Swimming lessons

 Our little fish attended a two-week session of swim lessons, the final two weeks of her summer break from school.

She just loves swimming, and has become very good at it; it's amazing to remember how two short years ago she screamed her way through a lesson.

She was in the Level 4 class, "stroke improvement," and by the end she was able to do the butterfly stroke, backstroke, breast stroke, side stroke and of course the freestyle/crawl.

With the freestyle, she learned to breathe by tipping her head up to the side; she had been putting her head up forward.

She was the youngest and smallest in her class, and could outswim several of them. She certainly can swim a lot better than me!

When it was time to collect rings from the bottom of the 9 1/2-foot deep end, she'd swim straight to the bottom, and then along the bottom until she got to the ring. And she can swim across our pool without coming up for air, and her dives are beautiful.

Her reward for doing so well in her class was a diving mask. She was so excited about it, because she can now do her underwater flips without water going into her nose.

Well done, Cora. We're so proud of you!

Music fun with familiar faces

 Thursday was a fun day filled with music and dear friends.

We started off with Colleen, Lucas and Liana meeting at our house for a group field trip to the Hollywood Bowl. There, we attended Summer Sounds with some other friends, including Juliana, Maya and Natalia.

This time around, the children's music/theater program featured Los Pinguos, an Argentinean band that just so happened to include John Roberts, when he lived locally.

It was fun seeing his musician friends, even if he wasn't there. Cora and Lucas sat together with all the children, center front, while the little girls stayed near Colleen and me on the sidelines. After the show, we introduced ourselves to the band and got some photos.

Then, we had our picnic lunch before heading over to the children's craft area.

 Liana, Lucas and Violet chose to decorate leather wristbands, while Cora made a leather pendant.

 When we returned from Hollywood, we all went swimming together.

I mentioned to Colleen that we had plans to go out to see another band that evening, and my sister was going to babysit. She and Rigo were up for a night out, too, and Melanie was happy to have all four kids, so we got together again that evening.



 A few days earlier, I'd received an email from John, that he was flying in to perform Thursday night with his other main L.A. band, Makina Loca. They were playing in a summer concert series at Culver City's city hall, not far from LAX.









Stace and I were excited and happy to go and see him again, especially with him playing in a show before our 10 o'clock bedtime.

We really enjoyed catching up with him; hopefully he can come into L.A. periodically, and keep playing early-evening shows, just for us.

Our car ride with Colleen and Rigo was just as fun. I hadn't laughed that hard in months. It felt like we were back in college, going out to see shows in L.A. with friends, no carseats in the car.

Welcome home

Wednesday was the day - the day  our two new cars were delivered. I must admit, I was pretty excited to get the phone call to meet Stace and the auto transport man at my parents' house.

Why my parents' house?

Because they have a big side yard with a covered lean-to, which a prior owner built to store a boat. You'd better believe Stace has had his eyes on that empty concrete pad for years now.

See, our HOA just wouldn't look too kindly on cars like this on our pleasant cul-de-sac. The parts car could use a few parts, that's for sure.

 Here's Stacey steering the '67 off the trailer.

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 Stace was amazed that all the little details worked out in his plan to bring the cars 300 miles here, and push the non-runner up into the garage (and later into the lean-to).









 Ain't she pretty? It's easy to point out a few flaws that Stace will want to fix over the years, but we're both really pleased to have this baby in the family.

Speaking of babies, ours were disappointed to learn there isn't a  back seat, much less, room for a car seat. It'll be a while before Cora and Violet will get a ride on the open road - Violet actually burst into tears when she understood this.

Of course, having this car does beg the question: what will Stace do with all his free time? Looking up cars for sale on Craigslist, Ebay and Auto Trader Classic has been a time-consuming hobby over the past year or so.

Hardly taking his eyes off the computer, Stace's immediate response? "Do you think I should buy these wire wheels? They're only asking $500."

Stace's big weekend

Stace had quite a weekend.

It started on Friday afternoon, with phone calls between Uncle Bill and a guy in Northern California who was selling the type of car Stace has been dreaming about.

This lead to more and more phone calls and a heckuva lot of thinking and figuring out for Stace... questions about the car itself, about auto transport companies, storage facilities, towing companies, prices for all of the above, along with the value of the car in question.

Stace took a break Saturday to go with his work friends to see two football matches at Dodger Stadium, part of the "International Champions Cup" tournament. Stace watched Real Madrid beat Everton and the Galaxy beat Juventus; this was a day he'd been anticipating for a couple of months.

Then, he was up and out around dawn Sunday with Uncle Bill, for a grand car-buying adventure.

They traveled over 300 miles to Angels Camp, California, up in the Sierra Nevada foothills near the northern entrance to Yosemite National Park.

Around noon they arrived at a 20-acre ranch full of interesting things, including barns filled with things used in guitar-making,cars, tractors and motorbikes.

Stace test drove the 1967 MGB that had sparked this expedition, and it passed.

It's exactly what he's been looking for: a classic roadster that's good enough to serve as a daily driver, but still needs the finishing touches. (Not to mention we can't afford the mint-condition models!)

