Egg hunt and David's birthday

 Cora had so much fun at our Mom2Mom Easter egg hunt, and at the egg hunt we hosted last year, that she was bound and determined to host another one this year.

Since it's been spring break and we have some free time, I thought, why not?

We invited a few friends over Friday, hid eggs and bought pizzas for lunch. Simple but fun.

 We gave the younger children a head start, and then released the rest of the kids. Of course, the hunt itself lasted but a few minutes...











 ...and then came the fun of the candy-eating.

 On Saturday, we went to David's 8th birthday party, conveniently located right next door to us.

The highlight of the party was the Dodgers pinata. David plays baseball, so he gave it quite a beating once everyone had a turn and the blindfold was off.

For Owen and Violet, the highlight was playing in the ice bucket.

Spring Break fun

 We are on SPRING BREAK, baby!

For the first time in 13 years (when I graduated from college), that means something to me. It means relaxing, lazy mornings and fun with friends.

(And some home projects like going through the girls' closets, but that's boring.)

On Tuesday, we went out to Camarillo to visit Brooke and Michelle. We played at their house before going out to lunch, where we met up with our other Camarillo friends, Elissa and Harvey.

 Then we all went to a nice park, with some fun things for the kids to play on.

 Our park time was marred only by the adolescent smoking pot ON the playground. The smell was strong enough to have Violet asking about it, and Cora asking if there was a skunk nearby. Elissa called the cops - I mean, come on, the playground was full of children - who came, talked to the guy and sent him packing.

This sparked a good discussion with Cora on our way home later, as she witnessed everything and had lots of questions.

 Here's Harv and Cora playing some sort of game on his mom's phone - these modern kids! Several times this week I've found Cora on the floor next to Stacey's side of the bed, playing games on his tablet.

 Rob was home when we got back to Michelle's house, so Cora begged him to take her out on his go-kart. Violet got a very short and sweet ride, too.

We had such a nice day with our friends. Thanks, Michelle! And thanks for the photos, too.

We spent our Wednesday afternoon with Genia and the kids, and on Thursday we had over a Mom2Mom friend, Morgan, and her daughters.
It feels like the good ol' days before Cora was in school. We're very thankful to have the two weeks off around Easter this year.

Fun week

A few more snapshots from our week...

 On Saturday night, after a lot of hard work in the garden - spring flowers and prep for the spring/summer veggies - Stace set up the fire bowl for a toasted-marshmallow dessert.

 Also in the week, we played outside with the Roberts on several evenings. Good times. Stace had fun on Johnny's ripstick (though he also took a good fall and bruised his hip).

 On St. Patrick's Day, would you believe it, the leprechauns tore through our living room!

 Here's Cora's head-slapping reaction to the note they left her, after they took the treats but broke free from her trap ("Better luck next year, little girl!"). You can see the yellow sign she had left them: "Gold in House. Come this way. Good Luck!"

 Maya and Natalia came up to play one day, since Maya had her spring break earlier than ours...

...and neighbor boys David and Chris were over a lot, too. You can see a lizard in David's hand - a big guy that played dead when the boys came near. Really pretty too -black with a bright blue underbelly.

Coraism

While reading her own bedtime story "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss, Cora got to the bit that reads, "At our house we play out back. We play a game called Ring the Gack".

Stace then says, "The ol' Ring the Gack game, I used to play that when I was a boy."
To our surprise, Cora asked, "Where did you get the rings?"

That kid is funny. We all know Gacks roam free across England, but rings are a bugger to find.

Mom2Mom Egg Hunt

On Friday afternoon, some friends from our Mom2Mom group got together for a park play date with an Easter egg hunt. Cora and Violet were both very excited about this all week long.

It went over really well, with 9 or 10 moms and all their children. Here, you see Violet rushing off to find more eggs.

  If there's candy involved, Violet is excited about it!
Both girls had helped me fill our eggs and get them ready to go.

 Cora found so many, she graciously redistributed several so that the smaller children could find them.

Cora, Alexyss and Johnny took turns swinging and pushing. Fun afternoon!

Dance and park night

On Thursday, Cora had her final dance class of the session we signed her up for.

 

It was a ballet/tap combo class, and she definitely preferred the pace of the tap over the ballet. No surprise, if you know Cora at all. Next, Cora wants to try gymnastics (while continuing in soccer and adding in swimming this summer).

After class, we picked up fast food for dinner and went to this awesome park in Stevenson Ranch, to eat and play.

The park had all these rock-climbing structures, and really tall tunnel slides.

