Spring Break tidbits

Our spring break has been delightful - we've had fun, we've relaxed, we've played, we've (well, I've) accomplished some organizational/cleaning chores. Hopefully we're recharged and ready to tackle Cora's last 2 1/2 months of kindergarten.

Here's a look at some of the random moments of the last two weeks...

What I've enjoyed most has been not having to get up-and-out so early! Lazy mornings at home in jammies are great. Cora and Violet have had more time to play with each other (and with the cats).

 We had friends over for lunch one day, and Cora made dessert, all by herself. I was busy in Violet's room going through her clothing, and heard Cora announce that she was cooking. She made her own batter of flour, sugar, eggs, milk and juice, with marshmallows.

I added in some baking soda and salt, but forgot about oil/butter. The cupcakes baked up, well, oddly. They weren't terrible, but they weren't quite right either. I think Cora learned a lesson about using recipes - she was disappointed that they weren't as yummy as she had envisioned.

We also spent a morning at Chuck E. Cheese for our friend Sophie's birthday. The girls especially enjoyed the motion-screen rollercoaster game.

 Stace and the girls harvested the rest of the peas, which we shelled for dinner. They were very good. But I do appreciate just buying a bag of frozen peas - it takes a while to shell enough for a meal!

We played outside with the Roberts a lot, into the evenings, as it's now light until 7:30 or so. It might be a challenge to get the kids in bed for school now that they've gotten used to playing outside after dinner.









OK, more of a normal-life photo than a spring break photo, but aren't they cute? I love my little family so much...

Wednesday of this week was a fun one - we started the morning at Scooter's Jungle for open play, and after lunch headed to the pool.

After Violet's nap, we bought Wendy's for dinner and met up with Genia, Jill and all the children at a park.

 On Thursday, we went to Juliana's house for lunch and playtime. Maya's back in school, so we walked together to pick her up. After lunch, their neighbor friend Gracie came over and the girls played together and made lemonade.

On Friday evening, we went to Central Park after dinner, since we needed to pick up my mom's new car at her house to take it to our house. She was in a car wreck a few weeks ago and Stace is helping tidy up her new car, since her old one was totaled.

Anyway, after the park, we stopped by a new place for dessert - Rita's Ice Custards. So good - the custard was like a richer, creamier ice cream.

On Saturday night, Stace put up the tent for another bit of fun for the girls.

Kidspace!

 We celebrated the final day of our TWO-WEEK spring break with fun at Kidspace children museum in Pasadena.

My friend Melanie lives nearby and is a member, so she and little Heather invited us to meet them (and get us in free under their membership).

What a great place! Hard to believe I have a six-year-old and this was my first time here.

Even though we have trikes and bikes at home, the girls spent quite a while on the track on three wheels.

 One of the exhibits teaches about bugs, with various large insects and spiders on display. Other outdoor exhibits teach various physics lessons, with hands-on learning opportunities.

 Here, Violet uses a "see-er" (magnifying glass) to inspect a geode. (She also, copying Owen, calls toy guns "shooters.")











An archeology section lets the children look through sand to find "fossils," using paint brushes.




















 Several water features allow the kids to cool off. Fun, fun! The museum is near the Rose Bowl, next to a big park and playground, where burned off even more energy before driving home.

We look forward to meeting Melanie and Heather here again!

Easter blessings

We enjoyed a lovely Easter Sunday with family and friends. After church, we talked with our family in England, and then we went to Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's house.

Melanie and Nick and the Roberts family also made the drive to Ventura; my parents are in New York this week so they couldn't make it.






A fantastic ham-and-lamb dinner feast awaited us; lamb is Bill and Patty's long-standing Easter tradition, since Jesus was the "Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world."










After dinner, the children painted eggs, hunted for eggs outside, blew bubbles and worked on Cora's Ventura fairy house.

 To work off some of the dinner, we took a walk to the beach. Yes, my aunt and uncle are blessed to live just a few blocks from the sand!

These five might as well be cousins!

After our walk, it was time for dessert - homemade strawberry shortcake. More yum.
Stace, the girls and I spent the night - such a great Easter!

Egg hunt and David's birthday

 Cora had so much fun at our Mom2Mom Easter egg hunt, and at the egg hunt we hosted last year, that she was bound and determined to host another one this year.

Since it's been spring break and we have some free time, I thought, why not?

