Lisa and friends

Sue and Jen and a few other girlfriends took me out for my birthday, and we chose a wine bar across the street from where Cora was performing in her play. Besides not letting me pay for my meal, they got me a gift card to a nail salon!

After eating, we walked over and saw the show.
 

After the show, Sue and Jen stayed on chatting, and we went next door to the Newhall Refinery. When Cora was changed and ready to go, she came in and sat with us. It was really fun to hang out with her, with us! A taste of things to come as she gets older.

Silly girl, popping out from behind my head.

The following Saturday, I was invited to a birthday dinner for Christina and Tiffany. We had a great night celebrating them!

(I then returned home to the water intrusion in Violet's room - talk about a buzzkill! Ha!)

Jen also gave me this lovely mug, from her recent work trip to Hong Kong and China.

I am blessed with the best friends.

Cora's Wolves Fans

Cora's enjoyed her second weekend of Wolves, which got rave reviews online, and enthusiastic and appreciative audiences.

Above is the social media post about Cora and her character - yes, that description is of her character, not herself. And see the fun front window display at the Main?

It was so cool seeing her show in the lights on the marquee!

 

Stace and I caught both matinee shows Saturday and Sunday (the finale). 

Again, we are so thankful for our tribe for coming out to support our girl.

Besides the friends in the photos here, we also had a group of my girlfriends, when we went out to celebrate my birthday; Christina, Kelly and Brad, and Ellen, her kindergarten teacher. Cora had a few other school friends attend as well, including Jarod.
 

Sue and Jen were part of the group of my friends who came to watch.

Lucas, from Cora's school theatre group, bending down to not tower over Cora and Mackenzie.

It was fun for Cora and Mackenzie to have this experience together as they've done a lot of theater together at school, as well.

Guildenstern came!! Ben, Cora's costar her freshman year, 

surprised her and came to watch. Cora's big smile says a lot. Ben is a junior at UCLA, in the theatre directors program. 

Here are Mackenzie and Cora with Jeff, their director. He did a great job, as evidenced by the stellar production. 

Violet and JC came to watch...

...as did Rigo and Colleen.

Addition: Foundation

This week, we had our footings inspected and the rebar drilled into the foundation of the existing house.

Ready for concrete! 

 

The trucks showed up Saturday morning. It was another loud day.

The men did great work - looks fantastic!

Unfortunately - take note of the clouds forming in the background.

We were supposed to get rain on Sunday, but it came early, Saturday evening. Because we needed the concrete to harden, and we weren't expecting the early rain, we hadn't prepped the pad where the stucco was cut away at the bottom of the house. The rain pooled up in the corner and penetrated into Violet's room.

She and Stace were out to dinner Saturday night and when they returned, she noticed the carpet making wet spots as she stepped into the room. Uh oh!!

They moved the bookcase out, emptied the closet, and pulled the carpet up. They collected every towel they could find, but the water was still coming in. It wasn't great.

When I got home from an event, I shoved the wet towels into the washer on a spin/drain cycle and threw them into the dryer, so we could keep the process going.

On Sunday morning, Stace tried several types of fixes that didn't work, before resorting to a giant tarp that he nailed into the wall. That worked!

All the while, it was drizzling, and he was soaked. Ahh well, this too shall pass.

Tidbits

It was a holiday for Martin Luther King, Jr., on Monday, so the girls were off school. I met up with Stace (who was not off work) for lunch, at Fish Tail Grill. I had a poke bowl, and Stace had fish tacos. So yummy. 

Violet and I got some PE time in with a walk at Wildwood Canyon in Newhall.

On Tuesday, I ran some errands in Stevenson Ranch, in a big, busy big-box shopping center, and this roadrunner was running around. I took some video and followed him for a bit. Hope he got back to where he needed to go! Lots of big roads here. 

On Wednesday, it was SClarita's turn for fire. This time, it was near the lake in Castaic, and chewed up a lot of acres fast. When I took Cora to school around lunchtime, the clouds were menacing and a line of parents were picking up their kids from school. Though we (and Cora's school) were not close to danger, many students live in Castaic, so they might have been under evacuation warnings/orders.

Stace was sent home from work early, as the evacuation warning stretched to the businesses across the street from his plant. Keith was under an evacuation order, and spent the night with us on the couch. Seb approved.

It was nice hanging with him, and we were glad to be of help. Watching the huge fires in L.A. weeks prior, you just want to be helpful.

Speaking of helping, I spent a couple of hours sorting donations at a local dropoff place, where organizers were collecting goodies for families who'd lost everything. These were the bins of soaps and other toiletries.

We also were able to buy some necessities for the in-laws of Stacey's coworker, who lost their home.

The Wolves

Cora excelled in her opening weekend of Wolves. Yes, opening weekend - they have a two week, 8-show run at the Main in Newhall. Her community theater debut!

Wolves tells the story of a teen girls indoor soccer team through the course of six weeks of their season. It's all told from the perspective of their warmup area, with the girls' conversations propelling the story forward.

Cora plays the very anxious goalie. She has very few lines for the first half of the play, as her character is super nervous pregame, and often runs offstage to puke.

And incident happens between these two friends on a ski trip, leading to a big fight.

And in Week 5 (one scene taking place each week), Cora takes the spotlight. The scene opens with her alone on stage, crumpled in a ball, sobbing. 

She then melts down, rips out her pony tail, throws off her shirt, screams, and then collapses in tears.

The audience was silent enough to hear a pin drop. No one knows what has happened to make 00 (characters are mainly known only by their jersey number) fall apart.

In the following (and final, long) scene, the next week, the girls slowly come on stage, one by one, and as the conversations unfold, you can gather that one of the players was hit by a car and killed.

Cora finally has a monologue - she no longer feels nervous about the game. (She doesn't need to say it outright, but it's clear that the loss of a loved one helped her realize that soccer games aren't life and death situations.)

Her acting throughout is impeccable. In fact, all the girls are outstanding. The best of their high schools or colleges, coming across as very real, relatable characters.

A new character shows up - we realize this is the Soccer Mom, whose daughter died in the crash. She has a long, meandering, grief-stricken speech, leaving most of the audience in tears. Cora is crying behind her - again, stellar acting. I can't watch her without tearing up.

It was a moving, heartfelt show. Not an easy watch, and a LOT of swearing from a couple of the characters, with more adult subject matter. Real, gritty.

We're all so proud of Cora for tackling this role (pun intended) and scoring.

Time with Ellie

Eloise is now 5! She's been in TK (transitional kindergarten, for those kids turning 5 during the school year) this year at her elementary school, and she loves it. 

Her birthday party was postponed until Saturday because of the L.A. fires, which forced some of her friends to evacuate. 

Stace, Violet and I went to her party, while Cora had a Wolves show. Mel had a houseful of 4- and 5-year-olds! Here, Ellie is wearing the coat Violet wore when she impersonated Queen Elizebeth for a school assignment. I thought Ellie might like it for dress-up for a few months before she outgrows it.

Violet and Stace helped with the pinata.

On Sunday, Melanie and Nick dropped Ellie off with us, so they could see Cora's show. We took her to Quigley Canyon for a walk and some nature time.

Ellie was brave and tackled the log bridge.

The horse came near to say hello! A friend gave Ellie a Bluey camera for her birthday, which she had lots of fun with. She took about 3,000 photos on our walk. It's a camera like one my girls had at the same age, with little games, too.

She's always a good girl with us, and we love spending time with her! She's a chatterbox, too.