Skate Park Spectaculars

Cora had such a great time at the skate park for Andre's birthday last month, she's been asking about going back. And rather than just have a daddy-daughter date, the whole family made the trip Saturday morning.

From 8 to 10 a.m. on the weekends, the park is open to 12 and unders only, so it's a perfect time for those in Hello Kitty helmets to get their feet - or scooters - wet.

Both girls had an absolute ball, and I think we'll be making more trips to the skate park over the next few years.

They now need better scooters, though. Their foldaway Razors are great for around the neighborhood, but they don't work so well when you're doing tricks.

Stace took the girls back to the skate park Sunday morning, and Cora actually rode down into this bowl from the top. She tried several times unsuccessfully, but kept at it, and eventually landed it. Where she gets her bravery from, I'll never know!

And Violet had such a great time, she said that night that the skate park is her Disneyland. (And, it's free! And doesn't require two hours in the car!)

Halloween Day

On Halloween day, I went to Mom2Mom, Violet's class had a party, we went to our friends Jen and Jason's Halloween party after school, we watched a Dodgers World Series game, and we trick-or-treated around our neighborhood.

Whew! No wonder we were tired the next few days!

Violet's craft in class was a make-your-own-mummy, with a black cutout of a person, and white yarn.

Violet also was happy to show off the Halloween gram she received from Cora. (I gave them both dollars to buy each other the pencil and eraser grams - and Violet gave one to her friend Camryn, too.)

Violet's class also had a snack, and played Halloween bingo.

Then, it was time to get home and get costumed.

Here's my dragon and my newspaper girl playing the mummy game in Jen and Jason's front yard.

We headed home as it got dark and met up with our neighborhood friends for trick or treating. Cora was done early, as her face was itching from playing around in the grass at Trent's house, so I was able to watch most of the Dodgers game.

 Violet the Dragon, meanwhile, was a hard-core trick or treater with her Dad and the rest of the group. Here, she is showing off the pumpkins she and Cora carved on their own Sunday night.

 I made Violet get one photo with the mask she made, though she didn't like it once she had finished it. It was such a creative idea - she punched brads into a paper mask, and the put duck tape on the back to cover the sharp parts.

Here's Violet after her night out - what a haul! Thankfully, she's always willing to share!

Carving and Cora's Party

We spent our Sunday evening watching our Dodgers battle the Houston Astros in the World Series, while the girls carved their pumpkins. Never have we watched our baseball team this late in October - they haven't made it to the World Series since 1988, 29 years ago.

Cora's class had a Halloween party on Monday, and I was able to help out with the planning and execution as one of Ms. Packer's room moms.

Here, Ms. Packer is helping Cora with her silhouette pumpkin craft.

The kids also watched the Peanuts Halloween special while eating their snack.

Then, the kids split into two groups to play a game similar to pin the tail to the donkey, but Halloween-ified into Pin the Bone to the Skeleton. The skeleton the children were forming, by pinning bones to the black paper.

Dinorah worked her face paint magic again.

Here, Cora shows off both her spooky face paint, and her spooky Halloween pastel artwork. I love this piece, and look forward to framing it as an October home decoration for years to come.

More Halloween Fun

Beyond the school Fall Festival, we had fun at the Valencia Methodist Trunk or Treat, where Stace and Cora ran the game with our MG.

My friend Kelly, who has been coming to Mom2Mom with Noah and Ethan, brought them to Trunk or Treat.

While Cora was busy working our car game, Violet had fun with the crafts and the cookie-decorating.

Earlier in the week, Violet and I went with Grandma and Grandpa to the Magic Mountain employee Halloween trick-or-treating party. (Cora and Stace went to a GATE night put on by the school district.)

Violet enjoyed riding the rides and collecting candy.

Also this week, Stace celebrated with his buddy Keith as Keith retired from Woodward. It will be a sad thing for Stace, but they will continue their tradition of Friday lunches together.

This is a group of the English contingent from Woodward; several are now retired.

Fall Festival Fun

 The school's Fall Festival was Friday night, and we were very involved - Cora and I both ran games, the girls took part in the costume parade, and we also had our MG in the trunk-or-treat event.

 Vivian was Harley Quinn, while Cora was an old-fashioned paper boy.

Violet got to unveil her dragon costume, which she put a lot of time into.

Cora worked on the milk jug game...

...while I helped at the tic-tac-toe ball toss game.

Most of these awesome photos were taken by my friends Jill and Elaine.

 Here was our car setup - Stace fashioned a shark/monster, and also a squishy toy toss game.

 I ran our game and passed out candy for a while, and then Cora took over.

 The fall festival was a ton of fun for us all!

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: