Third Grade's a Charm

Summer flew by far too quickly.
But Cora is ready.
Ready for third grade, ready to see her friends, ready to get to know a new teacher, ready for homework... Wait. Maybe not ready for that last one!

I love that she chose to get dressed up for her first day of school.
We traded in some clothes at Children's Orchard a couple of weeks ago, and with the credit, Cora had to have this beautiful turquoise and black number. So classy!
(If only the new shoes we bought didn't give her blisters on her heels after her first day of wearing them! But I digress...)

The girls were eager to ready for school Wednesday morning, and happy to find their scooters and helmets waiting for them in the garage. Perhaps our orange stroller will be retired soon, with Violet now riding a scooter for our morning walks?

Happily, Sophia, Vivian and Riley are in Mrs. Breneman's class with Cora.

And a few more third-grade friends - Oliver, Trent, Sophia and Anthony.

This Sophia isn't in class with Cora - second year in a row they aren't classmates. They'll have to see each other on the playground, on the prisoner courts. That's a game Cora loves that seems to have sprouted at her school. At least, I've never heard of it anywhere else...

Best of luck, Cora, for a fantastic third grade year!

Kindergarten, Here She Comes!

I guess Stace and I must have blinked.

Somehow, Baby Violet is now Big School Kid Violet.

No longer a baby, toddler or even  preschooler, our youngest has morphed into a 5-year-old kindergartner.

Her first day was Wednesday, and on Tuesday night we got to check out the classroom. Here's her cubby...
...and her teacher, Mrs. Hawthorne, a friendly and familiar face to Vi since Cora was in her class three years ago. Then, she was the 2-year-old in the stroller who would wave and shout over the fence when we took little Cora to school.

It was such a brave new world for all of us three years ago! Now, the girls' school is so ingrained in our daily routine, it feels only natural that Violet should be here too.

Perhaps that played a role in the easy transition Violet has had. No tears, hardly any expressed fears. Mainly excitement and joy from our little social butterfly.

What a difference a few years makes!

All ready to go in on Wednesday morning.

Daddy made a second trip from work to the school for Violet's entry into class. Cora starts at 7:55, and kinder starts at 11. We can bring the children as early as 10:35 for playtime; kindergarten gets out at 2:30, and the other grades are out at 2:40.

Because Mrs. Hawthorne knows me so well, she knew that on the very first morning of school, she could hand me a stack of paper pennies to cut out. I'll be happy to help in both girls' classes this year, and with the art projects and hands-on interaction, kindergarten is especially fun to help with.

A final wave before Violet's line headed inside, happy and excited as she could be. She was just as happy when I picked her up later, and said her day was "great!"

We love you, Violet, and we are proud of the big kindergartner you are!

Hair Cuts

Because I left the whole back-to-school haircut thing to the last minute, the children's hair salon was booked solid when I called Tuesday morning.

But, my own stylist had openings midday on Tuesday, so the girls went to the grownup salon.

Violet is always happy to have her hair cut.

Adorable!

 

Cora started out the day balking at the thought of a half-inch trim.

But as she watched Violet getting beautified, Cora's opinion changed. She wanted her hair cut, too. A lot of hair cut.

She'd enjoyed growing it out - she'd basically grown it for two years, pretty much since the kindergarten self-inflicted bob. But she was ready for a change, to look really different on her first day of third grade.

The result is so pretty and grown up! We all love the change, and it will be nice and easy to care for again. It's still long enough for a short ponytail, too.

Summer's End

We didn't have a lot of plans for Monday morning, so it was very nice that Chris and David were over visiting next door.

The children played together outside, played a computer game and had a snack together.

Even better than a computer game is a memory-matching game - got to get those brains engaged again!

On Monday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa came over, and we drove together to pick up Stacey. We headed to Hurricane Harbor for our annual trip, courtesy of Mom's employee benefit tickets. Since we stayed in the water, we don't have any photos, but it was a fun couple of hours.


