Artsy Girls

More creativity from the girls...

Cora has been making lots of dice, including a set for each of the friends she plays with on Sundays. She bought dice molds, resin and dyes, and enjoyed the process.

She also has made candy dice.
 

She spray painted her chairs black, and they now look very nice (and regal) around the game table.

Violet also has been creative, making beeswax candles out of the dice molds, stringing the individual pieces with the wick.

And she also went on a jewelry-making kick, and made this pretty pearl necklace to wear with her Halloween costume.

Show Choir - Hart on Broadway

Cora performed with her Show Choir, Hart 'N Soul, for the first time this weekend, with shows on Friday and Saturday night. Her group did a set of songs from Teen Beach Movie.

Cora's on the far left here...

And she's third from the right, here.
 

Second from right

Second from left.

On Friday, Cora's friends Zach, Connor and Ethan came to watch the show.

And on Saturday, Anna and Cami came to watch, as well.

The top Show Choir, Sound Vibrations, put on a series of songs from The Lion King. It was excellent! I loved the impalas that came our aisle.

It was a long week for Cora, with late rehearsals two days (from 3 until past 9 p.m.) and then the show days were long, too. 

Final Reflections

Violet's sixth grade year will have a lot of "lasts" for our family! One of them took place Tuesday night - our last Reflections Gala, where Violet finished her elementary Reflections career as she started, with a first-place trophy.

Violet entered three pieces, and won third place for one and first place for the other. As a sixth-grader, the category only included her grade level, which is combined 7th and 8th graders. (Some schools are middle schools, with 6th, 7th and 8th together.) So Violet didn't have as much competition as last year, when she competed with three grade levels.

Here are all the participants!

Violet and Rylin have had classes together over and over in elementary, and they've become better friends again this year.

Violet won third place for this one, which she called "Stained Glass."

She also entered this one, which she painted as a D&D scene with some sort of tiny evil flying creatures. She renamed it Boggy Creek and we're pretending they're lightning bugs now.

And this is the one she won first place for, the bird flying through the storm with lightning.

Cora and Violet helped out a bit behind the table of snacks and drinks.

 

Tidbits

Look at this adorable kitty! Looks like he's holding onto the fox while he naps on Violet's bed. 

Every day, he wakes up with Stace, who puts him in the garage for a bite to eat. Then, when Stace comes back out from his shower, he lets him back in, and Spence heads to Violet's bed. 

When I take the girls to school, or just Cora, if Violet is riding, I let him outside. An hour or so later, it's naptime again on Violet's bed.

Oh, to be a cat!

Happy to report that Sebastian is doing much better now, and is back to running around and jumping up on things.

The girls had ortho appointments, and Violet had THREE baby teeth pulled! You can see them on the paper on the tray, while Violet is getting mopped up. The teeth were all ready to come out; Violet had lost two others in the past week! And she lost several in the summer. My goodness.

In other tooth news, Cora finally is having progress with her last tooth moving down! This was one of the main reasons she's in braces again - one tooth didn't have room to come down, and years after losing the baby tooth, it still hadn't budged. We're all thankful she won't need her gums cut now.

Liana spent the night on Friday, while Cora had friends over to play D&D. On Saturday morning, the girls found a game to entertain themselves involving walking on pillows.

They also rode bikes to Dink's bakery in Granary Square.

On Saturday night, we had Kelly, Yass and Char over for dinner to watch the Dodger game. In addition, Cora worked with our actor friends on her callback auditions for the two female lead roles in The Great Gatsby, the play her theater class is doing.

On Sunday, I helped Melanie with this lovely wedding. I actually helped with placing the white flowers into bottom arrangements and the baby's breath into the vine.
 

Weekend Happenings

We've had some lovely fall-like weather this week! Living here, we always appreciate an end to the heat. 

Violet has been enjoying going out on the hill to explore recently, just as Cora did when she was the same age.  She asked me to come along, and on such a lovely day, how could I refuse?

The clouds were gorgeous, as was the little girl (who's very close to my height now!).

