Violet at 2 1/2

Here's Violet at 2 1/2, doing a little light reading after breakfast.

Yep, you read that right. Violet the toddler is swiftly heading toward her third birthday. 

She remains very affectionate, generally speaking, especially to the cats. Violet usually confuses their names, but she loves giving them full-body hugs and neck squeezes.  

She's still a cuddler with us, too, and loves crawling into our bed on weekend mornings.

Here, Violet's helping Stace with the gardening, in her most natural state. Violet's been spending a lot of time naked at home, or at least clad in only a top, as we slowly work on potty-training.

It's been slower-going than I expected and had hoped, but no matter. She knows how to use the toilet, and she simply needs to get better about telling us when she needs to go, rather than only heading to the potty when we direct her to.

Here, Violet was in need of a diaper change, and ran ahead into her room to get ready. In her haste, she knocked the changing mat off the dresser, silly girl.

So, what is Violet like at 2 1/2? She definitely is two; she cries and whines more than she used to, and she'll be overly aggressive on the playground or with her sister.
She talks all the time, asking good questions and making good observations. "The big-girl swing is probably cold," she told me the other morning at the park.

She likes to make us laugh, by singing, talking in silly gibberish, tickling us and dancing. Her smile and joy are infectious, and I love having her with me most of the day, every day.
She wakes up around 7:30 most days, naps for 90 minutes to two hours in the afternoons, and is in bed around 8 most nights.

Violet really loves Miss Diane's class, and talks about going most days, even though class is only once a week.

In this photo a few weeks ago, she was painting a ghost, a ghost she then grew frightened of. She wanted to take the ghost with her on the playground, I think so she could keep an eye on it. She talked about it all day, saying she didn't like the ghost and she was scared of it. 

The next week focused on pumpkin art, and she was openly relieved. "No ghosts," she said approvingly after Diane showed us the projects.

School Days - in class

Cora seems to be doing very well with her school work. She is very detailed in her drawings and with coloring.

I'm able to help out in class once a month, and on the day I helped last week, the students wrote in their journals about what they were going to be for Halloween.

Then, they shared with the class from their journals.

Cora loves it when I'm in her class. I hear lots of "Hi, Mom!" loudly whispered across the room, and she always wants me to help her out, or to see what she's working on.

On Halloween day, before their class party, the children worked on cards.

Here is Cora's detailed card interior. I love the bat flying across the yellow moon, and the witch on her broom.

 The kindergartners have a homework packet each week, and this week had a fun assignment that called for parent participation.

The turkey is nervous about Thanksgiving approaching, so he wants to be disguised.

















Stacey's - er, Cora's - is wearing a Hello Kitty "costume," complete with pipe cleaner whiskers.

Lastly, I'm adding in here a photo my friend Shannon took when we all were volunteering for the Halloween party.

Cora's sitting next to a boy I'll keep nameless here, but one I've heard her talk about a lot this year.

The first mention was probably six weeks ago, when she said she wished she sat next to him.

WELL. There's a first time for everything, including first crushes.

School days

 Here, Cora is wearing her official class t-shirt, with self-portraits by all the students.

 I love Cora's ruffle/bubble skirt.

 Her first school photograph. Such a pretty smile!

 And here is Cora's class, a K/1 split with 12 kindergartners and eight first-graders.

It's a shame Cora didn't show off her beautiful smile in that class photo! When I asked her about it, she showed me the funny face she was trying to make. I guess next year I'll have to talk to her about smiling properly for school pictures!

Halloween festivities

Whew, November here we come! October flew by in a flurry of sugar and costumed fun. 

 On Saturday, we went to our church's Halloween fest, a circus-themed event they called "Under the Big Top." We trunk-or-treated around the decorated cars, watched a dance team perform, dined from food trucks and visited with some "circus" animals, a tiger and bear.

Here is the car we spent most of our time near, owned by friends from my small group. I loved its clown "costume." In front is Sam, their son, who looks a bit worn out from the fun.

 On Halloween, the kindergartners were allowed to wear their costumes to school and parade for both the parents and the rest of the school, through the classrooms and front office. This is Cora's last year of wearing a costume to school, though, as the older students aren't allowed to do so.

 The class also had a Halloween party, and I was happy to be able to help. Thanks, Jill and Marley, for having Violet so I could do so! Here, Cora is making a pudding snack creation with crushed Oreo cookie "dirt" and gummy worms.

 Later in the evening, it was trick-or-treating time. Here is the first stop of the night. Violet approached most houses with "Woof, woof, trick or treat!" and later said either "Woof, woof, thank you!" or "Woof, woof, bye bye!" (And to anyone with a very good memory, yes, Violet wore the same costume last year. She loves it, and it still fits, so why not?)

 Once again, we went around with the Roberts, and this year, Alexyss and Marley (and Jill and Nathan) walked with us too. It was a lot of fun to bump into kids in the neighborhood who we now know from Cora's school. We are so blessed to live in our cozy little neighborhood! 

By the end of the evening, Cora's bucket was full. Yikes!

