Halloween Class Parties

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year, and I was happy to get to help out in both of the girls' class parties.

I found Miss Lotito's message to her class to be so sweet and caring -  I can see why Cora loves her!

Cora's class made poseable mummies out of wire and strips of muslin; ate graveyard pudding (chocolate pudding topped with crushed oreos and gummy worms); and made popcorn gloves to enjoy later in the day when they watched a movie after lunch. Yes, it was a fun day for these 6th graders!

I hoped to get a sweet photo of myself and Cora, but had to settle for this. Great string cheese 'stache, Cora!

Talented Dinorah, our room mom, painted on the kids' faces and arms.

We mamas will miss these fun volunteer opportunities next year when these kiddos are off to junior high!

Here's Cora with her mummy (and without her string cheese), showing the class's spooky artwork - Cora's is the one in the top left corner with the church steeple in blue.

While filling their popcorn gloves, Jake had a very crucial point to make, using the measuring scoop for emphasis. It was probably related to Fortnite, their favorite game to play together after school.

I then moved on to Violet's classroom, where the third graders created stained glass jack-o-lantern jars, like Cora did in third grade.

Violet was very pleased with her finished product, and had it glowing with the battery-operated tealight when we got home.

(Sadly, this is the only jack-o-lantern we made this year! No time to carve pumpkins, a first for our family. Sniff!)

Here's Violet and her favorite friend, Kat. Yes, they're the same age, just on opposite ends of the growth charts.

I so appreciate being able to help out in class at these fun events. I wouldn't trade these moments for any amount of money.

Cora's Craft Party

A few weeks ago, Cora started looking up fun Halloween crafts and planned out a craft-making party for herself and her friends. She and Stace worked all weekend prepping various craft projects, while I put the house together and set the scene Monday during the school day.

After school, 10 kids showed up on our doorstep - nice that they're old enough to walk/ride home together!

The kids divided into two groups, and Sophia, Cooper and Wylie started with tapping nails into the black boards to make their string art ghost pictures.

Jake, Cora, Vivi and Violet began with turning white pillar candles into bloody scary candles, by dripping melted wax from red taper candles.

It was remarkable - 10 kids using lit candles and hammering in nails, and no one needed a trip to urgent care! Least of all these happy, smiling girlies.

Another project involved painting a tombstone and then writing a creative or funny epitaph.

The kids also frosted and decorated cupcakes for a contest, though some decided they'd rather eat theirs right away then have them judged.

Cora was not amused by Cooper's choice of epitaph: "RIP Cora's Cat; The Thick One. He was too thick." "Thick" is a word Cora and her friends are using a lot lately.

Then the kids all went to the playground for a round of Lava Monster and some time on the swings...

...or, some time stuck IN the swing. Yep, Wylie got himself caught in the baby swing.

Thankfully, we had law enforcement on hand, and a helpful twin willing to serve as a chair for Wylie to stand upon. I love Charlie's expression here; it looks like he's ready to fly off.

We went back home and had all the parents judge the cupcakes.

Violet won the contest, while Cora and Sophia came in a joint second. It was a great party! I'm so happy to have a child who pushes us to have parties and give the children a nice time.

Weekend football, baseball and beach!

Cora's football season is winding down, so I brought the good camera to her game Saturday. Violet took this lovely shot of her and her dad.

Here's Cora's coach Jose and his son. Cora's team had a nice win on this game day.

My friend Emily flew in from Dallas to watch the final two World Series games with all her Dodger fan friends. We met up Saturday night for pizza and the game at Vincenzo's.

On Sunday, we met up with Emily and our friend Lynnette and James and their girls in Ventura. It was gorgeous!

After the beach, we all went to our home to watch the game over chili and cornbread. Sadly, our Dodgers lost, and the Red Sox celebrated a World Series championship. But it was nice watching together with friends.

Fall Festival Fun

Our school's Fall Festival was Friday evening, and Cora channeled her inner creepy girl as she helped with the 6th grade trick-or-treating booth.

This year, each grade level had a decorated booth for kids to collect candy from. Here's Zach, Cora and Sebastian; the boys put the booth together while Cora was at Sophia's Stickman party.

The third-grade booth used our monster bean bag toss game, and Violet helped out for a bit.

Violet was happy to find her friend Caitlyn.

And she enjoyed painting a pumpkin. Other activities included a giant bouncy slide, game booths and the Dodgers World Series game streamed on a big screen.

Cora got to say hello to Mrs. Hawthorne; again, hard to believe this is her seventh and last year here!

Cora and Jake worked together at the 6th grade booth much of the evening.

Violet took part in the costume contest.

Here's Violet, with Charlie behind her.

After the contest, the kids were allowed on stage to dance. Violet enjoyed this part of the evening.

Cora met up with Vivian, Sophi and Sophia.

And here's Cora with her teacher this year, Miss Lotito. (Violet's teachers didn't attend the festival.)

More dancing fun! It was a fabulous evening all around.

Fun with Friends

Cora and I have Magic Mountain passes, and we had special "get a friend in free" tickets loaded to them on certain weekdays.

Because our Fright Fest trip with Kelly and Yass was on such a busy Saturday, we weren't able to go on many rides, and Charlie was very disappointed.

So since we could get friends in free, we went with Jake and Charlie (and my mom and Kelly) on Thursday after school. Char was super excited to try out X2, a rather crazy coaster. He and Cora went on it together...

...and they loved it.

Kelly and I went on Full Throttle with Cora and Char (Jake doesn't like big rides), while all the kids enjoyed Wonder Woman, among other rides. It was a very fun afternoon.

My mom enjoyed seeing her Fright Fest domain in the daylight.

On Friday after school, Sophia had a Halloween-themed Stick Man Party at her house; she formed the Stick Man Club last year.

She had several activities planned, and asked to borrow our corn hole game.

Sophia also had a Halloween quiz, with the kids divided into teams, a raffle for a Menchie's gift card (which Violet won!), and a fun costume game.

Bags of costume items were passed around while music played. When the music stopped, the person holding the bag had to pull out an item to put on. What fun!

Trunk or Treat!

We returned to Dr. Lavin's office Monday, and received the welcome news that Violet is *almost* 48 inches! Like, she is an eighth of an inch away, officially. That means that in 11 months since starting the treatment, she's grown over four inches!

We're so very pleased, and though Violet won't jump and down with excitement, she's pleased, too.

It's World Series time! And our Dodgers are in it! Since we've watched all the playoff games at home, I wanted to see Game 1 out among a barful of fellow fans. And since it was Tuesday, we headed to Bunker Hill to take advantage of their Taco Tuesday specials, with the dollar tacos and the $2 margaritas (when you wear Hawaiian).

Stace met us girls there, and later took Cora to her football practice. The Dodgers lost the game, but it was still fun seeing it with lots of other eager fans.

On Wednesday, we went to Pioneer Clubs' Trunk or Treat at Valencia Methodist, where Stace again brought the MG, this time disguised as a vampire.

Cora came dressed in her blue morph outfit, because her real costume is a bit scary for the church/young child crowd. But Violet was able to try out her costume for the first time - she is a Cuddle Team Leader, a character from the popular video game Fortnite.

Stace created, with the girls' help, this monster bean bag toss game.

Jake and Charlie came out, and Sophia (the banana) and Cami also hung out with Cora. Violet spent much of her evening with Liana, at their truck.

Another World Series game was going on - we followed along as best as we could. Toward the end of the night, Sophia streamed the game on her phone from inside the MG.

Would you look at that, streaming a game on a phone, inside a 50-year-old car (that lacks an AM/FM radio!)?