Fun with the Phelans

 Michelle and I have been talking about getting our families together for several years, and finally, on Saturday, the stars aligned and we went to their house for lunch.

 Her husband Rob and Stace have plenty in common, including a love for guitars. After lunch, they had an impromptu jam session, while we girls played in the back yard.

 We met Michelle and Brooke at Stroller Strides four years ago, when Brooke was about a month old. The girls had a great time together in the splash pool, on the swing, and playing t-ball and ping pong.

 Then, Rob got out the go-kart he's built from scratch, and let us take it out for a spin (on their small, quiet neighborhood streets).

Stace let 'er rip. I felt like I did the same, though it probably looked I was going in slow motion.

Cora, our little daredevil, loved it. 

Our initial thought had been to stay for lunch and then go home for Violet's nap. But we were all having such a great time, and Violet was doing so well, and none of us had dinner plans anyway. So, we ordered pizza and kept the party going another couple of hours. The girls relaxed by watching the Chipmunks movie, with Violet asking to sit in Brooke's lap.

I'm so thankful for our stage in life, where we have made some great friends with children our girls love playing with. 

Now, we have to make sure it's not several more years before we repeat the fun! (And, p.s., thanks, Michelle, for these great photos!)

Sisters

 It's lovely watching our girls grow up together. They are becoming good friends, as Violet gets older and can play and interact in new ways with Cora. They play fairies, legos and Little People together, cook in the play kitchen and play their beloved sleeping game. When they're not also arguing or crying, it's a wonderful thing to behold.

Since their Mum is so cheap and rarely buys new clothes, this is their first matching outfit in a long time. And even this was done frugally - I saw the 5T dress at the consignment store and thought it looked like something Violet had received in a big bag of hand-me-downs from a friend. 

 I love that Cora agrees to match her sister! And, with a strawberry in hand and doughnut in her belly, Violet was more than happy to smile.

 Cora went through a makeup phase while we were in England. Here, she is sparkling up Violet's nose. Sparkle powder: It's not just for eyelids.

 The Roberts came over for dinner, and the big girls decided to paint their nails. Violet wanted in on the action.

 She might have refrained had she known that her manicurists had so little experience. Thankfully, it was so thickly on her fingers, she had most of it peeled off by the next day.

The scene I came upon the other morning. Yes, Cora was supposed to be tidying her room, but who was I to interrupt her teaching Violet about dinosaurs from the dinosaur book?

Oh, and Violet is wearing her super-thick training panties. I'm letting her wear them around the house and encouraging her to keep them dry. We're certainly not hard-core potty-training, but hopefully this will build into diaper-freedom before too long.

A happy Fourth, indeed

  

Just look at my Fourth of July cuties!













With unusually temperate early July weather, the parade this year was really enjoyable. We rode our bikes and found a nice shady spot in the grass, and cheered for the old cars, the emergency vehicles, marching bands and SClarita "royalty." Cora took a coloring book and Violet played with the bike tire, rolling it around, when they got bored.

Later in the day, after Cora swam the width of our pool three times (!!), we had my parents and Colleen, Rigo, Liana and Lucas over for a barbecue.

Violet and Liana played so well together! No arguing or fighting from either 2-year-old...

 ...and quite a few hugs. They were playing a "bumping" game, where they would bump into each other, say "I'm sorry," and burst into giggles.

We feasted, pot luck style, on grilled chicken, veggies and burgers, potato salad and ice cream sundaes.

Christine and Luke joined us for a while, too; my mom will attend Christine in their upcoming wedding this winter. It will be a busy few months for us with wedding and shower festivities for both Kelly and Christine!

In this photo, Lucas is telling us a joke.

 And, then we carried on with our tradition of driving to Granary Square and walking a few blocks to see the city's fireworks show. It always feels good to have a bit of a walk after stuffing ourselves!

The fireworks show lasted until after 9:30, so it was a very late night. Thursday was a sleepy day for us all.

Summer Saturday

At 8:15 this morning we went to the park for Violet to start her first football lesson. We signed her up for Kidz Love Soccer's Daddy/Mummy and Me classes. She really enjoyed her first lesson and did pretty well. The coaches teach the children about colours, animals, shapes and numbers using football as the teaching method. Today was all about colours. Violet (and I) had to pick a colour on the card and them dribble the ball to the flag of the same colour. When we got to the flag Violet had to strike a football pose by standing with her foot on the ball. Violet was definitely the best player in the class, and it was no surprise that she was the smallest.

 When we got home we all went to the pool to cool off. At the beginning of summer Cora proclaimed she was going to swim "on top" this year. She did really well at Street indoor pool with Dean helping her when we were back home in England. I promised her that when she could swim on top of the water I would buy her a really good pair of swimming goggles.

After today's time at the pool we went shopping for goggles.


