Tidbits

Violet has been counting down the weeks to her birthday - not her 6th birthday, but her half-birthday in late October. One day in kindergarten after a birthday child shared how she had celebrated, Violet asked Mrs. Hawthorne if the class also celebrates half-birthdays. Hey, it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

On her special day this week - or half-special day - Violet made this star badge to pin on her shirt. I really wish she had written in ink instead of pencil, and the tape she put over it all to make it sturdy and waterproof doesn't help the photo either. But, she wrote "5 1/2 Birthday" and safety-pinned it to her shirt, all by herself.

We also measured Violet's height, and since her birthday, she's grown an inch and a quarter. Yay! She's now just shy of 40 inches tall.

In class this week when I was helping out, Violet got to do a special "word work" activity during the quiet reading time. Several children are chosen each day to do "word work," and Violet's activity involved matching upper case and lower case letters. Some letters were written on clear spoons, and the others on white spoons.

October is the season of "booing" your friends. It's a fun new tradition that involves secret gifts left at the door, a doorbell ring, and running away quickly. We were "booed" twice, by Vivian and Sam and Riley (kids aren't good at keeping secrets).
Violet chose to "boo" a classmate of hers, and decorated the gift of treats with these spiders.

This week was Red Ribbon Week, where the school puts on different activities to discourage drug use. One day was Crazy Hair/Crazy Sock Day, and Violet was happy to participate. She has many pony tails, and some sprayed on hair color, in addition to her fun socks.

Cora wore two different pattered knee-highs, and agreed to spray on hair color on her non-crazy pony tail. That was going out on a limb for Cora.

When I picked up Violet on Thursday after helping out at Cora's class party, I entered the room just in time to see the students modeling their new class T-shirts and spider hats. They are so adorable!

Kindergarten Party

On the day before Halloween, Violet and her kindergarten classmates were allowed to wear their costumes to school and parade around. First, they sang a few songs and paraded for the parents. Then, they walked through every class in the school. Violet decided she would be a zebra for the school dress-up time.

When they had returned, Christina and I had set up the Halloween party, with help from the other parents. She and I are sharing the room mom duties for Mrs. Hawthorne.

The children went through three stations during the parties. They put together a snack, with a tangerine "pumpkin," half banana "ghost" and pudding cup graveyard scene. They also made a craft, and I led a station of reading Halloween books.





Here's the craft Violet made: a monster, from various shapes that Christina and I cut out the week before. The children have been learning about shapes, so there was a nice tie-in.

I had a few flashback moments during Violet's party - how on earth has it been three years since Cora had her turn parading with her kindergarten friends?

After school on Friday, we went to lunch at IHOP with a large group of friends, for a free pancake promotion they were offering kids.

With so many children, it was a bit exhausting! Especially after the long few days of partying. We went home for some downtime, before Stace and I were to head out for a late night with friends at Fright Fest. More on that, later!

Third Grade Party

Cora's class had a Halloween party Thursday afternoon, with this fun craft, turning a jar into a jack-o-lantern with mod podge (glue), tissue paper and a tea light. Cora's finished product is on the right.

After crafting, the kids went outside to play the mummy game, turning one member of their little teams into a mummy with toilet paper. Cora was selected to be the mummy.

Here's the team - Trent, Cooper, Cora and Vivian. Trent's mom, Jen, put together an awesome party for these kiddos! We are blessed to have her as the room mom.

After cleaning up the toilet paper, we headed back in for a short movie and a cookie, decorated by the students.

Pioneer Club Trunk or Treat

The week of Halloween Craziness has commenced!

On Tuesday, Violet got to trick-or-treat at Mom2Mom, for the last time. With her late start kindergarten, she's having a bonus year of Mom2Mom, but next year of course she'll be in school and I'll attend alone. (sob!)

On Wednesday evening, we all attended and helped out at Pioneer Club's Trunk-or-Treat event. I helped at the bean bag toss - the ghost behind me with cut-outs for the eyes and mouth was the target.

Ignoring the Hello Kitty and Batgirl costumes we bought, Violet decided to dress as a friendly witch for this event. She put this outfit together on her own - cardboard and yarn "broom," black clothes, green tights, and black and green hat/headband. Watching her color the cardboard strip she cut out for her broom was amusing, to say the least. She is creative!

Violet went back and forth between helping me at the bean bag toss, and helping Stace pass out candy. Yes, he brought the MG, and joined several other classic cars as some of the "trunks" with candy to hand out.

She also went trunk-or-treating with some of our friends.

Cora, meanwhile, collected candy and played the games with Sophia (not pictured).

