New Cabinets and Paint

Over the summer, Stace plugged away at replacing two old plywood cabinets in the garage with the white ones you see here on the left. Looks so much nicer, and they're providing additional storage.
 

Cora and Violet both want to repaint their rooms, but for Violet, it makes sense to wait until her windows are sorted out. And that project is waiting for the larger addition project...

But Cora dove right in, and began emptying her room before I'd even taken the "before" photos. This at least shows the before color, a seafoam green/blue.

She chose a very pretty blue grey.

She still needs to put some framed art on the walls, but this is as close to "after" as I'm getting this month.

We all like the color! We also touched up the white paint.

As part of this project, she took down her Warriors books - her collection had reached more than 60 books! She was able to sell them all and make a little pocket money. 

End of an era! There were many years where we could pick a book or two off her list for Christmas and birthdays. Now, she's made a number of other readers happy, giving them a great deal on the books.

Weekend Fun

 

It's more and more official that we have a high school senior. Cora may not desire to go to football games or school dances, but watching her take her senior photos on Saturday made it real! 

Where we live, seniors have a special place in the yearbook, and wear formalwear for their portraits. They may choose a "senior quote" to write under their yearbook photo.

Cora is wearing the same kind of black velvet stole I wore in my senior photo in 1997.

For these photos, you go to the photography studio.

We'll get to see proofs in a couple of weeks to choose from.

Other Cora news, she had auditions for her final high school play, the old American classic Our Town. She will be playing the role of Stage Manager, like a narrator, and will have pages and pages of lines to memorize.

After Cora's photos, Stace and I got his car washed and got fancy coffee at the newish place near our church. Then we took Cora to Logan's house for D&D, and took Violet out for dinner.

Winston really, REALLY wanted to try the Korean fried chicken wings we were enjoying. 

Since we usually share gardening success stories, in the spirit of honesty, I present to you our bell pepper crop. This is it, in its entirety. 

Our zucchini have been miserly this summer as well, after much success the past few years. We have had better luck with our cherry and grape tomato plants than in recent years, and with our larger tomatoes. But the rats/opossums have been getting most of the big ones, sadly.

Camarillo Air Show

Stace and I returned to the Wings over Camarillo Air Show on Sunday, without the girls, though my parents met us there. (I blogged about our trip to the same show with toddler Cora here!)

I'm standing in front of a Spitfire belonging to the Commemorative Air Force based at Camarillo Airfield. 

We noticed the Union Jack, which drew us close, and learned that this 1942 Boeing Stearman biplane was flown around the world by Englishwoman Tracey Curtis-Taylor. She flew from Capetown, South Africa, to Goodwood, Sussex, on one trip. On another, she flew from Farnborough to Sydney, Australia. We chatted to her, and she signed her book for us.

 

There was a car show on one end, and we later noticed this sweet 1950s BMW Isetta bubblecar in a hangar that oozed money.

This one was a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules transport plane. 

We had a lovely day here, and later were able to meet up with our friends Rob and Michelle for an early diner before heading home.

Week in Review

On Monday, the girls' first day of school, I had Ellie with us for a few hours while Melanie and Nick went on a little trip to pick up their new kitten.

Ellie came with me to pick up Cora, take her to her singing lesson, and get a third estimate on repairing Grandpa's car. We then made a quick stop to see the ducks at Bridgeport Marketplace.

Later that night, I picked up my parents from the airport, and Ellie spent the night at their house.

Stace has been begging the girls to come up to the swimming pool with him, and one day this week, even Cora agreed to come up. She threw the ball while Stace dove in to catch it. 

Happy Dad.

Violet and I went to see Liana play in her first high school volleyball game! This game was at Santa Clarita Christian School, where I went from the middle of 4th grade through 8th grade. It was cool to show Violet where I spent a few years, and even better to see Liana on the court.

She's in the back, far left side, here.

Careful on your morning walks, you never know what you're going to run into!

Also this week, we watched Our Town, the play Cora will be doing this fall, on television with Paul Newman as the lead. And on Saturday we saw a mystery play at the Main theater with my parents, and went out to a new brewpub after. 

Back to School

Well, that summer went by quickly! And now we've somehow reached Cora's final year of school, and all the lasts begin. 

For Violet, this was her first day of high school. 

Oh, how we do wish they could be at the same school together for this one year. I never would have thought back when Cora promoted from Meadows, that she and Vi would never be on campus together again.

 This was Cora's first day of kindergarten.

First day of her senior year! May the Lord bless her with peace, joy and personal growth.

Violet was nervous! But all went well. I drop her off in time for brunch, she has her biology and art classes, and I pick her up after lunch. This way she can see her girlfriends.

May the Lord guide her throughout these next four years and bless her always.

We'd forgotten the signs on the actual first day, so Stace brought these home later in the week. You can see that Violet is a little more relaxed here!

Yes, that's paint on Cora's legs, from painting minis. This girl!

Cats

We're at the stage in cat ownership where all boxes are saved for a few extra days, to serve as exciting hiding places and nap spots.

Sometimes, bags are saved, too.

This doesn't happen often. Seb usually sleeps at the end of our bed. 

I feel sad for Violet - the kittens are amazing, and she adores them, but neither sleeps with her, as Spencer used to.

They used to be able to share one spot so easily!

Usually it's Winston being naughty with food, but Evie discovered she likes pork rinds! Naturally!

Final Week of Summer

 I tried a new French bread recipe the other day that came out beautifully - using store-bought flour.

The girl are now registered for school. Here's Violet on Tuesday at Hart, where she'll take two classes. She also went to registration at LPA, where she'll take the rest of her classes, on the online/at-home platform. 

Cora got registered for her senior year Monday, but I forgot to take photos since I didn't go in with her. She'll have a weird schedule, taking a full three classes every other day, and only one class on the opposite day. Her school uses a block schedule, with three longer classes each day instead of 6 shorter ones. She'll also take an online class at the college.

Also on Tuesday, Nick came over to watch the latest Ghostbusters film with us during the day, continuing our tradition.

Stace and I went over to Central Park to watch the Creedence Clearwater Revival cover band entertain the Concerts in the Park crowd Saturday night.

After Cora's registration, we had dentist appointments, and then went to Liz's house for a summer's end pool party.

The seniors!! Cora and Chris, in the green, were kindergarten classmates and now are graduating! And all four were at the same elementary school from first grade on, when Cami came to the school.

And these were the little siblings, now high school freshmen.

It was a fun time reconnecting with everyone and eating well!

Violet went to her friend's house, and when I went to pick her up all the lights came on and the car wouldn't restart. Stace later determined it's the alternator. 

He bought a new one and sought to replace it, and in so doing, part of the brittle plastic radiator disintegrated. So I ended up getting a new radiator from Stacey's House of Mazdas. It was a frustrating job, because the radiator he initially bought leaked from a bad seam, and he had to do the whole job over again, in the heat. Eventually, he got it all done.

I took my parents to the airport, and Dad made it clear I could use his car, while mine was out of commission as Stace worked on it. So I drove Cora to Logan's house for D&D and got rear-ended as I exited the freeway. It wasn't bad, and the guy stopped and we exchanged information, so all will be fine in the end. But it did bring back a lot of emotion, being the first situation like this since my big accident. Cora was amazing in helping calm me down.

Also this week, JT and her kids came by, and finally met the kittens! And we had Colleen, Rigo, Lucas and Liana over for dinner and some pool time, on our final night of summer break.