School Zoo Trip

One of the benefits of Violet being in a second/third grade split class is that she and the other second-graders got to go on Wednesday's third-grade field trip to the Los Angeles Zoo.

Violet loves the zoo, and she was so excited for this day! She could hardly sleep the night before.

A few other moms and I were chaperoning all 11 girls in the class - six second-graders and five third-graders.

They were a stellar group of girls, all very respectful and smart. The docent said they were the smartest group she's had all year.

Here, the girls are looking at the gorillas.

We were lucky enough to see a pair of snow leopard babies! This guy was very active and entertaining.

We also watched the bird show; it was the first time I've seen this show, and clearly Violet enjoyed it.

We saw some beautiful, large and unusual birds.

We then walked back to the playground for lunch and a bit of playtime before the drive home.

Violet wanted to pose by the wingspan sign before we left.

It was a long, hot walk back to the bus - we were in the midst of a crazy fall heat wave, with temperatures reaching triple digits. Luckily, much of the zoo is shady, and most of our trip was before the height of the afternoon heat.

Week in Review

The girls' school held its annual Barnes and Noble Night on Thursday, when some of the teachers dress up and read stories at the mega bookstore. Additionally, the school gets a percentage of profits from the sales that night.

It's always fun, and the girls enjoyed picking out books. Violet chose an Animal Jam book, from the National Geographic online kids' game she and Cora like playing. Cora picked a couple of Warriors books, buying one with her own money.

On Friday, we went to Juliana and Daryl's house for Natalia's 7th birthday celebration. The kids made crafts, played and generally made merry.

Cora and Maya really enjoyed spending time together again; it's been since May or earlier, sadly. With how much the girls are growing up, it's a great thing that they still love playing together.

On Saturday, after Cora's football game, big sister helped little sister to climb high up in one of the pine trees at Central Park.

On Sunday, we made a quick trip to Lombardi Ranch for some autumn fun. Lombardi's isn't open regularly, as water problems have forced them to stop growing the corn and sunflowers and everything else that made them into a Fall Wonderland for decades.

But, knowing how much they are beloved, the family opened its doors to part of the property for one weekend, for photo opps with some of their iconic props.

Violet thought posing in the jail was a bad idea... but she didn't mind taking the photo of us.

The pumpkin selection was way smaller than normal years, but we still bought a couple of small ones to show our support.

Here's the girls in their babyhood at Lombardi Ranch:

Fright Fest, with CORA!

Our girls have never been into scary things, and Cora wasn't champing at the bit to make her first trip to Fright Fest.

But with Grandma starring as the Witch again, we all were pulling for Cora to summon the courage to make a visit.

Friday night, after her football practice, we agreed to have Stace and Violet drop us off and then pick us up a little bit later. This would save us the long walk to and from the parking lot.

Cora was quite nervous, holding my hand tightly as we walked past the first scare zone.

But, we made it up the hill unscathed, and she was so happy and excited to finally "meet" the Witch in person!

We watched as Lurane Lorraine went through all her best lines, while a crowd gathered around. It was amazing to see how many people sought her out, called her name, and asked for photos.

The Witch introduced us to her friends, and Cora was in awe of them all. She was excited to meet them and chat with them.

We then rode on Viper for the first time, one of those big thrill rides with lots of loops. Cora's now 54 inches tall, so a lot of rides have opened up to her.

She had so much fun Friday night, she and I went back on our own Saturday night. We had thought of riding a few more rides, but Saturday was much more crowded than Friday, and we didn't want to wait in long lines.

Still, we had a great mommy-daughter time together.

Fun with Violet

 Violet jammed through her second-grade sight word list - no surprise since she knew them all a year ago - and earned the moniker "Brainy Bubble."

She and her other Brainy Bubble classmates were given a bottle of bubble solution. Watching her have fun blowing her bubbles over the next few afternoons was a joy.

 Violet also finished up her six-week Kidz Love Soccer session this week. Thanks to Grandpa for getting these fun action (and inaction) shots of Violet Mae.

