Birthday Week Fun

At Violet's softball practice on Monday, one of her teammates had a birthday and brought cupcakes. Violet was determined to bring a treat to her Wednesday practice, since we'd be out of town on her actual birthday (missing a game in the process).

So, here are some of her teammates on Wednesday, singing Happy Birthday and enjoying a cookie.

Violet had a few favorite school friends over on Friday for lunch and a movie playdate, and also to celebrate her birthday.

I made grilled cheese sandwiches, the request of the birthday girl, served with fruit and chips.

The girls then watched Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, while I packed up our clothes for our weekend birthday camping trip.

When Stace got home, we finished getting ready and packed up the car and away we went, to the hills near Ojai.

Cousin Fun - Cowboys and Softball

 We are so excited to have Karen, Martin, Ben and Chloe with us! We've been looking forward to their visit for a couple of years now, and here they are!

They flew into San Francisco a few days ago, and have traveled down south, taking in the sights. They arrived in SClarita on Friday evening, and it was so fun showing them our home and having dinner together here in California.

On Saturday, we started our day with Violet's softball game at the park.

 We then moved on to the Cowboy Festival - I was so happy it happened to be this weekend. We wandered around the vendor booths, listened to music and watched the historical activities like the blacksmithing here.

 And, we ate! Gotta love the peach cobbler a la mode.

Cora was successful in both of her tries at throwing the ax into the cork target!

This fiddler was awesome! He entertained us while we ate.

It was a warm day, and we were all tired when we got home in the early evening. We rested and watched a movie before having a simple dinner at home.

Going for a Walk

We slept in and relaxed Thursday morning after our Disney adventure, and then Jake came over to hang out. On Friday, we went on a little hike in Whitney Canyon with Kelly, Yass and the boys. 

It was lovely and cool, with green grass and still a bit of water in the stream bed.

The boys then came over to have lunch and play.

 On Saturday morning, Violet had her first softball game with the Gators. She was so excited, eager to strap on those batting gloves and swing the bat.

Violet showed discipline at the plate, walking twice, scoring a run and even making a great catch in the field.

Cora helped her sister out a bit, cheering for her by calling her the pet name she uses: "Bagel."

Coach Ben praised Violet during the post-game talk for her catch.

Go, Gators!

We spent the rest of the day working on the yard.

Spring Break

 Violet is playing softball!
We signed her up for a city team, and practice started this week. It's nice to have her on a team again - it's been several years.

 Violet has pretty darn good hand-eye coordination, so this should be a fun couple of months. Here she is, hitting at her first practice.

 The girls returned from Arizona to a very short week of school - just two half-days, and then Spring Break started Thursday. We celebrated by going to Disneyland with our friends.

 Violet had a haircut Friday afternoon.

 On Saturday, we were busy touching up our paintwork on the inside of the house - after 10 years, it was time.

We then went to Colleen and Rigo's for dinner. The kids love playing in their amazing back yard - this time the game included Nerf weapons.

 On Sunday, we took a drive down the 126 to Ventura - the hills are all green from all the rain, and it was just beautiful.

 We met up with Sara and Tony and the girls - yes, one week after we left them, they took a trip to SoCal. It was Emily's 14th birthday, and instead of a party, she desired a beach trip. It was fun seeing them again and it was lovely and warm on the beach.

On Monday, we met up with my college friends Melanie and JT at a park for some playtime and catchup time. Cora was the lone "big kid" but she handled it well, playing with all the littles.

Here, Callie and Jonah are sharing the side with Violet, while Cora and Heather are weighing down the other end. Melanie's other two, Sienna and Andrew, were playing somewhere else...

So, it was a great start to Spring Break!

Softball Sister Selfies

For Violet, being a softball sister can sometimes be a bit boring. She brings something to do, cheers on Cora, and plays with other kids nearby, but still, sometimes she's just sitting in the stands, bored.

So, at those times, I'll let her use my phone. This past weekend, she took some photos of Cora.

Then, she turned the camera onto herself, and transformed into the Selfie Queen. 

Those of us watching the game saw Cora pitch two solid innings, catch two good innings, hit the ball well and score some runs.

I don't really have any other photos of those moments, though. The camera was already in use.

Weekend Fun and Game

The girls had fun Friday night, with a video-game birthday party for a friend of Cora's. The parents brought in a gaming truck, which Cora disappeared into; she only emerged at the end of the party when it was time for cake and singing.

On Saturday, Cora played her first fall league game with the Auburn Tigers. She caught two innings, pitched one, and played right field and first base.

Cora struck out once and had a solid base hit and scored a run.

Violet has been very interested in drawing and coloring lately, and says she wants to be an artist when she grows up.

