Tidbits

Look at this adorable kitty! Looks like he's holding onto the fox while he naps on Violet's bed. 

Every day, he wakes up with Stace, who puts him in the garage for a bite to eat. Then, when Stace comes back out from his shower, he lets him back in, and Spence heads to Violet's bed. 

When I take the girls to school, or just Cora, if Violet is riding, I let him outside. An hour or so later, it's naptime again on Violet's bed.

Oh, to be a cat!

Happy to report that Sebastian is doing much better now, and is back to running around and jumping up on things.

The girls had ortho appointments, and Violet had THREE baby teeth pulled! You can see them on the paper on the tray, while Violet is getting mopped up. The teeth were all ready to come out; Violet had lost two others in the past week! And she lost several in the summer. My goodness.

In other tooth news, Cora finally is having progress with her last tooth moving down! This was one of the main reasons she's in braces again - one tooth didn't have room to come down, and years after losing the baby tooth, it still hadn't budged. We're all thankful she won't need her gums cut now.

Liana spent the night on Friday, while Cora had friends over to play D&D. On Saturday morning, the girls found a game to entertain themselves involving walking on pillows.

They also rode bikes to Dink's bakery in Granary Square.

On Saturday night, we had Kelly, Yass and Char over for dinner to watch the Dodger game. In addition, Cora worked with our actor friends on her callback auditions for the two female lead roles in The Great Gatsby, the play her theater class is doing.

On Sunday, I helped Melanie with this lovely wedding. I actually helped with placing the white flowers into bottom arrangements and the baby's breath into the vine.
 

Week in Review

While Stace and I were away, the girls stayed with my parents, and Grandpa and Cora made a special trip to the sporting goods store. She's now the proud owner of an airsoft rifle and pistol!

My dad is a natural to help her with shooting, and helped her figure out her dominant eye, and what other gear she could best use, like a thigh holster for her pistol.

She put the target on the trash can to start practicing.

Cora had her turn to get braces on, on Thursday. She's smiling through the pain here - the braces aren't just on the front teeth like her first phase, but on every tooth, and the side ones cut her cheeks. She took a lot of advil over the next few days.

Violet's school had Picture Day on Thursday and Friday, and I helped volunteer on Thursday afternoon. Everything was socially distanced, and everyone wore masks, except for the few moments that the children took their photos.

I got to sneak a pic while Violet was posing. It was so nice to be in campus and see some kids and parents!

We took part in the a citywide cleanup day on Saturday. Stace and Violet went to pick up our gear - gloves, thick plastic bags, etc - and were also given some nice drought-tolerant bushes we can plant.

We started our cleaning behind the pool, where we came across this ugly pile of trash.

That's better.

Full disclosure - Cora didn't want to walk around the neighborhood looking for trash. But, she came along.

The girls went up the gutter on the other end of the neighborhood and found some junk to clean up.

 

It was a low-key weekend. Besides the trash pickup, we did some pool-time, some board games and some television (Timeless, a series we're catching up on and enjoying) and movies.

Tidbits

When we were in Gold Country, we picked up some special gifts for a very special teacher. Mrs. Shafarman was one of Cora's absolute favorites, and she's dealing with some health issues and retired over the summer. 

Mrs. Shafarman ran the school's Gold Rush Day for years, and did an amazing job. It was one of Cora's fondest memories, and I was so sad that Violet missed out the educational experience.

So, when we were at the Marshall Gold State Historic Park, we got her some mementos. 

On Monday, we stopped at her home to deliver them. We kept our distance for our outdoor visit, except for a couple of moments to take this photo! It was wonderful to see her again.

Violet and Stace worked together on a plan for a bedroom remodel the other night. They measured the room and created a scale model, and it's a fun thing to think through. Stay tuned!

Cora had Violet and Melani over to swim Friday afternoon. When they were finished, they wanted boba, so we went over for a drink. Little Violet, with her top and bottom expanders, chose a popping boba instead of regular boba. 

But she wasn't thrilled with it...
 

Week in Review

The big day came for Violet this week - the day she's been dreading. 

But, next stop, nice straight teeth (and room for the rest to come down!).

She didn't want to take a "normal" photo with her braces on, so hear you go. You can kind of see her bottom expander, too.

On Saturday evening, we all went to a park to say good-bye to our friends Morgan, Adam, Sophie and Norah. They've had enough of California and are moving back near family in Florida. Can't say I blame them, these days! (On that note, this gathering, I guess, was illegal, but we WERE all outside.)

The best part of the night was seeing all the kids running around playing soccer and kicking the can. Even though the girls have seen friends since we stopped quarantining, it's hard to play certain games with just a few kids.

We had my family over Sunday to celebrate Grandma's birthday. Cora thought that Seb needed to met Ellie.

 Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Part of our gift to her was pictures of the granddaughters, including this one of them together.

Beach, Boba, Blocks and Babies

For this week's beach trip, we went Tuesday with Colleen and the kids. We went back to Rincon, and the kids had as much fun in this cool driftwood structure as they did in the ocean.

Stace and Rigo came out after work and met us at the beach, and then we all went to Padaro Beach Grill for dinner.

We treated the girls to special boba drinks on Thursday night after they survived their orthodontist appointment. They'll both be getting braces on later this month.

Violet is learning volume in math, and was having trouble conceptualizing her assignment. I remembered that we still have baby blocks, and they helped the lightbulb go on above her head.

Melani came over Wednesday, as well as Melanie and Ellie. Later, Liana and Lucas came over. Liana and Violet will be perfect babysitter candidates in the years to come.