"We will have been in our house three years this coming July. It is in the Sequoyah Hills neighborhood of Oakland. We love our house so much, and feel so happy here. It’s pretty secluded and feels like our own little oasis. Our real estate agent is one of the hardest working people I have ever met and we are still friends—if anyone reading is house hunting in Oakland!"

Ari wears a Gap men's shirt, vintage pants, Common Muse hoops, and Chaussure Lapin shoes from Voyager SF. Henry wears an Oakland Surf Club sweatshirt, Zara pants, and Roshe Runs Nikes. Coco wears a tunic by 69 and Salt Water sandals.

"I’m going for lived-in, cool-Paris-apartment vibes, but I will settle for comfortable and modern and sometimes clean."

Mama's girl.

"Decorating is a slow process for me, I like just taking my time and gathering things as I go. The house has slowly come together over the last couple of years and I am always trying to improve on it."

Repping the family brand.

"I love our bed, the Modernica Case Study Bed. It was our first non-IKEA, real piece of furniture purchase and it made me feel like a grown-up when we bought it. I also love our pieces by Barry McGee, they make my husband so happy, which makes me happy."

"I like the kids' stuff to stay in their rooms, but it always finds ways to leak out into the living room because that’s our main hang-out area. I am trying to convert the basement into a playroom soon."

Reading material.

"I am the co-owner of Oakland Surf Club, alongside my husband, Max. It is a clothing brand. We used to have a brick and mortar shop, but transitioned to just wholesaling the brand in 2015. We run things out of our garage, and it is just the two of us. Over the last couple of years we have tried to assign our duties. Max does the sales, accounting, and organizes the design and production of the line, while I handle the creative side, produce all the photo shoots and content for social media, and I am also the shipping and customer service departments."

"I grew up in Oakland. I went to UCSB and studied Film Studies and Black Studies. Max and I met the last few months of college and moved into an apartment together in San Francisco after graduation. We both worked retail and Max went to grad school for teaching. We moved back to Oakland and moved into my family’s fourplex. We opened Oakland Surf Club when I was nine months pregnant."

Shelfie.

"I watch both kids full time, and then do anything I need to do for Oakland Surf Club at nights and on the weekend. I never imagined that I would be a 'stay at home' mom. I don’t even really like that term. I feel very lucky to be with my kids all the time, but I just didn’t imagine that that’s what I would be doing. It is such a different kind of work than traditional jobs and sometimes I feel like I get defensive about what I do. I just feel like our society doesn’t really acknowledge all the work it takes to raise children, and that’s a bummer."

"I started Surf Club and had Coco the same year, so it kind of fell into each other how things would play out."

Coco's Bubber going strong.

"It’s funny because we own our own business, so there’s not really maternity leave, and before I had Coco we were busting our butts trying to open a shop on deadline, and I was working in the shop up until the day I had Henry. There is give and take, we want to always be working on shop stuff, but then the shop also allows us to have freedom to take time off when we want it. I value self-care, so even when it feels like I am working a ton and with the kids a ton, I still take time for me."

Common Muse hoops.

"I only work at nights after the kids have gone to bed, so that I can really give my attention to them during the day. It’s hard when I have to do shoots on the weekend, only because it’s our time to be together as a family and I miss that when I have to work. But I also love doing shoots, so there’s a give and take."

"Yes! My mom, grandma, and sister with her two kids live a couple exits from us and I am at their house almost daily. I also have great friends that want to spend time with my kids."

"I love seeing things that are in my head come to life in photographs. I love when Max and I get really excited about a new idea, and it is still really fun to work with each other."

"Coco starts kindergarten in the fall, and Henry starts preschool part-time, so I will have more time to focus on styling other projects as well as doing more work for Oakland Surf Club."

Coco's room.

"I love Coco’s room. It feels like it really has her personality in it, and it just seems like a fun place for a 4-year-old to hang out. Plus, all her toys have a spot to go back to, so it is easy to clean up in there."

Trundle bed for Coco, trundle bed for her dolls.

"I love her Jenny Lind bed, it has a trundle for when her cousins sleepover and I can imagine fun sleepovers with friends when she gets older. Her favorite area is her art desk. I like to see her just working away there. She’s really into art these days, so it’s fun to see what she makes."

Coco's gallery.

Coco wears a Pink Chicken dress. Henry wears an Esp No. 1 top and hand-me-down Carter's pants. Ari wears an Everlane sweater, Jesse Kamm pants, and a bracelet from Senegal.

The look of love.

"I love sharing this crazy and beautiful world with two small humans. It is so cool to see how they see things and the conversations I have with Coco are hilarious. I really like seeing their personalities come out and see them discover the things they are interested in. It is so much responsibility, but it is also fun and each day is a little different than the last."

