Back to School - 2026

This year's first day breakfast was pretty simple (for me)! If you know me, you know this is one of the mornings I go all out. The kids all picked chocolate chip pancakes, so that's what we did. Jeff made them, so if they came out a little overdone, that's on him, not me. But they still loved them. We also did bacon, because my kids are obsessed with bacon, and then some mini muffins and croissants with orange juice, which always feels like a little treat for them.

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But the big thing this year is that all three of my kids are at the same school for the first time! I feel like I've waited forever for this. The girls are in different preschool classes but same campus, so they get to see each other at lunch and recess. And Leo's in FIRST GRADE now, which, I'm not going to lie, makes me so so sad. He's so cute in his uniform, but he's growing up way too fast for me!

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This back to school felt different than any other year. We're ready, the kids are ready to see their friends and teachers, ready to get back into a routine, all of that. But we also just had the best summer ever. First summer without a baby baby around, since Gabby's almost three now, so we had so much more time to just be together as a family.

We spent a ton of time at the beach, and we did a whole week in San Diego, just our little family. We started at the San Diego Zoo and then we rented a house right on the bay in Mission Beach, which the kids loved because they could just run out and play in the water. It was so warm and casual over there. The actual beach side was way more crowded and rowdy, a lot of college kids, so that wasn't really our scene. We walked over once and had dinner, which was fine, but the bay was definitely our spot. I'd recommend it to anyone.

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On the way home we stopped in Carlsbad and did Legoland as kind of the last stop of the trip. The kids were the perfect ages for Legoland and loved staying the Legoland hotel.

We also went to my parents' place in Cayucos a few times, and ended the summer with our best friends in Carpinteria before finally coming home to start school.

Last week was our first full week and it's been a little bit of an adjustment, but honestly a really great start to the year. Good school, good friends, good teachers, and my little army to do it with. Here's to a great school year for all of us!

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