Mom2Mom's year end

This year I've enjoyed getting to know these eight ladies from my Mom2Mom table, while serving as table leader. That meant I organized some playdates and sent out regular emails to keep everyone informed on what the group was doing. We had a great year, laughing, crying, praying, and playing together. 

On Tuesday we had our final meeting. We were blessed to have as our main speaker a lady named Nicole Johnson, a professional speaker who for more than a decade toured with the huge Women of Faith conferences. She was excellent, as expected, offering us a great dose of Godly motivation as we face these last few weeks of the school year.

Tuesday also marked Cora's final time coming to Mom2Mom/MOPS, so I was feeling nostalgic and a little sad. She's been a MOPPET/Kids Club kid since she was an infant, and the children's care and programming has really been top notch. Cora always looks forward to coming to see her friends.

I'm so thankful for this group. Since leaving the workforce, having Cora and entering the stay-at-home mommy world, the friendships I've made here have been life-changing. Genia, Colleen and Jill (and their families) are three who have added so much to our family's life, and there are many other M2M ladies I've learned from and become friends with over the years.

Eclipsed

A weekend recap - Ave woke up at our house after a successful sleepover (more on that in another post), and after breakfast, she returned home and Stace took Cora to my dad's house to watch Chelsea beat Bayern Munich in the European Champions League Cup Final. 

 In the evening, we went to the Mom2Mom family picnic, which was a really fun, casual night with good friends. Genia, John and their kids were there, along with Colleen and Rigo, so we had plenty of laughs and conversation. 

Stace schooled Lucas and Elyz in football.

 Then, he fed some baby yogurt to John, who needed a timeout in the stroller.





On Sunday, we spoke to the family, did some gardening and checked out a solar eclipse after the evening church service.

The local astronomy group set up telescopes at Central Park so we novices could safely see the eclipse.
It was really neat; one person projected the image onto the white board so a group could see the eclipse.

The only downside was Cora being disrespectful when I warned her not to look directly at the sun, prematurely ending our park time. We're trying to crack down on the 5-going-on-15 attitude that has been cropping up lately!

But, I won't end on that note.
Here's a knock knock joke Cora created:
Cora: Knock knock.
Me: Who's there?C: Knock.Me: Knock who?C: Don't knock on my door anymore!

The following also made me and Stace laugh Sunday evening on our drive home from the eclipse episode. We were at a light, next to a car with a young guy playing Zeppelin. We rolled the windows down to hear it better, and Stace told the guy, "Turn it up!" He smiled and obliged, but Cora, in the back seat, was mortified. "Dad! STOP!" she yelled, her eyes hidden by her hands.

It's happening already!

Strawberry picking

 We took a strawberry-picking trip Tuesday to Underwood Family Farms, where we've been coming for years with our Mom2Mom/MOPS friends.

(To see Cora's trip when she was a month older than Violet is now, click here.)

Since Genia has a nice big car, she drove all of us.
Our tour included an educational talk about fruits and vegetables, the oh-so-fun wagon ride out to the patch, three bulging berry baskets and a picnic in the play area.

The children all had a great time, the weather was warm (but not overly hot) and the company was perfect.
This is one of those days I know I'll look back on fondly, especially when our daily routine means getting up and out early every day with all my little ones in school.

Zoo

We leaders of Mom2Mom each took one month of our year to plan events for the moms and children. My month is January, so I set up a trip to the L.A. Zoo on Tuesday. It's still Christmas break here for the schools, so I thought it might be nice for the moms with kids still home.

 Here is some of our small group. Genia drove her family and me and the girls, which was great. We could chat in the car while the children all entertained themselves together in the back.

 The new elephant enclosure is fun for the kids, and we were there when the zookeepers were giving a little talk. Violet was naming all the "amimals," including the "eh-eh-ants."

 Here was our group of children - Violet and Cora, Alexyss, Ave, Johnny, Ruby and Owen.

And the mamas - Pandora, Genia, me and Jill. The weather was perfect, the children got along well (for the most part) and it was a great day out!

Santa Breakfast

On Saturday morning we visited with Santa Claus at a breakfast with my Mom2Mom friends at Valencia United Methodist.

Cora was a bit shy with Santa, twirling her hair and speaking softly.

She repeated the short list she's been asking for this year: a computer (toy laptop style, not a real one!), a Barbie, a dollhouse and a Peter Pan doll.

Violet loved playing with Lucas and eating blueberries by the handful.

She was not pleased to see Father Christmas at all, though.

Even with Mummy holding her, she wouldn't stop crying. Obviously I couldn't pass her over for the shot of both girls on Santa's knee, which turned out so cute last year.

Cora also was scared her second Christmas, and Stace and I are both in the photo with Santa that year.

Violet cheered up as soon as we stepped away from the red-suited man.

