Theatre Showcase

On Tuesday night, we got to see Cora's district Theatre Festival scenes, interspersed with choir solos from the school's choir.

Cora is Macbeth here, in a choreographed fight scene. It was so impressive, with blood packs to add to the realism. 

This scene won an award at the competition. And Cora, as I already said, won a Judge's Choice award for her overall work that day..

I so wish I had good photos - these are just from the audience with my cell phone. Next year, we need Grandpa back in action! 

The moment of death - that's a head flying!

Macduff, the victor.

Here's the school's musical number, Live in Living Color, from a musical centered around the con artist in the film Catch Me If You Can.

And, I don't have any good photos of Cora in their scene from The Play That Goes Wrong. But Cora was funny!

Weekend Fun

 

It was a showery Saturday. Stace and I went to the monthly car show at the Porsche dealer, where along with fancy new sports cars, we saw this classic Ford Anglia.

Later, we took a walk, took the girls to Bricks for dinner, and Stace and I watched Tombstone.

 

The weather improved and we could go to church in person Sunday (since our girls prefer sitting in the outdoor amphitheater, the weather matters). After church, we went across the parking lot to Valley Marketplace, where we spotted these imported English chocolates!

We had to show our support. See the Quality Street boxes behind the girls' heads, too. We also got the girls boba in the in-store tea stand.

Later Sunday, Stace, Vi and I went to check out the swiftly flowing creek at the Placerita Waterfall Trail. It felt like we were very far from dry, dusty SClarita!

So pretty.

That evening, we watched "To Catch a Thief" with Cary Grant.

Week in Review

After her big theatre week, capped off by not sleeping much the night before the theater festival, Cora got sick. So, she missed out on helping at a wedding in L.A. with me and Violet. 

We were in a cool part of L.A., so we took advantage after Melanie released us. We went to the Grove shopping center and the adjacent L.A. Farmer's Market, a historic gathering of international cuisines and foods. We ended up getting empanadas, which are similar to pasties. We then hunted for boba, which took us to the Beverly Center mall. Then, finally, home. It was fun having a city adventure with Vi. 

On Sunday, we had a home day after church, and I tidied up and baked bread and oatmeal cake. 

Yes, I'm back to making oatmeal cake again, my old standby healthy breakfast I've been making since Cora was a baby. It will be a good, filling food for Stace at work, as we dive headlong into a new eating/lifestyle plan for him. It's not that he's unhealthy, but he had some bloodwork that caused his functional medicine doctor recommend some changes. We read through all this paperwork Sunday afternoon. 

Violet and I took a walk at the Iron Horse Bridge trail, with the Santa Clara River flowing nicely.

We've had a second rainy year in a row! 

Also, Vi went to the orthodontist and learned that she can be DONE with braces forever! We weren't sure if they'd recommend a second phase, but she is good to go. Very exciting. She had a mold made of her mouth to create a new invisalign-style retainer, like Cora and I have.

Vi and I have also been doing some shopping this week. The store Loft keeps periodically emailing me codes for $20 off, so we went in a couple of times this week and Vi ended up getting some stylish black pants.

I was cleaning out the freezer and found these sad hamburger buns. Winston thought they were worth a try, though.

Yep, just a normal cat, doing normal cat things, like eating frozen hamburger buns.

Don't you get between Winston and his bun!

Both cats will completely disappear under the dishwasher.

And also, I came home from morning school dropoffs to find SOMEONE had wanted to try the oatmeal cake.

Theatre Success

 Another district theater festival in the books, and another great award for our favorite actor.

Cora and Jay performed the death scene in Macbeth, when Macduff kills Macbeth after a sword fight. How awesome is that - an actual choreographed sword fight, ending with the head of Macbeth (Cora) flying. They won tons of cheers for their performance Friday, and a third place award in the Small Group Shakespeare category.

Cora doesn't really have photos from the day, and I wasn't there, so I'm taking nearly all of these photos from the theatre's Instagram page. 

These actors performed a scene from The Play That Goes Wrong, and yes, things literally went wrong, but the judges loved it and they were awarded 2nd place in the Large Group Contemporary category!

Cora also took part in her school's Large Group Musical entry, and she had a nice length solo in the song.

Most exciting for us, Cora was chosen for a Judge's Choice award, given to the five top performers of the day. Seven schools competed, so there were probably 150-200 actors involved. She was honored alongside two actors from her old high school, Char and Sam (on the right)

We celebrated that night with celebratory boba.