Included in the sale was a 1970s MGB parts car - it's missing an interior but has lots of parts that might come in handy for the '67. And, after they agreed on a price and shook on the deal, Don filled Stace's car with lots of MG parts that he won't be needing anymore. Nice one.

Stace and Bill drove the blue car to a storage facility, and left the parts car on the ranch. Stace arranged an auto transporter to pick up both cars a few days later.

Then, the men got a bite to eat and checked out Angels Camp, a town made famous in Mark Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

It's an adorable historic town; maybe we can go back someday to visit as a family, and even stay the night. The scenery was beautiful too.

The men were back in Valencia at 11:30 p.m., in bed after midnight; Uncle Bill crashed at our house. Both of them were up and out before 7 a.m. Monday morning.

And with that, we're a four-car family. When I told Cora about it at bedtime, she was incredulous.  "Why? We don't need that many cars," she said, before stopping to think. "Wait! One for me, one for Violet!"

Our weekend, Part I

This weekend was an interesting one, to say the least. Stace and I do most things together as a family, but this weekend, we went separate ways much of the time. So, here's our weekend, His and Hers edition...

On Friday evening, Stace stayed with the little girls while the big girls (and my dad, and Nick, and 200 others) went to see Melanie in a final performance of Hair. The theater troupe she's involved with put on Hair last summer in Hollywood; in January in San Francisco; and these four shows in Newhall as part of a theater festival in Towsley Canyon. I'm so proud of Melanie. She's truly gifted and it was spectacular to watch her shine so brightly as Jeanie, the pregnant character in the show. Here, we're with the actor who play Woof.

Auntie Linda and Mikayla came up to visit and see the show, much to Cora's delight. Cora adores Mikayla, and asks quite regularly about when they will see each other again. Hard to believe she's 14 - so grown up! She was the 4-year-old flower girl at our wedding, with her sister Noelle, who was then 8.
Mikayla slept on Cora's trundle, and Linda stayed at my mom and dad's house.

 

 On Saturday, the girls played with Mikayla and then with each other for much of the day, before Stace took them for a quick dip in the pool.

Then, he was off to see a couple of football/soccer games at Dodger Stadium with top-tier clubs. More on that in his own post.

After Violet's nap, the girls decided to play dress-up, with Cora taking on the major role of helping Violet get dressed and prettied with hair and jewelry.

You can imagine my joy at overhearing them, and then spying on this scene.



 


So pretty.

They are fairies, and were playing an involved make-believe game, until Violet decided she needed Cora's bag of pixie dust. Cora disagreed, and let the screaming games begin.

On Sunday, Stace was off early on a grand adventure. The girls and I went to church and then to Sam's Club, a membership-based warehouse store like Costco.

Every year, they allow nonmembers to shop too, so we went and munched on samples and snagged some bargains. In particular, the honey, vanilla extract and chocolate chips were great deals.

Later, at home for Violet's nap, Cora dressed up in Ave's candy corn witch costume, and ran around on a broom. This one's for you, Ave!

After dinner, we went to Kohl's for a bit of back-to-school shopping. Combining three different coupons, plus Kohl's "no tax" weekend that took an extra 10% off, we bought Cora two shirts, a dress, a package of socks and a backpack for $16.50. Yes, we did!

Cora selected a Hello Kitty backpack with attached hood. The hood seems strange to me, but she thought it was just great. Violet also really wanted a backpack for preschool, but Cora offered to let her use the new little rucksack she got in England, and that made Vi very happy. (Sue, Cora's also used the little one for camp and swimming lessons every day!)

Busy week of fun

 This week, we spent time with our friend Christy and her boys; we hosted a pool playdate; Cora and Violet had summer camp; Cora had swimming lessons; and we visited with Juliana and her girls at the Aquatic Center.

Whew. We need a rest - good thing school starts in a little over a week...

Christy and her sons were on their way from the San Jose area to Phoenix to visit her sister, but her sister's roommate was sick, so they stayed with us a few days.

The children all had a lot of fun together, especially Cora and William, who have been friends since they were tiny babies.

Violet loved playing with 15-month-old Timothy and helping him pet the cat.

We all enjoyed ice cream Tuesday night, when Stace tried to give 3-year-old Dominic tips on how to eat his cone as it dripped all over his face. It was a cute scene.










Also Tuesday, we had some school friends over for a pool playdate. At the end-of-school picnic, several moms were trying to come up with a date when we could all get together, and this particular Tuesday was the first date we were all in town.

It was fun seeing everyone again, and catching up on our summer vacations. Most of us had gone somewhere interesting - the Dominican Republic, Florida, Yosemite, New York...

On Wednesday, Christy and the boys left very early in the morning to start on their long drive, and the girls had camp. Cora went on a field trip with camp to the Aquatic Center, for swimming and then "mad science" at the nearby sports complex. She came home with silly putty she made herself.

Thursday was a nice calm day, with a restful morning at home. We met Juliana, Natalia and Maya at the Aquatic Center after lunch for a fun couple of hours of playtime.

 Violet entertained herself at this contraption for a long, long time. She loved being in control of the water's flow.

Also this week, Cora had swim lessons at the city pool. She's working on learning new strokes, and she's doing very well.

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.