Violet's First Concert

 A couple of months ago, Violet mentioned she loves a folk band called The Oh Hellos, so I looked them up and saw that they had a tour coming up in the fall. We bought tickets, and on Saturday, Stace and I took her to her first real concert!

The venue was down in L.A., at a smaller club with a capacity of about 1,500. 

If you're curious about the numbers at the corner of this photo, and a few others below, these are photos I took off the Internet because they're better than the ones we took on our phones.

The whole concert was general admission, and standing, with a balcony ringing the perimeter. We were upstairs at the restaurant having pizza, and walked out and realized we'd have a pretty good view from right there. 

Violet took this photo on her phone.

This was from the outside patio - we were pretty close to downtown L.A. 

These next pics are from the band's Instagram page. We bought a few CDs in August and listened to them nonstop on our Sequoia trip, so we were familiar with the music. It's lively and fun, with a nine-member band on stage! Drums, guitars, banjos, fiddles - very high quality musicanship throughout. These are the two lead singers, sister and brother Maggie and Tyler Heath.

Violet had SUCH a good time; it was wonderful to watch her sing along, enjoying herself so much. And for a girl who can't stand busy cities, she loved the experience enough to mention she'd like to see other bands she enjoys, when they are on tour.

There's just nothing like live music!

The Wolves

Cora excelled in her opening weekend of Wolves. Yes, opening weekend - they have a two week, 8-show run at the Main in Newhall. Her community theater debut!

Wolves tells the story of a teen girls indoor soccer team through the course of six weeks of their season. It's all told from the perspective of their warmup area, with the girls' conversations propelling the story forward.

Cora plays the very anxious goalie. She has very few lines for the first half of the play, as her character is super nervous pregame, and often runs offstage to puke.

And incident happens between these two friends on a ski trip, leading to a big fight.

And in Week 5 (one scene taking place each week), Cora takes the spotlight. The scene opens with her alone on stage, crumpled in a ball, sobbing. 

She then melts down, rips out her pony tail, throws off her shirt, screams, and then collapses in tears.

The audience was silent enough to hear a pin drop. No one knows what has happened to make 00 (characters are mainly known only by their jersey number) fall apart.

In the following (and final, long) scene, the next week, the girls slowly come on stage, one by one, and as the conversations unfold, you can gather that one of the players was hit by a car and killed.

Cora finally has a monologue - she no longer feels nervous about the game. (She doesn't need to say it outright, but it's clear that the loss of a loved one helped her realize that soccer games aren't life and death situations.)

Her acting throughout is impeccable. In fact, all the girls are outstanding. The best of their high schools or colleges, coming across as very real, relatable characters.

A new character shows up - we realize this is the Soccer Mom, whose daughter died in the crash. She has a long, meandering, grief-stricken speech, leaving most of the audience in tears. Cora is crying behind her - again, stellar acting. I can't watch her without tearing up.

It was a moving, heartfelt show. Not an easy watch, and a LOT of swearing from a couple of the characters, with more adult subject matter. Real, gritty.

We're all so proud of Cora for tackling this role (pun intended) and scoring.

Back to School

And just like that - summer was over and Violet started 8th grade, and Cora began her junior year.

Violet didn't love school last year, especially her first semester, but she said she was ready to get back to a routine. She had quite a boring summer, so it was nice to have her OK with going back to school. 

She's still taking yearbook, and her friend Leah is now in the class with her. She has a few of the same teachers Cora had, too.

Cora started her first day at the new high school, and it went well enough. She's not a super social kid, especially with people her own age, but things went OK. New campus, all new teachers (except for Jarod!) and a couple of thousand new faces. She's taking algebra II/trig, English 11, U.S. History, ceramics, theater and stagecraft.

The traffic around her new school is atrocious - the high school is directly across the street from the area's junior high, and though the starting/ending times are staggered, it's still one main road in and out for them. Ugh, I miss the traffic patterns at her old school, that's for sure. We'll have to figure out a system.
 

Seb also had his first day - of sitting in this box.

I turned around and caught him in the playroom, surrounded by new school supplies, squeezing himself into the box for Violet's new tall black boots. 

This was Violet after her registration day last week, with her new books and her look of "Why a photo, Mom?!"

And I wish I'd taken a photo of Cora at her new school on registration day, but I forgot.

Reflecting on a Win!

 This year, the national PTA Reflections Art Program's theme was Within Reach, and both girls entered pieces.

Cora wrote a story for the literature division, about two children who taste magical fruit and are able to enter a place called Sweetland. She won first place for her age group!

 It was Cora's first time winning a prize, let alone a first place. She was so happy! Here's Cora with her teacher, Ms. Packer, in front of her story hanging on the wall.

The banner hanging on the stage said "Reflections," with the letters written with a collage of photos of all the artwork. Violet and Cora are pointing to Violet's piece, a clay sculpture of a kitty reaching for a ball.

The kitty, though not an award winner, received lots of positive comments. The visual arts category is the most competitive, since most children draw or paint pictures.

Christmas!

We celebrated our Christmas Day the day after, on Boxing Day.

It made more sense, since we were jetlagged on the actual day, and Dean, Jenny and Euan were able to spend the whole day and night with us on Boxing Day.

After a yummy roast turkey dinner, we opened a small mountain of presents. What a difference having two additional children makes to the present-opening fun! (Euan was there last year, but only a week old!)

In the morning, Cora was happy that Santa/Father Christmas brought her the Ariel doll she had asked for. When she saw the still-wrapped box, she said, "Oh, there's my Ariel doll."

She and Stace then walked up - well, Stace walked and pulled Cora on the sled - to his Nan's place. Cora entertained them by playing the organ.

Oh, and to update the sleeping situation - Cora is fully adjusted to the time difference after only one night. It's so much easier now that she's old enough to understand what the time difference means!

Violet on the other hand, is napping well but having trouble falling asleep for bed. And she continues to wake up at 2 and stay awake until 4. This morning, at least, we all slept from 4 until 10, so we got a good amount of sleep in the end. She is full of happy energy when she is up in the night, bouncing all over our bed and making cute noise, looking over at Cora in hopes of waking her up.

Swinging into Poulsbo

Not far from Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's village of Seabeck is the adorable Norway-focused village of Poulsbo.

We spent Monday afternoon there and enjoyed a late lunch at the Hare and Hounds, an English pub. Since Violet was missing a nap, and doesn't nap too well when we're out, Aunt Patty worked her magic so I could enjoy my lunch (and pint of IPA).

We strolled through the cute downtown, admired some beautiful waterfront homes, and ended up at a crowded park.

It was Columbus Day, and it was nice to see so many families enjoying the sunny weather outside together.

Cora had her first time on a playground merry-go-round, and her laughter could be heard far and wide.

She is getting so big and strong! A year ago I would have been nervous about her playing on one of these, with the bigger boys pushing it so fast. But she's just fine.

Violet had her first time in the swing! For some reason, I haven't put her in our neighborhood's swing yet, and I'm glad, because it meant that Stace got to be part of her experience.

She loved it, as you can see.

When I watched the following video on the computer, it made me a little seasick, so be warned. But, it is great to hear her little laugh!