Doing What We Love

Violet has been painting a lot lately. She has plenty of artwork to hang when we redo her bedroom!

She entered the painting on the top left in the school art contest and won first place for her age group!

Much to my mom's relief, Magic Mountain figured out a way to put on Holiday in the Park. It's a literal drive-through event, with patrons driving a route all over Magic Mountain to see all the pretty lights, hear music and see costumed characters. 

Mom is sometimes Mrs. Claus, and sometimes a dancing elf. Magic had an employee family night Thursday before the event kicked off for the public, so we drove through with Grandpa, Mel, Nick and Ellie.

Pretty! Festive!

Over the weekend, the weather was gorgeous, and we went up to Vasquez Rocks.

Picnic on a rock.

Later Sunday, Stace and I sneaked out for a final meal out, as the news had come out that even OUTDOOR dining was to be banned soon. We went to a little Asian place, and enjoyed our parking lot dinner.
 

Tidbits

Seb is such a lap cat! 

Love him.

Although I love him a tiny bit less when he's helping me with my puzzles.

Violet's fish died the other day (ummm...it cooked...the heater was on too high...). She was very sad, so we bought a replacement, a beautiful betta that looks like a miniature koi fish.

Cora helped Stace rotate the tires, but then a few days later, I got a big screw in one, and ended up just replacing the four anyway (it was time).

Cora is getting into playing Dungeons and Dragons with her friends (over Zoom). She's dragging Violet into it with her. We stopped at the game store and they loved looking at all the D&D stuff.

They've created characters, and you can purchase little figurines of many types of D&D characters.

Week in Review

Better get these photos while we still can! I doubt Stace would be able to support Cora on his shoulders for very long, if not in the pool!

Violet remains in the 50th percentile, and is a hair short of 56 inches now. Amazing!

This week, we celebrated Veterans' Day on Wednesday. The girls were off school, and at Violet's school, the children were invited to come and place a small American flag into the grass.

We received the girls' school photos this week. For fun, I took these comparisons with the earliest pics in the frames, all from six years ago.

So different!

With the girls off school for Veterans Day, we went to the park to meet up with some of Cora's friends (and the moms, who are my friends). The kids brought Nerf guns and battled it out. Finally, some running around for these couch potatoes!

Cora had fun borrowing someone's hover board. 

Here's Cora with Violet and Anna, Shayan and Maxine.

(Violet went to the L.A. Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa, Auntie Mel and Uncle Nick and Ellie, on her first zoo trip.)

More changes - after eight years, we got rid of our brown couch, which was at the point of stains/small holes/springs that you could feel when you sat down. Out with the old...

In with the BLUE!

This baby is lovely and comfortable - the cats and Stace found napping on it easy.

We opted for a pullout bed, for quick-and-easy sleepovers and guest space for short visits. The girls spent both weekend nights in the living room, and Vi in particular is excited to sleep there again when it's not a school night.

 

City Walk Fun

With the Dodgers the champions of the baseball world, AND with Universal City Walk offering free parking to entice shopping, we made a family day Saturday to visit the Dodger Clubhouse Store.

With few ways to celebrate our Dodgers communally, many people had the same idea. We waited about 90 minutes in (a socially distanced) line to enter the shop (where the number of patrons was strictly limited).

Nearly everyone was in their Dodger gear! Employees said they've been packed every day since the playoffs.

A big benefit of having big kids - we handed them some money and off they went! They had fun shopping and getting snacks - boba and mini doughnuts.

Like all California theme parks, Universal Studios has been closed since March. 
 

It was finally our turn to enter the store, a treasure trove of Dodger paraphernalia. It took a while to figure out what all we wanted to buy, to remember this special year forever. 

In this pic, you can see Stace wearing his new World Series champion hat, and me wearing my champion face covering. It doesn't get more 2020 than a celebratory face mask.

Here was my big purchase - a jersey, with additional World Series and Champions patches. Expensive, but I'll have it forever!

The girls had a GREAT time shopping in the Universal shop, with its huge Harry Potter section. Between having dinner, having snacks, and shopping, we enjoyed two-thirds of what we would have done at Universal Studios, with no admission charge.

The girls have been watching way too much of the Simpsons lately, so they checked out the Simpsons gear, too.

We all had such a fun day together. Cora, who doesn't love leaving SClarita, or being around a lot of people, loved it and wants to come back again. Normally parking is $25 - crazy - so free parking is a big savings. And it's only a half hour away.

My heart is full!

(And, for the record, this is Violet and Cora. When I posted this pic, many people thought it was me and Cora! She's taller than me, but not by this much!)

Tidbits

We held the 2020 Presidential Election this week, and oddly enough, it took all week (and more) before we had a semblance of a result. Very strange year, fitting with 2020! 

I took Violet with me to witness democracy in action. Or something like that. She wasn't overly impressed.

Stace and I snuck out for a drink and a bite to eat Friday evening. Our local breweries finally were allowed to reopen, IF they partner with a food truck and you buy a meal. Because, science, you know. Still no indoor dining at all in L.A. County. Also, science. So, here we are at Pocock, at a little table in the parking lot.

On Sunday, we went out to a Mexican restaurant with Kelly and Yass, and enjoyed this seafood FEAST! Yum! And nice having adventurous friends to share it with.

Kelly and I had these festive drinks - mango margaritas, with a Modelo thrown in for good measure.

Cora returned to karate class Monday with her new uniform!

Picture is hard to make out, but a Trump sign appeared on top of our hill on Election Day! California is such a Democrat state, but SClarita has its share of Republicans.

Violet's Halloween

Violet had a great Halloween, too! This year, we trick-or-treated with Liana and Daniela. Violet was a character of her own imagination. Her makeup didn't show very well in the photos.

Lucas and Elyz, Daniela's sister, also went around candy-gathering with us, and so did Ellie, dressed up in Ghostbusters gear.
 

Despite the coronavirus craziness, it didn't feel dramatically different than other years. There weren't as many trick-or-treaters, but there were enough to make it feel like a holiday. The majority of houses still gave out candy, and more than usual. Many gave out small treat bags full of candy! 

Violet was content to go back home after three streets (including ours) because she had so much candy.

Cousins!

Some houses really go all out!

This tree made me laugh.

Stace stayed back to pass out candy, setting up the car dragons again. We were one of four neighboring houses at the end of our street set up outside, most with tables, to pass out candy. So sociable!

The traditional candy dump and trading session...

It was nice hanging with these ladies. Lynnette will be moving out of state soon, one of the many escaping the high cost of living (and horrible policies) in California.

Cora's Awesome Halloween

Cora was very excited to get to test for her blue belt on Halloween. After all these weird months, Sensei Rich decided it was high time for a belt test. Cora was deemed eligible to skip past her purple belt, and got straight for her blue. She also was awarded a new black uniform.

(Everyone wore masks the whole time, removing them only for a second for the photo!)

Later on Halloween, we went over to Liz and Max's house. The kids had a great time hanging out again.
 

Then, we dropped Cora off at Violet's house. She was so excited to be invited over for a Halloween pumpking-carving and Jackbox game party. She hadn't been to Vi's house since before the March craziness set in, and she hadn't seen Vivan or Sophi since then, either.

It was lovely of Lara to provide all the pumpkins, and such a fun evening.