Friday Fun

 The girls have been baking - one day after Vi made a batch of chocolate chip cookies, Cora whipped up chocolate chip scones.

 Vi had Melanie and Victoria over after school on Friday, and Char came over too. The kids had fun after lunch, heading to the park to play lava monster and nerf guns. They don't do the park much anymore, but I love it when they do!

 The little girls captured the fort!

Later, Melanie stayed into the evening, and Christina and Cami came over too.

 More baking!

An apple treat.

On Saturday night, I got out for a Moms' Night Out with some Mom2Mom friends. While we ladies were at Chili's, Stace had one of the dads over, and a lot of little girls. It was a loud house when we got home!

Love These Friends!

 We had a free Saturday, and so did Michelle, Rob and Brooke! Love those coincidences.

They came out to see us, and brought their bikes, so we could ride together to Granary for lunch.

We went to the Alamo, where the four adults could share the cheap and tasty margarita pitcher.

The bigger girls had a lot to catch up on, both being in middle school now.

 We then got frappuccinos for the girls at Starbucks. Cora and Michelle posed for a pic to send a childhood friend of Michelle's, who happens to be Cora's science teacher. She loves this teacher, and it was fun to show him the connection.

 Back home for outside playtime - Violet's plane, and a nerf war.

Week in Review

Our church is opening a long-awaited addition, a student building where the junior and senior high students can get together for worship and small groups. 

We went to the Open House to check it out Sunday afternoon. I'm standing on the stage, and in the background, you can see cubbies, dividers and couches where the small groups will meet. Praying Cora will enjoy it here, and learn and grow into the young woman God wants her to be.

Later Sunday, we went to the Canyon Theater Guild to see a Sherlock Holmes play. It was a comedy, with several actors playing many parts. It was great!

 Cora developed a sinus infection later in the week, and ended up missing nearly three whole days of school. When I took her to the doctor, they gave her a breathing treatment and antibiotics.

Violet cracked me up the other day. She said, "Mom! Look at that cool car!"
I answered, "Oh, that old 'Vette? Yes! Beautiful!"
"No, Mom! That Vibe!"
We have a running joke about how awesome Stace's 2005 Pontiac Vibe is. It's going strong at 14 years old.

We had some nature excitement in the yard later in the week, when the cats were after a mouse. It went up the tree, and Spencer (not shown here) went up after it.

We'd found two dead mice in the mulch in recent weeks already.

When we determined that this one was indeed an adorable mouse and not a horrible rat, we decided to save it. Cora and I got it into the bucket and we took it up the hill to set it free.

Silly Violet. I don't think this is what your dad meant when he told you to go get your jammies on!

School Fun

On Monday, Violet's class had a field trip to the water agency. This isn't usually the most interesting trip - the kids go every year, learning something different at each grade level. But Violet enjoyed it.

She and Melanie have grown closer this school year, and they were bus partners on the trip. Look at them holding hands! So sweet!

 Here, Violet is choosing a water question for her team to answer.

 The students then went to the classroom to look closely at pond water bacteria through a microscope and write observations.

 Here's Violet's fourth grade class! They're a great group.

 On Tuesday, Cora's school held a rewards day for its annual fundraiser. Cora raised enough money to attend, and I volunteered to help out. There aren't many volunteer opportunities in junior high so it was fun to be on campus and hang out with some mommy friends.

There were various inflatable fun things, and I helped with the wrecking ball obstacle thingy.

Here's Cora with her girlfriends - Melani, Anna and Violet. Melani and Anna are really tall, so I told Cora to get taller - that's why she's pulling herself up, and looking taller than Violet.

Meadows is an amazing school with amazing mamas - the junior high draws from five elementary schools, but all of these ladies come from Meadows.

Frightful Fun!

 We didn't make it to Fright Fest during the Halloween season, but this year Magic Mountain continued the fun for the first weekend in November.

This year, we went with Colleen and Rigo again, and all the kids came along.

Our favorite witch was on form! We politely declined her offers of chiropractic treatment.

