Week in Review

 
We did a few nature walks in the first week of December, a perfect month here for hiking. And this year, with the early rains, there are green hills and interesting fungi to enjoy.

On Monday, Vi and I went to Quigley and spotted this deer up on the hill. 

And on Thursday, we joined the Hiking Club with Violet's school for a walk to the Placerita Waterfall. 

Violet's supervising teacher is wearing the black coat; we're fortunate she and Vi were paired up.

After this hike, we went to Trophy Coffee for these lovely drinks...

...and then back to Quigley to enjoy the Super Moon.

Also this week, Stace and I met with a financial advisor for the first time, to start the process of thinking ahead to his retirement. Are we on track with our savings? What should we be doing to prepare? Such grownup (old person) questions! Ha!

Tidbits

On Friday, I went over to the girls' elementary school, where they were celebrating the school's 50th birthday.

In the multipurpose room, yearbooks, photos and other memorabilia from over the decades was on display. People were invited to sign this big poster.
 

I caught up with my friend Rose, and we saw Mrs. Vasquez, Cora's 1st grade teacher!

On Saturday, I watched Ellie for a few hours, and she brought her new doll, The Bride of Frankenstein. She saw the doll at the store and just liked her; she hadn't seen her on TV.

When we went to the park, she asked me to buckle her up, too. I love this age!

Ellie had a lot of fun at the remodeled Valencia Glen Park, and I enjoyed having a reason to check it out, too. My kids would have loved this! We spent many hours here when they were in preschool.

Weekend Work and Play

Stace installed his finishing touches on our school library loft treehouse project this weekend. He had a great vision to finish off the nooks by facing the wood edges with what looks like tree bark. 

I'm biased, but I think it's stunning! The only slight trouble is, we don't know when students will be able to use it because of crazy Covid rules.

The project is dedicated to the family that passed away three years ago in a car crash; Saachi loved reading.

We celebrated by going out to lunch with Kelly and Yass on Sunday - haven't seen them since November, sadly! It's such a relief that indoor dining is open again. We went out for sushi, and Stace enjoyed everything he tried! 
 

Another Return to School!

The girls were definitely due for haircuts - they both had slight trims at the end of summer, well over six months ago.

That's better!

We finally returned to church, for the first time since Christmas Eve and the second time since the world shifted last March. L.A. County's Covid numbers are low enough that the sanctuary reopened in March. We chose to sit outside, far enough from other people that we could take off our masks.

It filled my heart to look over and see Violet snuggled into her sister's lap. If you know Cora, you know she's not a snuggly kid, but she didn't push her sister away. Seriously, these two hardly ever fight anymore. I love their relationship!

On Monday, Cora made her long-awaited return to her junior high campus. All year, the district has had a block schedule for junior high and high school, with three longer classes per day. She starts at 8 and ends at 12:15 - and now, on Mondays and Tuesdays, she goes in-person. (Everyone is online only on Wednesdays, and the second half of the alphabet is allowed to attend Thursdays/Fridays.)

It's not anything like last year - no brunch or lunch to hang out, her good friends aren't there the days she's there, and you're supposed to keep your distance and wear a mask all day. But, considering we feared she wouldn't make it back to her junior high at all before promoting in June, we'll take it!

She said it's definitely a better learning environment to be in the classroom, with fewer distractions. But she does miss her friends. I'm hoping hard that the district will relax a bit, and allow the students who want to attend in person, to attend every day instead of two days per week. 

We received the wonderful news that Violet's district will return to a normal, full-day schedule on April 19!

Violet has been creative again, lately. Here is her painting of a dragon's eye, surrounded by scales, and a seawing dragon, in the ocean. 

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.
 

Working While Home

Stace and I helped at Violet's school on Monday, since Stace has the week off and we have a Foundation project several years in the making. This loft above the school library will be a reading loft, if/when the kids ever get back to school. 

We moved a lot of things around and Stace installed the Ikea green leaves above the wooden structure.

 

While Stace was off, he also dug up a bit of the yard, to put in new sprinklers in this dead corner that hadn't been getting enough water. 

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.