She taped down this sign on the kitchen desk that says, "Violet's Drawing Bench."

Violet also screwed in a "shabby chic" bird hook into her wall, behind her door. Now she can hang a few things up on her own, without a stool.

Also Sunday, we went to my parents' house to watch the Dodgers game, as it was Vin Scully's final broadcast at Dodger Stadium.

After 67 years, he'll conclude his Hall of Fame career next weekend. I cried my way through the end, as the Dodgers clinched the National League West crown on an exciting game-ending home run. What a sendoff for Vin!

On Monday, we had our friend Emily over after school, and took her with us to dinner. It was a Pioneer Club fundraiser night at BJ's, so we celebrated with pizzookies. Yum!

Odds and Ends

Following Cora's all-star game last Saturday, we met up with her softball team for the end-of-season party, held at a beautiful community pool.

The cake was amazing! Made by Coach Cory's wife Kim, the cake consisted of cupcakes arranged and frosted to look like a softball field. The girls' names were placed on toothpick flags, in a cupcake near the position they played.

After cupcakes, the girls had a cannonball competition - here's Violet's entry.

When the pool party was over, we rested at home before going to the end-of-year Mom2Mom family picnic, with dozens of our favorite friends. Yes, it was a crazy full Saturday!

On Monday night, we returned to the ice rink so we could skate together as a family, since Cora missed out on the skating part of Violet's birthday party.

It was a lot of fun, and because it was a promotional $5 "cheap skate" event, we ran into several friends there. The girls are excited to return to the Ice Station for summer camp in July!

Helpful, Seb. Really helpful.

I saw a deal online for this 50-gallon portable rain barrel, and for $30, we knew it was worth having. It can collapse and be packed away when not in use, and has hose hookups at the bottom. 

If it rained here, we could put it under the gutter's downspout to catch the runoff. 

Since it doesn't rain, I'm using it to hold leftover bathwater, and the water from the shower buckets, for use on the trees and garden.

Speaking of gardens, just look at the girls' veggie patch! The zucchini, tomatoes, beans and cucumbers are looking fabulous, and the grape vine behind them is producing tons of tiny grapes.

All Star!

Cora was thrilled to be selected to play in the William S. Hart Softball Mini-Minor All-Star game on Saturday morning. She worked hard all season and had a showed talent and a great work ethic, and both were displayed in Saturday's game.

She struck out in her first at-bat, but then had two solid hits in her next two at-bats. The first was a double off the pitcher, and the second went to the wall, but it was off the coach so Cora had to stay at first base.



She knocked in a run and scored a run, and pitched an excellent inning, with no runs allowed and two strikeouts. Cora's team, which included Payton and MJ, won the game. 

Kristin and Cory were selected to coach and manage the team, which was fun. They played against all-stars picked from the other Hart Mini Minor teams - the eight teams in the league were divided in two, with girls from each team selected to play.

It was very nice that Keith and Uncle Bill joined Grandpa and our family, to cheer on Cora. Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty have decided to move back to the Seattle area so it was nice that he was able to see the game.

Softball Season's End

After two quick playoff losses, Cora's softball season came to an end this week. She has learned so much this season, and come so far in such a short amount of time.

Cora displayed a strong determination to succeed, and proved that in one game by diving to catch a ball. Even the umpire congratulated her when that inning was over! Her situational awareness was outstanding, especially for a game as complicated as baseball/softball, with so many moving parts.











Cora is very competitive, and at times was frustrated when she or her teammates weren't playing well. But that drive also led her to practice hard and improve significantly.

Her pitching improved a lot, and in the final games she threw a lot of strikes, and struck out quite a few girls. 

Her hitting improved even more - at the beginning of the season she was anxious about hitting off good pitchers, and we dealt with some tears. But as she got more confident, and started hitting more, her demeanor and approach changed. Yes, she still struck out now and then, but she also got lots of solid hits, including the triple you can see here: 

With her strong throwing arm, Cora also made an excellent catcher, and was able to throw a couple of girls out as they tried to steal bases. She only started catching again at the end of the season, but I hope she can continue catching more innings if she plays in the future. Here's an example of Cora throwing a runner out at third base: (Thanks, Dad for getting these clips!)

Here's a final team photo after the last game ended.

Though there are summer tournament teams she could have tried out for, we'll take a break from organized sports for now.

We found the spring schedule with Hart softball to be a bit intense - two or three practices PLUS two or three games per week.


Our plan is to play softball again in the fall, when Cora will move up from "mini minor" to the "minor" division. Fall is a lot less intense, with one practice and one game per week.

Perhaps next spring, Cora can return to playing competitive soccer on a team. She still loves it, and plays every day at school at recess and lunch.