Melly's Bachelorette Weekend

Melanie's must really be getting married - we've now had her bachelorette weekend getaway!

We gathered Friday afternoon at a hotel in Corona, about 90 miles away, and very close to the Glen Ivy Hot Springs spa.

My mom and our very dear friend Linda put together a lovely party for about a dozen of Melanie's favorites.

We ate, drank, played games, and Melanie opened gifts of the nightgown variety. Linda had ordered personalized drink tags for everyone, along with other great decorations.







Here's the bride, and the matron of honor. It was such a fun party!

Then we all retired to our very nice hotel rooms. Aunt Patty and JT and I shared one, and it was a great experience. It was fabulous to get away with the gals, like we used to before we were married mamas.

 The next morning, we headed over to Glen Ivy. Linda and her daughter Mikayla got there extra early, to stake out a fabulous block of lounge chairs shaded by a vine covered shade structure.

We lounged, ate and drank, used the hot tubs, floating pools, steam room and sauna, and even had fun with the group water aerobics. And, there was the mineral hot springs, and the clay mud! Here are Mel and her friends, muddied up.
































And Linda outdid herself here, too, providing each of us with drawstring bags personalized for the occasion, with water, mints, lip balm and more inside.

After Glen Ivy, we stopped at Tom's Farms for dinner, and then headed home, perfectly relaxed and content.

Pre-K Graduation!

 After months of creating, playing, learning and growing, Violet and her classmates were awarded the title of PRESCHOOL GRADUATE.

Friday's ceremony was adorable, and so well-organized and put together. The songs were super cute, and the children all looked so pleased when they went up to take their rolled scroll from Miss Lorrie and Miss Molly.

 I took Cora out of school for a couple of hours so she could cheer for Violet, just as Violet cheered for her three years ago at her own Pre-K graduation. I mainly kept my eyes dry, through refusing to think about the milestone of my baby heading off to big school.

 These cupcake toppers were awesome! Violet's is the front one on the left.

 We all had fun looking through a highlight reel of Violet's crafts.

 Violet tells us in her "When I Grow Up" book that she will be a lifeguard when she grows up.

"When I grow up, I will be a lifeguard and protect people at the beach. I won't have to learn because I will just know how to do it. I will make $10 a day.
"I will get married and wear a blue dress. I will have three kids.
"I will live in Santa Monica so I can go to the beach everyday. I will live in a beach house.
"I will drive a car. I will go to the beach on vacation and protect people."

 Graduation was held on Friday morning, so Grandma, Grandpa, Auntie Mel and Uncle Nick were all able to come.

 Here is Violet with her preschool friends Izzy and Ellie...

 ...and of course, Elena. Nice smile, Vi.

  We love Miss Lorrie, and I wish we had another preschooler in the pipeline to send her way!

We all think Violet resembles Auntie Mel...


Congratulations, Violet Mae!

Though we are sad to have this fun stage of life come to a close, we are excited to see you growing and learning. On to Kindergarten!

Water Fun, Underwood Farm

After our nice long weekend, we headed into Violet's final week of preschool.

On Wednesday, Violet and her class had fun with water play. They wore bathing suits to school and played with squirt guns, water balloons and a big beach ball. It's hard to believe this was her final day of Pre-K!
Here she is posing with the Calebs, Austin and Elena.

After school, we went to visit the turtles, ducks and geese at the pond at Bridgeport Marketplace. Elena, her mom Amber and brother Samuel joined us.

Colleen, Christina and I took our little girls to Underwood Farm in Moorpark to pick strawberries on Thursday.
We've gone just about every spring with MOPS/Mom2Mom, but this year we didn't plan a group trip. I still wanted to go though, and I convinced the other gals to keep us company. I'm not ready to let go of all the fun of being a mom of a preschooler, without real school dictating our schedule!

Sadly, Violet was very scared of the bees she saw near the strawberry blossoms, and spent our picking time on the edge of the patch.

Yummy berries!

The girls had fun with all that Underwood had to offer, including the sand pit inside this pumpkin structure.

I'm so grateful for these fun days out with friends!

Memorial Day Weekend, Part II

On Sunday, we all enjoyed a family play date with Rob, Michelle and Brooke. After lunch out at Stone Fire, which really is our favorite family restaurant, we went over to the park.