Lombardis with the Fam

We returned to Lombardi Ranch with the family for some more autumnal fun. Violet insisted on bringing Patch, once she realized that Patch is the same type of doggy that she's dressing up as for Halloween. (Don't call her a Dalmation, though. She is just a doggy.)

Atop the hay bale pyramid...

Thankfully there were plenty of non-scary scarecrow displays to direct our girls' eyes towards. Here they are with Scooby Doo and pals...

...and with their friend Hello Kitty.

 Stace took over for pumpkin-carving with the girls. Cora wasn't nearly as squeamish about squishy pumpkin guts as in years past. Now I need to wash, season and toast them! Yum.

 Violet LOVES her "smiley face pumpkin," as she calls it all the time. She talks about how much she likes, says it's funny, and giggles.

Cora went for a scarier version, a skull. She's been much more interested in scary stuff this year, though she still gets a bit spooked.

Drink up thy Zider

Zomeret Zider makin' 'as come t' Valencia...
(Or, Somerset Cider making has come to Valencia)

For Thanksgiving we have been challenged to produce our own cider. Hard cider, as you Americans call it. Just plain old cider in England, especially in the South West, and we all know that the world's best cider comes from my home county of Somerset. We even sing songs about the stuff (watch the good old Wurzels in action).

After a bit of research on the internet we found out how to make the golden nectar. One problem... Somerset cider apples are hard to come by in Southern California.

Now! we could have bought a gallon of raw apple juice from a shop and simply added yeast to ferment  it into cider, but the challenge was to start from apples. We could have juiced the apples, but Lisa and the girls insisted on having me build an apple press. So on Thursday night, armed with a few 2x4's, some bolts and a Home Depot bucket, Cora, Violet and I constructed our very own press, with a car jack to apply the force to squeeze out the juice.

On Friday we bought 20 lbs of Braeburn apples (recommended in a book my boss lent me at work) to produce our gallon of juice.

Saturday was cider-making day. The girls peeled off the apple stickers and washed each one. I then cored and cut them into chunks. Lisa and Cora then blended them in a food processor to make pulp.
It was now time to test out the homemade, patent-pending, Howard Press-o-matic.

We put all the pulp in a cheese cloth sack, placed the sack in the press bucket, on top of which went the pressing head - some blocks of wood. Sat on top of this teetering pile was a two-ton car jack.
Cora pumped the jack a few times to apply a down force; then, hey-presto, juice poured out of the holes around the bottom of the bucket, ran into the tray and flowed into the stock pot underneath. After a while we managed to squeeze out one and a quarter gallons of juice from the 20 lbs of apples.

Later that night Lisa and I pasteurized the juice by heating it to 160 degrees, and then poured it in the jugs ready for the fermentation process to begin. After it cooled off, we added a crushed camden tablet to kill off all the wild yeast. This then had to sit for 48 hours before we could add the yeast.

Tonight we did just that. The cider is now in the fermentation process.

If this were a Master Card commercial:
4 2x4's, 1 bucket, 1 tea tray, a handful of bolts and a car jack- $40
20 lbs of Apples that "might" work to make cider- $17
2 jugs of really crap wine, just so we could use the jugs- $15
Brewing supplies and yeast- $25

Having fun making a gallon of cider that you can buy at any Somerset farm shop for $20. Priceless!

Remember! This November, vote Team Howard.
Team Howard is endorsed by The Wurzels.

Cora Loves Soccer

 Here's Cora and some of her Kidz Love Soccer teammates with Coach Carlos, who has become a friend of ours over the past two years. We are so happy to have found this quality program, with coaches who love the game and love the children, too.

 Cora and Lucas have had fun playing together this session, which ended this morning. After a week or two off, Cora will take part in another session, which will focus on matches more than training.

 Look at Cora's stance! 

This morning, the coaches began teaching the kids more about formation and position. It was great to then see them playing in a game that looked more organized than what Stace calls "banana football," with players running around in a bunch.

 Stace is very encouraging to Cora from the sidelines, and loves teaching Cora the basics. He's impressed with Cora's natural form, balance and technique. At this point, he can see Cora playing in the back, because she likes to defend and tackle.

Thanks to Grandpa for taking these great action shots!

Trunk or Treat, Pioneer Club style

We're midway through our Halloween festivities, with Pioneer Club's annual Trunk-or-Treat taking place Wednesday night. I helped at the craft table this year while Stace handled getting the girls costumed up before they joined me and lots of their favorite friends.

Colleen and Rigo once again decorated their cool old truck. 

 For a look at Trunk or Treat the last three years, click here and here and here.

 Cora and Violet were happy to see their good friends Alexyss and Marley while they visited the cars collecting candy.

 Then, Stace the non-dog-lover ended up with two doggies in his arms! And one of them starred in his own long-running TV cartoon!

 Cora with Johnny and Ave after they took part in the cake walk - you can see Cora's winnings in her hand.
Next up for my Ariel and doggy - Violet's Halloween party at Miss Diane's class Thursday, our own church's big Halloween fun festival Saturday night, and Cora's Halloween costume parade and party at school next Wednesday. Oh, and lest we forget, trick-or-treating on Halloween evening. Geesh!