Week in Review - and Mean Girls

 Violet has taken an Advanced Placement art class this year, and on Wednesday, she turned in her portfolio for grading. To celebrate, we shared a steak sandwich at RJB Cafe for lunch after school.

On Thursday morning, Tiffany and I took a walk and climbed the Stevenson Ranch stairs. This is a long outdoor staircase, installed just for exercise, and this is the view from the top. 

My calves were sore for days!

Also Thursday, Cora's Shakespeare classmates all performed monologues from Hamlet. After, the students voted on their favorite, and Cora won the most votes again.

Stace and I went to the garden center on Wednesday and then stopped at Maginn's for happy hour, and dinner. The girls were busy at the final dress rehearsal for Mean Girls.

We then went home and spent the rest of the evening researching RV rentals for a trip we're hoping to take in June to a national park in Nevada.

And on Thursday, Mean Girls began! Cora was stage managing, and Violet was the stagehand. Here, they are getting the microphones ready for the actors following the opening night show. 

I helped Thursday and Saturday by running the box office - this was the most well attended show in the school's history, with over 250 attendees on Thursday and 300 on Friday night!

 

These are the notes Cora created for the actors and crew, saying what needed to move, when, and what the cues were. She spent hours on it, and is such a hard worker.

After the closing show Saturday, we all stayed an extra hour to quickly break down the set and get it cleared from the stage. It was a lot of work and it was late, but this meant the director didn't need to come in on Sunday/Mother's Day.

Kitties, a new restaurant and hiking

We're still in the slow process of finishing up here, where the ceiling was damaged, and the cupboard is still empty. I stashed inside some of the fun crinkly paper that wraps some of our delivered goods, paper I only keep because Evie loves to play in it.

She found it.

And she made her own nest.

Awwww!

Oh dear.

My solution to keep Seb from eating the wrong food is no longer working. He's figured out that he CAN jump onto the dresser! So now I have to put the food away in my sock drawer, then get it out, then put it away, then get it out, then put it away...

And all the while, I'm doing the same thing in the kitchen with his pricey prescription urinary health food, as the younger cats seem to love it.

Seb went back to the vet for a checkup, because he's turning 15 this week. His kidney numbers are off, and he's been diagnosed with stage 2 chronic kidney disease. Not urgent yet; there are four stages. 

We're also more closely monitoring his weight, for the opposite reason you'd guess. He's actually lost over four pounds since August, which is a lot. If he keeps losing weight, the vet will want to do diagnostics on why, in case something is really wrong. Not sure what we'll do in that case, considering his age. But, I will say, he's acting fine!

On Sunday, Stace really wanted to take us all out to eat. We tried out a new-to-us place called RJM Grill on Main Street in Newhall. It's been there a little over a year. It was nice and quiet inside - no blaring music or tons of people talking, so Cora liked it. 

And our food was excellent! Great taste and value. We'll be back!

Actually, we'll be back, the following day! Ha!

Stace wasn't feeling well and stayed home from work on Monday, so after we took Violet to school, we went over and took advantage of a deal they have on breakfast burritos - only $6 before noon! It was definitely large enough to share. We walked it over to Hart Park and dined al fresco.

On Thursday, we met Violet's teacher at Golden Valley Ranch for a hike. 

There was a little water here and there, and we saw this string of frog/toad eggs near the rock (it's actually under a little water).

Week in Review

 One of the projects on the list is installing guttering on the back room, and incorporating the new rain barrels we picked up. These ones have the bells and whistles - they have a fine mesh screen at the top so mosquitoes can't get in, and a spigot threaded for a hose, to access the water. Our more decorative wine barrel lacks those advantages.

Stace and Violet worked hard Sunday and got this side finished!

Meanwhile, I spent time with Kelly - we went to see Beautiful: The Carole King Musical and got dinner before heading to Fright Fest. 

Kelly is a friend who has supported Cora in her acting over and over through the years.

The black light was intense where we were taking photos!

We enjoyed our time with Lorraine Lurane, too. It was great catching up with Kelly; we hadn't seen each other since our June trip to the Hollywood Bowl. 