The week in photos

Here's a few photos from our week, as we got used to our new schedule with Cora in school three days a week...While Cora's away at school, Violet likes playing with her toys - or her crayons and notebooks, if Big Sis leaves them within reach and Mom's not looking.


The weather was generally beautiful, so we enjoyed a barbecue Friday evening, along with some art time. Cora needs new paints, especially after Violet joined in the fun.



Violet has a "thing" with shoes. She likes to say the word, get out shoes, try to put them on, and then brings them to us, saying, "Help me!" If I mention that it's time to leave, she says, "shoe!" because she knows it will be time to put them on.
Our new year of Mom2Mom (formerly MOPS) started this week, and here you see me with most of the members of the Violet table. We all have flower names, and yes, as table leader, I picked our name. We had a great meeting and I love the ladies at my table. I'm looking forward to a great year together.

One funny thing to note from our meeting - when I picked up Violet, Miss Sarah reported that she spent a lot of time following around one of the girls, trying to take any toy she played with, saying, "No, Molly!" over and over. I guess it's safe to say that neither of my girls is a pushover!

Perhaps because of that day, a word Violet has been using a lot this week is "mine." (Sigh.)

Week in Review

On Monday, we met up with some friends at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Here are the "big kids," Elyz, Lucas and Cora...
...and here are the baby sisters - Violet, Liana and Daniela. It happened to be Liana's first birthday!

On Tuesday, we had our final MOPS meeting of the year. Here is my table - I served as "table leader" this semester, after our prior table leader had to leave MOPS to go back to work. I was nervous about taking on the role, but in the end it worked out well. We had a number of midweek playdates, and supported each other through new babies, new pregnancies, and even a wedding! One of the women organized a frozen-meal swapping group that I'm taking part in - five of us will get together monthly and bring homemade, frozen meals for the others. Cooking four meals at once is a challenge, but going home with ready-made meals for the upcoming weeks is such a blessing!

On Wednesday, Cora had her last Skipper Club meeting, ever! In the fall, Cora will move up to the Scooters in Pioneer Club. Here, her teacher Mrs. Rachael gives Cora her final badges and parting gift.
On Friday night, Colleen, Rigo, Lucas and Liana came over for dinner. It was great - they came to us, and provided dinner and dessert! Colleen is also part of my meal-swap group, and she mentioned that she hadn't been able to make her own family the lasagna she made for everyone else. Knowing that most trays of lasagna will feed at least four families, I suggested we eat it together. We all had a nice time together, as always. Here, silly Cora entertains Liana.

In between the fun, Stace worked on finishing up kitchen odds and ends. More on that soon, I promise!

Catching Up

Today we had our neighbor friend Johnny over to play, while his sister Ave was at preschool. Like I've said before, Cora plays so well with both kids, and today was no exception. I turned to see them both playing in Cora's house. Hmm, I thought, a rather girly thing to be playing...
...until I saw that they had all the trains lined up inside. This evening, I made a pot roast in the crock pot, and shared half the meal with Genia's family, since Genia is going out of town tomorrow. We're going to try out sharing meals with each other, making enough for both families, once a week or every other week.

We spent part of Thursday morning at Starbucks with about a dozen moms from my MOPS group, and a number of assorted children. Thankfully, Cora was a very good girl, listening well and playing nicely.
I was most pleased with how she played with this little girl, who just turned 2 but is the same size as Cora. Cora hasn't always played well with other girls her own age, but she and Ashlynn hit it off, holding hands and running back and forth.
Cora also was entertained by these two "big boys" and their big-boy toy. Aren't they cute, huddled together?

Lastly, we wanted to share our latest Freecycle score. ALL this track, with the trains, cars, houses and trees, was offered on Freecycle, and I was lucky enough to see the post quickly and promise a prompt pickup. We had been planning to get Cora some track for Christmas, but she didn't mind an early present!

Of course, she's been busy playing with it most of the time we're home, and the morning after we picked it up, her first words when I got her out of bed were, "Is my track still there?"

So this is the first time Cora and I have gone out in matching outfits. A bit silly, but hey, it was Mother's Day and we were in the family spirit.
We had a sweet, relaxing day on Sunday - an encouraging church service that really honored motherhood, followed by great progress painting our living room. (Still not quite ready for photos... soon though.)
In the evening we ate out and did a bit of shopping.

On Tuesday we had our final MOPS meeting of the year (which follows the school calendar), and the children had a special surprise - musical entertainment! I was surprised when even the older toddler class came out, including Cora, who danced her heart out.
After the meeting, we got Cora's hair cut. Rather than the pink Barbie jeep, Cora chose the classic yellow VW Bug to sit in, making her father proud.
We got about an inch cut off the bottom to even it out a bit more, along with a bang trim. She was such a good girl during her hair cut, sitting very still so she could have a lollypop. (Though, true to form, she didn't finish it - she did not inherit Stace's sweet tooth. She regularly eats just half a cookie, a part of a brownie, etc.)