The girls rode their bikes, the grownups walked, and we all had fun playing baseball. Brooke just finished up playing a softball season, and Rob has played a lot of baseball in his life. He gave us some pointers, and a great time was had by all.

Monday was a holiday for Stace and the girls, and we appreciated having a calm day, at home and running a few errands. In the back of the car, we heard a running game between the Beanie Boos that came along for the ride.

After our errands, Cora went over to her friend Vivian's house for some pool fun. Stace and I took Violet on a bike ride to Granary, and we all rode! This is still a new thing for us, to be riding our bikes with Violet on hers.

On our way back home, we ran into our friends Christina, Adam and Melanie, and then Sara, Tony and their girls. Love our small town atmosphere, on a beautiful evening with everyone outside playing.

Before we got home, we stopped for a minute at our little park. What a nice weekend together!

Memorial Day Weekend, Part I

We started off a long holiday weekend with a Friday evening trip to Juliana and Daryl's house. As always, we had a great time together, and the girls played so well. Juliana made a batch of Brazilian truffle-like treats, which you see Violet eyeing here.

It was nearly 10:30 before we looked at our watches (or cell phones) and figured we ought to get the girls ready to leave!

After a late night Friday, our friend Luis came over Saturday morning with his girls Vilija and Lucy. Luis is an electrician, and he generously helped Stace with wiring in the whole house fan.

Later on Saturday, we went to our HOA Memorial Day barbecue, over at the pool area. Oddly, it was in the mid-60s, so not quite pool weather, but that didn't matter to our girls.

We didn't stay too long, because we had places to go and people to see. Carlos, our Kidz Love Soccer friend, invited us to his baby Santiago's first birthday party.

Here are the girls after the first pinata was broken - Violet is happy with her armful of candy, while big sister only got two pieces. That was remedied with the second pinata...

..which Cora happily took a swing at, while blindfolded.

After the party, we stopped at home to change and then went to Rigo and Colleen's house. There, we left all the kids with a babysitter, and headed up to Ventura's happening Main Street for drinks and dinner. Grownup time!

It was a lot of fun, though another late night. Two LATE nights in one weekend! Stace and I aren't used to that anymore.

School Open House, Well Check

Cora, with a bit of guidance from her Dad, created this Wingdingdilly creature for a school project. It's based on a children's book about a dog that desires to be lots of other animals.

Cora made hers with clay, a water bottle, and paper maiche.

The projects were on display Thursday at the school Open House, when we got to see lots of beautiful examples of what the second-graders are learning.

Here's Cora and Dr. Porter, who Cora has enjoyed so much this year. Dr. Porter loves cats and reading, so she and Cora have those things in common. They are standing in front of their stained-glass window art project I got to help with a few weeks ago.

On Friday, Violet had her 5-year-old well check appointment, where we had our suspicions confirmed: she is small for her age. At 38 1/4 inches tall, Violet is taller than 1% of five-year-old girls (and smaller than 99% of the same).

Dr. Brockett said there isn't anything to do or worry about, but we'll keep monitoring her growth each year. On the positive side, she grew two inches this past year (but dropped from 2nd percentile at 4, to 1st percentile now for heighth).

Weight-wise, Violet is 35.4 pounds, putting her in the 20th percentile.

She is a very healthy girl, and cooperated well for her exam, bravely taking her one shot.

Butterflies! And a birdie!

Violet received a kit containing caterpillars and a butterfly enclosure for her birthday, from Norah, Sophie and Miss Morgan.

We watched as the caterpillars grew and grew and became chrysalides, hanging from the top of the cup they arrived in.

The then moved them into the enclosure, and waited about a week.

Once they began hatching, the flying, flapping Painted Ladies were much more intriguing to Spencer. We had to move the enclosure out of reach, and then to the garage.

We "fed" them simple syrup we poured into flowers, and mango.

After a couple of days, it was time to set our little friends free. Violet was excited to get them out, and let them walk on her hand.

A few days later, this little Bewick's Wren appeared, stunned, under the living room window. The girls put him in the bird house with water and cheerios, while they looked for bugs and planned a trip to the Placerita Nature Center to rehabilitate him.

But 20 minutes later, he hopped out and flew away - obviously thanks to the girls' TLC.
(He did better than the mockingbird babies - they've all disappeared, long before they were big enough to fend for themselves. Such is nature!)