RLC Halloween Fun

Our church's fun Halloween event has grown bigger and better year after year. This year, the theme was "A Tribute to Lombardi Ranch," because our town's beloved Lombardi Ranch isn't operating this year because they don't have enough water.

We arrived at the same time as Elaine, Vivian and Violet, so we went around the trunk or treat spaces with them on Saturday.












 Some of the spaces were very elaborate; it was fun for these girls to pose with the Wizard of Oz folks, since they were in their 1st Grade Wizard production together as Dorothy and the two witches.









 Our Life Group manned a space for passing out candy, and we also had fun hanging out with Sara and Tony and some other Life Group friends. I even got to cuddle baby Adelina for a bit.
Violet, Vivian, Cora and Violet passed out candy from our booth before heading out to collect their own candy.















Christina, Cami and Melanie came too, so Violet got to see one of her favorite classmates.

The Lombardi Ranch touch was present everywhere - their bands were playing, the hay maze was set up, the train was running on the Real Life Church property, and tiny pumpkins were available for sale.

They even carted over from the Ranch the giant pumpkin, so families like us who visit every year could take their annual pumpkin photos.

It was a long evening of fun, after two baseball games in the heat earlier in the day. But it was a lot of fun, and we wouldn't have wanted to miss it!

Week in Review

On Tuesday after school, we made a quick trip to Juliana and Daryl's house, for a 5th birthday party for Natalia.

Cora was excited to show Maya her new porcelain dolls, two of the dolls from a collection I built when I was a teenager. My mom found them, and offered them to Cora, who immediately adopted them, named them, and created a nice home for them in her room.

Violet and Cora both had fun  playing with all the children at Natalia's party. Violet also loved eating the molded chocolate-covered Oreo cookies Juliana made. As always, she outdid herself in the party/hospitality department.

Wednesday was my day to volunteer in Violet's class.

On this day, the children were using little colored plastic cubes to learn about the number 8, and adding and subtracting to make 8. It seems like a good way to teach the concept, and the children enjoy it.

On Wednesday night, Stace and I helped out in Cora's Pioneer Club class. The children are earning a badge on carpentry, and Stace helped them each cut a plank of wood using a miter saw.

On Friday after school, we met up with friends at the park for lunch and playtime. The weather has cooled off nicely for such playdates.

For a time, the "big girls" sat and chatted on the far picnic table. Thankfully, Cora is still eager to play most of the time, but I know a time is coming when she'll be too old to climb all over the playground.

Violet, meanwhile, was in her element. Someone had brought a plastic gun, and Violet loved shooting everyone with it.

Tidbits

 Cora and I have been reading the Chronicles of Narnia series, and one evening Stace snapped this pic of us getting ready to read, the cats by our side. More often, I'm lying on Cora's bed next to her, when Sebastian clambers onto my stomach. He makes for a fine heater.

 I asked Violet to hang up a few dresses one morning after taking Cora to school. She assured me she had.

Later, after Vi was at school, I found this pile of clothing stuffed under the glider/rocking chair in her room.

That afternoon, we discussed what happened, and she thought of her own consequence - no games on my phone while we sat at Cora's 90-minute softball practice.

We visited Kelly, big brother Noah and baby Ethan with the girls. Kelly is doing remarkably well considering she has two little guys under 22 months old! We had a very nice time together, and Cora and Violet had fun entertaining Noah.

 Sometimes, after our morning walk after taking the big girls to school, Melanie comes to our house to play, and I take the littles to kindergarten. Or, Violet goes to Lanie's house, and Christina takes them to school.

One day last week, I looked in the back yard and found the girls sweeping out the trampoline, all by themselves.




We picked up Sophia for softball the other day, and the teammates had fun cheering on Violet and the Phillies.

Cora has a new bike helmet, with lights in the back instead of just reflectors. Stace took her on a couple of night bike rides, which was very exciting for her.

They then headed out on an early morning bike ride on a Saturday, so she could use her lights again. They stopped for breakfast, and ended up riding about 10 miles altogether. Go Cora!

Zoo Field Trip

The whole third grade boarded the big yellow school buses Wednesday, bound for the Los Angeles Zoo.

For the first time, I was one of the "lucky" chaperones to get to ride the bus. Somehow, I haven't been that lucky other times.

It was fun to see Cora playing around with her friends, including her seat partner, Riley.






















Cora was really excited to pose for a photo with me.

She did warm up to the idea. It is fun hanging out with my big girl.

Here was our little group, which included Mrs. Breneman. The class was divided into four groups.












We haven't been to the zoo since we let our zoo passes expire over a year ago, so it was very enjoyable to walk around and see the animals.