"Imagining that one day they might have their hearts’ broken by someone and there is nothing I can do to stop that. Also, they have both been to the ER and Henry has already has stitches. They are wild and I know there will be broken bones in my future, and that scares me."

"My daughter is Colette James and we call her Coco. James was my great grandma’s name. I grew up with her and she passed away before Coco was born, but I knew I wanted to honor her in some way. My son is Henry Oscar, I just have loved the name Henry before I even had kids, and I liked the way it sounded with Oscar, no special meaning."

In Ari's room, on top of her aforementioned Modernica Case Study Bed.

"My mom. Her patience and love and how she sees the world is inspiring. I love watching her with her grandkids, because she just lets them be kids and takes things slow and play in the mud for hours and collect bugs and flowers and make potions and just be. And I remember how much she nurtured us as kids, and also trusted us with freedom and I feel like that helped me become a confident adult. I have much less patience than my mom, but I trying my best to see my kids' individual needs and be outside a lot and let them figure themselves out. If I am half the mother my mom is, then I will feel like I have done alright."

"I honestly do not have many mom friends. I have a few good close friends and none of them have kids and I haven’t been great at meeting other moms. I have my mom, grandma, and sister in Oakland, so that is a big support. I have actually met a few ladies through Mother events, as well! So, that is cool!"

"I thought Bringing Up Bébé was cute. I studied abroad in Paris during college, so I’m pretty obsessed with France, and I just like learning about how people parent around the globe. I also liked How Children Learn by John Holt. There’s a passage that stays with me when he says that we should always speak to children with respect, and to speak to them like we would a well respected colleague or friend. I try to remember this when I am getting frustrated with the kids, and try to stop myself from speaking to them without that respect. I also really believe that my kids do so much better when they are in situations where I am not having to constantly be telling them no, so I try to provide those atmospheres for them when I can."

Another work of Coco.

"We were thinking of having the kids share a room, but decided to convert our spare office into Henry’s room. I like that it’s a small space, because I feel like I have been very conscious of what items I bring in for it. All the rooms in our house get such good light, so we have shades in the kids’ rooms so they can sleep. I love the bamboo shades I got for Henry’s room, and now I want them for more rooms."

Simplicity rules.

"The bond between a mother and her son is like no other, and I love having that."

"Coco is a mini me, this is both cool and scary. We are both stubborn, which can be trying for us both at times. I love seeing which things she gravitates towards, and I like seeing when she isn’t like me at all, and is becoming her own person."

Swish!

Costume change!

"I don’t really know. I know one day I woke up and it’s all I could think about and a couple years later we had Coco."

"I am mixed Black and white and grew up in Oakland with my family. I grew up living in the same house with my mom, grandma, great-grandma, and sister. I feel so lucky to have been raised by these strong, amazing, Black women. They taught me so much and still teach me so much to this day. When my sister had her two daughters there were five generations living under one roof and it was really a beautiful sight. My house was crazy growing up, in the sense that there was always so much going on, but it was also so fun. My mom has chickens and ducks, and a giant tortoise, and dogs and cats and there were always people coming in and out. She runs a cultural center in East Oakland and is a long-time activist, so there were always these really influential and amazing people coming through the house and I didn’t even realize who they really were until I got older. Great poets, Black Panthers, musicians, the list goes on and on. Max and I lived back in that same house, which is a fourplex, for four years before moving out. We only live a couple exits away, because I just want my kids to grow up with all that family. Coco’s best friends are her cousins, and we spend a lot of time at my family’s house because family is so important to me."

Coco wears a Mabo top, Gap jeans, and Stan Smith Adidas. Ari wears a Jungmaven tee, L.Woodward jeans, and Stan Smith Adidas.

"My mom is such a confident and smart Black woman and I feel like her confidence and happiness are contagious. I want to pass along those same things as I parent. I want to trust my kids like she trusted us, and to let them have the freedom they need to figure out who they are and how they fit into the world. I just hope to raise kind and globally aware kids that ask a lot of questions and are happy and confident. Just that, ha."

"Trump is the worst, but things in America were not all great before him either. As a woman of color living in America, I feel like I have always tried to stay informed and conscious of what is going on. There are systematic problems in our criminal justice system and institutionalized racism is real. I want my children to be aware of the privileges they have and figure out ways in which they can use that privilege to help others."

"It’s crazy, because I feel like one kid didn’t completely rock my world. With our first, Max and I kept traveling and Coco stayed up late with us and we just kept doing a lot of the same things. When we had our second kid is when I felt like my whole world became kid-related. But I also wouldn’t change it for anything. I would also say to her, do you, there is no right way to parent, and you will figure out what works best for you. Everyday you figure it out a little more."

