Monday, June 17, 2013

April-June 2013

  Hello to all of you blog followers of ours,

After receiving the 5th email this week about the status of our blog, I am finally sitting down to work on it. Patrick is away so I have had lots of time to work through my "to do" list.  I have been organizing/purging our belongings in the rental house before the big move. Now that I have done all that I can do on that front, I can no longer procrastinate. It was either the blog or finishing up the Shutterfly album for our last 6 months in the UK :)

We have been busy with the house. We move in on Friday, June 28th. I will be sure to include some photos at the end. Patrick is away for 2 weeks in the Netherlands and Malaysia (we think that it is the first time since we lived in Australia that he has been away for 2 consecutive weeks). Fortunately, my mom was here for one of the weeks, which was great and super helpful.

Speaking of visitors, we have had lots of visitors these past 3 months. At the end of March/start of April, the Jones family came to visit us from the UK (Jaeda and Jenna were in Form 2 and 3 together at Upton House School in Windsor).

Rhys, Sienna, Jaeda and Jenna at Butterfly Beach (beach by our new house)

Jaeda and Jenna


Santa Barbara Stearns Wharf

all of us out for dinner at a restaurant on the wharf
Easter morning egg hunt
Sienna reading to Reece before bed


counting their eggs

family Easter brunch at the Bacara

the beautiful Bacara


After the Jones family left, the Ringrose family arrived a few days later. Kate, Chris, Evie and Nick are also friends of ours from Windsor (Sienna and Evie were in Nursery-aka JK and Transition-aka Kindergarten together at Upton House School).

the kids at Paseo Nuevo

Sienna and Evie walking down State Street

the kids running around our new backyard



Shoreline Cafe for lunch



dinner at our place on Lighthouse Road
                The next group of photos are from the Condor Express boat trip that we took.










lots of pelicans


yes we got to see whales!!!



lots of people paddle boarding




out for lunch on the wharf before the Ringroses departed


we all were able to fit on one of the carts!!



OUCH......I got so excited at boot camp that I got the last treadmill that I didn't even notice that someone had left it on. Still healing 2 mths later.

one of our favorite parks (home to tons of turtles)


We went to the Pacific Pride Royal Ball at the Bacara Resort. Hands down that it was the BEST event we have ever been to!!!







Look who we saw there.......these aren't photos that I took though but it is them that night :)

Rob Lowe and Billy Baldwin

Andrew and Ivana Firestone


We had lovely visit from my cousin Anna who drove down from Seattle with her friend Betsy.



Anna and I at Butterfly beach

Billy Baldwin as the host for the "Saks in the City" charity event that I went to here in town.

Here are some photos from Sienna's Adderley performance of "Sound of Music". She played Maria, so it was A LOT of work for us at home and as great of an experience it was for her (especially considering the school thought she was selectively mute in JK/Nursery), I must say that I wasn't disappointed when it was all over.






Sienna and her friends



A few photos from Sienna's "First Friday" presentation in May.




Below are some photos from the Crane's school auction event which is held at the Crown Casino (not a casino but part of the Four Seasons). It was a "Togas and Tiaras" theme. I still can't believe that Patrick dressed up. I honestly think he was more worried about standing out by being the only one in a suit :)












many dolphins swam by during the event

We went to see a children's production of "Gypsy. It was put on by the Adderley School (the theatre arts program that the girls do in the community) and it was held at the Lobero Theatre here in Santa Barbara. Host was Don Johnson (no more Miami Vice white suit for him).



Mother's Day

                                    Some photos from Track and Field day at the school.






Sienna's class cheering on the big kids

Sienna with her favorite teacher (performing arts)




Jaeda's last volleyball session for the season at UCSB


Gymnastics' show final for the year







May 18th...Sienna finally learned how to ride her bike without training wheels and yes, we went out and got her a new and bigger bike after she mastered this one :)





We have been trying to get out for family Sunday hikes up the mountain or trail walks. This walk was in the Douglas Family Preserve (not far from our house). The girls love their Camelback packs and new hiking shoes.








looking over the cliff to Patrick's favorite breakfast place on Hendry's beach


the school organized 3 different food trucks to come on one of the hot lunch days (a taco truck, a panini truck and a pulled pork truck)
the new bike


At the end of May, we went to Cabo which is in Mexico for our friend, Mike's 40th birthday. Mike, Dave, Ryan are some of Patrick's closest friends. They all went to the University of Western Ontario together and played on the varsity volleyball team together. The 4 couples all flew in from different places (New York, Alberta and Ontario). Thank you Joey for organizing!! An incredible trip with incredible friends!!!

Patrick's parents came to visit and to take care of the girls while we went away for 4 amazing nights!!!!! 


