Easter

We enjoyed our church's Easter service on Saturday evening, which was convenient since we were hosting Sunday.
 

Easter Sunday...

My family came over, and I made a couple of quiches like last year, and they brought veggies. Stace cooked up a ham steak for those who must have ham on Easter.

Egg hunt time...

Also, ripe blueberry time!

And, a handful played croquet.

It seemed like the right day for Stace to teach Cora how to drive a stick shift...

...although he might have traumatized her by taking her out on the main road, where she had to immediately start the car on a hill coming out of a dead stop, at a traffic signal. Poor girl.

Placerita Craft Fair

 

We had Ellie on Saturday, and that happened to be the day we were going to the Placerita Nature Center Christmas Craft Fair. It's a fundraiser for the nature center, and we've been many times over the years. We knew Eloise would love it.

She made this little birdfeeder...

...and dipped a candle.

We also went into the Walker Family Cabin, where a docent told Ellie about churning butter.

Liana and Colleen met us, and the three ladies made their wreaths.

Someone thought it would be funny to stick a sticker to me while I took that photo. I won't say who it was. But it wasn't Ellie.

I don't know if I mentioned already, but Stace came with us.

It had been a while since Ellie had been to Placerita, so she enjoyed looking out the telescope and seeing the animals on display near the nature center, like the tortoise, hawk and owls.

Pretty barn owl!

Our Graduate

Graduation Day!

In America, high school graduation represents the culmination of 13 years of education, along with entry into adulthood, as most graduates have turned 18, or are turning 18 soon.

There's the cap and gown and speeches and well wishes and bouquets and Pomp and Circumstance playing (over and over) as the students walk into the event and find their seats. 

There's a stadium full of people, the National Anthem, a long list of names and the traditional moving of the cap tassel from the right side to the left, as the ceremony ends. 

It's a milestone, and I'm so grateful Cora took part in this monumental senior year event. 

She got to walk in and sit next to her friend Carys, which was special. Carys's mom serves as an unofficial school photographer, so she was on the ground getting some amazing photos.

We were in the stands, cheering and yelling for Cora when we could finally spot her in the line coming in. Grandpa brought his good equipment, and got the below photo when she looked up and caught our eyes.

Here is Cora, getting her diploma and shaking hands with Dr. Cherise Moore, a school district board member.

And here she is, high-fiving Mr. Fisher, the school's amazing principal. I wish I'd gotten a photo of them together after the ceremony - I really enjoyed working with him these past two years.

Melanie took this sweet pic of me and Stace.

The ceremony was great - with several speeches and all the graduates' names, it was still finished in an hour! 

I watched the online ceremony for Cora's old school, since I know so many families there, and it was an hour and 40 minutes - glad ours was more succinct.

Favorite teacher, no contest.

Cora and Rowan, and Lucas, who has one more year of high school.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning!

We had to get the girls up, especially Cora, so we could enjoy them opening their stockings and gifts.

Don't mind my face - I think I'm chewing here.

We gave Cora a lovely illustrated map of the world of Lord of the Rings. (She also had a laptop, pretty darn needed to replace the one she received five years ago.) 

Violet had a beautiful adult bike, the look she likes but with seven gears.

Later, the family all came over, and while Mel and I cooked, the girls spent time with Sebastian in my room. Ellie is playing a game on Violet's iPad.

The prime rib came out well.

The girls had scattered before I thought to take a photo, but here we are. We're blessed to have two leaves to our dining room table, so we can easily seat all of us.

Gift time!

Stace is excited to build this V-22 Osprey Cobi kit, like Legos.

It was a good Christmas.

(And, clearly, we need one more cat so Stace isn't left out!)

Christmas Prep

With Cora graduating this year, I wanted to bring back a tradition we started when she was in kindergarten: walking the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights, and tally which streets had the most houses participate.

The girls walked with us, but Cora really didn't want to and it didn't go as well as my nostalgia had hoped. Such is parenting. Here's a post I did about this tradition in 2014.

Nothing better than lazy mornings during Christmas break, with Winston cuddles and kisses.

Liana and Colleen stopped by with gifts and treats, including something for Evie, Seb and Winston.

We attended Christmas Eve service at church, with Mel, Nick, Ellie and my parents. 

That night, we watched a Goes Wrong Christmas show, with all the cats.