Back home

Our girls are really such good travelers now. That's one thing that biannual international trips will do to your children. They are excited for each leg of the adventure (though as Cora gets older, she also experiences more sadness about the goodbyes). Thanks as always to our family for making the big (daylong) trek to and from Heathrow.

 Violet expanded her options a little for the trip home, and added "Peppa Pig" to her viewing queue. That's what she's laughing about here. Normally she will watch only Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and a bit of Jungle Junction. That's it, for hours on end. Thankfully, we remembered this time to request the child safety seat for this flight. It made for an easier trip.

 Sunday we did next to nothing but unpack and rest; we needed the rest after the trip, and the lack of sufficient sleep Saturday night thanks to a jetlagged little one.

Stace returned to work Monday, and the girls and I went grocery shopping.

On Tuesday morning, we met up with our friends Jaimie, Mackenzie, Luke and newborn Presley at the mall. It was great to catch up, and the girls got along so well, considering they hadn't seen each other in over a year.

On Tuesday evening, we made our return to Baskin-Robbins for our dollar-cone fix. Amazingly, Cora picked the ice cream (watermelon chip) that matched her coral dress perfectly. Cora was so proud to have bought this pretty dress in England with her own birthday money.

Tuesday night was the first night that we all slept well again after the girls took turns keeping us up the prior three nights at home.

 On Wednesday, we went to the pool with some school friends. Here, Cora shows off the 30-year-old Lego castle Stace brought here from Martock.

 Two other families we're friendly with from school also came to our pool playdate. It was a lot of fun, and I hope we can do it again before summer is over.

It's strange to think that this middle weekend in July marks the halfway point of our summer break - four weeks down, four weeks to go.

 On Thursday, we went out to visit JT and her family. Cora was so excited to play with Jonah, or, just "Baby," as she insists on calling him. She was such a good helper with him, too.

Melanie and little Heather also came out to visit, so I had to my two favorite Pepperdine ladies together with their two-year-old daughters for the first time.

 We absolutely lucked out with the weather. Tuesday had been over 100 degrees, but by Thursday it was cloudy and a good 20 degrees cooler, perfect for the little girls to play and picnic in the back yard.

In the evening, I made lasagna and we had Keith come over for dinner.

 On Friday, I was feeling lazy after hardly exercising for a month. So in the morning the girls and I walked to CVS and Ralphs for a few things we needed before lunch and nap.

After Stace came home, we went to the amphitheater in Stevenson Ranch for one of the summer concerts.

It took Cora some time to warm up to the music - she sat glumly for a while, saying it was boring - but once she got into it, she had a great time.

Violet loved dancing, too.

The girls also have had a lot of good playtime together this week. Cora watched one of her Tinkerbell movies, and brought back out her fairies to play with.

She's back to making things for her fairy houses, and talking about her figurines as if they are living, breathing members of our household. She also announced this week that she does believe in the tooth fairy, and she will when she's 16 or 18.