Swimming and Skating

JT brought up Callie and Jonah for the afternoon Wednesday, and it was a hot day. Perfect for pool fun!

From the heat to the ice...

Our ice rink reopened! So exciting. The Ice Station closed last March during quarantine - and closed for good. 

The community rallied, and the city bought the rink and refurbished it over the past few months. It reopened in April, and on Friday, we went with friends to check it out.

 

Weekend Fun

We had a free Saturday, so Cora and Stace embarked on a little project for the game room, or formerly known as playroom. 

While they were out, they got lunch and ate in the car. More on this project to come! 

Liana spent the night, and the girls had fun with Seb and his favorite piece of pizza.

On Saturday evening, we went to the newly reopened bowling alley to celebrate Zach's birthday. 

Zach's parents had an extra lane, with enough room for Violet to join. She wasn't thrilled to leave the house, though. But Cora had a great time!

It was a fun night, and so great to be out doing normal things again! Lucky Zach, since his 13th birthday was right in the middle of Covid closures.

Tidbits

Grandma took Violet out to the Tea Gardens for her birthday. It was a nice hour in a lovely setting!

Another lovely setting... our back yard,where Stace enjoys relaxing after  a hard day's work. Seb enjoys relaxing with him.

Along with relaxing...working in the garden. Stace and Violet built this potting bench out of spare lumber, and you can see here the finished corner, with mulch and composter, ready for a return to action.

Spencer has been in action too. At least, we guess it's him. Found this little guy on the lawn - looked it up, and I think it's a baby gopher. Long digging claws, short tail. Our neighbor across the street has some gopher dirt piles. Hopefully Spence caught him over THERE, and not near our own lawn.

Cora cherishes her job as the "chucker of dead things onto the hill." 
 

Stace set up the big ladder to get a pic of our latest round of baby house finches. So cute!

(Sadly, I found one on the lawn a week later. Sigh! and a young rat a couple of weeks ago. But I don't mind that so much...)

Violet Turns 11!

Our Violet is now 11 years old! She's fully a "tween" now, between a kid and a teenager. Here she is on the morning of her birthday, with her waffle in one hand and the birthday badge from Nan and Pop in the other. (And her face mask, on a lanyard, around her neck.)
 

Violet had a full school day on her birthday, but after school, Melanie and Liana came over, and Cora led them in a D&D adventure. It was Melanie's first time playing.

Cora takes her role as DM (Dungeon Master) seriously, and we even went to Hobby Lobby to buy these pretty little bottles to put "potion" into.

Violet asked for a cookie cake, which we enjoyed after we ate orange chicken from Mandarin Wong, her favorite.

Happy Birthday!!!

This reminded me of the time Violet helped Cora blow out her candles, when Cora turned six.

We love this girl! 

Weekend Fun

It had been a few weeks since the kids went to the airsoft field, but the stars aligned and they were able to go on Saturday.

Pam took these cool pics of the kids. 

The kids all came over in the evening for some pool/spa time, and then we watched Knives Out again. Such a great film.

Bring on summer vacation!

Violet spent her weekend nights in her favorite bed, on the couch. 

The new cat bed made for a soft pillow...

...until the rightful owner returned.

*rightful owner is a disputed title*

On Sunday, we checked our a new bakery in a new multi-use development in Old Newhall, across from the library. Loaf offers Japanese pastries featuring super soft and fluffy dough, and popular lavender lattes. We enjoyed what we bought!
 

Friends Make Life Better

Our school's Foundation paid for this fun enrichment night - a Zoom painting party, with a guided art lesson, all supplies included.

Because the lesson took place the night before Melanie's birthday, Violet and I went over to their house for a painting/birthday celebration.
 

It was neat to see how all the children put their own artistic spin on the sea turtle.

With our children in some sort of schooling, JT and I were able to get together for breakfast for the first time since the craziness began.

We had breakfast in Montrose and then took a walk, and ended up in a high point in a park with this view of downtown Los Angeles. 

We ended our time together with afternoon coffee - perfect! 

We shared lemons from my parents' tree with our friend Jenn, and she gifted us this delicious lemon blueberry loaf. Oh my.

It didn't last long!

I sent Jenn this pic, and asked if she offered free refills.

Weekend Work and Play

Stace installed his finishing touches on our school library loft treehouse project this weekend. He had a great vision to finish off the nooks by facing the wood edges with what looks like tree bark. 

I'm biased, but I think it's stunning! The only slight trouble is, we don't know when students will be able to use it because of crazy Covid rules.

The project is dedicated to the family that passed away three years ago in a car crash; Saachi loved reading.

We celebrated by going out to lunch with Kelly and Yass on Sunday - haven't seen them since November, sadly! It's such a relief that indoor dining is open again. We went out for sushi, and Stace enjoyed everything he tried! 
 

Back to Big Bear!

The girls and I did something totally spontaneous over Spring Break. Our friend Jeff invited us to join them - the next day - on a short trip to the mountains to get in one more day of skiing. 

Stace couldn't drop work that quickly, but he was happy for the girls to ski again, so he was fine with us going. So, on Wednesday, Jeff and Jenn booked a house and we packed up and left!

The house we rented in Big Bear was amazing - since it was still available, and midweek, we got a great deal. It had a loft with some games for the kids, a hot tub on the deck and a SAUNA inside! I never knew I needed a sauna, but now, it will be on my list of must-haves in any rental house. 

(The night that Jeff and Jenn and I enjoyed the hot tub, it was of course chilly when we got out, and it was LOVELY to warm up in the sauna after our cold walk indoors!)
 

We had some wildlife, too - a child left the sunroof open in Jenn's car, and in the morning we saw raccoon prints on the outsides of the cars, and a mess of a leftover jam sandwich on a seat! This little guy was still hanging out across the street.

We also spotted a coyote on the street, and pretty Stellars Jays.

Jeff took Cora and the boys to Snow Valley, a different ski resort than the one we went to in March. This one was less fancy, and less expensive. The snow is now all man-made, since it's been a while since it snowed for real (and it's in the 60s in the day!).

Violet didn't want to go skiing, but then, for the last few months, she hasn't wanted to do much of anything that brings her out of the house. We tried to have her go, but she then got sick at the rental place, so I went and picked her up.

Cora really enjoyed her day. She and Zach were up and down the runs, all day long, since it was so empty on an April Thursday.

Here's Cora and Dylan. 

Cora tried some jumps - why not, it's her second time on skis! Once, she hurt her knee, and took some time to rest (and eat lunch). But she did land one once!

Cora took this from the top of the mountain - beautiful! It was surprising to see so much snow on some of the mountains, 

Meanwhile, Violet felt better after lying down for a while, and we three ladies went out for a wild burro hunt. Jenn's friend had told her about the wild burros, descendants from burro races in the 1950s.

Later, we enjoyed a charcuterie board in the backyard by the fire pit.

When everyone got home, Cora and the boys needed to relax - they were exhausted! We later played a little pre-dinner Trivial Pursuit.

We made a few stops on our way home Friday - a park with a zip line, a little nature walk and a part of Big Bear Lake with a cool-looking island.

It was a great couple of days! More memorable than sitting at home would have been. And we're happy Cora was able to ski again.