Proud to be British

Our trip home this year coincides with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, a celebration of her sixty years on the throne.

It's great to be back in England to watch all the celebrations and see all the towns and villages decked out with flags and bunting. It's very nice to see such patriotism and people proud to be British.

We didn't arrive in time to take part in the day and night festivities that Martock put on to mark the occasion, but we watched all the big London events on the TV. The Royal Pageant down the River Thames, the music concert outside Buckingham Palac,e and Tuesday's celebration service at St. Paul's Cathedral, complete with a Battle of Britain and Red Arrows fly-over.

"Flaming June" it is not at the moment. The whole time we have been here it has hardly stopped raining. There was a break in the clouds for all the children, Cora, Euan and Violet, to play outside last night when Dean and Jenny came over to Martock.



 
We had Euan here Thursday while Jen went to work, and had an indoor picnic since it was raining too much to venture outdoors.

Thankfully, the girls have both been sleeping very well. Violet's first two nights in Martock have been brilliant, with her sleeping through the night without a stir. We might try her without the melatonin tonight and see if our luck holds up.

Now that's more like it!

We are safely and soundly back in England, and we are oh-so-thankful for the "soundly" part.                  After our Christmas trip near-nightmare, with Violet overtired and crying much of the flights (before throwing up all over the pair of us), I was a bit nervous about Saturday's plane trip.

But, in five-plus months since Christmas, Violet has grown up enough to really enjoy watching television. And, she was happy to sit in what she called her "big girl seat," a child safety device akin to a car seat. These two things combined to make for a much easier flight. Also, on the advice of a sympathetic fellow traveler on our Christmas flight (and with the doc's OK), I gave Violet a children's formulation of melatonin.

I can't say that Violet slept much on the plane - only 90 minutes or 2 hours toward the end, after it hit 1 a.m. California time. But she was happy as long as I kept Mickey Mouse Clubhouse playing.

Cora was a fantastic traveler, once again. She slept for about five hours, and caused not even a hint of a problem. She was very excited to see Nan and Pop again, and in the days leading up to the trip, she kept asking when we would be finally on our way.

Also on hand at Heathrow to greet us (and drive us) was JT. We were a little too exhausted to think of posing for a photo, but it was great to see her and catch up on the car journey home Sunday afternoon.

Home, in our case, was Dean and Jenny's for two nights. They were on a little holiday, and we were more than happy to take over their three bedrooms, playroom, child-oriented back garden and nearby playground.

 With the help of those little melatonin tablets, both girls did remarkably well on our first night. Cora woke with leg pains and spent some hours in our bed, and Violet woke twice, but both times could be settled back to sleep. (At Christmas, she never settled in to the time change and was up for hours each night.) The jet lag wasn't too bad for me and Stace, either, and we all slept (off and on) until 7.

We spent most of Monday around Dean and Jen's home, with Nan and Pop coming to visit for the afternoon. We took a walk around the village, and admired the decorations up in honor of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations.

Later, after visiting Big Nan, we picked up fish cakes and chips for dinner. On Monday night, the girls slept fine again. Cora was up once with leg cramps again, but stayed in her own bed. Violet also woke, but only once, and again she was able to settle relatively quickly. We all slept until 8:30! What a great start to our trip though! We'll see how tonight goes, now that we're all sharing a bedroom at Nan and Pop's house.

May fun with friends

We've had a lot of fun with friends this month!

Jaimie organized a playdate for those of us who did Stroller Strides together when our big girls were babies. I hadn't seen some of the moms for a couple of years, so it was nice to catch up. From left, Cora, Mackenzie, Gabriella, Natalie, Ava and Ella.

Violet loved the bouncy thingy, while Cora played queen of the mountain.

We also went to a birthday playdate for "Baby Brooke," who is now 4. Cora loved dancing on Brooke's bed to the Tangled soundtrack...


...while Violet loved eating cupcakes. Hey, at least she isn't hard to please, right???

Also in May, we had a sleepover with Ave one night. The girls had fun with popcorn and a movie - the Great Fairy Rescue, of course - and some actual sleeping occurred, so I was pleased with how this went.

I don't know who was more excited about having Ave over, Violet or Cora. They were both pretty giddy.

Last week, we met Juliana and her girls at the zoo.
My girls' favorite part of the day was the sugar snack of churros and cotton candy, and getting wet in the fountains. I think there were some animals there, too.

And we also went to a birthday party for the little brother of Cora's Mom2Mom friend, Talitha.
A clown provided entertainment and balloon friends, like Cora's long-tailed kitty and Violet's flower you see here.

What a month, huh? We are blessed to have such great friendships!

Cora's Graduation

And now, our Cora Rose is a graduate! How can that be??? 

I must admit, prior to Cora reaching this point, I thought the whole idea of celebrating "graduations" from preschool/ kindergarten/ elementary school/ junior high was a little silly. College and high school, sure, you've accomplished something there. But leaving any earlier schooling is really just moving on to the next stage. Big deal.

And then, um, gulp, sniff, then I had my own firstborn child finish up preschool. And I had absolutely no problem cheering on said child, huge smile on my face, as she "graduated" from pre-K Wednesday night.

I know I haven't been shy about my love for Cora's preschool. She has learned so much, in such a caring, nurturing environment. We are so thankful for Miss Lorrie and her calm guidance over these 4- and 5-year-olds. 

