Fun with Nan and Pop, Part I

Stace and his dad spent some quality time together on Gord's birthday, going shopping at tool stores and then getting a beer at Telco, one of the local breweries Stace enjoys. 

They also went to the picturesque Iron Horse Bridge, where the mighty Santa Clara River actually looks like a real river.

It was nice that Nan and Pop were here for Violet's induction into the National Junior Honor Society, which took place Wednesday evening at the Hart auditorium.

 

Thursday was "May the Fourth," a date celebrated by Star Wars fans for its similarity to the phrase "May the force be with you." 

We'd heard that Pocock Brewery was having a big event, so we dressed up and drove over. It was PACKED! Like, we could barely get in the door! So, we walked around to check out the festivities and people in costume, and then went back out. We stopped for a quick photo with this car before ending up back at Telco.

Introducing...

 After two days in the hospital, my sister gave birth to my beautiful new niece Eloise Iris on Wednesday morning, the first birth of the year at Henry Mayo. She's a big girl - 9 pounds, 5 ounces and almost 22 inches long!

 And, she's beautiful.

Violet is absolutely in love! She can't wait to be old enough to babysit.

Since I'm 9 years older than Melanie, it was sweet for me to see her with her. So much like me at that age - I was so excited and proud to finally be a big sister.

Awwww!

School Tidbits

Every month, the girls' school has a "Family Flag Day," where parents can be present for morning ceremony. This coincides with Monday drumming, when 6th graders can grab a drum and welcome the students to morning ceremony. I enjoyed listening to the drumming this week, with Cora in the back row.

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week, and I helped Jen and Dinorah, the other room moms, decorate Miss Lotito's door. Here she is, with our kids, on Monday morning.

We also came up with the fun idea of creating masks of Bradley Cooper, Miss Lotito's favorite actor, for all the students to wear as a surprise for her. It worked like a charm! She absolutely loved her class full of Bradleys.

Violet was chosen to be a Kindness Ambassador for her class for the final month of the school year. She is very excited about this, and has meetings to go to on Thursdays. She's expected to be a friendly face, and someone people can go up to when they're feeling lonely. Yay, Vi!

Both girls participated in the school spirit day Friday, which was Hawaii clothing day. Cora, being on the student council that plans and promotes the spirit days, helped make posters for it. Here, she's wearing my Hawaiian shirt - we've reached that stage!

Boba and the Hill

Violet sees her endocrinologist next week, and she needed her bloodwork done. Afterwards, she got her favorite reward - a boba smoothie. She always chooses cookies and cream.

Jake and Char came over Friday after school, and Jake left his mark on the sign on Cora's door.

Her door signs typically either welcome friends, or promise death to those who fail to knock.

The kids watched a Marvel movie - Cora used her birthday money to buy a set of six of them. She wants to eventually own them all, like Uncle Nick.

Then they went out and played in Cora's hideout on the hill, and ended up rolling down the hill over and over. This was a new way to play - most of the year it's dry and hard, but at the moment with all the rain, it's grassy and soft.

The hideout, now with a new table - the stump they rolled in, with a granite slab top.

New Year's Eve, Day

We spent the next couple of days tidying up the house and back yard. December is month the leaves fall here, and after ignoring the yard for a few weeks, it was in quite a state.

Along with working hard, Violet worked to build her Lego Christmas gifts. Nan and Pop gave her the Newt Scamander set she really wanted, from the Fantastic Beasts series, and Stace and I gave her a coding robot set. First she built the robot, hooked into the app on her kindle, and then programmed it to move and talk. Cool stuff!

On New Year's Eve, we went out to run some errands and ended up having a late lunch/early dinner at Pei Wei.

Here you can see yet another funny face of Violet's. She's becoming quite a champion of face-making at photo time.

Stace was fighting a cold, so we didn't do a lot on New Year's Eve. We watched a movie together at home and toasted the turn into 2019 as a foursome.

Cora turned a gold mirror into this beauty, adding the paint, marbles an crystal accents. She is very crafty, and was proud of this one in particular, because she didn't follow any YouTube instructions!

On New Year's Day, Stace still wasn't feeling good, but he rallied and prepared a lovely meal. My parents came over for a roast dinner, and we then played Apples to Apples. New Year's Resolution: more family board game nights!

Here's to 2019. May we notice the blessings.

Queen Elizabeth I, Violet-style

 Violet very ably portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in her class's Wax Museum presentation on Friday. She worked hard on her project, reading through a biography several years above her grade level for her research.

She came up with a speech about two minutes long, and earned 97 out of 100 possible points on it!

The Wax Museum is a third-grade project, but Dr. Porter decided to let her second-graders in her split class complete it, too. Violet proved herself more than up for the task!

Thanksgiving

 Cora spent a couple of days of Thanksgiving break in bed with a cold.Thankfully, she was well enough by Thursday evening to join the family Thanksgiving meal.

This year, we went to the home of some of my mom's extended family, cousins she's reconnected with after the prior generation lost touch.

My dad gave his camera to the girls to document their experience. They captured most of these images.

 The first one shows the gorgeous flower arrangement Auntie Mel brought as a hostess gift. She has a great little floral business "flourishing" now; she is so multi-talented!

The second shows the lovely table setup - and there were a lot of tables set up! Dinner was for about 40 people! We got to meet quite a few new family members, including our hosts.

Cora's not one for wearing skirts or dresses much anymore, but Thanksgiving is a special occasion. She is growing into such a beautiful young lady.

And this girl! We have two beautiful young ladies!

The girls were so well-behaved and polite, though they were in the semi- awkward spot of being the only children under 12 present. We received several comments that evening complimenting their behavior.

 Violet captured this artistic shot of one of the snacks out to munch on prior to dinner.

Here are my mom's cousins, Randy and his wife Cathy, our gracious hosts for the evening. We enjoyed their hospitality, and a delicious meal.

Violet took this photo - can you tell? - of Grandma with her family. On the left is Aunt Betty, Randy's mom, and next to her is cousin Lucy.

It was such a nice evening. Happy Thanksgiving!

Accomplishments

Wednesday was a big day for Cora - she got her braces off!

Dr. Megan and Dr. Pete were so pleased that Cora wore her orthodontist shirt to the office, they made sure to take a photo with her.

Here, Dr. Pete shows Cora the tool he was using to clean the glue off her teeth, after the brackets were removed. She said having her braces off hurt a bit; of course it was worth it in the end.




















It was a nice touch that they gave Cora a candy bar and Cracker Jack, a caramel popcorn treat, as a congratulatory gift. The candy bar contained caramel - both treats were forbidden while she was wearing her braces.

Such a gorgeous smile, Cora! She is truly a beautiful young lady.

Violet also had a big week - she's been saving for months to buy this Lego Elves dragon and castle set, and it arrived in the mail this week. She was so excited for it to come!

After working on it for several days, Violet completed the 833-piece set Friday night. It's great watching her work, and then watching her play.

And also this week, Cora gave Mrs. Shafarman a copy of her book she wrote from her gold mining project. Mrs. Shafarman was thrilled!

I was so happy to see her teacher's words on Facebook a couple of days later: "This week I received one of the coolest, most special gifts ever! This marvelous young lady took the story she wrote for her Miner's Museum 4th grade project and, over the summer, turned it into a book. I'm so grateful for students like her. This is what makes it all worth it. Thank you, Miss Cora (and Lisa) for something I will cherish always! (Pam, check out the dedication)."

Tidbits

Our church is offering a parenting class, which Stace and I have decided to take.

It's always good to get a fresh perspective on this job, and the group discussions are so helpful, as you find out that your struggles are common. After the first session, we headed over to the coffeehouse to chat some more over a latte and cookie.

We've discovered, quite late in the game unfortunately, that Cora is much happier about practicing her violin if she has an appreciative audience.

She set up a mini concert the other night, and had such a better attitude about playing. Violet served as her music stand. Cora has a few more weeks of violin, and one more school performance. Then she will happily give up playing, for now at least.

Speaking of good girls, the other afternoon, Cora decided she was in a productive mood and eager to work to make some money. I suggested she sweep the porch and wipe down the front door. She did so, but then went above and beyond, sweeping out the garage and front path (and hosing it down... shhhhh... don't tell the water police!).

She encouraged Violet to help out, and it was fabulous listening to them getting along and working together.

Violet decided to set up a toll to enter her room.

Not sure where this idea came from.

But she rilly means it.

 Not to be outdone, Cora added a price tag to her collection of warning signs on her door.

 Cora and Stace were at soccer practice the other evening, so I took Violet to Summit Park to play for a bit after dinner. She loves showing off her monkey bar skills.

And lastly, here is a happy girl having her reward after making it through a blood draw and pediatrician's appointment.

Our poor Cora has been dealing with tummy aches and anxiety for a number of months, and recently has progressed to getting actually sick. We took her in for a workup, to rule out a physical cause, as we seek to get her the help she needs.