back to school

it FINALLY arrived - the first day of school!
the boys started back this past monday.
i'm not sure who was more ready - the boys or their parents.
i say this not because the boys were difficult to deal with.
they weren't at all. it's just 10 weeks is a really long time. 
like many working parents, we'd prefer them to be in year round school,
with multiple shorter breaks throughout the year. it would be easier and
more affordable this way. my guess is many stay at home parents would
prefer this too.

so this is how the gerber boys spent their summer 2017:

for the first 5 weeks, junior lifeguards kept them active and got them in
great shape. they spent their days swimming, running, paddling, surfing,
doing pushups and sit-ups the correct way. when someone cheats, the
entire group had to start over. geez - those instructors don't mess around!
the session ended with the junior guards jumping off the ocean beach pier.
{this deserves it's own separate post which i'll try to get to later}.
the boys love it - it's their favorite part of the entire program!

the week following junior lifeguards, c put the boys in three weeks of tennis camp.
actually, finn just did 2 weeks of tennis as he opted for a science camp the third week.
the last 2 weeks of summer was filled with play dates and sleepovers. we had my friend
aspen's 2 sons with us for 3 nights as she got away to catalina island with her guy.
the boys are close in ages to finn and scout and they get along beautifully.
i have to give a proper shout out to c because he did the lion's share of the

shuttling and childcare this summer. yes, he has the job that has the flexibility and
allows him to do this, but frankly, i wouldn't trade places with him during the summer
months because he was on the road ALOT!  with all those additional parents, nannies
and tourists, san diego streets and freeways are even more clogged than usual during the
summer months, and it's no fun at all!  i'm not blaming tourists..even all those zonies.


i'd come here to escape 115+ degree desert temperatures too. i actually did this every
weekend the summer of 1996 when c was living and interning in san diego just for the
summer and i was still in tucson. i drove 10 hours roundtrip every weekend to see c.
{this was the summer we fell in love with san diego and decided we would find a way
to move there after tucson}. the boys have been in school for almost a week now and
are off to a good start. scout is thrilled with his 5th grade teacher, mr. govoni.
his teacher is the father of scout's good friend who is also a student at explorer.
scout has known him for years and he even spent a long weekend camping with mr. g
and his friend this past spring, so this week has been a walk an easy transition for scout. 
as a 5th grader, scout said he "rules the school" and is looking forward to getting a
'little buddy' assigned to him soon. this year, the 5th graders will be 'big buddies' to kindergartners.
scout said he can hardly believe how small they are. i didn't tell him that it seems like just
yesterday HE was that small kindergartener. *sigh*

finn oliver is now an 8th grader and i can hardly believe he is in his last year of middle school.
he may look like a 6th grader, but he certainly doesn't sound like one. his voice is changing and
he seems closer to adulthood than childhood. then again, he's always been an old soul and acted
more like an adult than a child. his voice isn't the only thing that's changing. he's growing!
yep, i measured both boys on the surfboard grow chart in their bedroom last week and finn is
almost 5' tall. i find myself looking almost directly into his eyes now when we talk. this reminds
me i need to pick up a few collared shirts for him {remember he prefers collared shirts to t-shirts}.

when i inquired asked about school, he reported that he thinks 8th grade will be a great year,
but he still needs another few weeks with his teachers to 'access' them. of course he does.
i hope they meet his expectations. if they meet his, they'll meet mine.

our growing gerblets as they begin a new school year:

1st day of school - scout {9}+ finn {13}

the great american solar eclipse

this is really cool mom. here take my glasses and see for yourself.
- scout, age 10




for several months leading up to the solar eclipse, i had been hearing a bit of talk.
unlike my firstborn who follows NASA daily and what's going on in the universe,
i only knew that on august 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse would be visible within a
band across the united states - from the pacific to the atlantic. from here in san diego,
we would be able to see about 60% of it. that's really the gist of what i knew.  