Violet had fun with the soccer, and definitely participated well. She also would walk around with her shirt pulled halfway over her head, and goof off. Silly girl!

Weekend Games and Parties

Cora's friend Violet came over Friday afternoon, and the girls and Andre had some fun adventuring.

Then, Cora went to Violet's house, while I took our Violet to Grandpa's house. I then took Cora to a birthday party for a classmate at the trampoline place, and then to football practice.

Finally, Stace and I went on to meet up with Colleen and Rigo at Fright Fest.

On Saturday morning, Cora played her best game of football yet. She was able to pull six flags off her opponents, meaning she stopped their offense from driving forward six times.

It was a lot of fun to watch and cheer for her, and to hear all the other parents and coaches cheering her name, too.

Cora's Chiefs won, 28-0, so it was an overall excellent team performance.

After lunch, Violet came over again to play. The girls had all sorts of fun, and acted out their favorite parts of the Warriors book series about warrior cats.

On Sunday afternoon, Cora went to Lucas's 12th birthday party at Laser Blast, and she did very well on the games!

Also over the weekend, Stacey put together our new queen-sized bed. Yes, we have upgraded to a bigger bed.

Fright Fest Fun

We made our annual return to Fright Fest at Magic Mountain on Friday night, with Colleen and Rigo along to help us through the terror.

Our favorite witch never disappoints, though we probably disappointed her by turning down her offer of a chunky pumpkin latte.

We managed to escape her threat of turning Colleen and me into "princess stew," unlike the unlucky donor of the foot.

The hearse and undead mother with pram were particularly gruesome .

And lucky us, we got to see our friend Megan, Sara and Tony's daughter, who was on a youth group trip to Magic Mountain from Arizona. She is a lovely young lady, and it's always good to see her.

After riding a few rides, we went on to Denny's to get a midnight bite to eat, as if we were college-aged again. It was a fun night!

Week in Review

We made a family trip Saturday to Hurricane Harbor, because we had tickets from Stacey's work party a few months ago that were expiring.

We took it easy, spending much of our day by the wave pool. At one point, the cold water caused the girls to seek the warmth of the sun. It's not every day you see kids sitting out with a book at an amusement park!

Colleen, Lucas and Liana came with us, so it was nice to catch up with them.












The relaxing continued back at home.

Violet enjoyed the Captain Underpants movie a lot, and it sparked her interest in creating her own comic books again. Both girls have enjoyed this activity over the years.

On Wednesday, I had my friend Kelly's boys over for the midday hours while she worked. Noah and Ethan are normally cared for by one of their grandmothers, but both are out of state for a couple of weeks. 

We had fun together, and I was reminded what a lot of effort goes into having toddlers and preschoolers around, boys especially!

On Wednesday evening, Cora's Pioneer Club group worked on a camping badge. Cora enjoyed making S'mores - yum!

This week, Violet made sure she had a turn with the tree-climbing after her soccer class. Here's her buddy Camryn, who's taking the class with her.

Cora attended her friend Andre's birthday party on Saturday morning, at the Santa Clarita Skate Park.

She was a little nervous going in, because she had never been there before, but she had a fantastic time and can't wait to return. She used her scooter, and now wants to get a better trick-style scooter like the other kids used.

Autumn Decor

Violet has been very excited to decorate for autumn, and for Halloween especially. We found out that Michaels craft stores offer free classes to make various items, and Violet was looking forward to making a wreath.

She picked Halloween items to put on her wreath - purple bats, black roses. The Michael's employee was so sweet and helpful, and we had a great experience.

Later that weekend, the girls made more crafts in the garage - they spent hours one Sunday afternoon creating things, all on their own accord.

Here, Cora was creating a wreath of her own, with vines.

We all went to another Michaels craft event, and made yarn pumpkins. (Cora chose green yarn, and made an apple.)

Such a great assortment of homemade crafts!

Violet was very happy when the calendar turned to October, and we could add the Halloween decorations out front to the autumn things we already had out.

The pumpkins above the door light up - Violet insisted we needed new and better decorations out front this year.