Heel, Spencer!

Here's Violet, taking her cat for a Sunday afternoon stroll.

I can assure you, no cats were injured in the making of this blog post!

Most days during Violet's non-sleeping quiet time, she has the cats in and out of her room. I hear her door open and shut, and fear she's coming down the hall, but no. She's just letting Spencer in or out. He actually will wait outside her closed door and paw at it, to go in and play with her. Crazy boy!

Later Sunday afternoon, we rode our bikes to the park to play soccer, and then rode down to Starbucks to take advantage of their "buy one, get one free" holiday drink offer.

Stace and I shared a big yummy latte, while the girls shared a peppermint hot chocolate (with an extra cup to cut down on the tears).





And another example of how Violet still needs an afternoon rest, even if she refuses to take it in her bed.

A few days ago we grabbed the opportunity to have dinner at the Newhall Refinery. Great food, great beer, great atmosphere. It's owned by a friendly Englishman and his American wife, who also own the Egg Plantation. We'll have to get back here again soon.

Readin' and ridin'

Friday night, Cora's school hosted "Camp Readaloud," a fun event with s'mores and "guest readers" reading stories to the students.

A local astronomy club brought out their big telescopes so we could check out the moon and Venus. The children wore their pajamas and brought blankets or sleeping bags to sit on.

Cora's teachers from this year and last year participated as readers, and one of the dad-readers sounded like a voice-over artist; his rendition of "Green Eggs and Ham" was amazing.

Sitting next to Cora is Mikayla, who spent the night with us, to the girls' joy. Linda came up to help my mom put on a bridal shower; after Stace and I got the girls to bed, I joined the ladies for a nice glass of wine.

 On Saturday afternoon, we went to the historic Tesoro Adobe Ranch, which was the home of silent film star Harry Carey.

The county, which now manages the ranch as a park, hosted a family day, with pony rides, face painting, games, crafts and animals.

 It was all free! The girls enjoyed their little pony walk, and we grownups enjoyed seeing the 1920s adobe ranch house.

Here, we meet a monkey and baby kangaroo, which we were allowed to pet. It was as soft as velvet, like a chinchilla. 

Later we stopped at a park for a little fun - when Violet saw these ride-on toys, she got very excited. "Look at that horsey! That's awesome!" she shouted.

Other funny things she's said lately:
At Trader Joes, we bought the fake Pirate's Booty snack. She kept repeating, "We have Pirate's Booty! Booty! (giggle, giggle) I said 'booty' I shake my booty!"

While identifying a red-tailed hawk at the top of a very tall tree on our walk, I said that it wasn't dark enough (in color) to be a vulture. "And it's not a penguin," Violet added.

Speaking of hawks, on another day, near our neighborhood we heard a big hawk in the tree right behind us, spotted wings flapping, with a squirrel in its talons.

Cora Loves Soccer

 Cora has completed another session of Kidz Love Soccer, and this time, she started in the 5-6 age group, and moved herself into the older class about halfway through the set.

She's now playing in the class for 7- to 12-year-olds, with the encouragement of Coach Carlos.

For a couple of weeks, she played in both classes, before deciding to stick with the older class.

At first, she was a bit tentative, but as she gained confidence, the children began passing the ball to her more and she showed that she can handle it quite well.

Cora is a good player for her age, and as you can see from the photos, she's the smallest on the pitch.

She moves into position and passes the ball well. She is still a hard tackler, and her ball control and game awareness are coming along nicely.


Best of all she loves the game, especially with the older children who are better at passing and don't bunch up.

 Lucas plays in this class, and it was nice for Cora and Lucas to play together again.

Their cheering squad had fun each week too, playing together and eating snacks.

Thanks to Grandpa for taking most of these photos!

Fish Hatchery

The girls were off of school Monday for Veteran's Day, which was handy since Cora was dealing with a yucky cough she caught from Violet.

We had to cancel a planned playdate with Michelle and Brooke, but the girls weren't sick enough to stay indoors all day.

So, we met up with Morgan and Colleen and their kids at the Fish Hatchery in Fillmore.

We were last here when Cora was 2 1/2, so she didn't remember it at all. She and Violet both really enjoyed tossing the feed pellets to the hundreds of young rainbow trout raised at the hatchery to stock lakes all over the state.

Just outside the hatchery fence, hungry water fowl hope for a fishy meal. We saw about 10 herons and egrets, along with the ducks.

Christmas Lights

On Saturday evening, we went to Old Town Newhall to watch the unveiling of a new Christmas light display. Up and down the street the trees are covered in little white lights, and two nice displays cross Main Street above the road.

Additionally, the Newhall Library features a large Christmas tree out front. This year at least, the hospital's Christmas tree remains green and blocked off by ongoing construction.

I'm not sure if the community's Christmas Tree will now always be in Newhall instead of at the hospital. I'm also not sure why the big lighting ceremony took place this early in November. Regardless, the lights add a nice touch.

After checking out old Newhall, we went to Lazy Dog with Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty and sat in Melanie's section.
We had a nice evening together, and caught up a bit with Taylor, who was Cora's Sunday School teacher when she was 3. She's a lovely young woman and also works at Lazy Dog.

Earlier in the day, Bill helped Stace work on the MG's carburetor, while Patty and I took the girls to a holiday boutique.

On Sunday morning, the girls and Stace built this impressive sand village.

New babies, new projects

Following the craziness of the end of October, we've enjoyed a relatively simple, "normal" week.

Violet, though, was very sad that Halloween was over. "I NEED more Halloween parties," she told me. "I need more candy!"