finn had mentioned it a few times, as well as some of my coworkers {engineers of course},
and the most excitement actually came from a retired gentlemen who is in my body pump
class on saturday mornings. he's a huge space enthusiast and loves to hear what finn is into
or what he is reading. at some point i will get the two of them together - they'll enjoy each
other's company.  so this gentlemen told me how he was driving to oregon  so he would have
an opportunity to be directly in the path to see the TOTAL solar eclipse.  he was so excited
and even asked if our family was interested in joining him. oh how i would have loved to.
oregon is at the top of my places to visit, but c's work projects are at critical stages and
it's not the best time to travel. {we have a trip to tucson in october we are excited about}.


since the last eclipses was visable across the total united states was in 1918, i thought we
should take advantage of this rare occasion. i took the morning off from work and took my two,
as well as the garrett boys, who had spent the last 3 nights with us, and we drove to kate sessions
park since it sits higher than our street at home. though there was some cloud coverage, the sun
broke through and we were able to get a good view of it around 10:15am. we only had four
pairs of glasses so i waited until scout offered his so i could see how "cool" this eclipse
was. and yes, it was pretty cool.

scout's 10th birthday celebration

to usher in his double digit birthday, scout really wanted a trampoline party.
he LOVES trampolines {like his momma}, but i was a little surprised he chose this because
he spends so much time jumping on his buddy dash's trampoline. i thought he might have
grown tired of it, but his love for jumping hasn't waned a bit.

since double digit birthdays are really special, and he's never had anything but backyard or park
birthday parties, i agreed to this off-site party. he had gone to get air for a friend's party,
and wanted to go there so i booked.  scout invited all his closest buddies,
with the exception of his bestie spencer who is living in spain. 

so on july 10th, the birthday boy got breakfast in bed and got to choose his menu.
he chose pancakes with blueberries, strawberries, whipped cream and bacon.
finn woke up early and helped me pull out the serving tray and arrange the fruit.
we carried it into his room pretty early because both boys had to be at jr. lifeguards
by 8:30am. scout was sound asleep as we entered the room singing happy birthday softly.
he sat up smiling with his tousled hair standing on end. after watching scout eat for a while,
finn ran back to the kitchen to get a little plate of food and brought into scout's room and sat
on the opposite end of his bed to keep scout company. we then watched our double digit kid
open cards and gifts from the family.

this past weekend, scout's birthday party finally happened! his friends from school and the neighborhood
were dropped off at our home mid-morning, and mr. g and i shuttled them to the trampoline park in two vehicles.
for 2 hours, the boys jumped, flipped, wrestled and played dodgeball. watching them made it clear to me why waiver's
are required for all jumpers. when the boys weren't playing dodgeball, they were taking turns jumping and flipping into
a giant pit of foam squares. it looked like so fun, I decided i had to give it a try. c wanted nothing to do with it
{he didn't grow up with a trampoline and thinks they are dangerous}. *sigh* i grew up with a trampoline so they don't phase me at all.
i'd love one in our backyard if we could find space for it. as i watched the boys flip into the pit, one after another, i admit, i was scared,
but since i had an audience of boys cheering me on, i got the confidence to do it. the boys, especially my three, were impressed their
middle age mom/wife did it. i was impressed i did it too {without injury}.  what a fun day. scout wants to have a mom/son date here
 in the future and i told him we will definitely be back.


after the trampoline park, c and i shuttled the boys home for cake and to swim and do a little archery. even though the boys had eaten
4 pizzas an hour earlier, they had no problem eating desert. christopher brought out the cake that he baked and decorated for scout.
there had been  discussion on whether the cake should be a trampoline, but in the end, they decided on a simple target cake,
since scout has been enjoying archery in the backyard so much. scout chose german chocolate for the simple round cake that c decorated
with white frosting and m&ms to make the bull's-eye and surrounding colored rings. it turned out beautifully!  i can't begin to describe
how much scout loved his cake.he was literally beaming when he saw his dad's final creation.
some photo highlights: