Halloween, 2011

Happy Halloween!

Here are Stace and Cora's scary jack-o-lanterns. Gotta love printable Internet patterns!

We all had a great time trick-or-treating tonight - Cora was polite and kind, and Violet was just happy to be out in her car (her "beep beep").

Once she got the sucker in her mouth, her very first one, we didn't hear a peep out of her.

After trick-or-treating, we stopped by John and Genia's. No surprise, we stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Some scary Jack Skellington lookalike snuck into a cute photo of the kids.

18 months

Well, I guess I should stop saying "baby" now that Violet is 18 months old. A couple of weeks ago, we went to visit Melanie and baby Heather at the Burbank mall, and Violet had a blast. She ran and climbed all over the place.
Speaking of climbing, Violet is easily able to climb up on the chairs now. We're trying to make sure she doesn't stand on them, which is hard since we allow Cora to stand on the chair to put away the cutlery (one of her jobs) or help with cooking. In this photo, Violet pushed the chair over to the pantry. And once this month, I've caught her trying to get a leg over her playpen side. Uh oh!
This month, Violet has grown more attached to her seahorse and her "night night." She always holds on to seahorse as she falls asleep, to the point that I need to pick up a backup soon! She threw it in the toilet the other day, and with the soft cover was in the washing machine at naptime, she really struggled to get to sleep.
And, Violet with two of her favorite things - her night night and her sister. At this point, Violet definitely would have a hard time going to sleep without her pacifier/dummy. We try to make her keep it in her bed, and sometimes she has a fit about that. Generally it's not a problem, but since I didn't face any of this with Cora, I do wonder if we'll have trouble in future months when we need to break the night-night habit. Still, since we always have an upcoming big airplane trip, I'm happy that she has a comfort for the flight.

Violet also still loves her sister, as long as Cora doesn't have something Violet wants. Then we have screaming. Lots of screaming this week from our toddler! Sometimes we can get the screams to turn into laughter if we start howling, and then she'll join in. And singing helps too - she especially likes Stace to play "Old MacDonald" on his guitar.

But back to the sister love - Cora has had some fits of her own this week, leading to time in the chair/corner. Violet will try to comfort her, going up to her and offering hugs and love. It brings me to tears to watch.
And, Violet's third favorite things - her aggums. The word, by the way, (sometimes pronounced "alcomb") now means all animals except for dogs. We were pointing out the animals in a book, and Violet was also pointing them out: "Aggum... Aggum... Aggum." It was super cute and I wish I had been videoing it. Her inflection was exactly the same as ours, when we're naming different animals.

In other speech news, I must say that Violet has not progressed much this month. She still says the words she's been saying, but she's added some random (baby talk) phrases that she'll use whenever we ask her to try a new word. Saying that, she has added the word "yeah" to her repertoire, so she can answer in the affirmative out loud, and not just by nodding.

Eating-wise, some good news - after a couple of months of being picky, Violet has become a good eater once again. At some meals, she out-eats her sister.

Sporting and Scary Saturday

We had a fun day on Saturday, starting early with cousin Elizabeth joining us for the family bike ride to Cora's soccer practice.

Elizabeth played soccer so it was great to have her watching Cora. We then all rode to Starbucks for a drink, which is becoming a post-soccer habit of ours.

After lunch, my dad came over to watch the girls, and Genia was kind enough to drive us to Magic Mountain.

My mom has been working at Fright Fest as a ghoul this year. She is one of the witches who walks around one of the "scare zones" and of course we wanted to see her at her worst!

Before the frightenings kicked off, Elizabeth, Stace and I went on a few rides, including Jet Stream, where you see us in these photos. We also watched a couple of shows, and we highly recommend the hypnotist show to anyone going to Magic Mountain. Wow. We were laughing so hard, my stomach ached.

And then, on to the scares. We didn't do any of the crazy scary mazes, but had a good time seeing the ghouls walking around scaring people in their incredible makeup.

Can you believe that witch is my mother?? Who knows, maybe she'll have a new acting career when she retires. She was doing a great job and we were so proud of her!

Lombardi Ranch 2011

It's October - time for our trips to Lombardi Ranch! Yes, "trips." We went as a family Monday afternoon, and our Mom2Mom group went together Tuesday morning.
Here is Violet, smiling her happy cheesy smile. I love it!


On Tuesday, we rode the train with Genia and Colleen and most of our kiddos, minus Ave and Lucas. Going to school all day, five days a week, is rough!
Here I am with Liana. She is getting so grownup, just look at the pony tail!

"I like this one."

"I'll take two."

Violet loved looking out of giant pumpkins. Cora had fun inside making bird nests, using a spoon to scoop together straw, dirt and pebbles.
These two play so well together, at least when Ave is in school. When she is in the picture, Cora and Ave play together doing girly things, sometimes including Johnny and other times, not.

The Whole Foods Experience

Today, Cora's preschool class took a field trip to Whole Foods Market.

It was a fun event, full of yummy samples. Cora really enjoyed it; she was laughing and smiling most of the morning.

The first stop was the peanut butter and almond butter station, where the nuts are freshly ground when you push the lever. The children (and we moms!) had apple slices to dip; Cora preferred the almond butter.

Next was the produce, where you can see Cora and the others offering their pinky fingers for the store tour guide to place a raspberry.

Then, it was on to the seafood counter, where the guy (fishmonger?) showed them the sharp teeth of a red snapper.

He then passed out samples of "salmon candy," a smoked salmon treated with a lot of brown sugar.

