End of Year Things

We met up with Grandma and Grandpa for breakfast Saturday morning to give Cora her gifts - she was too worn out to do it Friday night. You can see she's still a bit tired here. 

She later went to Logan's house to play D&D, and went again on Sunday.

Stace rewatched the Star Wars movies on Saturday, while Violet was unfortunately getting sick. 

On Saturday afternoon, Dinorah invited over several of us moms with graduating seniors, to catch up and reminisce. 
 

It was lovely, especially with catching up with some ladies I hadn't seen in a while.

On Sunday, Stace and I went to Glendale to Ellie's dance recital, and after, we all went to a nearby Foster's Freeze for a snack. I was excited to get a chocolate-dipped cone, since they're now hard to find up here in SClarita.

On Monday morning, I met up with a number of parents and graduating seniors at their elementary school. Other schools do this, and this is the first year it's happened here - the graduates are invited back for a special ceremony, to honor them and to give the elementary kids an example to aspire to.

We're holding signs with our kid's 6th grade photo! Such a sweet gesture.

 The students were introduced to the whole school at the weekly morning ceremony, and then got to spend some time playing on the playground. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if they were wearing their caps and gowns, as I've seen happen at other schools. But, Cora's old high school hadn't graduated yet, and the students didn't actually have their gowns!

It was great seeing these ladies again... 

...and these students, all grown up! I knew many of these kids so well just six years ago.

*Don't bother looking for Cora in there - she didn't go. She isn't nostalgic or social, and she was well into her summer schedule of sleeping well past the 8:00 meeting time here.

Also this week, Violet's freshman year came to an end! She did very well in her grades and is glad to be on break, too. Especially since she spent much of the week feeling ill.

Week in Review

 Violet took part in another hiking club event with her online school. Her supervising teacher is the hiking club leader, so it was nice for Vi to connect with her outside of the regular school meetings.

They walked Wednesday at the Placerita Waterfall Trail.

I dropped Violet off and then went a mile up the road to the nature center, where I read and enjoyed the view. There were even poppies! Love seeing them bloom.

On Thursday, Cora had her last full day of high school - really, her last full day of normal school ever, after 13 years! Goodness.

(She went to school Friday too, but only for the one after lunch class.)

Thursday was the last day of getting up early for an 8:30 start, bringing a lunch, staying all day. 

She took tea and her yearbook to get signatures.

The last school lunch I'll ever pack!

Not the greatest example, but there at least were apple slices and a homemade muffin. 

We all enjoyed flipping through her final high school yearbook.

The big senior - with the fancy photo and yearbook quote and everything.

I went out and met with friends Thursday night for dinner and drinks. A local (nice) place has a GREAT Happy Hour where you can eat and drink well for not a lot of cash.

We were celebrating two birthdays, so I organized the gifts and made two bouquets. Perhaps I've learned something from being around Mel and her weddings all these years.

Vi's big haircut

Violet made a big decision and chopped off 10 inches of her hair on Friday! She had enough to be able to donate to Locks of Love, a charity that creates wigs for children with cancer. And our hair stylist, Colleen, gives you a free cut when you donate your hair.

The big snip!

Now to finish the haircut...

So cute!

Violet had admired many images of girls with short, "fluffy" hair. She's also hopeful of her waves being more accentuated with the cut.

 

I was due for a cut, as well, so Colleen squeezed me in.

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!

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.

Week in Review

The school was able to hold its Volunteer Tea, after a two-year Covid hiatus. Here I am with my friend Rose, who has a freshman son who is friends with Cora. 

The tea is a lovely thank you to the parents who help out, and featured yummy food! It was strange to think that the last time I attended would have been Cora's sixth grade year, when so many of my friends were "graduating" as well - like Sue, Jen, Dinorah... And now it's my turn!

The children decorate these for their parents any way they choose. Violet went with a nature/mountain theme, naturally!

Stace celebrated the Queen's Jubilee with flags and watching the festivities from here.
 

Cora closed out her freshman year on Thursday! Bring on Summer! We celebrated with some new earrings - and a new hole to put them in! This is her second hole.

She didn't even flinch!

Final Shows

Cora had her final Show Choir shows this weekend, with the Spring Concert event. The show featured all the choirs' competition sets, plus some "thowback" numbers from comp sets from years past, plus student-initiated numbers, PLUS a tribute to the graduating seniors. 

Here's Cora with her friend Eric, after the show when he was wearing his cap and gown as a graduating senior honoree.

This is Cora's choir doing its throwback number, the Imagine Dragons song "I'm on Top of the World." Cora is the one on one knee in this photo, and, later, she was one member of a trio with a featured singing part of the song.

Here are the rest of the photos from the parent who is a professional and blesses us with her talents!