On Tuesday, in and around haircuts for the girls - more on that soon - we met up with Stace for lunch. Both girls soon will be in school at lunchtime, so this was a special treat.








Violet the other day was busy in the back seat, drawing a kitty stamp on her hand. She announced that she wanted to invite a lot of people over for an animal party, and all the friends could choose between a kitty stamp, a doggy stamp (with a paw print) and a bird, with a bird print.

She then went in the house and drew out the "stamps" using a marker on a large flat eraser.

Violet also showed me this drawing of our family. I loved it.

Sleepovers and parties

Earlier in the week, Cora mentioned her disappointment that the summer was nearly over and she hadn't had a friend sleep over. And Violet, who slept at Alli's house in June, was eager to return the favor.

We arranged for Alli, her big sis Emily, and our other friend Emily to spend Friday night with us. Though we knew this would set us back in our attempt to get back on a school schedule, with classes resuming Wednesday the girls all would have several nights to recover.

The big girls slept in the tent, and the little two camped in the playroom. Alli and Violet were asleep somewhere around 11, while the big girls came in after midnight for snacks and stayed up until 1 a.m.

Stace took the girls - all five of them - to the pool while I cleaned up from breakfast. Their moms came a bit after 12, and we had a bit of time to prepare for our next bit of fun...

...Cami and Melanie's birthday party! Cami turned 8 this week, and Melanie turned 5 in April, but that was when her family was in the midst of moving. So, Christina held a joint party for the girls Saturday afternoon. Standing on the right is their cousin, Sarah. It was a very nice afternoon.

That evening, though Cora was of course very tired, we had some mommy/daughter shopping time. We each got new shoes; Cora's were for her first day of school. We also bought a hanging organizer for her small closet, so we can hang her shoes instead of having them rest in a big box under her dresses.

Later, because Violet didn't get to sleep in the tent on Friday, Stace and the girls camped on Saturday.












On Sunday afternoon, I took Violet to a birthday party. It was a cupcake-decorating party, for a Mom2Mom friend named Delilah.

Meanwhile, Stace took Cora to a $5 skating session at the Ice Station. Fun was had by all! It was a great final weekend of our summer vacation.

Swimming, Soccer and School Supplies

This week was our last full week of summer - it sure has gone fast!

We celebrated our final Popsicles in the Park with a water balloon toss/fight. We are sad to see this part of summer end; it's been nice hanging out with our friends while the kids play with theirs.

This week, Cora participated in a Kidz Love Soccer morning camp. She enjoyed it, and received a new soccer ball at the end.

 

The group did drills, and then divided into teams and played short games against the other teams. The coaches tracked the scores and goals, like in a tournament. They chose Cora to be captain of her team, and she picked England to be their country.

Also this week, both girls finished a short set of swimming lessons at the city pool. Violet took part in the Level III class, where she worked on diving, floating and different strokes. She did very well, and it was fun watching her improve.

Cora took part in the strokes class, where she swam up and down the lanes doing a variety of strokes - freestyle, breast, butterfly and backstroke. She enjoyed it, too.

After the final swimming lesson, we went to Walmart to buy the girls' school supplies. It took a while to find the right items requested by the teachers; nothing an ice cream cone couldn't fix though!

 We also had a playdate this week with Juliana, Maya and Natalia. They returned from their long summer trip to Brazil last week.

We got all caught up on the summer's happenings and had lunch together. These big girls met when they were 1, and now they're big third graders.





And both little sisters will be in school, too. Natalia is going to transitional kindergarten since she's a couple of months too young for kinder.

Weekend Fun

We finally had a free weekend day, and took the opportunity to go to the Discovery Cube Science Museum. We got our membership at Christmas, and the girls and I went in April, but Stacey still hadn't checked it out.

He loved it, and we all had a good time together. Here, he and Cora are learning about the energy usage of the three major types of light bulbs (incandescent, CFL and LED). Cora is going around answering questions about whether the house exhibit is energy efficient or not, using the tablet hooked around her neck.