Yum! I was pleasantly surprised that Cora loved it, and she also liked all the other samples, even the odd vitamin juice that we moms thought was a bit strange. Other bite-sized treats included chicken strips, pizza, cereal and a mystery smoothie, which tasted great even though it was green.

The kids had a great time and were really well-behaved.

Since the parents aren't asked to volunteer at this preschool, it was nice to get a peek at how Miss Lorrie and Miss Kayla run things. It's clear they have a very good handle on their 4-year-olds, who walked happily together as a train, hands on each other's shoulders, throughout the store.

Tehachapi orchard fun

On Saturday, we drove up to the orchards of Tehachapi, about 100 miles away, for a family day of apple picking. We last made the trip two years ago, when I was pregnant with Violet.

Cora, veteran fruit-picker that she has become, was looking forward to the trip for days. Her pronunciation of "Tehachapi" was especially cute.

Violet also enjoyed picking the apples, a word she can say very well. She excelled at picking up the apples from the ground beneath the trees, however, so we had to give a close look at all the apples in our pint bag.
Tehachapi is a beautiful place, very serene and peaceful, with rolling hills surrounding the orchards.

Apple inspection time. Stace threw out ones with bad bruises and worm holes, while Cora knocked and listened for that special sound. Or something like that.

We sure love these girls. They mean the world to us!

Just look at that sweet face!

Determination.

Violet really wanted to carry the bag by herself, all 11 pounds of it. There was a bit of fussing when we needed to help her with it.

At a neighboring orchard, we bought some apple juice, and since it was such a special occasion, we let Violet have a try. It was her first time having juice, and she loved it.

After our long drive home and a quick dinner, Cora wanted to make the apple teeth shown in an issue of her Highlights "High Five" magazine. You cut thin apple slices, spread them with cream cheese and place mini marshmallow teeth in between. Charming, huh?
At the Apple Shed restaurant, we bought an apple pie to take home. It was as yummy as we could have hoped, especially with some freshly whipped cream.

All in all, a very fun family day out! I love my family and we are so thankful for days like Saturday, when we can enjoy each other, being together, learning and having fun.

Happy with School

Stace and I have been so pleased with Cora's experience so far with Growing Hearts Preschool.

The lessons and weekly themes are well-planned, and Cora loves telling us about what she is learning. These photos are from the week/month focused on space, and the projects were great. I love the astronaut Cora. The day photograped was "Clifford the Big Red Dog Day," And all the children (and teachers) wore red and later wore hand-crafted red ears and had black paint for noses.

Each week the children focus on a different letter, and do a lot of practice writing that letter, along with their names. Miss Lorrie wrote on one of Cora's pages that because she knows how to write her name well, they are working with Cora on writing the letters inside the lines.

The first few weeks, the class focused on friendship, by working on crafts together. One day Cora came home with a bracelet made for her by another student, while Cora made a bracelet for someone else.

And you can see here the drawing Cora made of herself with a little boy named Owen. I thought it was cute enough to show here, for memory's sake. Cora is much bigger than Owen, and Owen has spiky hair because she said she doesn't know how to draw boy hair, except for spikes.

On Friday, the class cut open a pumpkin, learned all about them, and made a book showing the different layers to the pumpkin (stem, pulp, seeds, flesh). The children also tasted roasted pumpkin seeds. Cora told me that she learned that some pumpkins are not orange, but rather are white or even blue. She is learning so much!

Also this week, the children went on a fall nature walk, collecting leaves and pine cones.

Next week we have a "field trip" with the class to Whole Foods Market, for a tour and talk about nutrition and healthy eating. That should be fun!

Cushion fun

We brought in the patio cushions when we had some rain last week (before this week's latest heat wave...fall, are you coming?).
They've been a great source of enjoyment this week. Lots of laughter, lots of energy burned. Sisters playing together. Good stuff.




Anything you can do, I can do better?

The week in photos

A look at our week, through photos...

One evening, Stace and the girls played with play-doh. It was Violet's first time and she enjoyed it for at least two minutes. Cora, who's clearly been dressing herself this week, had fun for a while longer.
We had lunch with Grandpa one afternoon, and when Auntie Mel came home from work, she gave Violet a ride around in the laundry basket. Violet thought it was fantastic.

On Friday, we met our friends at the park for a picnic lunch. Here are Mackenzie, Ella and Cora.
And thanks, Jaimie, for getting this adorable shot of Violet playing peekaboo.
I probably say this too often, but it is so fun to watch the relationship between Cora and Violet grow and blossom. Here, I was making oatmeal for breakfast and Cora was snacking on raw oats (a little weird but at least it's healthy). She was sharing with Violet, giving her some oats too. Yes, a lot ended up on the tile, and then Cora was happy to sweep and vacuum them up! I love this photo because it is the first one (ever) where I asked Violet to smile, and she gave me a cheesy grin.
After church on Sundays, Cora enjoys her doughnuts. And now, Violet does too. We've started letting her have her own doughnut hole, and boy, does she love them! Afterwards, they both loved playing on the grass with the other children. Violet is growing up so fast.

Later on Sunday, we went to the pet expo "Bow Wows and Meows." Or, as we called it, "Woof Woofs and Aggums." See, Cora just didn't understand why people think dogs say "bow wow." And, Violet has taken to calling all cats (and some other animals) "aggums." It's the evolution of her early word for the noise cats make.
Anyway, she loved seeing all the dogs and aggums at the pet expo.

Finally, I give you the howling that overtook our car Sunday as we drove around. Please excuse the horrible picture quality. We got a new "little camera" this week, and it took some great photos as you can see above, but I'm not sure why the videos are coming out blurry. Still, the point of this video is the noise, which is coming out loud and clear.