Our Little is TWELVE!

Violet is 12! A full-fledged tween, with a style all of her own. No longer a little girl, Violet has interests and moods and talents - she's really coming into her own. 

These two have such a great friendship. Violet misses Cora when she's away at rehearsals too often, and they love to talk about their common interests and play video games together. Vi is wearing her gift from Cora - the clip-on earrings. We gave her several pairs, when we discovered them at the jewelry store in the mall. Vi has one pierced ear, and one that closed over back when she was 6, and she has no desire to re-pierce it. But, she was thrilled with her new earrings, and has been wearing them daily, with her scarves and boots. She has a definite style!

We gave Violet a few favorite food items, but our main gift was cash, which she is saving up to buy a new drawing iPad, one that does NOT require being hooked up to our laptop. Many thanks to all who have also contributed to her fund! Happy Birthday, sweet Violet. We love you!
 

Birthday Camping

As per Violet's birthday tradition, we took a weekend trip to Wheeler Gorge with Colleen, Rigo, Lucas and Liana. 

Violet went up to the campground with Liana, since Stace was going to be getting home later in the evening. And Cora didn't come up Friday at all, because her play is coming up and she had a late rehearsal. She spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's, and they brought her up Saturday.

 

On Saturday, we relaxed. We also had a visitor - Stace's coworker Doug, who lives in Ojai.

He rode up on his old Honda motorcycle; the road to the campground is perfect for a weekend fun ride!

Later, Grandma and Grandpa came up with Cora. We had dinner and celebrated Violet's birthday a little early.

Cora wasn't excited to spend the night, but she did. We had a nice breakfast Sunday morning, and the kids relaxed by the creek.

I love our tradition with these dear friends.

Week in Review

Violet is still enjoying her Tuesday afternoons at Gilchrist Farm. This past week, she started with a ground archery lesson using her teacher's quiver for the first time. Violet enjoyed having so many arrows at her hip.

It's baby goat season at Gilchrist, and I was lucky enough to actually watch one be born! That was quite an experience for a suburban girl like me! Here, the mama is licking the newborn clean. The sibling, in the foreground, was trying to walk but couldn't keep its feet under him/her, since it was so new! 
 

Another mama and kid pair. There are at least a dozen babies - all so cute!

Spencer sometimes makes it clear he'd like to sleep on the towels, which requires us to remove a few. This week, Seb was on the lower cupboard, meowing. I figured out that he now wanted to try out the linen cupboard for himself. 

It was Melanie's birthday on Friday, and Violet won't be around to go to her party on Saturday. So, we took her home from school and got lunch together at Loaf, which is becoming one of Violet's faves. 

On Thursday night, Violet went to her final Connect 56 event of the year, a Scooter's Jungle playtime. I can't remember when we last went to Scooter's but it had been a while! 

While she played, Stace and I spent an hour or so at a city block party event in Newhall, which was meant to honor the Cowboy Festival, which again was cancelled because of the difficulties planning large scale events. Stace and I went because the Chamber of Commerce was going to be on hand, with its famous peach cobbler! So, we got our cobbler, listened to live music, and posed at one of the photo opps. 

Easter Weekend

Over Easter weekend, we babysat Ellie on Saturday when both Melanie and Nick were working. She enjoyed a couple of trips to our little park - nice to see another generation playing there!

Cora set a very bad example.

On Easter Sunday, after church we went to Loaf Bakery for some treats before later heading to Grandma and Grandpa's for a family meal.

Are my girls too old for an Easter egg hunt? NOPE!

Especially not when some of the eggs had quarters and $5 bills inside!

It was a nice time together.
 

Week in Review

Oh, my dear Sebastian.

This is not the best bird-hunting technique.

The Queen's English car show was this weekend, and Stace and I made a quick trip there to walk around and admire.

Later on Sunday, Cora was at a show choir rehearsal, so Stace, Violet and I took another Quigley walk. The wildflowers were beautiful! Besides the poppies, these tiny lavender flowers were pretty and prolific.

The girls returned to school, and on Thursday, we went to Violet's last Family Dance at her elementary school. She didn't want to go, but because it was one of our final family events at the school, we forced her to go. Can you tell that we also forced her to take this photo in front of the photo backdrop?

Violet doesn't like crowds, modern music, or loud music, so DJs and dance music aren't her thing. We didn't really spend much time in the actual dance, so I snapped a quick pic as we left, for memory's sake.

Exciting day on Friday! Violet got her braces off! Here she is, post-removal, taking all the photos for her chart. 

Just look at that gorgeous smile! 

Violet had two loose teeth, and both were pulled out when the ortho tech removed the braces. Her LAST two loose teeth!

So, the Tooth Fairy made one last stop at our house (years after our dear girls knew the truth...). The note says, "Congrats on a mouth of adult teeth, Violet! - TF"
 

Utah Road Trip, Part VII

After our Bryce Canyon adventure, we drove back to St. George and spent the night in the same motel we'd stayed in Sunday night.  On Thursday, we enjoyed a nice hotel breakfast, and said goodbye to Colleen, Rigo and the kids. We then made a stop in a St. George pioneer history museum that had a number of interesting artifacts from the 19th century.

Then, it was on toward home, with a stop in Las Vegas. 

Cora and Violet had never been in Vegas, and though neither like big cities or lots of people, Stace and I knew we needed to make a quick stop. We walked through a couple of casinos, concentrating our time in the Venetian since it's so pretty.

Fancy boba teas and macarons helped ease their unease about being in Vegas.

Then, we made our way home. What a fun trip! 
 

Utah Road Trip, Part VI

After a snack, we completed the scenic drive and ended up at the Bristlecone Loop hike, at over 9,100 feet elevation.

There was so much snow left on the ground! It was fun to tromp through it.

We felt like we were so far away from the Southwest beauty we'd been enjoying, up in the pine trees.

But then you could look down, and there were the red and orange and yellow rocks.
 

We stopped to check out this beautiful arch on our drive back down through the park. 

Utah Road Trip, Part V

After we all had breakfast and packed up from the motel, we headed back into Bryce Canyon. We made our first stop the Visitor's Center.

I'm a sucker for museums and visitor's centers, and this one was excellent.
 

We enjoyed the interactive exhibits, where my 15-year-old could pretend to be a groundhog. As you do!

A highlight of the trip was the reaction of the four kids when they first saw the amazing hoodoos, the pillar rock formations.

Lots of ooohs and ahhhhs. 

We hiked down among the formations and got an up-close look at them.

The colors are amazing:  red, pink, orange, yellow.

The face you make when you're practicing coin-flipping, for your upcoming play, and flip your coin right off the cliff.