Violet's Culinary Creations

 Violet has been cooking lately. She made pasta with a homemade sauce, cooking down the tomatoes from our garden for the sauce.

She and I worked together on these fried chicken tenders; it was my first time "deep"frying and they were yummy.

Here's a shrimp stir fry she made.

We had a lot of lemons from my parents' tree, and a few boxes of (store-bought) strawberries, so she made strawberry lemonade. 

Then she got a bee in her bonnet to make macarons, for the challenge, as they're known as a difficult thing to master. Her first attempt, using butterfly pea tea to color them, is on the left. 

She was very disappointed with them, and then found another recipe using the same ingredients, and nailed it. Technically, the second recipe was for Swiss meringues cookies, and not macarons. But they ALL tasted amazing! 

Cooking under Quarantine

I've assigned the girls dinner duties this week, and Violet took it very seriously. She wanted to make fried rice, one of her favorites, with bacon. She didn't just want a simple one-pot meal though; she wanted to also serve a side dish. We have Korean dumplings in the freezer, so she fried up some of those.

Yum!

Violet was so fancy, she made menus! She did the same menu idea the night before, when she offered us several dessert options, just because she wanted to serve us.

We've been balancing cooking at home with picking up take-out, especially because our local restaurants need the business. Stace brought home breakfast from the Way Station one day this week, and we had lunch delivered from Firehouse Subs, which is owned by friends of ours.

It was Cora's turn to make dinner, and she tackled shrimp and chicken quesadillas.













While Cora tried to focus on cooking, Stace was performing, and the cat was being surprising. It was a lot to take in!

Cora and Violet worked together on this meal - shrimp scampi. So yummy!

Floral Wonderland

On Saturday, we all helped Melanie with a big wedding she's had on her books for months.

Here are the centerpieces for the reception, awaiting their placement on the tables after the wedding ceremony.

It was held at a gorgeous estate in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, an estate that featured taxidermy creatures including a zebra and polar bear. We learned they were purchased from a natural history museum that was going out of business.

Some of the stunning flower arrangements Melanie designed; the tall one is on a stand Stace made for her.

The estate had views from one side of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory...

...while from the other side, you could see Downtown Los Angeles.

The girls were helpful in many ways; for instance, Violet put the lily pads out into the pool.

They also helped decorate the floral garland on the Rolls-Royce.

Here's one of the gorgeous photos from the wedding photographer!

Flowers, flowers, flowers!

My sister the florist has a very busy month of May - seven weddings in four weekends! She asked a couple of months ago for our assistance at a big job this past weekend, at a gorgeous venue in the Malibu hills.

Stace, Violet and I helped unload dozens of things from the trucks, and set up the reception tables with the flower arrangements.

These beautiful ranunculus flowers were actually individually tagged with guest names, and were laid down at each guest's place setting.

You can just see Stace, Nick and Violet in the background, putting together stands for the larger centerpieces. (Cora stayed back with Jake and his family, and had lunch and a long hike with them. Next week, she'll help at another wedding, while Stace and I have other plans.)

Violet laid out the rose petals,and at this time was sweeping up the ceremony area after the gorgeous arbor arch sprays were completed over her head. Notice the waterfall wall behind the ceremony area! This was quite an amazing venue.

Look at this table! Huge centerpiece, with smaller arrangements below. My sister is amazing.

Relaxing after the setup, at a nearby cafe. It was a beautiful day in Malibu, and when we were finished, we took a drive along PCH and found dinner before heading back home.

Back Home

Forget all the Christmas presents - THIS is why we struggled to stay under the luggage weight limit on our flight home!

Our flight back Thursday was smooth and easy, and it was nice having Stace home Friday to help with the unpacking.

With little food on the house, we decided to go out to eat. Stace thought Chinese sounded good, and Cora insisted on getting us all chopsticks to use. She's pretty good at using them, too.

Violet, eh, not so much. She went with the food-stabbing approach.

We went to the skate park Saturday and Sunday mornings for the kids skating time, stopping at Walmart first to get new helmets Saturday.

The girls loved riding their new scooters, and thanked us several times for getting them.

Violet helped Stace take down the Christmas decorations, too.

Even the ones on the roof!

Week In Review

This week, the girls returned to school after their lovely two-week Spring Break.

Fourth-graders in California focus on state history, and Cora's class has been working on research projects related to the state. This used to mean making a mission, like I did as a fourth-grader, but now has been broadened.

Cora chose to focus on the state bird, the California Valley Quail.

Her written report on the quail was due before Spring Break, and this week her visual presentation was due.
Cora chose to create a paper mache quail father and baby. It was a big, multi-step, multi-day project.

