Violet's Musical

Another huge part of Meadows returned this year, much to our joy and gratitude. The Musical run by Mrs. Shafarman was Cora's favorite part of elementary school, and Violet was set to take part when the world shut down in 2020.

This year, we were able to pull it together again, even though Mrs. Shafarman has retired. She returned for weekly rehearsals, and on Wednesday, about 50 kids put on "The Greatest Americans of the Twentieth Century."

The play is basically an awards show, for the 20th Century great Americans, and Violet had a lead role as one of the show hosts.

In this scene, the girl playing Ernest Hemingway VERY much wants to come up to get his award.

It's a cute show, and a few years ago Cora and her friend Violet played the Wright brothers.

This year, Cora helped out when she could, with working with the kids on their choreographed dances.
 

It was so wonderful to see Mrs. Shafarman again, and have Violet get to work with her!

Ms. Sheen always assists Mrs. Shafarman.

Here is Violet with a couple of her costars. No, they weren't told they had to wear black, but they apparently all got the memo!

Cora and Mrs. Shafarman enjoyed seeing each other again, too. 

Cooking under Quarantine

I've assigned the girls dinner duties this week, and Violet took it very seriously. She wanted to make fried rice, one of her favorites, with bacon. She didn't just want a simple one-pot meal though; she wanted to also serve a side dish. We have Korean dumplings in the freezer, so she fried up some of those.

Yum!

Violet was so fancy, she made menus! She did the same menu idea the night before, when she offered us several dessert options, just because she wanted to serve us.

We've been balancing cooking at home with picking up take-out, especially because our local restaurants need the business. Stace brought home breakfast from the Way Station one day this week, and we had lunch delivered from Firehouse Subs, which is owned by friends of ours.

It was Cora's turn to make dinner, and she tackled shrimp and chicken quesadillas.













While Cora tried to focus on cooking, Stace was performing, and the cat was being surprising. It was a lot to take in!

Cora and Violet worked together on this meal - shrimp scampi. So yummy!

Working Hard, and Bunny Sadness

Stace has been reorganizing the garage, redoing his cabinetry. While Violet and I were in Arizona, Stace and Cora finished the project, building the shallow shelves he sought to keep his tools in.

As usual, Cora was an excellent helper.

Beautiful job!

Cora also worked hard in the yard, enough to earn a tidy sum. She learned to to the string trimming, adding to her lawn care repertoire.

While Stace and Cora were working in the yard, Spencer brought in a second dead baby bunny, after I found him with one Friday morning. Then, after Cora buried Bunny No. 2, there was a third!

This one, like the Monty Python plague victim, wasn't quite dead yet. Cora cared for it as best as she could, and set it up on the hill in a hidden spot, with water and grass.

So cute. Cora visited it several times Sunday, and it seemed to be doing OK, well enough that she named it Twitch.

Alas, the final time she checked on it, it had passed on, apparently from internal wounds.

Stace and Cora made sure the cats were then in the house, but the next morning, another dead bunny on the lawn! This one had been torn up, so by something more wild than our cats (who were locked inside).

We kept them in for the next week. We are assuming a mama rabbit had a litter in a nearby yard, and then was killed or otherwise left them defenseless. In our 11 years in this house, we haven't seen rabbits in our yard, and our cats have never caught one.

Floral Wonderland

On Saturday, we all helped Melanie with a big wedding she's had on her books for months.

Here are the centerpieces for the reception, awaiting their placement on the tables after the wedding ceremony.

It was held at a gorgeous estate in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, an estate that featured taxidermy creatures including a zebra and polar bear. We learned they were purchased from a natural history museum that was going out of business.

Some of the stunning flower arrangements Melanie designed; the tall one is on a stand Stace made for her.

The estate had views from one side of the Hollywood sign and Griffith Observatory...

...while from the other side, you could see Downtown Los Angeles.

The girls were helpful in many ways; for instance, Violet put the lily pads out into the pool.

They also helped decorate the floral garland on the Rolls-Royce.

Here's one of the gorgeous photos from the wedding photographer!

Closet Completion!

Cora's closet is completed, and it looks fantastic. I'm so impressed, once again, with my amazing husband and his various skills. Cora helped a lot, too.

Here was the closet area emptied and ready for change.

The start of the new structure going in...

Stace reused what he could from the old bookcase structure, along with a new white Ikea bookcase. 

Finished!

Easter Weekend Fun

A few weeks ago, Violet rediscovered her love for American Girl dolls. And she requested a birthday meal at the Cafe, with Melanie, a favorite friend who also loves the dolls.

Christina and I were happy to make this happen for the girls, and it became a joint birthday celebration - their birthdays are within a week of each other. Grandma came too.

The meal is delicious and fancy - several courses!
Violet loved her Grumpy Cat socks, a little gift from Melanie.

On Saturday, Violet and I participated in the Mom2Mom Easter Egg Hunt. She had a fun time; Cora was at her school musical prop-making day.

Happy girl with her basket full.

Look at that face - wide-mouthed in surprise at THREE pieces of candy within ONE egg!

Later that day, Cora and Stace busied themselves with irrigation in the garden. Cora is one heck of a girl. We so appreciate her work ethic.

Bed Re-do

 Cora and Stace created a captain's bed for Cora over the weekend, transforming her old dresser, along with a new bookcase, into the base for her mattress.

As always, Cora proved herself quite the hard worker, using Dad's tools like an expert. Here, she's countersinking holes in the slats that the mattress would rest on, in the space between the wall and the back of the dresser.

 With supervision, she also used the table saw to shorten the lengths of wood.

Stace had the idea of filling the gap between the dresser and bookcase with an additional small bookcase he fabricated. My engineer is a creative genius.

 Sebastian approved of the open drawers. Behind the dresser, you can see the string of lights Cora later put up in the area that will serve as her secret hideout.

Sanding the edges of the finished edging...

 Ready for a mattress and a good night's sleep!

Happy girl in her new bed, with double the floorspace in her bedroom!