We actually picked up some ideas we should do to increase our home's efficiency, like weather stripping around our front door.

Cora answered enough questions correctly to be named a "Super Inspector" and have her picture taken for the big board.

Next, we went to the grocery store section, and Stace helped Violet go around with her electronic cart and scanner, answering questions by scanning the correct product.

On this Saturday afternoon, the museum wasn't very crowded at all, so it was a lot easier to get around then it was when we went during Spring Break.

We went up to the Science of Hockey exhibit, and Cora, Violet and I tried our hands at smacking the puck into the goal screen.

We went back home and tried to have  barbecue with Keith - "tried," because we invited him over, bought the ground beef and buns, and had no gas in the tank. Oh well, we made do on the stove top and enjoyed our dinner together nonetheless.

On Sunday, we went to church, talked to our family, and cooled off in the pool. Then, we headed south to a beach community not far from LAX. Uncle Johnny was in town to play with Ricardo Lemvo and Makina Loca in a "concert in the park" setting. The timing, setting and weather were perfect for us to see John play.

Rigo and Colleen and the kids joined us, and it was a very pleasant evening.

John hooked us up with T-shirts for his band in Billings, John Roberts y Pan Blanco. (Pan blanco means "white bread" in Spanish, a nickname John picked up.) We won't even charge to be his new models...

Week in Review

This was a week of no set plans - one of just a few such weeks this summer.
The girls made plenty of time for Calico Critters - here, Violet has created a parachute out of a fabric scrap, yarn and two critter chairs.

We also did some coloring, after going through the plastic tubs of crayons, markers and colored pencils.

That was one of the many little jobs around the house I'd look at and think, "When summer comes, I'll get to that..."
And then summer came, and it has been busy in its own way, so getting to a lot of these jobs will have to wait until school is back in session!

Playing in the pool is one of the biggest joys of summer for Stace, Cora and Violet. Styling Daddy's hair was a new delight this week.

Also this week, we had a consultation with an orthodontist about Cora's teeth, which is something our dentist recommended. The x-rays show that Cora lost three top teeth (when she was 6), and only two have come down because there isn't any room for the third to drop. It's up there, waiting.

Cora might have braces to spread her top teeth out, making room for the teeth that can't get down. We'll go back when she's 9 and learn more then. Many orthodontists here are working on younger children, with the idea that it's easier to move things around in younger mouths. The length of time can be 6-12 months, instead of several years in older teenagers. We'll see!

Thrilling Thursday

We had such a fun time Thursday afternoon at Magic Mountain, using Cora's ticket she earned by reading hundreds of minutes back in the spring. We took along our friend Emily, who has a season pass, and my mom came and got me in as her "buddy."

Here you can see that Violet isn't the only daughter of ours to get red and flushed in the heat. Thursday was a hot one, and it was interesting to see how Cora's face showed the heat compared to Emily's.

We started off on Revolution, and then did a Goldrusher a couple of times, since it's Grandma's favorite and she doesn't do the coasters that go upside down.

Then we waited a while for Jetstream, a water ride that was especially popular on this hot day.

The girls then went on one of those spinning rides I can't do anymore.

To cool off more thoroughly, my mom encouraged us to watch the 30-minute Querk show, which is a bit like a circus, with acrobatics and dancing. A highlight also had to be the air-conditioning...

We took a break for dinner, then rode the pirate ship and giant swings. We got a mango-pineapple frozen treat and bid adieu to Grandma, who was still jet-lagged from flying in from Hawaii earlier that morning.

The frosty yumminess helped speed on the line for Twisted Colossus, the refurbished classic coaster with twists and loops.

The ride was amazing - easily my new favorite. The girls loved it too, and, at 4 1/2 minutes, it was well worth our 40-minute wait.

From there, we went over to Goliath for another 40-minute wait and another big thrill. Then it was 9 p.m., the park was shutting, and it was time to head home. Love these summer fun moments!