After all these years, it was nice to finally have Violet along. She was OK with the witch, but pretty nervous about everyone else, and truthfully, hadn't wanted to come.

Cora loves it all, though. In fact, after her fun doing her own gruesome Halloween makeup, she is interested being a scare actor when she's old enough.

After a bite to eat, Grandpa, who was on hand taking photos, took Violet home with him.

We closed our night with the slider show, a new addition this year. It was so fun!

And yes, it's another aspect Cora would like to learn and do!

Enjoy a bit of the show.

Disney Date - Part 2

Violet's school was off the day after Halloween, so we took off on our own Mommy-Daughter Disney Date.

She was excited to eat at the Lamplight Lounge again, especially when she looked at the menu and saw that they offer brunch. So, we made our first stop the restaurant to put our name in.  

I wanted to make sure she was clear that a nice meal would take a lot more time than a quick bite, like the hot dog stand we happened to be passing by at that moment.

But she was sure! After getting fast passes to the Toy Story ride, we were seated.

We lived large. Violet had "probably the best French toast ever," while I had avocado toast with steak. We both thoroughly enjoyed this meal! What a view, too. 

Afterwards, she leaned back in that comfy chair and said, "And THIS is why I don't want hot dogs."

I've created a monster!

Violet loves Animation Academy, so we ended up doing two drawings - Piglet and Dante, from Coco. We then went on the Toy Story ride, before heading over to Disneyland.

I've created a monster, Part 2. Violet said she loved my caramel latte! Uh oh!

We had some fun on Tom Sawyer's Island, including just sitting on a bench and watching the ducks. This girl and her ducks!

When I asked her what she wanted to do next, she said, "I just want to sit and look at ducks." Glad we didn't pay for a one-day ticket to watch waterfowl!

Some little boys ran at the ducks, and she said, "They're probably going to scare the quack out of them."

Love her!

We then went to Star Wars Land so we could ride the Millennium Falcon ride. I've only been on it once, and it made Cora sick and she doesn't like it, so I wanted to take the opportunity while I could.

We did some shopping. Violet likes looking at the little trinkets.

We then went back to Star Wars Land for a late reservation at Oga's Cantina. This time, Violet and I re-watched the Star Wars scene with the cantina and Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Obi Wan, so we were more ready to be amazed.

Yum!

When we left, the fireworks started! What a neat thing, to watch from a galaxy far, far away.

We did a bit more shopping as we made our way out, and when we reached the front of the park, we noticed that there was no one "in line" to get their photos taken at that iconic photo spot at the park entrance. An employee offered to take one for us - perfect!

A great pic to end a great day with my favorite fourth-grader!

Halloween

 Oh, how glad I am to still have an elementary school student who need help with class parties!

I planned Violet's class Halloween party, and it all went well. The students created skeletons with cottons swabs and a thumb print, played a game and had a snack while watching the Charlie Brown pumpkin show.

 Here's Violet's group creating a mummy out of her friend Cayden.

 When we got home from school, Violet set about carving a pumpkin. She did the whole thing herself, start to finish!

 Nice one!

 Cora wasn't interested in pumpkin carving, but she was very interested in dressing up. She is a character from a book she's writing, who looks like she needs some medical attention.

 The red contacts are a big part of the character, as is the blood and wounds. Cora did an amazing job on her makeup, after watching YouTube videos.

She competed in her school's costume contest in the scary division, but lost to a boy who had simply put a red sheet over himself. I think the voting system might have had some flaws.

This year, for really the first time, we went trick-or-treating with Violet's friends. It was nice getting to know some other parents, as we went with Aya the kitty and Victoria (Cousin It). Violet was a Pokemon Trainer.

 The neighborhood we walked around had some excellent decorations!

We stopped into Aya's house briefly so the girls could trade candy, that time-honored Halloween tradition.

This year, the one thing missing from Halloween was Jen and Jason's annual party. For a few reasons, they didn't hold one this year, and something seemed missing. I also missed seeing her as a co-room mom for a class Halloween party. It's hard having these big kids grow up on us!