Home cookin'

 Last summer, we harvested a bumper crop of grapes. We ate a lot, gave some way, froze some and dried them into raisins.

When we made our apple cider last fall, Stace was excited to later use the press for future grape juice.

The girls filled a bowl with 8 1/4 pounds of grapes, which Stace washed and then mashed with a potato masher, with Cora's help.

After simmering the juice and smashed grapes, Violet helped Stace scoop the mashed pulp into the cheesecloth. We're now ready for pressing!

 The girls got to help with this part, too.

The results were simply outstanding. They produced three quarts of yummy grape juiciness. Not quite enough to experiment with fermenting... maybe next time!







Also Sunday, Stace used homegrown tomatoes and apples and our own sun-dried raisins to make chutney. He was quite the culinary artist all day long! The chutney also is very yummy, and went very well with a chicken pot pie we had for dinner.

Santa Paula festival

 We spent our Saturday afternoon at the Citrus Classic Balloon Festival in Santa Paula, a little town just our side of Ventura.

The festival sounded fun - dozens of beautiful hot air balloons lit up in the evening, a classic car show, kids' activities, free train rides by the Fillmore train folk, and a vintage tractor display.

Thinking that all those things sounded fun, we paid our admission.

Violet enjoyed the petting area, and Stacey liked the cars, of course. But we couldn't find the tractors (how do you hide those??), the train rides had ended (the shuttle to get in took forever), and most of the little fun things to do cost extra money.

 We did get to see a neat aerobatic display, with two skydivers landing in the field in front of us. But once that had ended, it was 5:30, we were hungry, and the balloons weren't going to be lit for another 2 1/2 hours.

So, as close as we were to Ventura, we had dinner with Bill and Patty and their friends.
Then, it was too late to return to see the balloons, not to mention the crazy busy parking situation once evening came.

Had we know the tractors and trains were a no-go, we would have gone in the evening, seen the cars and stayed for the balloons. Thanks Colleen, for sending me this picture to show what we might have seen had we stayed!

Cora's Ventura Vacation

On Wednesday morning, Cora and Violet said good-bye to each other at Violet's summer camp. Then Cora and I drove up to Ventura, so Cora could spend a few days with Aunt Patty and Uncle Bill. 

She was excited about this trip all week, and after spending two nights and three days with Nan and Pop (when Stace and I went to Wales), she was sure that two nights would be better than one. When I unpacked her things from the car, I was flashing back to my own childhood trips to visit Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty in Washington. 

Cora did indeed have a fun time - grilling dinner outside, working on her Ventura fairy house, playing at the beach, watching a movie - it was a great little vacation for her. Uncle Bill even helped Cora make mortar to build a walled garden next to her fairy tree.

 Impressive! Our soccer and swimming star is now a stonemason!

 Cora also played with a dress-up fairy doll set we found when cleaning out and reorganizing the art cupboard.

By the second night, Cora was ready to be home. She told us she wanted to come home, and that two nights was one night too many. She's been away from us for two nights several times now, but always because Stace and I were going away, and she has had no choice. In this case, she made the choice to leave us. Also, she missed her sister!

Violet, meanwhile, said she missed Cora too, though we stayed pretty busy.

On Wednesday after camp, we visited Lazy Dog to see Auntie Melly, and Daddy took her for a bike ride to the park in the evening. We spent Thursday with friends, and went out to frozen yogurt Thursday evening.

By Friday morning, Cora was back and the sisters were playing together again.

Friendtastic Week

 This week, Violet had her summer camp for two days, and Cora had a largely unplanned week.

On Monday, Cora and I went to the library during Vi's camp. In the evening, we went to Colleen and Rigo's for a little birthday dinner for Colleen.

As the little girls get older, the four children are all playing together even better. Violet and Liana came up with the idea to dress up as princesses.

Rigo and Colleen have a great back yard for children - they live in a more rural part of town, with a large property with lots for the kids to do.

We heard roosters crowing when we got out of the car, prompting this from Violet: "I hear a chicken dog!"
We asked her what that looked like, and she said it has a head like a chicken.

What about the body, we asked.

"It has a body like a chicken too."
So, what makes it like a dog?
"It's brown."
I love 3-year-olds.

 On Tuesday morning, we walked over to the big park for storytime with Miss Carol, one of our Mom2Mom mentor moms. When Violet was tiny, we used to do Carol's storytime pretty regularly, with Genia and Juliana. It was nice to be back.

Our friend Kasia and her girls, who are 7 and 4, also attended.

 On Wednesday, after taking Violet to camp, Cora and I drove to Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's house, where Cora spent a couple of days. More on that later...

JT, Callie and Jonah came up to play on Thursday. After living in separate countries for 9 1/2 years, it's such a treat to see her (and her children!) regularly again.

 Cora returned Friday morning, and we also welcomed the long-awaited return of Juliana, Maya and Natalia.

They've been on an extended trip visiting Juliana's parents in Brasil, and before that, we were both busy with end-of-school activities. We actually hadn't seen each other since Violet's birthday, and with that being a party, it wasn't a "quality time" playdate for the girls.