"We were actually trying for about a year before we got pregnant for the first time. I had a miscarriage at 12 weeks, ten days before Max and I got married. We were young, and I never even thought a miscarriage was a possibility for me. I feel like they aren’t spoken about enough for how often they occur. We were so sad and I just didn’t understand why it was happening. I married the man of my dreams and we ended up getting pregnant again later that year with Coco. It is crazy to come out of such sadness but know that if I hadn’t gone through that, then I wouldn’t have Coco. I was in labor for 28 hours and then she was born, and then she was just in my arms and so beautiful and it was such a magical moment. With Henry, we didn’t find out if we were having a boy or girl, so it was such an awesome surprise to find out on the day. I had an amazing midwife and was only in labor for one hour and I had him in a birthing tub."

"Whenever we are on a trip with the kids, Max and I are both like, 'Noooo.' But I feel like I want one more, we will see."

"I know where so many parks are in Japan! We love traveling with the kids, which I feel like doesn’t work for everyone, but works for us. This was our second long-haul flight with both kids, so they are becoming better at the flights. We walked almost ten miles a day in Japan, so the Ergo saved us. I loved Japan. They take such good care of families and kids there and the public transportation system is very easy to navigate. We took the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka and the kids loved the train. My favorite place we visited was Kyoto. We were in Japan during cherry blossom season and it was truly breathtaking. Coco eats raw fish like a bear, so we lucked out in always being able to find good food to eat. And it was very exciting to see our clothes in shops in another country! My grandma instilled a love of travel in me at a young age, and even though I didn’t grow up having a lot of money, she always managed to take us on trips. I love traveling with my kids, because even though they might not remember everything, they will have that love of travel in them forever."

"My husband, Max, is the best. We run a business together, and still choose to spend like 98% of our time outside of work together. I think we are both our best selves when we are practicing self-care and making sure we get that time. We also have a date night once a week away from the kids, which is really fun."

"Always on the search for the perfect white tee, and perfect pair of vintage Levi’s."

In the Oakland Surf Club office.

"If anything, I only continue to dress better as I get older. I do not want to go back to how I dressed in college, ever."

"Good jeans, white sneakers, tee shirts, and now I have been starting to wear more button-up shirts. I bought my first real leather jacket this year for my 30th birthday, and my favorite jacket is a trench I have had for 5 years from Objects Without Meaning, I wore it every single day in Japan."

"My current wish list: a beautiful dress I saw at Beauty & Youth in Japan, Maryam Nassir Zadeh Rosa Sandals, Loq sandals, Re/Done jeans, a customizable sweatshirt from Omndi, and a Rouje dress for summer. And Gucci."

"I have better luck online. I like Net-A-Porter and Garmentory. I’ll randomly have luck in person at the Gap, too—I have been loving their men’s button-downs."

"I love beauty products. I feel like I stick to some of the same things, but then also like to try new things. I love reading Into The Gloss and use a lot of Glossier products, I love what they have done with their whole brand and will honestly try anything they make. I also have been using Vintner’s Daughter for almost a year and love what it has done to my skin. I use sunscreen daily and drink lots of water."

"I really believe that if I am not taking care of myself then I can not be my best self and in turn I won’t be the best wife and mother that I can be. I have been doing pilates for 3 years and love it. I also try to slow down and go at the kids’ pace. When I am rushing to do a million things they feed off that stressful energy, and they are always so much happier when we are just going slow and just taking our time doing nothing. We like to eat really healthy, too, we make most our meals at home and Coco and Max grow a lot of veggies in the garden at our house. We start our mornings with smoothies and just eat a lot of fruits and veggies all day."

"I work out at 7 a.m., or when my mom can watch the kids. I am so glad to have her help. I also read at night before bed, I feel like books keep my brain working."

"Oakland is the most diverse city I have ever been in, and that community combined with my family makes it the perfect place to raise kids."

"Hawaii. My husband is a surfer, and my kids are total beach kids at heart. I want them to have that, so we eventually want to figure out a way to be both places. I also see us being in the South of France or Kamakura, Japan, or NYC at some point in our lives."

"We love going to Swan's Market for a meal with the kids, it is very kid-friendly and there are different options, so we don’t feel like we are always eating the same thing even though we go often. I also love going to farmers' markets with the kids, we love to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and the farmers' market is always the best place to get them. There are also some good low-key hikes that kids can do. There is one right up the road from us on Skyline, and it’s nice to be able to go up there when we need something to do. Also, always the beach, if the sun is out on the weekend we are either there or lounging on my mom’s deck and BBQ'ing!"

For keep following along with Ari and her family, you can find her on Instagram here and here.