Violet showed me that on a prior visit up the hill, she'd written in the dirt, "God is Good" and "Praise the Lord." 

On Saturday, Stace and Violet had a day together while Cora and I helped Mel with a big wedding. They went to Placerita Nature Center, for the first time in a long time.

Stace's car's battery died, so he had a perfect excuse to cruise in the convertible!

Meanwhile, Cora and I were hard at work. Cora did a lovely job decorating these chandeliers.

On Sunday, after Cora did her weekly D&D session with her friends at Green Tower, we went to Colleen and Rigo's for dinner. It was Lucas's 16th birthday weekend! Hard to believe he could be driving soon...we've known him since he was four!

Liana and Violet had fun in the back yard.

 

Disney Fun For Cora

Cora and Violet had Monday off, for no real reason. Grandma and Grandpa offered to take them to Disney California Adventure to check out the new Marvel Avengers campus. Violet declined the offer, but they took Cora and met up with Melanie, Nick and Eloise.

Cora is in the purple balloon basket with the family.

Ellie loves Spiderman, was wearing her Spiderman shirt, and desperately wanted to run up to Spidey as he gave his show.

Cora, Grandma and Nick having fun on Incredicoaster!

Cora took this photo of the Avengers building.

We had some crazy unexpected rain and lightning on Monday, and Cora and my parents got to the parking structure just as a huge downpour took place, with hail and lightning and thunder!

In other theme park news, Stace and Cora went to Fright Fest on Sunday night, before Cora's big day out in Anaheim. Colleen sent me this pic of Stace's hitchhiker.

Fun with the Witch.

 

Weekend Fun

Our elementary schools had a four-day weekend (while the big kids had just Monday off), so Christina and I were able to meet up for a Quigley Canyon walk with Vi and Lanie on Friday morning. Violet hoped to see deer, and not long after we started, we spotted four of them! I put the yellow under them - hopefully if you blow the pic up, you can see them! They blend in so well.

On Friday afternoon, I went with Colleen and another friend about 60 miles southeast to a conference in Chino Hills, where a lady I'm a big fan of was speaking. Crystal Paine is a blogger who writes about frugal living, parenting and Christianity, and I've followed her for about 13 years. It was great hearing her message about living in the truth of how loved we are by God, and allowing that love to fill us and change how we interact with people and our children.

I brought her latest book, "Love Centered Parenting," so she could sign it for me.

I was joking that my kids were teasing me, with me acting like I was going to meet "my good friend" Crystal, when they thought it was more like I was a stalker. I told Crystal that as I asked for a photo, and so she's saying here, "This is my good friend Lisa."

 

The conference was about 20 minutes south of where JT lives, so she was able to come, too. We all had dinner together Friday beforehand, and after Saturday's session, we had lunch together too before heading home.

It was so nice getting away to a hotel for the night with good friends! 

Later in the weekend, Stace got this old generator going. It had belonged to my grandparents when they traveled America with their fifth-wheel travel trailer. After sitting for decades, it was filthy and corroded, but Stace stripped it and got it going again! I'm so proud of my handy husband. 

Now, if we have a power outage, we can keep our fridge and freezer cold, etc.

Spirit Week

Cora's school held a Spirit Week for Homecoming this past week, and she participated in several of the dressup days. 

(I'm SO thrilled she's AT SCHOOL in-person, and participating in events like this.)

She wore pajamas on pajama day (I forgot to take a photo, but do we really need one?), this shirt for "Decades Day," and she also took part in Country Day, see next picture.

Instead of a Homecoming Dance, her school hosted a Homecoming Carnival with games, food and performances by the Band, Dance Team and Advanced Show Choir. I snuck a photo of Cora with her friends... families were welcome, but Cora preferred we not, you know, hang out WITH her. She had plenty of friends to hang with - see the fun photo booth pic.
 

And, WHATEVER, Cora, I have my own friends! We have the BEST group of mamas. Truly, Meadows rocks and we were so blessed to meet each other nine years ago. Cora didn't end up going to the actual Homecoming football game, as her friends weren't going, but I'm glad she had fun with all the other festivities.