Cora joined her Fright Fest coworkers for bowling after Sunday's shift, and had fun. I'm so happy she's socializing, and enjoying her coworkers enough to want to do so. But it did make for a very late night! She slept a lot of Monday to catch up, after her English class.

Violet and I went back up to DeBellis Farm in Acton on Tuesday after school to pick up half-price pumpkins, with Halloween coming this week. They weren't "cheap" but definitely fair priced, and I love supporting local small businesses.

On Thursday, Violet had her monthly walk with the hiking club at her online school. This time, at the urging of her teacher and office staff, I joined. We walked at Mentryville, and our group included a teacher who is a geology expert. He explained how the area formed, and discussed the strata in the hillside there.

It was a pretty morning!

On Thursday, Stacey had dental work done, so I made potato soup, which would be easy to eat. Then I went to watch Eloise, while her parents went to a candlelight strings concert. Gibby the cat was very relaxed!

Here are the pumpkins Stace and Violet carved. That's about as Halloween as we got this year - Cora was working at Fright Fest (so she had AMAZING makeup and costuming), and Violet didn't dress up or trick-or-treat. Stace and I enjoyed passing out candy with our neighbors - the last few years, we've had the tradition of standing outside together and chatting. This year, Ryan and Sally had a TV out front with the Dodgers' World Series game on. It was fun!

Week in Review

 And, this week, Violet's summer vacation came to an end! My, that felt fast. It always does. Cora has a few more weeks until her college classes start.

Violet got all registered at her online school on Monday. Although it's online, there is a small campus and registration happens in person. 

She's a sophomore! First day of school was Tuesday. She's taking honors English, honors history, business, PE and algebra 2/trig online; and Advanced Placement art and chemistry in person.

This is not a normal position for Evie, so it made me laugh (and grab a photo).

Through the co-op I buy our wheat, honey and other goods from, I bought peanuts for our homemade peanut butter.

Seb has been having trouble, urinating in the hallway. It happened enough that I took him to the vet. Turns out he has crystals in his urine, so we've switched his food to a special food for the problem.

We went to Placerita Nature Center Tuesday afternoon, and the rattlesnakes were looking very friendly. Violet talked with Ranger Frank about volunteering at the center.

We have a new store in town that sells Amazon and Target returns and overruns. Lots of random stuff, in big bins on long tables in rows. 

The store gets stocked on Saturday, and everything costs $12. The prices drop each day until the cost is $1 per item on Friday.

I went for the first time on Tuesday, when items were $4 each. There was a lot of stuff to look through, but I found these four things. I later looked up their current prices on Amazon: the 8-pack of better-ingredient chips were $16.50; the 20-pack of electrolytes was $16; the bag of caffeinated mints was on sale for $26 (!) and the book was $9. So, I did pretty well!

A sunset walk in Castaic...

Also last week, Colleen and I went to see the Cinderella musical at the Canyon Theatre Guild, so we could see Carla (center) as the fairy godmother. Carla has taught Cora vocals for the past few years.

Liana stayed at our house with Violet, and Cora took them all to the resale clothing shop and a Japanese bakery.

Week in Review

My parents are on a trip, so the girls have been housesitting. Well, Cora has been officially housesitting, with Violet hanging out and lending a hand. Poor Summer has been very down since Benny died, so she's pretty low-energy and easy to watch.

Cora also had an audition for Fright Fest on Saturday, and was successful in getting a job as a "walk around" scare actor. My mom had encouraged her, and Cora is excited to make some good money, while acting.

We celebrated with dinner from Copper Hill BBQ. On Sunday, Stace and I saw a Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure, with Christina.

My cute welcoming committee...

...or are they just keeping a wary watch for the dark striped tabby cat who keeps showing up in our yard late at night?

His or her arrival has particularly upset Winston, who attacked Seb a couple of times after spotting him/her, sparking a big cat kerfuffle in the wee hours. (Yay.)

Also yay - we discovered Winst has shown his displeasure by marking his territory in the playroom. 

Uggh, Although we miss Spencer, we don't miss him spraying, and the last thing I want is Winston starting up.

We cleaned and put double-sided tape on the back of the couch, and protected the blinds, and closed off the room at night. So far, those actions seem to have fixed the problem.

It's already registration week for Violet. I took her to her registration at the high school on Tuesday, and on Wednesday, I volunteered in the library while students came in to get their textbooks. The consumable books -workbooks the students write in - come in boxes, so I was opening boxes, stacking the books, and breaking down the boxes.

This girl makes the funniest noises when she proudly carries around soft toys, like this snowball.

This is the tail of a skink, a lizard relative. Winston got out, raced to the grapevine, and caught his prey. But his prey dropped his tail for a better getaway. 

A piece of the tail - Winston is quite the hunter. He's very good at getting bugs in the house.

Cora and I have been going to Westlake Village for appointments for her this month, and this week we enjoyed lunch out at Marmalade Cafe. Yum!

Also this week, Cora went to her last in-person D&D at Logan's house, with two of the players going out of state for school soon. Hopefully they can continue online, as they did during the last school year.

This may not look super amazing, but it tasted good. It was Violet's first attempt at making homemade pasta with the spelt flour we brought from Dunster, using a borrowed pasta making machine. 

End of Era

Here's Cora, twinning with her favorite teacher the last week of school, on a "Match Your Favorite Teacher" ASB Spirit Day.

This teacher has been really influential on Cora, pushing her and believing in her acting abilities. 

Jarod has decided to take on the theater program at a different high school in town, and, for a variety of reasons, Cora has made the momentous decision to transfer there, as well.

She made hand-crafted cards for each of her theatre classmates, and it was an emotional time when she told them all of her decision. Poignantly, it was on the final normal day of class, when her classmates voted her top officer for the upcoming school year. She had to turn down the officer role, and then explain why. 
 

Her final day at this school on Thursday, her home for only two years. Very strange feeling that she won't graduate with her elementary classmates, especially those she was in kindergarten with. And, sadly, she likely will NOT get to go to the same high school for her senior year with her sister as a freshman. 

It has been a big decision to make, with meetings with the principals of both schools and a lot of discussion and prayer. We know and trust that God will be with her every step of her life, no matter which school or job she is in.

She was a little *too* eager to be done with all remnants of her sophomore year, conducting a ritual burning of much of her schoolwork. 

Sidenote, so weird that it's now June and we've had a whole month, minus a few days, of cool weather! May Grey, I guess, heading into June Gloom. Since we are guaranteed a hot summer at some point, I don't mind a prolonged spring.

Theatre Banquet

After several months of planning, we booster club moms, with Jarod, of course, put on a lovely banquet for the theatre students Monday night.

It really made me happy to see all the families together, enjoying the evening. Theatre hadn't had a banquet since who know when. We organized food, while Jarod created a video highlighting the year and then gave out awards. My sister did the flowers, which I picked up in Glendale earlier in the day. She also arranged a free "rental" of the tablecloths to improve the ambience of the venue.

Cora is in the black suit in the front corner - she sat with her actor friends, while we sat in the back with other parent friends of ours.

Jarod is a great teacher who truly cares about the kids. I love his attitude about the theatre kids supporting each other.

Here are the Boosters mamas, with gifts from Jarod and his wife Jill.
 

Cora and some of her ATTWN friends...

The whole theatre group, being silly!

Jarod handed out awards, and Cora was honored to receive the Performer of the Year trophy. His description of her and her talent before he named her was amazing - wish I'd been filming it. (But how presumptuous would it have looked if I'd started filming before he handed out that final award?!)

I do remember him stating that he has continually handed her more difficult roles, and she continues to nail each one. 

Family shot - Violet didn't want to go (few siblings were present) - but Grandpa earned himself a seat at the table by serving as official photographer for the past two years. Many, many hours spent shooting dress rehearsals and editing hundreds of photos! (Thousands maybe!)

Again, so, so happy with how this night turned out!