It was a really great evening. The best part of spring: the nights stay light later and it's not blazing hot.

Kitty Craziness

Awww...

Look up! In the tree! It's Super Spencer!

This little guy was racing around the front yard Wednesday after chasing Spence up the white birch.

He had a good hour of observing the neighborhood from his lofty perch before our neighbor, husband of the hairdresser who helped us Monday, came home in his work truck. Thankfully his 20-foot ladder was tall enough for Stace to reach Spencer. (He's hard to make out, but if you look at the top of the darker tree behind the birch, Spencer is on the branch at that height.)

Haircuts all around

It seemed innocent enough.

Neighbor boy Chris comes in Monday, looking for scissors for Cora. Cora often uses scissors in her craft/art/fairy/leprechaun projects, so I don't give it a second thought.

Except this time, a few minutes later, Cora comes in looking like this:

 She had gotten gum in her hair, thought I'd be mad, and chose to take care of it herself.

Wowzers.

 Thankfully, our neighbor-the-hairdresser was home, and she saved the day. 

You can see that Cora was thrilled to be getting a bob. But, with the amount she had cut, there really was no other solution.

 The irony is, I'd been talking to Cora for several days about taking her in for a haircut. Her bangs were in her eyes again, and with the length, it was a pain to brush through. I'd been thinking several inches off, but long enough for pony tails.

 

For now, the pony tails will have to wait. 

But, I truly think Cora is rocking the short bob! It's super cute. It's a huge change, since she's had long hair since she was a toddler! But so far, she's raking in compliments. She's getting used to it, and doesn't hate it.

While we were at it, and since Julie had a bit of time, she also cut my hair - shoulder-length, in support of Cora - and gave Violet her first-ever trim.

 Sorry the photo's blurry. Violet's hair looks adorable too, and so far it seems like the curl will stay, and maybe even curl more with some of the weight gone. So, it wasn't exactly in my afternoon's plan, but Monday ended up being haircut day for us girls, right in our own living room. I love our neighbors!

Friday Night Fun

On Friday night,  Cora's school hosted a "drop-off movie night," where the students could go in with their friends, have dinner and watch "Wreck It Ralph."  They were invited to wear their jammies and bring in pillows and blankets.

While some of the parents got a date night out of it, Stace and I had Violet of course. So we had a date with Violet - we took her to the mall, where we played in the Disney store...... got Menchies frozen yogurt...

 ...and played in the new outdoor play area. Violet made friends with a friendly big girl who helped her on all the play equipment.

When I got to the school to pick up Ave, Johnny and Cora, all the children were playing "freeze dance." They were all having so much fun!
A great Friday night was had by all.

Leprechaun Day

This week, Cora's kindergarten friends created leprechaun traps as their homework. 

All week, Cora has been telling us what she's learning about the little mystical creatures: they are sneaky, greedy, mischievous and love gold. She believes it all, and really hopes to catch one for herself. 

Cora came up with the plan for her trap herself. The leprechaun will climb the ladder (normally set up on the outside) and spot a piece of gold hanging from a rope inside. He'll jump onto the rope to get the gold, but the weight of his body will pull the lid of the box down, trapping him inside. Then, the bell on the rubber band will ring, alerting her to his presence.

 

I was happy when I saw that Mrs. Hawthorne had scheduled me to work in class Friday, when all the kindergartners presented their traps. They were all so cute! It was a fun thing to watch.

 (Most the children had to be reminded to speak up, look at their audience - Cora wasn't alone in using her quietest voice.)

 During recess, leprechauns struck in the classroom! Here, the students are amazed at all the havoc the little guy wreaked. The calendar was all mixed up, binders on the floor, chairs overturned, leprechaun traps upended. The coats were all over the place, including one in the recycling bin and one worn by a Clifford the Big Red Dog stuffed animal.

 Left on Mrs. Hawthorne's chair was a little glittery green hat, drink mix, and a note, telling to mix the contents with water. It warned that NO teachers should try it.

 Unfortunately, Mrs. Hawthorne didn't follow the instructions. Her nose started itching, her feet got very hot, and then - she discovered they had turned green! You can imagine the uproar.

The children were then eager to watch me drink my cup; Cora was very concerned that I would suffer a similar green fate. She actually was near tears, and her anxiety lasted through library time. Poor girl. I assured her that since I'm not a teacher, I could drink the apple-flavored drink problem-free.

After school, we met up with several kindergarten friends (including Sophia here) at Chick-Fil-A for lunch.