She organized a lovely ceremony Wednesday, with the children singing about graduating and going on to kindergarten, before getting their certificates.

Add caption

Then it was time for the all-important refreshments, gifts, and browsing through a book we parents received of the highlights of our children's artwork.


Also, we got these cute books the children made, describing what they will do when they grow up.
Cora's book said the following:
"When I grow up I want to be a pilot. I will learn by studying a flying airplane. I will get paid $100 a day.
"I will get married. My husband will be nice. Our wedding will be fun and I will wear a beautiful gown. We will have 2 or 3 or 4 kids.
"I will live in America and my house will be an apartment.
"I will drive a sports car and my husband will drive a bluish green car.
"We will go on vacation to the sea and to England. We will stay at Nan and Pop's house and we will play games.

"The End"

 Grandma was able to go into her evening job a couple of hours late, so she could come too, and keep Violet busy during the ceremony while Stace and I manned cameras. Grandpa brought his camera too, of course. Auntie Mel was busy with evening rehearsals for the musical Hair she'll be in, which opens this weekend.

Cora made a lot of friends this year, and several of them she sees regularly at church. When I've asked her if she's sad about preschool ending, she says she isn't, because she'll still see some of her friends and Miss Lorrie on Sundays.

On Wednesday, I came around to the idea of celebrating a preschool "graduation" - it's a great chance to say good-bye to people we've come to know and love over the year, who we won't see so much in the future.
And it is a milestone, especially with Cora being our oldest: the ending of life as we've known it and the start of Cora's world being opened up in new ways.

Cora, we're so proud of how you are learning and growing up each day!

Relaxing

After working hard Saturday and Sunday, we relaxed on Monday.

We rode our bikes to breakfast at Dink's, and later Stace and Cora went out to the craft store to buy a proper fairy house.

Cora had a great time painting it, and she did a fantastic job!

 The birds might enjoy it, too, if the fairies share.

 We enjoyed dinner outside under the umbrella, with Stace grilling hot dogs and corn.

 Our pretty girl, getting older and older...

After dinner, a quick game of plastic bowling.

We had such a nice weekend together! Relaxing and calm, in our beautified garden. I'm so thankful to my hard-working husband for making everything look so gorgeous outside.

Hard-working weekend

This Memorial Day, Stace thought he might have to work quite a bit at his job. But, after handling something Friday night after the girls were in bed, he didn't get called back in again.

That didn't mean he didn't work, though!

He's had a vision of nice outdoor lighting for over a year, and this was the weekend to see it through.

Stace spent much of Saturday and Sunday working in the garden. Thankfully, it was a lot cooler than it had been, so he could do so.

Here's the other corner of the garden, with "Cora and Violet's Orchard." We have blueberry, raspberry and blackberry bushes here, plus our orange and tangerine trees. All but the blueberries are new this spring, so we'll see how they produce.








To give our flower beds that crowning touch, Stace spread out a dozen bags of mulch. I've been wanting to do this for a while, since I keep reading how good mulch is for plants during our hot summers.













Once Stace laid it out, he agreed that it was the right move. What an amazing difference it makes to the look of our raised beds. Wow. Between that and the lights, we really want to hang out in our own yard!

In this photo you can see the pink cape mallow plants in bloom. We're so happy we put in these large, drought-tolerant bushes, following a tip from the garden section of the newspaper. They're supposed to bloom pretty much year-round! 

Open House, and the things they say!

This week Cora had her kindergarten assessment, when school personnel tested her so they can decide how to form next year's four classes (20 kids each). Stace took her, and said she seemed to answer all the questions well.

On Thursday, after football/soccer we walked over to the school with the Roberts for Open House. We got to check out Ave's class; Cora and Johnny really liked the nature dioramas.

We ate fund-raising sandwiches together, and then had a good look around the school. We know Cora will love it. Already she is asking when she can go to kindergarten, and she's upset when we tell her it's a few months away.

It was nice bumping into a few other families we know from our neighborhood and from Pioneer Club. Maybe Cora will know someone in her class next year, even if she and Johnny aren't in the same room.

And speaking of Johnny...

Genia tells us her sweet, sensitive, deep-thinker really likes Stacey.

Not long ago, Genia tells us, they were in the car when Johnny said randomly, "Stacey's smart. Well, he's not that smart. But he could be!"

And the other night, the Roberts were at our house having dinner after soccer. John had to work late, so he joined us while we were having our dessert.
He happened to walk through the door just in time to overhear Johnny saying to Stace, "Dad. Dad! Can I have another brownie?"
And to witness Stace absentmindedly hand him one.

John said to his son, "Johnny, did you just call Stacey, 'Daddy'?"
Johnny replied, "Yeah. I couldn't remember his name."

And, two Coraisms:
Cora was scared of a Daddy Longlegs, so I said they are good spiders that eat bad bugs and flies.
"Oh! So maybe we can get a pack of them and put them in the house!"
What a difference from the week before, when she shrieked, "Mum! Mum! Help! There's a teeny tiny spider in the bathroom!
"Wait. It might be an ant."

We'll close with a Violetism.
Cora said something that included the word "bed," so I asked, how to do you spell that? She responded, "B-E-D. I sounded it out!"
We then asked Violet how to spell "bed."
Without missing a beat, she said, "B-I-O-A. Bed!"

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!