After gymnastics on Thursday, we went with Colleen and Liana to Bridgeport Marketplace, where the little pond features interesting ducks, herons and turtles. The girls had fun feeding them proper duck food from the quarter machines. Thanks for the top photo, Colleen!

Monday was one of my volunteering days at Violet's preschool. Like Cora, she's always so happy when it's my turn to help out.

This week the crafts and stories were about farm animals. Here, Violet is adding white spots to a brown cow.

On Tuesday, we headed out to my friend Melanie's home to visit her, Heather, and her brand new baby, Sienna Grace. Violet and Heather enjoyed playing together, and I loved holding sweet Sienna.

Heather is laughing here, and in motion, but don't worry, she wasn't actually swinging her hand toward her sister.

This week I noticed a big rip developing in one of my favorite pairs of corduroys, a pair I've had for about a decade. Cora was very happy when I let her have them for sewing practice.

In her Pioneer Club class this week, they learned how to sew a button, and she had grand ideas about what she could make from this material. I love Cora's creativity. She is full of ideas and imagination.

Sunday

Cora loves sleeping outside of her own bed, and begs for a change of scenery on the weekends. Sometimes she stays in our room on the floor, sometimes Violet's, and sometimes Violet sleeps on her trundle.

She's also been begging for Stace to set up the tent one more time. With this being the weekend our clocks changed back, we figured Saturday night was their last chance to camp in the yard until spring.

For the first time, Violet fell asleep in her sleeping bag, and stayed in the tent all night in the yard.

This was a mixed blessing for Stace - we only have two sleeping bags, and we half-figured Vi would end up inside like usual, and Stace could use the bag. He had several blankets, but was still awakened by cold throughout the night.

The next photo is a distraught Violet sobbing Sunday morning because she accidentally let Spencer out, and he hopped the wall. She worries about him, despite our assurance that he always comes back (so far). She's standing on the low shed in her Sunday best.

Later Sunday, just before our now-early dusk, we checked out a new park in Saugus. Well, an old park but new to us, up by Mountainview School. I've heard it is a good one, and wow, the play structures were impressive! The girls loved it, especially Cora, our little monkey.

The park lies in a beautiful setting, especially at sunset, with 180-degree views of the hills and mountains.

Friday Fun

After the excitement and sugar rush of Halloween night Thursday, the show had to go on Friday morning.

But lucky for us, our friend Maya was off from school, so she, Natalia and Juliana came up to meet us when Cora got out of school at lunchtime.

I picked up The Habit for me and Juliana, and she picked up a pizza for the girls.

The four all had a great time playing as always. Thanks, Juliana, for sharing the top photo of our stunning first-graders!

In the evening, we got some groceries and checked out the newly opened Harbor Freight, a discount tool store. When Violet saw these wheels, she said, "Look Daddy! Wheels for your MG!"

We ended our evening out with dessert at a new place in town, Yogurtland, which has been passing out coupons for free yogurt. (Good thing, too! Cora and I both need to learn the art of portion size when we're filling our containers.)

We had such fun together, as you can see.

We played the game where you whisper a secret person-to-person, and see how it comes out in the end. I started out whispering to Stace, "The red roof on the green barn fell down."

Somehow, some way, Violet whispered to Cora, "Do you know you love leopards?"

We filled that shop with laughter.

Halloween

After wearing their costumes and collecting candy at a half-dozen other events, Halloween night finally arrived.

Cora wore her leopard costume again, and Violet chose to wear her Alice dress for a second time. (For those of you keeping track, Violet dressed as Tink, Ariel, Cinderella and Alice this season, depending on what struck her fancy.)

To the left of Cora is Chris, and David is to her right, with the brightly shining batman insignia.

Cora and Violet had some elaborate face makeup going on. Cora's was expected, given her costume. Violet asked Cora for freckles (or "dots"), and I heard the bathroom door shut while they went to town with borrowed eye makeup.

Stace and I couldn't stifle the giggles when she emerged, much to Cora's dismay. ("What?! You don't like it?!?!?")

Apparently Violet said she wanted circles around her eyes, because Alice has them, and she seemed happy with Cora's handiwork.

Here's the group outside the house of our young neighbor Enzo, who's wearing the tuxedo morph suit.

Our whole family was happy and relieved when Chris and David chose to trick-or-treat with us. This was going to be one of those days that we really missed the Roberts, and walking around just as our own little family would have been tough.

Cora had no fear this year of the Halloween decorations. And this was the only house that Violet was nervous about. She surprised me this month, with how she wasn't scared of the scary things in the stores around town or on Halloween night.

After getting the girls to bed, a bit late but not terribly so, Stace and I watched the creepy Sleepy Hollow for the first time in years. It was a fitting ending to our Halloween.

Trunk or Treat

On Wednesday, we met up with lots of our friends at Pioneer Club's Trunk or Treat event, where we've had fun year after year since Cora was 2.

This year I helped for an hour manning the "chalk creations" area, and while we waited for the evening to begin, Cora decorated a square with kitties, my leopard's favorite thing to draw these days.

 Cora then ran off to help Rigo pass out candy from his decorated trunk.

I love Lucas's homemade bat costume, with wings that open up. Nice one, Colleen! Cora was also happy that Sophia came to Trunk or Treat for the first time, and the leopards together handled the candy-passing.

 Cora also had fun with her friend Talitha, who is part of her Pioneer Club class this year.

Violet decided to dress as Alice at Trunk or Treat; she emerged from her nap in the dress, very pleased with herself. She loved Trunk or Treat, walking around eating candy and a cupcake from the Cake Walk.

The blue lollipop stained her mouth, making her look pretty bizarre in Cora and Sophia's photo booth picture. It looks like she sneaked into the frame.