All that to say, we all really enjoyed catching up Friday.

Friday evening, the fun continued. We went back to Colleen and Rigo's for a barbecue; this time it was just our two families together. Colleen converted Liana's crib into a toddler bed that day, and Liana was very happy to show it off. "Look, look, Miss Colleen cracked the side of Liana's bed! She cracked it off!" Violet told me.

Thankfully, Violet didn't ask about "cracking" her own bed apart. I think she actually still prefers the comfortable confines of those bars. At least, I hope so.

Cars and Castles

 This Sunday was the annual Central Coast British Classic Car Club show. It's held at Oxnard Marina and we've been going for the last few years. My friend from work, Jimmy, restores Minis, and this year he showed off his latest work. Cora and Violet loved sitting in and pretending they were going for a drive. Jimmy's done a wonderful job on this early 1960s model, for which he won "best in class."

 There were all makes of British cars, as you would expect, MGs and Triumphs being the most popular. Lisa and the girls keep telling me how much they would like a nice little car to restore and work on. This has given me the idea of maybe getting back into my old hobby. I'm now on the look out for an old MGA, MGB, Midget, Sprite, TR4, TR6 or Spitfire. Anything to keep the women happy.

After the show we played on the beach at Ventura. Cora brought home a book from the library the other day all about Norman castles. I enjoyed reading that to the girls and we put all our new knowledge to good use by building a scale model motte and bailey stone castle, complete with gate house and drawbridge. Happy days!

Water Day, Saturday

Cora and Violet both really enjoyed Vacation Bible School this year, and have been having a great time with the music CD the past few days. They sing and dance, trying to remember the hand motions they learned.

Cora is now in the group of 1st through 4th graders, and they do cool things like little science experiments to illustrate the spiritual points. I think she learned a lot, and she has a pretty good command of the five short Bible memory verses the children were taught.

Violet also did great. It was her first time away from me for over three hours a day all week, and on Friday she was especially happy to see me, with lots of hugs.

I was very glad she had three friends in her little group, and her teacher was Shannon, our neighborhood friend. Shannon said she answered all the questions well and was very funny and chatty.

On Friday, after VBS the church had a family picnic and water play day, with the little pools, big slip-n-slide and giant inflatable slide.

Here's Violet with some of the girls from her group. Cora and Violet were excited about water day all week, since Cora remembers it well from previous years.

 On Saturday, we were around the house most of the day. Cora and Vi played, and Cora gave Violet a "keyboard lesson."

Cora has shown a renewed interest in her keyboard in recent weeks, really since we went to Ave and Johnny's recital. She's been using her old books to practice again, wearing a set of headphones so we don't hear her. She says she will hold a recital, and doesn't want us to know what she's playing.

 Cora also helped Stace put up house numbers above our garage; one of those niggling projects that's been hanging about for months. Then we all went to the pool.

On Saturday night we toasted some marshmallows and Stace and Cora set up the tent in the grass. Cora slept like a champ; Violet ended up inside in her crib around 10:45 p.m.

Mid-summer week's dream

 We love summer evenings! Soccer on the front lawn, bikes, water-gun fights and lots of pool time with Daddy make summer great.

 On Monday afternoon, we went to the library with Sophia, big brother Paul and their mom Sue. I'm so grateful for our new friendship over the past few months, especially with Genia moving away. Sue introduced us to the library's summer reading program, and Cora was happy to sign up when she saw Sophia walk away with a free ice-skating session as one of the weekly prizes.

 On Tuesday after VBS, we made our first trip the Aquatic Center this summer. As you can see, Cora still has a little ways to go before she can ride the big twisty water slide.

 But, both girls still had a great time in the water play area.

Pirates and VBS

A bit of what we've been up to the last couple of days...

Arrrgh!

Sunday was a hot one, and we had no plans. And we pretty much stayed in on Saturday. All this meant it was time to head to the beach. Ventura Harbor was hosting "Pirate Days," which meant lots of weirdos get a good excuse to dress up.

 Violet wasn't sure what to think about the costumed lady with the python.

Stace's "pirate name" was Blue Calico Bruce. After the harbor, Stace and Uncle Bill took the girls to the beach, where Cora had a few good turns on the boogie board (or cookie board, if you're Violet).

On Monday, Violet went to her first day of Wee Folks Camp, with Ms. Diane. She'll do one four-week session, on Mondays and Wednesdays. The day goes from 9 to 12:30, which is longer than she's been away from me before, but she did just great!
 This week the girls also have Vacation Bible School! Cora went on her own Monday, but Violet will attend the rest of the week. (Free time for me! Strange!) Tuesday was Crazy Hair Day, and it was Violet's idea to put the clothespins on her crazy pony tails. Cora refuses to participate in any themed days, not even pajama day or backwards shirt day.

 Here's Cora's group having their turn to lead the songs. Cora also did very well with reciting a Bible verse in front of the whole group, which filled the sanctuary.