We invited a few friends over Friday, hid eggs and bought pizzas for lunch. Simple but fun.

 We gave the younger children a head start, and then released the rest of the kids. Of course, the hunt itself lasted but a few minutes...











 ...and then came the fun of the candy-eating.

 On Saturday, we went to David's 8th birthday party, conveniently located right next door to us.

The highlight of the party was the Dodgers pinata. David plays baseball, so he gave it quite a beating once everyone had a turn and the blindfold was off.

For Owen and Violet, the highlight was playing in the ice bucket.

Spring Break fun

 We are on SPRING BREAK, baby!

For the first time in 13 years (when I graduated from college), that means something to me. It means relaxing, lazy mornings and fun with friends.

(And some home projects like going through the girls' closets, but that's boring.)

On Tuesday, we went out to Camarillo to visit Brooke and Michelle. We played at their house before going out to lunch, where we met up with our other Camarillo friends, Elissa and Harvey.

 Then we all went to a nice park, with some fun things for the kids to play on.

 Our park time was marred only by the adolescent smoking pot ON the playground. The smell was strong enough to have Violet asking about it, and Cora asking if there was a skunk nearby. Elissa called the cops - I mean, come on, the playground was full of children - who came, talked to the guy and sent him packing.

This sparked a good discussion with Cora on our way home later, as she witnessed everything and had lots of questions.

 Here's Harv and Cora playing some sort of game on his mom's phone - these modern kids! Several times this week I've found Cora on the floor next to Stacey's side of the bed, playing games on his tablet.

 Rob was home when we got back to Michelle's house, so Cora begged him to take her out on his go-kart. Violet got a very short and sweet ride, too.

We had such a nice day with our friends. Thanks, Michelle! And thanks for the photos, too.

We spent our Wednesday afternoon with Genia and the kids, and on Thursday we had over a Mom2Mom friend, Morgan, and her daughters.
It feels like the good ol' days before Cora was in school. We're very thankful to have the two weeks off around Easter this year.

Fun week

A few more snapshots from our week...

 On Saturday night, after a lot of hard work in the garden - spring flowers and prep for the spring/summer veggies - Stace set up the fire bowl for a toasted-marshmallow dessert.

 Also in the week, we played outside with the Roberts on several evenings. Good times. Stace had fun on Johnny's ripstick (though he also took a good fall and bruised his hip).

 On St. Patrick's Day, would you believe it, the leprechauns tore through our living room!

 Here's Cora's head-slapping reaction to the note they left her, after they took the treats but broke free from her trap ("Better luck next year, little girl!"). You can see the yellow sign she had left them: "Gold in House. Come this way. Good Luck!"

 Maya and Natalia came up to play one day, since Maya had her spring break earlier than ours...

...and neighbor boys David and Chris were over a lot, too. You can see a lizard in David's hand - a big guy that played dead when the boys came near. Really pretty too -black with a bright blue underbelly.

Coraism

While reading her own bedtime story "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" by Dr. Seuss, Cora got to the bit that reads, "At our house we play out back. We play a game called Ring the Gack".

Stace then says, "The ol' Ring the Gack game, I used to play that when I was a boy."
To our surprise, Cora asked, "Where did you get the rings?"

That kid is funny. We all know Gacks roam free across England, but rings are a bugger to find.

Mom2Mom Egg Hunt

On Friday afternoon, some friends from our Mom2Mom group got together for a park play date with an Easter egg hunt. Cora and Violet were both very excited about this all week long.

It went over really well, with 9 or 10 moms and all their children. Here, you see Violet rushing off to find more eggs.

  If there's candy involved, Violet is excited about it!
Both girls had helped me fill our eggs and get them ready to go.

 Cora found so many, she graciously redistributed several so that the smaller children could find them.

Cora, Alexyss and Johnny took turns swinging and pushing. Fun afternoon!

Dance and park night

On Thursday, Cora had her final dance class of the session we signed her up for.

 

It was a ballet/tap combo class, and she definitely preferred the pace of the tap over the ballet. No surprise, if you know Cora at all. Next, Cora wants to try gymnastics (while continuing in soccer and adding in swimming this summer).

After class, we picked up fast food for dinner and went to this awesome park in Stevenson Ranch, to eat and play.

The park had all these rock-climbing structures, and really tall tunnel slides.

It was a really great evening. The best part of spring: the nights stay light later and it's not blazing hot.