Cora's Cooking Playdate

The girls are back to school for a month until Winter Break, and with Christmas approaching, Cora invited Vivian and Violet over to do some holiday baking.

They goofed around with Stacey's funny reindeer rear-end hat

They also made soap, something Cora's been having fun with after watching how-to videos online.

Baking several projects can wear a girl out!

FUDGE.

Peppermint bark!

And a Cake of Many Colors. And many sprinkles.

King Tut

Cora has great interest in Ancient Egypt, and her 6th grade class will be studying the period soon. All this coincides nicely with the current special exhibit at the California Science Center - King Tut: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh. 

We met up with JT and Jim at the museum Saturday, and enjoyed a very educational and fun day out.

The items that have survived three thousand years are just incredible - linen gloves! How?!?

All were discovered in Tut's hidden tomb, uncovered in 1922.

The workmanship and beauty of the items really captured our attention.

Cora took lots of notes and photos. Hopefully she can work them into some sort of school assignment.

The museum had lots of other exhibits, too, and here, the girls are looking at hieroglyphics on little blocks.

We also walked around the Space Shuttle Endeavour, and learned about its missions

The aquarium was a favorite for the kids.

Cora enjoyed the touch tank; Violet did not.

After the museum, we met up with JT and Jim and the children for a meal before heading home. It was great spending time with our friends.

Family Photos

In and around cooking and cleaning on Thanksgiving afternoon, my dad came by to take these lovely photos of us. It'd been a while since we had formal family photos taken, and with the girls looking so much older, it was time. I love how they turned out! Thanks, Dad. 

Thanksgiving

 Our Thanksgiving featured food, food and more food.

Stace started our day with a delicious breakfast casserole. He discovered that buying a bag of frozen shredded potatoes saves about an hour of shredding work!

Violet wanted hot chocolate, but we were out of mix, so she looked up a recipe on how to make it from scratch. 

Later, after our yummy turkey dinner, we played a fun dice game called Left Center Right, with quarters.

Cora wasn't happy with her roll here!

Winner winner!

We then moved into the living room to watch some classic Thanksgiving specials. Well, a couple of us watched while the rest had a nap... and my fabulous mother cleaned the kitchen. Thanks, Mom!

Thanksgiving Break

Cora ended up having strep throat, and she got antibiotics started on Monday. We had a calm few days of break, and Cora and I skipped Universal Studios on Tuesday.

Instead, we went to Barnes and Noble, where Cora set out to prove that Harry Potter fun exists outside of Universal.

Later on Tuesday evening, we went to Cora's football team year-end party. Here, Coach Jose is giving Cora her third-place trophy, while praising her abilities as a player and saying it was a great pleasure to coach her.

The girls decided to beautify our mailbox area by planting succulents.

Here's their finished work! Much improved.

We had a family game night, and Violet wanted a family Lego night. She created tiny cars and a racing ramp for us to use in a little competition.

Universal Studios-written by Violet

 On Thanksgiving break, Dad and I went to Universal Studios. Of course,the first place we went was the Harry Potter world. Our first stop was Honeydukes the candy shop. I went on the ride "Harry Potters Forbidden Journey".   

Later on, Dad and I go to the singing frog choir. Then, we come out of Hogsmeade to see the rest of the park. Down in the lower lot, me and Dad go to the Jurassic Park cafe to get a drink.        

After we finished, we headed back up. On the way back to Hogsmeade (for the Christmas special) me and Dad had fried chicken at "Gru`s cafe" in front of Despicable Me land.

This is me on a motorcycle outside of Harry Potter land.





When we got back inside, Dad and I go into Olivanders wand shop. Dad has a photo of me doing the same thing when it was Cora`s 11th birthday. I look so grown up! Then we went out to get dessert.We shared a strawberry shortcake. But Hogwarts has never been more beautiful than at Christmas. The castle was filled with lights. and snow (soap bubbles) was falling in the town.

Super Saturday

 We had the girls' parent-teacher conferences on Friday, and we remain blessed with two bright, hard-working students. Both are reading three years above their grade level, and are students their teachers are pleased to teach. Thank you, Lord!

Here's an example of Cora's work that we found on the board - all the students chose a character from the book Wonder to describe, and Cora chose Summer.

Miss Lotito talked with us about how Cora should trust her gut more, and not second-guess herself.

Mrs. Breneman told us that she can't believe how both our daughters are such amazing writers (since often siblings have differing strengths). She praised the writing piece in the photo here, and said she'll sometimes ask Violet for writing ideas!

She said she rarely gives out 3+'s in the first grading period, but she had to give Violet a 3+ in reading comprehension.

I was happy to hear all of this, since Violet prefers to read comic books to "real" books!

Later on Friday, we had Jake and Charlie over for lunch and play, and watched Ant Man and the Wasp.

On Saturday, Cora's football team had its final playoff game. It was the battle to determine third place in the league, against the team that had the best record in the regular season.

It was so exciting! Cora's Panthers took an early lead, fell behind, and then went ahead. A final drive by the opposition would have given them the win, but the Panthers held their ground and won!

My dad came out and got these great photos - if the quarterback hadn't just thrown the ball, Cora would have earned a sack as she pulled his flag.

This flag pull counted!

Champions! (Of the third order) This was seriously the most fun and exciting game of the season - great time to peak, Panthers! And, if it was Cora's last flag football game ever, what a way to go out!

After her game, we took Cora to her friend Violet's house for a playdate. When we picked her up, she complained about her throat and head hurting. But, because we're mean like that, we made her come with us to the annual city Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony in Old Town Newhall. 

This event gets better and better. We enjoyed looking at the craft fair, and bought a few handcrafted jewelry items, and we also got to visit with a real reindeer.

You can tell Cora wasn't feeling her best though... and by the next day, she had a fever and spent half the day sleeping. Poor thing!