Class Party!

Violet's fifth-grade year drew to a close Friday. She is so glad to be done with school; I'm sad about her attitude, because she used to like school, and I know she had a great teacher. I finally got a photo with her and Mrs. Dallaire! 

With such an unusual year, I never saw inside the classroom, even as the room mom. Parents weren't allowed on campus at all. No field trips. No class parties. But, at least they finished the school year with the last two months in class, full days. 

And, at least, I was able to plan a year-end party Friday after school, at the park. After eating lunch, the kids had a kickball game and a fun water relay, perfect for a hot afternoon, and ate popsicles. 

I was so very grateful Mrs. Dallaire was able to join us! The kids listened to her way more readily than they would listen to me, especially since most of them didn't even know who I was! 

Lunch - kids brought their own, and a couple of moms brought pizzas to share.

Go, Teacher, go!

Violet flying through the air!

Cora came to join the fun - she loves kickball (and popsicles). 
 

Here was the water relay - two lines of kids, four buckets of water (with water brought from my house, in a big cooler!), and two sponges - with the kids soaking the sponge in the first bucket, then passing it overhead down the line, and then squeezing it into the other bucket. First to get past the line wins!

Not the whole class - a few kids couldn't attend the party, and a few had left by the time we thought to take a group pic. But a fabulous turnout and a really fun afternoon. I wish I could have gotten to know these kids and this teacher better! She spoiled me with a lovely thank-you gift for being the room mom, even though I feel like I did so little. 

Praying next year is more normal for Vi's last year in elementary school!

And now, on with SUMMER!

Back to School!!

 Nearly a year after our lives were upended by Covid-19, Violet finally returned to school on Monday. 

She's going Monday through Thursday, 12:30-3, with half her class. The other half is attending 8-10:30. They do math and English with their teacher, sitting six feet apart, wearing masks. The students continue to do art, P.E., social studies and science at home.

Day One! Mrs. Dallaire was so excited to see her students in person finally - here, she's taking a selfie with them as they're lined up to go inside.

Violet was nervous about the change, and her stomach hurt. But after school, she seemed happy, and asked if we could walk to Starbucks with Melanie and Christina. 

Great idea! And we're so happy that she and Melanie are in the same class, and the same afternoon cohort. They don't get to chat or play together during the school time, but at least we can more easily plan playtime after school.

When we were in Carpinteria, Jenn and I went in this little shop that sold goods made by high school students. I found a catnip-filled felt pizza toy for the cats, since they recently had their 10th birthday. 

It was a hit!

We played another new board game this week: Ticket to Ride, Europe. It was fun! And Cora didn't win! 

JT brought up her kids Thursday afternoon, as they had a short day for teacher conferences. Callie had fun playing with Jade...

...and Cora led them all in a D&D quest. They were having such a good time, we even let them keep the table and eat dinner there while they played.

And JT and I enjoyed a lovely long walk through the canyon, ending up at Starbucks. Good times.
 

Week in Review

These two! 

The girls and I went to Glendale on Wednesday to do a little shopping at the lovely Americana shopping center with Melanie and Ellie. Cora spent her birthday money at Barnes and Noble on Dungeons and Dragons books.

I got Violet a fancy cupcake as her reward for venturing out of the house, something she's not a fan of doing anymore. Sorry, Ellie, no cupcake for you. But you can see how yummy they look!

 On Friday, Violet ended her final week of all digital learning! Though she'll still be online-only on Fridays, for the rest of the week, she'll be going to school with half her class, 12:30-3. I'm very excited for this baby step toward normal life!

Taking Violet to the pet store is still one of her favorite things. But now, it is like taking a little one to a toy store or candy shop. She has many desires! Like this dino-shaped mouse habitat. 

"And then we can use the fish tank for a new frog pet, or toad: you choose," she said excitedly. "Or turtles. For my next fish, I want a frog."

She also wants a ferret or chinchilla, a hairless guinea pig, a duck and a baby goat. "Wyatt's mom has a pregnant goat. Can we have a goat?"

Oh, and a new kitten. She's been rereading her book on cat breeds, and has now been begging for a ragdoll kitten. It's the ONLY thing she wants for her birthday. 

None of these things are going to happen. I thought saying "yes" to mice would lead to pet contentment. I was quite wrong.

Tidbits

When you run into a friend at Aldi... it's a great morning!

Fine, Sebastian, I'll give up on the puzzle.

(Clearly, knocking the entire thing off the coffee table was exhausting.)

We went to a "drive-in movie" at Castaic Lake, where they were showing Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. It was great to hang out outside, to have something entertaining to do! 

I think I forgot to post this pic earlier, but Violet received her medal and award for her Reflections painting when we did a drive-through at the school to pick up supplies. We're very proud of our artist!

These two! Why, oh why, might they be hanging out together in Violet's room??

