Reber Round-Up

I took Meg for an evaluation lesson this week at some new stables.  The instructor was very strict! Meg did awesome and earned her reins!  She has been riding Western but the instructor only teaches English.  I was so proud of Meg because she thought about it in the car and said, "Well, it's not bad to know different styles of riding."  Way to be well rounded Meg!!

 Meg and horses......such a happy girl when she is around them.

 Her other current interest is her little flower garden.  She tends to them each day.

 Owen is keeping me on my toes.  Lesson for this week:  The East Coast has poison ivy the West Coast has poison oak.  Owen is allergic to poison oak.  So off to the doctor we went.
It doesn't look too bad here but this stuff is nasty and hard to get rid off.  We are nearing the end of a week battle.

 We were up several nights itching! But this kid is always happy... not much gets him down.  He had one small area on his face and we are very thankful it didn't spread.  The insides of his legs were not so lucky. Part of our homeschool this week was looking at images of poison oak.

 Cupcakes in order!! We had fun watching the final episode of Survivor

 Supplies

 Meg and Owen hard at work

 Almost there

 Final product:  Bubble wands!!

 Owen and Meg love bubbles. They will make them in the evenings and it attracts a crowd!  The little kids in the neighborhood love them!  Their parents love how it entertains them.  We thought we would make more wands so the kids can join in on making the bubbles.

 The famous golf course Pebble Beach.  Just down the road from us.

 We headed off to Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  Our first face to face encounter with the majestic Redwoods!!

This is the maintenance truck:
           it has made several stops at our house.  We had ants so they came by a week ago to treat for those.  Then just a few days ago the smoke detector in Owen's room would go off every 15 min.  so here comes the van again.  The man said when he tried to take the smoke alarm down LOTS of ants came out.  He said there were loads of nests in the detector and the ants were  making the detector go off.  hmmmm.... was about all I had for that.   The guy put in a new one and we headed to Home Depot ASAP to get some ant treatment.  Between itching legs and ants on his ceiling Owen's big thoughts on this were "weird".

This is the beautiful candle the kids gave me for Mother's Day.  I picked it out at Anthropologies.  I read on another blog that they had good candles and I really like it.  It is called Volcano.  

I took Meg to get a haircut... this girl has very thick hair!

 exploring

 Owen and the boys - Owen is such a good sport he will play hours with these little guys.

 More Bubble making

 Meg has been wanting a door mat since we moved in.  So we let her pick one out.  She selected this one!  It is the little things!!

The little neighborhood guys come around asking for Owen quite often.  The other day while I was sitting on the couch there was a knock on the door and a sweet little girl's voice said, "can Meg play?"
My mamma heart said, "Thank you Lord, you are so gracious! Please let this little girl and Meg be friends."  The kids have played outside more here in the last few weeks then months at out last station.  Loads of "thank you" prayers this week.  Thank you Lord for the maintenance truck.... thank you the poison oak is going away... thank you for neighbors... thank you for a doctor to take Owen to... thank you for bubbles.... thank you for welcome mats... and the list goes on and on!!

Finding Our Way

We unpacked the final boxes.  Hauled off all the broken down boxes to the recycle center and it is finally feeling like "home". 

 Meg is amazing... she works and works until every little item is in its place in her room.  She accomplished all of this in one day!  She likes the lights hung, pictures up and all hooks in place!

 I have this sitting room together

 They mowed our backyard and we all did a happy dance.  The grass was up to our knees and piled full of boxes.  The previous tenants left these garden boxes with all that stuff set up.  Meg planted tomato plants this week and we have strawberries but the bugs keep getting them.  Meg and I are working on that.

 Meg also planted these flowers

 Then it was off to explore the famous aquarium.  It did not disappoint.  It was amazing.

 Sandollars

 Meg loved all the quotes they had throughout the building

  We stopped at a place for French Crepes.  They got Pascal's seal of approval!  Truly authentic! The owner is from Brittany and he and Pascal had a nice conversation.

 New running trail

 We checked out where Pascal will attend classes.  Check out the deer near the parking lot.

 Then we headed off on Scenic Highway 1 and we were blown away.  We grabbed some lunch items at a grocery store and had a picnic in the car as we drove.

 We couldn't really take it in.  We just stood in awe!  It was just overwhelming... so much of God's beauty at once.

We also visited an Orthodontist this week. Owen is 1/2 way through his treatment and we need to find someone to finish up the process for us.  This is proving to be a little harder than we thought.  We are trusting God as we know He will show us the right fit.

Funny side note:  there are three Owens on our street!  With our Owen that makes four!!