Patrick, me, Dave, Tasha, Mike, Joey, Ryamn

Tasha, Joey and I



at the Container restaurant for dinner in San Jose



Ryan, Pam, Dave, Mike, Patrick, me, Tasha, Joey


Pam and I






dinner at the One and Only Palmilla








dinner at Javier's restaurant at resort (Cabo Azul) that we stayed at

 Pam, me, Joey, Tasha...thanks for all of the chats and great laughs





just a tad bit of competition...eekkkss






in Cabo San Lucas for dinner...on our way to Edith's






When we got back from Cabo we went to San Ysidro Ranch to the Stonehouse restaurant to celebrate Patrick's mom's birthday and a belated Mother's Day.










June has been an incredibly busy month. The girls have had lots of birthday parties so far, Jaeda had her class trip to the Chumash Discovery Village in Malibu, we had a baby shower for one of the moms in Sienna's class, Sienna had a biographies assembly at school, Jaeda had her final performance for theatre group (High School Musical), both girls had their end of the year class parties (which occur during the school day off of the school campus), Sienna had her graduation, Jaeda had the 3rd grade egg drop, Sienna had her last First Friday (in the library where they each got up on a chair and thanked their parents for something from the year), the girls had field day on their last day of school (Thursday, June 13th), my mom was here for a week and Patrick will have been away for 2 weeks. Oh and we are finalizing everything at the new house before we move in next week. Are you tired yet after reading all of that??!!! I sure am and we aren't even at the end of the 3rd week of June.

Some photos of the Jaeda's class trip to Chumash reserve





The third grade egg drop. The kids had to design a vehicle for their raw egg that could survive the     drop from the top of Cate Hall. Jaeda survived the drop from our balcony at home but not from the roof at school :(





                                                                    Sienna's last First Friday.




The girls are still really wanting a dog. With Jaeda's allergies, we are still desperately trying to find the right dog for our family. I took Jaeda to the new Pottery Barn Teen store in Thousand Oaks a few weeks ago and there was a pet store but just with tons of different breeds of dogs. This is the one she loved :)
A big thank you to cousin Carrie for all of your help with our dog search. Still wish we could have gotten one of your gorgeous labs.


Jaeda's "High School Musical" performance


nice that Nana could be here for it





Sienna on a school trip


                                        Some photos of Sienna's end of the year class party.


on the trolley from school to the party

Sienna presenting to one of her teachers the gift that she and her classmates made for her wedding

Ms MacMurray opening the wedding gifts

Ms MacMurray and Miss Soto opening the end of school gifts









Jaeda's end of the year class party


Mrs Yee opening the end of the year gifts


Sienna's Kindergarten graduation







reciting a poem that she/we wrote which started off with..."born in Canada, lived in England, moved to the USA".



the head of Lower School


the school Headmaster



this is what Sienna and her friends LOVE to do

the favorite teacher that is leaving for the east coast to take care of his elderly father...lots of tears






Some photos from Field Day (the green team won)



brunch at the Biltmore
outside the Biltmore with Nana

Ledbetter beach in the afternoon after school was dismissed






a sleepover at our house the day after school was finished

The school sets a reading challenge for the summer. The challenge for Jaeda and Sienna's classes were 750 pages. Both girls are already over that and it has only been 5 days. They are reading everywhere we go. They are on a mission to get to 10,000 pages, so that they can have lunch with the Principal in his office. Wonder how many more years they will be hoping for that :)
reading at the beach


reading on the floor of the post office
 Here are some photos of the girls and I at the beach earlier this week with their brand new wet suits :)










This summer is a lovely balance of just being at home with the girls, the girls going to some different camps (surfing, horseback riding, golf/tennis, theatre arts), as well as some travel. We will be in the UK for 10 nights staying with various friends in Windsor in July and then the girls and I will be going to Canada for 2 weeks in August. It is still hard to believe that we have been here for a whole school year already!!! The girls are off to First Grade and Fourth Grade in September.

Our new address is:
122 Olive Mill Lane
Santa Barbara, California
93108

Home number and cell numbers stay the same. Also, just a gentle reminder that my email address is now:
erineberhardtspence@gmail.com

Here are some photos of our house. CAUTION.....there are a TON!!!! If I had the time, I would have created a Picasa album just for the blog, so there weren't so many. Anyways, I know some of you LOVE our remodelling photos and keep asking me to send photos, so for those of you who are in that boat, there are lots for you to go through. For others of you, you might just want to go to the most recent album :)

May 12th-18th

May 28th-June 16th

June 17th-20th


Wishing everyone a fabulous summer!!!!!
Lots of love, Erin and fam xo











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