Most of the awards were little trophies, other than the Judges Choice awards; Cora got this little pin.

Here, Cora and Jay are putting their Shakespeare trophy in the theatre lobby trophy case. Congrats!

Cora has even more to celebrate with theatre - she will be portraying Velma Kelly in the school production Chicago in May! We're so excited and proud of her. (This was the birthday card we got for her.)

Week in Review

A lovely Saturday - Cora had rehearsal and Stace took her in the MG. Later, we had lunch with Kelly and Yass. Then, a Wildwood Canyon hike with Violet, before dinner at Chick-Fil-A and a wander around the mall. Here, the girls are shopping together. 

On Sunday, Stace and I had quite a cultured day. We went to a silent film festival at the Newhall Family Theater, taking in two films by local hero William S. Hart. After a quick dinner, we went back out to his namesake Hart High, to watch a musical written and produced by two Hart graduates. It was a dystopian Disney musical, with lots of songs.

It rained a lot Sunday and Monday, and the girls were off again Monday for their four-day weekend. I had lunch with my friends at a new eatery, Mendocino Farms, and then took Cora to her singing lesson and shopping for some clothing necessities for her upcoming shows.

Cora is getting ready for the district's theater festival on Friday. She had a long rehearsal Wednesday, and after rehearsal on Thursday came home disenchanted because her sword for her Shakespeare scene broke, and the blood pills they'd bought weren't usable.

So, as is typical for Cora, she set about fixing things. We went out to buy empty gel capsules and corn syrup, so she could dye the syrup and create new blood pills.

Thankfully, they were able to find a replacement sword.

Vi and I took a walk behind Granary Square to see the Santa Clara River after all the recent rain. Wow!

Looks like an actual river. Let's get out the kayak!

Also this week, we had two different architects come out to see our room project, as we continue to collect architect quotes.

Cultural and Kitty Fun

 I read in our local paper about a masterpiece painting from the 17th Century that had been stolen by the Nazis, and now finally returned to its rightful owners, with one of the descendants living in our town.

The family decided to donate the painting for display at the Skirball Cultural Center, a Jewish museum near the Getty in Los Angeles. Violet and I went down to see the exhibit and the rest of the museum Thursday afternoon. 
Here, we're looking at ancient archaeological finds from the Holy Land.

This is part of the exhibit on the wealthy Bloch family from Czechoslovakia whose goods were stolen. These items had been saved by being sent abroad before their home was taken over.

But this 17th Century painting, Isaac Blessing Jacob, by Johann Carl Loth, was missing for more than 80 years before finally being returned to the family last year after decades of legal work.

We enjoyed this exhibit, and the others. It's nice having more free time during the week with Violet for other types of learning.

In other educational news, Seb is teaching Evie how to drink from the bathroom faucet. See how she studiously watches the master...

...and then tries to figure it out on her own. First she thought that you hit the water with your paw. Eventually she got the hang of drinking the drips.

Meanwhile, where was Winston during the lesson?

Well, he hasn't quite mastered getting onto the bathroom counters, so he busied himself by trying to get the swinging blonde toy above his head.

The girls had Friday and Monday off for the President's Day weekend, so I enjoyed coffee and Bible time in bed with my three amigos.

Speaking of three amigos - Vi met up with her school friends, Lea and Sophia, at the boba place Friday. It was the first time she's met with them outside of school, so we were all proud of her for setting up the date.

Seb isn't always annoyed by his new little brother.

But, often, he is.

Valentine's Day

 Violet and I started our Valentine's Day (after her yearbook class) with a walk at Whitney Canyon, where we saw some damage from our recent rain storms.

Beautiful girl in a beautiful setting...

Vi and I were pleased to see two kestrels on this walk.

Every now and then, my Google photos makes something worth saving. First photo from Yosemite, second from Newhall.

Melanie delivered a flower arrangement, which we put on the mantle to keep it away from the cats. Evie was very intrigued, however, and was trying to measure the jump from couch to mantle. Stace and I also enjoyed Valentine's drinks from Havana Savannah at lunchtime.

I made heart-shaped pancakes and bacon for dinner, after taking Cora to our local costume/dance store to buy two pairs of shoes for Chicago. After dinner, Stace and I watched The African Queen with Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.