗
🐶🤗😎
This may be why Samantha got so into braiding her hair so much.
The Lovin' Spoonful slideshow never gets updated and I am happy about that!
The tooth fairy absolutely left Pokemon cards after this sweet note. ❤️
Leaving the pantry door open is a huge no-no.
We've learned this lesson a handful of times.
Not only is it a mess in the entire house, but it takes about 72 hours for Lollipop to feel better. 😳
She even opened an oatmeal packet. 😳
Representing Auntie Holley's favorite team.
Peabody lunch time!
Sarah sent me this photo of Sam.
And then this one. Twinsies - kind of! 👯♀️
I think I cried when this taco platter from Costco spilled in my new car. 😩
Jack's video game truck birthday party!
Thatcher and Gus' piano duet!
And sadly, Lollipop was diagnosed with something called Vestibular Disease. She basically had a seizure (I watched it) and soon after was roaming around trying to figure out where she was and how to walk. She lost most of her sight and hearing. This condition is common in old dogs.
The good news is dogs can recover from it and she did in some ways, but the sight/hearing didn't come back fully and she's definitely got a head tilt and a funny sideways walk.
This is her about a week before, the last time she's ever walked in a straight line.
Unfortunately she's had vestibular episodes a couple more times since then, but she keeps bouncing back, although she gets a little more sideways each time! 🤗🐶