Liana came over to spend the night Thursday, as the girls all had Friday off for a four-day weekend for the President's Day holiday.

Her fish died while she was away, so we picked out a new one with Liana. It was a hard choice; there are so many beauties. With Liana's help, she chose a gorgeous turquoise blue boy, and named him Indigo.

 

Almost Break Time!

Violet and I took a little walk in the neighborhood and she insisted on taking Spencer with us. 

This is the street near the pool, and several times, neighbors there have expressed affection for and familiarity with Spence. He gets around!

Violet's last day of school before break featured some silly fun - the kids were asked to make themselves into a present. Violet cut some eye holes into a gift bag, and, voila!

As the class room mom, I collected money from the parents and bought the teacher's gifts. The class was amazingly generous, and Mrs. Dallaire was royally spoiled. She teared up when opening her gift- here, she's showing the poinsettia plant I'd placed with the card and gift cards.

On Friday, I got my prosthesis polished, and for the first time, saw an ocularist in Encino instead of down in Hollywood. My ocularist has several offices in SoCal, but since I've seen Beverly since I was tiny, I would always see her in the Hollywood/Larchmont office. Now that she has retired, I decided to try this (slightly) closer location. I guess it's the start of a new era!

On Friday night, Liana came over to spend the night. The girls worked on gingerbread houses...

We then walked to Granary Square to get dinner, via the pretty canyon that's now all decked out for Christmas.

 Every time I walk, there seem to be more and more ornaments. 

After buying dinner, we went home to eat, and the girls had fun doing D&D. We could hear Liana and Violet giggling late into the night, a beautiful sound in these strange Covid crazy times.

Week in Review

On my walk through the canyon the other day, I was overwhelmed by a buzzing sound, and looked up to see a swarm of bees forming a new hive on the branch of the oak tree. Pretty cool!

On Thursday, Violet's school had the annual Apex fundraiser. Big thanks to all who sponsored her this year! Violet and her classmates logged on and completed fitness moves at home. Violet took it seriously, and even recorded a video to ask for sponsors!

Violet painted this absolutely lovely canvas of our living room at Christmas time. 

I told her, she will have this forever, to always remember her childhood home this time of year. I love the texture of the tree and the way she painted the curtains - the perspective is awesome!

Stace and Cora went out Sunday to play soccer for a bit - Cora insisted on wearing this awesome outfit.

She didn't last too long without injury! Taking a ball off the nose turned into a bloody affair.

In the afternoon, Stace and I took Vi to the archery range. What a great asset this is to our town!

We got her boba on the way home; seeing all the restaurants' empty outside seating is really sad. All the contact tracing our state/county have done, shows that next to zero spread of Covid comes from outside restaurant dining. Very frustrating situation for these small businesses and their employees.

Stace and I took Vi to the mall the other day - it's still open, at least. We grabbed a quick pic in front of the giant pretty tree.
 

World Series Win! And Halloween Happenings!

This was the fateful week, one that Los Angeles has been waiting more than 30 years for. Our Los Angeles Dodgers WON the World Series again! 

After falling just short in 2017 - and later finding out that the Astros cheated to attain their victory - and then losing again in 2018 - the Dodgers finally closed out the season as the ultimate winners. 

The team closed out the series with a fourth win Tuesday night over the Tampa Bay Rays. Yes, I teared up, especially when seeing pitcher Clayton Kershaw finally hold that trophy. 

Such a strange year - 60 games instead of 162, no fans during the season at Dodger Stadium, nearly the entire postseason played in a "bubble" in Dallas. At least, Texas is much more open than California, and the stadium was allowed to have fans up to 25% capacity. So, some very fortunate Dodger fans were able to see the wins in person.

I celebrated with a morning-after coffee from Starbucks on Wednesday.

Later Wednesday, we went to VUMC for a modified, drive-through Trunk or Treat event. We were one of a few cars, and the event was open only to the church, not the community like normal.

Violet had the idea of a dragon theme for the MG this year. The dragons had glowing eyes! We had to have a contact-free candy distribution method, so Stace also made a dragon that could shoot candy out its mouth, through a tube.

Cora dressed as a pirate for the trunk or treat. She was supposed to be working as a witch for a drive-through Halloween event all week, but the event was canceled after the props were damaged in heavy winds. She was really disappointed, because she was excited to have something so fun to do. 

We got to see Kelly, Noah and Ethan! And the dragon-shooter worked!

Violet and Liana had a fun night, working at their families' cars, and then going around the event themselves.
 

On Friday, Violet's class had a Halloween "lunch bunch" online meet up. I'll not go on about how sad it is that she's not having a Halloween party with her class! I love being involved with those.

We met up with Christina and Melanie at Quigley Canyon Friday, and this time we saw a family of deer. Two adults and two young ones. 

Here was how cool Cora looked for the event that ended up getting canceled. 

My mom had been so excited, too, since Fright Fest has been canceled. Oh well, next year!