Weekend Fun

Stace and Violet made additional wooden Christmas decorations for the front yard over the weekend.

This year's additions: Violet's Christmas skunk, because we had such cute baby skunks in the spring, and two sets of gifts. They go along well with Violet's gift-bringing mice from last year.

On Saturday evening, Cora went with Rigo, Lucas and a couple of other kids to a drive through Stranger Things event. We had Liana over to hang with Violet. We all went to the pet store, where the girls are still young and sweet enough to enjoy looking at the animals.

Then, they made a peach cobbler for dessert.

Stace perfected the sourdough bread! It was delicious!

Friday Fun

See Santa Snoopy? He's waving at Eloise!

We spent Friday afternoon at Knott's Berry Farm, where we paid to eat our way around the park. 

Theme parks can't be open for their rides, but some are open for food/wine events. Walking around enjoying the shops, food and Christmas decorations was very enjoyable.

In Camp Snoopy, the kids' area, the girls sat down on this tiny, kid-sized bench.

Cousins!

Happy girl!

She's adorable!

Grandma and Grandpa were there, too, along with Melanie and Nick. With so many things closed, it was lovely to spend the day enjoying something like this.
 

Thanksgiving Week

The girls had the week off for Thanksgiving break, and on Monday I made Violet take a walk with me. She was initially reluctant, but as we got into the canyon, she noticed with delight that someone had been hanging Christmas ornaments on the trees.

We then happened upon a large bag of ornaments under an oak, with a note asking for help hanging the decorations. Vi was more than happy to help!

It was definitely worth the walk. I love this girl!

Vi and Stace made a Victoria sponge cake in the evening. Yum!

On Wednesday, we gathered again at the park with some of Cora's friends. They again brought Nerf guns, and great fun was had by all.

On Thanksgiving, Melanie made a lot of the food, and my mom contributed two veggie dishes. So, we didn't have a lot to be responsible for. Stace was thrilled with the rise on his lovely Yorkshire puddings!

Cheers! Thanksgiving 2020 - we added an Ellie and subtracted a Paula - she was working at Magic Mountain's drive-through event.
 

Doing What We Love

Violet has been painting a lot lately. She has plenty of artwork to hang when we redo her bedroom!

She entered the painting on the top left in the school art contest and won first place for her age group!

Much to my mom's relief, Magic Mountain figured out a way to put on Holiday in the Park. It's a literal drive-through event, with patrons driving a route all over Magic Mountain to see all the pretty lights, hear music and see costumed characters. 

Mom is sometimes Mrs. Claus, and sometimes a dancing elf. Magic had an employee family night Thursday before the event kicked off for the public, so we drove through with Grandpa, Mel, Nick and Ellie.

Pretty! Festive!

Over the weekend, the weather was gorgeous, and we went up to Vasquez Rocks.

Picnic on a rock.

Later Sunday, Stace and I sneaked out for a final meal out, as the news had come out that even OUTDOOR dining was to be banned soon. We went to a little Asian place, and enjoyed our parking lot dinner.
 

Tidbits

Seb is such a lap cat! 

Love him.

Although I love him a tiny bit less when he's helping me with my puzzles.

Violet's fish died the other day (ummm...it cooked...the heater was on too high...). She was very sad, so we bought a replacement, a beautiful betta that looks like a miniature koi fish.

Cora helped Stace rotate the tires, but then a few days later, I got a big screw in one, and ended up just replacing the four anyway (it was time).

Cora is getting into playing Dungeons and Dragons with her friends (over Zoom). She's dragging Violet into it with her. We stopped at the game store and they loved looking at all the D&D stuff.

They've created characters, and you can purchase little figurines of many types of D&D characters.

Week in Review

Better get these photos while we still can! I doubt Stace would be able to support Cora on his shoulders for very long, if not in the pool!

Violet remains in the 50th percentile, and is a hair short of 56 inches now. Amazing!

This week, we celebrated Veterans' Day on Wednesday. The girls were off school, and at Violet's school, the children were invited to come and place a small American flag into the grass.

We received the girls' school photos this week. For fun, I took these comparisons with the earliest pics in the frames, all from six years ago.

So different!

With the girls off school for Veterans Day, we went to the park to meet up with some of Cora's friends (and the moms, who are my friends). The kids brought Nerf guns and battled it out. Finally, some running around for these couch potatoes!

Cora had fun borrowing someone's hover board. 

Here's Cora with Violet and Anna, Shayan and Maxine.

(Violet went to the L.A. Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Mel and Uncle Nick and Ellie, on her first zoo trip.)

More changes - after eight years, we got rid of our brown couch, which was at the point of stains/small holes/springs that you could feel when you sat down. Out with the old...

In with the BLUE!

This baby is lovely and comfortable - the cats and Stace found napping on it easy.

We opted for a pullout bed, for quick-and-easy sleepovers and guest space for short visits. The girls spent both weekend nights in the living room, and Vi in particular is excited to sleep there again when it's not a school night.

 

City Walk Fun

With the Dodgers the champions of the baseball world, AND with Universal City Walk offering free parking to entice shopping, we made a family day Saturday to visit the Dodger Clubhouse Store.

With few ways to celebrate our Dodgers communally, many people had the same idea. We waited about 90 minutes in (a socially distanced) line to enter the shop (where the number of patrons was strictly limited).

Nearly everyone was in their Dodger gear! Employees said they've been packed every day since the playoffs.

A big benefit of having big kids - we handed them some money and off they went! They had fun shopping and getting snacks - boba and mini doughnuts.

Like all California theme parks, Universal Studios has been closed since March. 
 

It was finally our turn to enter the store, a treasure trove of Dodger paraphernalia. It took a while to figure out what all we wanted to buy, to remember this special year forever. 

In this pic, you can see Stace wearing his new World Series champion hat, and me wearing my champion face covering. It doesn't get more 2020 than a celebratory face mask.

Here was my big purchase - a jersey, with additional World Series and Champions patches. Expensive, but I'll have it forever!

The girls had a GREAT time shopping in the Universal shop, with its huge Harry Potter section. Between having dinner, having snacks, and shopping, we enjoyed two-thirds of what we would have done at Universal Studios, with no admission charge.

The girls have been watching way too much of the Simpsons lately, so they checked out the Simpsons gear, too.

We all had such a fun day together. Cora, who doesn't love leaving SClarita, or being around a lot of people, loved it and wants to come back again. Normally parking is $25 - crazy - so free parking is a big savings. And it's only a half hour away.

My heart is full!

(And, for the record, this is Violet and Cora. When I posted this pic, many people thought it was me and Cora! She's taller than me, but not by this much!)