We were proud of her hard work - it turned out well!

During Spring Break, Violet and I went to soccer practice, too. But since it finishes at 8, now that school is back in session, it's a special Stace/Cora time.

He often takes her out for a treat after practice, like a sundae at McDonald's.

Violet called out to Cora the other day that she had helped her do her homework.

She didn't get every answer correct, but not a bad effort from the first-grader on the fourth-grader's vocabulary worksheet!

(Of course we explained that we all must do our own homework only...)

On Friday, we went to Dodger Stadium and saw a fabulous game, with Clayton Kershaw pitching a gem for the Dodgers.

Tidbits

The night of Violet's birthday party, since it was a weekend night, she slept in Cora's room. She wanted us to get the trundle out, but it was too late to deal with it, so she made herself comfortable on the floor.

When Stace and I were off to bed and peeked in, we saw that Sebastian had made himself comfortable, too.

Violet helped Daddy put together a new side table for our patio.

Earlier that day, I'd been chosen to make a little money by participating in a focus group. Stace came home early and took Violet to pick up Cora from school.  She rode her bike there and back, and learned how to start off by herself.

You gotta love birthday presents! This lucky girl has had a lot of fun new toys to play with lately, including this princess play doh set.

One morning this week, Violet put together dresses and decorations for almost three hours!

Violet Mae, at 3-going-on-4

Oh, sweet, silly Violet.

I'd better get these photos of "Violet at 3, almost 4," before she does, in fact, turn 4 this weekend.

Violet at almost 4 is definitely silly. She likes being funny: singing funny songs; creating funny faces; making funny noises.

A little job I've given her recently is to empty the package of toilet paper rolls into their respective spots in the bathrooms. So the other morning, this was her idea: she put them in a stack - a very tall stack, the height of which required a stool. She was so pleased with herself, giggling and discussing her feat.

Violet, just in the past week or so, has started wiping herself more often. But for quite a lot of weeks (months?), this is how we'd find her when we'd go in to wipe her bum.

It was such a great trick, such a secretive hiding spot, she'd laugh out loud every time we'd "find" her. Her ability to be amused is amazing. She also liked me to peek in at her, "through the crack."

In other bathroom news (bet you never want to read that in a sentence again), we've thrown out the pink princess toilet seat we've used for, oh, five or so years. It's the little things...

Since Violet has started going to soccer class, she has grown more interested in playing footie with Daddy while Cora has her own class. The other day, Violet ran to get her cleats on before we left home for class; this is how she came out. A dress, cleats, ankle socks and running shoes.

We've recently put an end, or a pause at least, to the girls sharing a room on the weekends. Too much arguing. So, on several nights, Violet has asked to sleep on her own floor.

Speaking of sleeping... What's a lazy Sunday afternoon without a nap?

At Summer's End

Summer is about over - and by that, I mean Cora's break from school, of course. 

The season will continue a while longer, and of course living here, the heat lasts into October. At least we can go to the pool and the beach after school.

Anyway. Cora, Chris and David went to Camp Clarita for the last two weeks of summer, and on four of those days, Violet went to camp, too.  Cora enjoyed camp, and even went on a field trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo.  Other than the field trips, her camp day went from 9 to 4, with swimming daily after lunch.  She says that her days were too long, and she wished she could have seen me more. Maybe we'll give it a miss next year.

Violet, meanwhile, loved every day of camp with Ms. Diane and Miss Emily.

On the last day, Violet (pictured here with her awesome handmade mask and crown) said how sad she was that camp was over. She is so ready for Terrific Tots!







Cousin Alison flew down to visit Bill and Patty for a week, and she and Aunt Patty stopped by for a few hours on our last day of summer break. She helped the girls make this glitteriffic creation from a palm frond.





One one of the too-few occasions when we were home all day, I brought out the laundry basket full of wet clothes. This little one insisted on pausing her playtime with Cora to help out.

I'll end with a couple of "isms":
The night before her camp field trip to the zoo, Cora was very nervous and tearful about being so far away from home, for so long. (Her drop-off time was 7:30 and they weren't back until 5:15.)
The next evening, I asked how it went.
"Oh, it was really good! And I'm not even being sarcastic, like I usually am," she replied.

And, here's a snippet from breakfast a few weeks ago:
Cora: "Violet, what do you want to be when you grow up? I want to be an engineer."
Violet: "I want to be a doggy, in a doggy costume."
Cora: "No, not for Halloween, for a job."
Violet: "I want to be a doggy. I CAN be a doggy."