Variety Show Success

After six weeks of practice, Violet's big moment came Friday evening, when she took part in the school variety show.

The show was set up so well, with decorations and the performer's head shots up on the walls. We didn't know the photos even happened, so it was a fun surprise to see her beautiful smiling face on the wall.

When it was Violet's turn, the student emcee read out her biography.










Then, the curtain opened, and Violet stood there, staring at the audience, apparently taking it all in. She looked so, so cute, with her small stature, pink sparkly dress, and big smile.

She started skipping rope, and called out her little song:
"Coca Cola went to town,
Diet Pepsi knocked him down.
Dr Pepper fixed him up.
Now I'm drinking Seven-Up.
Seven-Up caught the flu,
Now I'm drinking Mountain Dew.
Mountain Dew fell off the mountain,
Now I'm drinking from the water fountain!"

Violet got through the entire rhyme without missing a beat, and was loud enough to be heard without a mic. She did an amazing job! Stace and I both had tears in our eyes, seeing our little thing be so brave and perform so well.

Turn up your volume and enjoy the video - many thanks to my friend Sara for most of these photos, and for the video clip!

Sara's daughters Emily and Alli had the whole audience laughing with their hilarious performance of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

All in all the show was very, very entertaining and all the kids did a great job.

Softball Season's End

After two quick playoff losses, Cora's softball season came to an end this week. She has learned so much this season, and come so far in such a short amount of time.

Cora displayed a strong determination to succeed, and proved that in one game by diving to catch a ball. Even the umpire congratulated her when that inning was over! Her situational awareness was outstanding, especially for a game as complicated as baseball/softball, with so many moving parts.











Cora is very competitive, and at times was frustrated when she or her teammates weren't playing well. But that drive also led her to practice hard and improve significantly.

Her pitching improved a lot, and in the final games she threw a lot of strikes, and struck out quite a few girls. 

Her hitting improved even more - at the beginning of the season she was anxious about hitting off good pitchers, and we dealt with some tears. But as she got more confident, and started hitting more, her demeanor and approach changed. Yes, she still struck out now and then, but she also got lots of solid hits, including the triple you can see here: 

With her strong throwing arm, Cora also made an excellent catcher, and was able to throw a couple of girls out as they tried to steal bases. She only started catching again at the end of the season, but I hope she can continue catching more innings if she plays in the future. Here's an example of Cora throwing a runner out at third base: (Thanks, Dad for getting these clips!)

Here's a final team photo after the last game ended.

Though there are summer tournament teams she could have tried out for, we'll take a break from organized sports for now.

We found the spring schedule with Hart softball to be a bit intense - two or three practices PLUS two or three games per week.


Our plan is to play softball again in the fall, when Cora will move up from "mini minor" to the "minor" division. Fall is a lot less intense, with one practice and one game per week.

Perhaps next spring, Cora can return to playing competitive soccer on a team. She still loves it, and plays every day at school at recess and lunch.

Violet's Birthday Day!

Here's our big six-year-old!

After a birthday breakfast of crepes (made by Cora) and a couple of presents and cards, we took Cora to school and got ready for our day.

Since it was a Wednesday, it was a normal day for Violet - school, Variety Show rehearsal and Pioneer Club. But we made time for a special trip to Starbucks before kindergarten started, for a hot vanilla milk.

Luckily, it was a Wednesday, my day to volunteer in class. It was fun watching the class sing "Happy Birthday" to Violet, after Mrs. Hawthorne adjusted her birthday crown.

After school, I took Violet over to her Variety Show rehearsal, and then hurried Cora home to get ready for her playoff softball game. Yes, not only did Cora have a game during Vi's birthday party, she also had one on Violet's actual birthday.

Thankfully our friend Sara looked after Violet after the rehearsal, and took her to Pioneer Club. I don't think Violet missed us at all, since she got a playdate with her good friend Alli! Thanks, Sara, for these cute photos of the birthday girl.





Violet took home the class Birthday Journal, and filled it out Thursday morning.

I loved her entry: "We went to the ice skating rink. I had so much fun skating with my friends.I loved my chocolate cake. I had the biggest piece! We watched kids playing hockey."

Also on Thursday, we went out as a family for Violet's slightly belated birthday dinner. At first she wanted to go to Wendy's, but thankfully she changed her mind in favor of Mod Pizza.

Happy Birthday, dear Violet. We love you and are so thankful that you are our girl!

Violet's Pre-Birthday Fun

As we like to do, Violet celebrated her birthday for a while.

After her party on Sunday, she went to school on Monday as Star of the Week, complete with fancy poster.

She had some lovely presents to open, and with her fabulous reading skills, she enjoyed reading all her cards.

Grandma had to work during the ice skating party, so she and Grandpa took Violet out Tuesday after school for a special trip to the mall. Violet got to choose a piece to paint - a fairy!

She also got a chance to play at the play area, and choose a new tsum tsum at the Disney store.



