Cora has been able to swim under water since last summer, but today she started swimming for real.
She has grown in confidence since I showed her she could stand up in the shallow end of the pool.
I am very proud of my little girl.
Violet's turn is next. I start swimming lessons with her next week at the local city pool.

After lunch we drove down to Ventura and took a walk around Harbor Village. The weather was gorgeous as we walked along the side of the marina.

We stopped for dinner at Andria's, the local fish restaurant, and shared a meal of charbroiled shrimp, rice, coleslaw, fried cod and clam chowder. We arrived just before the huge dinner rush that results in a big queue of people waiting to place their orders.

 

After dinner, and on our stroll back along the marina to the car, the girls enjoyed a nice ice cream and pointed out all the boats they liked. As we finished our walk Violet started crying about going home without the boat she had previously picked out.
Where the heck would I have put a 30-year-old, 50-foot trawler covered in seagull sh...pooh anyway?

Cherry picking

June means cherry season, especially for the beautiful rural town of Leona Valley, in the southwest Antelope Valley not too far from SClarita.

In my former life, I wrote plenty of articles about cherry season for the Valley Press, and two years ago I went cherry-picking for the first time with Cora and newborn Violet. This year, we returned for more, after Cora asked specifically if we could go.

Most of the small family-run orchards are picked clean, but two places still advertised themselves as open for business. I'm glad Cora had the idea this week, as next week will surely be too late for cherries.

We picked a lot of Ranier cherries, the yellow/orange/red ones, and a few handfuls of dark red varieties as well. Violet loved it, talking about it all a lot and carrying the buckets, until they got "too heaby." Cora had a great time too, and was very helpful with Violet.

 Here, Grandma pulls a branch down to Violet so she can better reach the ripe ones.

And here, Cora holds Violet up to the fruit.


It was great spending a few hours with my mom. Though we talk often on the phone, she has been working so much at her various jobs that we don't see each other as often as we'd like. I'm glad we could experience the cherry adventure together.


It wasn't exactly "frugal fun," as they cost $3.50 a pound and one of my favorite stores has cherries on sale this week for $1 a pound. But of course, it's the memories that matter. Cora loves eating her cherries. Violet, on the other hand, won't try them. Maybe if they were chocolate-dipped!

Weekend recap

 On Saturday we had the joy of celebrating our dear friend Kelly's engagement. Kelly is my oldest friend, a loyal and caring woman I'm blessed to consider a close friend. I, along with many others, have been praying for a number of years now for her to meet the right man.

She met Brad through her church, and they've been dating a little over a year now. He proposed Saturday overlooking the beach in Malibu, and organized a surprise celebration with their friends and family, including Kelly's grandma, Doris. It's a good thing she said "yes"!

Kelly asked me to be a bridesmaid, a role I'm so honored to fill for her.

 The girls had fun at the beach, on a gorgeous sunny day. We couldn't stay too long though, because in the evening Stace and I were off on a date.

My sister played Jeanie in Hair this month at a theater in Hollywood, so we got to see it Saturday night with cousin Elizabeth. It was a fun show, with great singing and choreography, and I loved hearing Melly do her solo.

Sadly, halfway through the first act, I started feeling really sick. I took all the meds I had had in my purse but kept feeling worse, so at intermission Stace and I headed home. I was nauseous, achy, and feverish, and the fever lasted through the night. I'm so sad we missed the second act; hopefully we'll be able to see a DVD.

Melanie's show closed Sunday in Hollywood, but her theater group has been invited to perform it in San Francisco in January! Going places, she is!

On Sunday we didn't get up to much, since I wasn't feeling well. Stace watched the England football match, and then we went to a friend's birthday party.

Lily, top center, turned three, and her family celebrated at My Gym. Violet and Cora both had a great time at one of Violet's favorite places.

First Week Back Home

 The advantage of jet lag - a busy toddler who ordinarily has no time for daddy cuddles, sleeps on his shoulder for a half hour.

The girls adjusted really well to California time. After getting up early Tuesday, our first morning home, they generally slept nicely into the mornings the rest of the week.

Cora had her first day of Camp Clarita on Tuesday, and Stace stayed home to recover and unpack.

In the evening, we picked up Subway for dinner and then enjoyed our dollar cones from Baskin-Robbins.

On Wednesday, Stace went back to work and the girls and I played at the park with Genia and the kids.
Cora had her first Keyboard II class on Wednesday evening.

On Thursday, I went to Santa Monica to have lunch with some of my Pepperdine girlfriends. I still see Melanie, my freshman year roommate, regularly, but I hadn't seen Aly or Sophia for over 10 years. It was great to catch up with them.

On Friday morning, Cora and I went to see a kid-friendly local production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Then we went over to the pool with Genia and her kids, and Jill, Alexyss and Marley. It was a lot of fun, the first of many pool days to come, I'm sure.