Then, Grandma and Grandpa brought her to us at McDonalds, where we were having dinner with a roomful of school friends and teachers. It was the annual McTeacher night, and we got to see Mrs. Hawthorne and lots of friends.

Violet opened her gift from Grandma and Grandpa, which included this outdoor light-up cat figure.

Also in the run-up to Violet's birthday is Melanie's birthday! We celebrated with her over the weekend, too.

Skating Into 6!

 We had a few ideas about what to do for Violet's 6th birthday.

But when she created a small, girl-only guest list, and I got an email from the Ice Station with a birthday party discount code, having her party there made all kinds of sense.

After all, she loves ice skating, and Cora also had her 6th birthday party at the Ice Station.

So, on Sunday afternoon, we gathered with a few of her favorite friends to celebrate together.

 Cake choice was easy for this girl - chocolate, of course!

 Here's the group before headed downstairs to get our skates on.

 Unfortunately, this is the best photo I have of Violet skating at her birthday party! For shame!
But, Grandpa couldn't stay for the skating part - he had to take Cora to her softball playoff game.

Yes, you read that right - Cora couldn't skate at Violet's party, because she had a playoff softball game, which was scheduled less than a week before the party.

Cora was crushed, but handled the disappointment as well as she could.

Here are the young skaters during their 15-minute lesson - Vi was one of the few with skating experience, and she looked very good on the ice!

Cowboy Festival

We had a great time at the Cowboy Festival on Saturday afternoon, after a full morning of softball and birthday partying.

For the second year in a row, the festival was held at Hart Park, because Melody Ranch again was in the middle of filming. We didn't go last year, but with a super cheap Groupon deal this time, we were excited to check out the new location.

Many of our favorite characters were still there, including the trick roper who tied up Cora.

Many vendors were set up along the edge, but without the cover of Melody Ranch's Western facade, that part felt more like any craft fair or swap meet.
Still, the park's expansive grassy areas and huge shade trees were welcome in the afternoon heat.

We checked out the various re-enactors, with the Civil War camps, wigwams, and blacksmith's setup. 

The girls were excited to see the children's activities, complete with archery, a quick-draw gun fight, gold-panning and ax-throwing.

Yes, I said "ax throwing."
It was harder than it looked, but Stace got the hang of it, as you can see in this photo and video clip.

Oh, and there was music! While the girls panned for gold just behind the seating area here, Stace and I enjoyed this string trio.

We were steps away from Heritage Junction, and the historic homes were open for touring. The girls enjoyed playing with old wooden toys on display inside the Edison House.

Here, the girls are inside a tiny schoolhouse.

We then went to the food court, where we met up with my parents and had a late lunch.

As always, we loved the peach cobbler, which we ate while listening to an outstanding band.

The girls weren't interested in listening to an hours' worth of music, so they went just outside the seating area to play in the grass.

Soon, we saw they'd made up their own baseball game. They broke up small sticks to use as balls, found a bigger stick for a bat, and took turns pitching and hitting.

It was absolutely adorable, just like those sepia photos I've seen of the boys playing makeshift stickball in the big city alley. I was so proud of them, finding such a great way to play together (with no fighting!).

Friends

When Aunt Patty was with us for the Color Run, she and Cora went up on the hill, Cora's favorite place to play.

Aunt Patty helped her make a teepee from long sticks in the canopy of a huge oak tree (not the oak in this photo, but another nearby). This became the perfect tree house for our outdoorsy girl.

Cora wants to visit her tree as often as is practical, and whenever friends are over, she begs to take them.

Here, she shows her friends Vivian and Violet (along with "little Violet") her creation.



















We had Patrice and her kids over on a recent Friday after school, and they loved the hideout, too.



















Friday afternoons are the best! We have a group that usually heads over to the park for lunch; someone will pick up $5 pizzas, and the kids all play and have fun.

Tidbits

Lizards. They are everywhere! But why, oh why, are they in my playroom???











Morgan hosted a Mom2Mom girls' night out (or night in, since it was at her house) over the weekend. We had a great time eating, drinking and painting.

Because I already have a painting with two birds up in the house, I decided to paint a Star Wars scene as a backdrop for Cora's new Star Wars shelf.

It's not the best painting on earth, but the look on Cora's face when I showed it to her made it seem like it was. She had Star Wars stickers that were the right scale for the painting - perfect!

Not to be outdone, Stace printed out Star Wars scenes, and he and Violet pasted one to cardboard for a set for her Star Wars tsum tsums. They also built a cardboard vehicle.

The tree behind our house has been in failing health, and big branches have been falling off. Our neighbor had it trimmed majorly, which was good, but sad that our morning shade over the playroom is gone.








A children's consignment sale produced a bumper crop of fantastic new shoes for Cora, and me as well, for about $40. Cora got pairs of Clarks, Toms, New Balance, Keens and a pair of pink sandals. I found a barely worn pair of Skechers and Sanuk flip flops. 

Stace and Cora had a dinner date not long ago, at Rubios. We both love having these special times with our girls.