Cora has been going to ballet class on Monday mornings. This is the third time she has started a ballet class and it's going very well this time. Her good friend, Emily, is in her class and was the reason we chose to try this particular class. Cora's teacher is Miss Brigit and Cora really likes her. The class is at a smaller studio than her previous classes were, this one is at the Kinetics Performing Arts Center. Last week was a viewing day and the parents could come into the dance studio to watch the class. Normally we have to wait outside in the waiting room or on the porch and can watch through a window. They do some warm up stretching, practice ballet positions, do some work at the barre, and then they have some fun dancing time. On this particular day they got to dress up like cowgirls in bandanas & cowboy hats and dance around the room on stick ponies. Then they dressed up in pink tutus and pretended to be dolls, Miss Brigit would put them into positions that they would try to stay in, then when she went to sleep on the floor, the dolls came to life and danced all around the room. At the end of class they did their rainbow dance, where they dance around the room with a colored streamer in their hand, Olivia even got to join in on this dance. Cora's favorite dance is when they put painted silk scarves on their backs and dance like butterflies. In the first picture below, Cora is the first girl on the left; she's hugging Emily during the rainbow dance.
Last Friday, the school put on a performance (Cora's first) at Windchime in Chico, an assisted living residence. Cora's class did their rainbow dance, wearing little blue tutus and holding ribbon streamers. They start off inside a gauze cloud suspended from a hoop held by Miss Brigit. The rainbows then break out from the cloud and dance around the room, I think only 3 other girls from her class were there. Cora was in her element, she danced and leaped all around and had a terrific time! She was so precious, she wasn't shy at all and was dancing all out! I had my video camera and thought I caught it all on tape, but alas in all the confusion (Cora's class went first and Olivia had been crying right before it started) I managed to not push the record button and then only caught the very end of her performance. She was quite the little performer, bowing and smiling. She also thought it was very special to get to see Miss Brigit someplace other than at class and kept hugging her whenever she saw her. After the performance was over, the girls gave cards they had made to the residents, Cora was a little shy about this, but she gave her card to a woman who was the great grandmother of one of the other dancers. As everyone left and the place cleared out, Cora wanted to dance some more and got out and danced around, Olivia even joined in.
Cora may have a future as some kind of performer, she loves an audience. Last Wednesday we went out to Vina Elementary with Andrew to watch his school's Christmas performance. After the show was over, the girls both got up on the stage to play while Andrew talked with parents and attended to school business. Cora got up on the risers and sang Christmas songs loudly, she even got some applause! Cora danced around the stage by herself and with Olivia, they played the chimes that were on the stage and just generally had a great time, trying to show off for the people who were still in the room.
Some quotes...
Dec 7th, Cora, "You must never harm my companion. We are here to save Maid Marian." I think her companion was a stuffed animal, she was talking and playing with Olivia.
Dec 8th, Cora, "This one is almost 100 calometers high!" Estimating height of something on the table.
Dec 11th, Cora, "I'll try to, but I'm not saying I will." I had asked her to help me find a ring that she had been wearing.
Dec 13th, Cora, "I love the whole family as much as the Earth is big!"
Dec 14th, Olivia, "Oopsy daisy! But that OK." Olivia's cheerful common response when something doesn't go right or someone makes a mistake. She is very quick to say, "But that OK," if she drops something, something gets dirty, we can't find something, etc.
Early December Blog
The first weekend in December, the girls and I made the annual trek to Lake Tahoe to visit Grandma & Grandpa Ford at their time share condo. We met up with Uncle Lance & Aunt Barbara in Roseville and we all drove up together. It was a bright & clear weekend, great for driving, but that also meant there wasn't a whole lot of snow. It had snowed pretty recently and there was enough snow to play in, but it was very powdery and wouldn't stick together for snowballs or snowmen. Cora & Olivia still had a lot of fun.
The girls and I went out to play in the snow on Saturday and Sunday. Cora made snow angels and looked all over for "snow cookies," these would normally be like snowballs that you hold in your hand and eat, but since the snow wouldn't stick together it was pretty difficult. Olivia was pretty much fascinated with eating as much snow as she could, and both of them spent a lot of time scooping snow up by the handfuls and putting it in their mouths. A few times they even just layed down on their bellies and licked the snow right off the ground! On Sunday we spent some time exploring the creek that ran through the snow. The girls threw things into the water, like leaves and ice, and were fascinated by the frozen icicles in the little cascading areas, we called them waterfalls. We also went exploring a bit, following animal and human tracks in the snow, one set of prints was made by some unknown creature that we couldn't figure out. We even found our own tracks and followed them back.
It was a nice weekend for visiting and catching up on things. Grandma & Grandpa Ford live in Georgia, so we don't get to see them very often. Jonathon came along this time, he usually stays home so he doesn't miss school, but the girls had never met him before and I hadn't seen him since Lance & Barbara's wedding, over 6 years ago (he was much shorter then). Cora liked playing with Jon and he even played barbies with her. The girls were treated to some fun toys from Grandma & Grandpa and family in Georgia. The magic wands from Aunt Lataine that made sounds when you swish them were especially fun, and we all discovered that sometimes all you have to do is walk past them to set them off! For both Cora & Olivia (especially Olivia) the spiral stairs up to the loft were a big draw and they went up and down them a lot. We went out to lunch twice, the girls did pretty well, we brought along coloring books to help keep them occupied. We tried to go out to a pizza place for our first lunch, but they were only open for dinner, much to Olivia's dismay (she really cried) and since Olivia was so set on pizza, we ordered it delivered for dinner. On Sunday we met up with Aunt Sue and Uncle John for lunch, I hadn't seen them since my wedding I think, and it was really nice to see and talk to them as well. We usually look forward to seeing Great Grandma Ford, Aunt Marlene & Uncle Johnny, Aunt Marilyn & Uncle Tony while we're in Tahoe, but we missed out on their visit, they arrived the next day. We wish we could have stayed longer.
Thanksgiving Blog
For Thanksgiving we ended up staying home and having a quiet, relaxed day. Andrew enjoyed some much needed time off work and spent most of his time with the girls. We had a small turkey breast roast and gravy with sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. The day after Thanksgiving we went down to Roseville for our traditional second Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings. Grandma Sandy, Grandpa Tim, Uncle Lance, Aunt Barbara, Aunt Jenny, Devin, Sean, and Breanna were there, a smaller crowd than usual, making for a warm and cozy gathering. We spent the night and the girls had fun at the neighborhood park.
Before Thanksgiving, colder weather started to arrive and we've had a number of frosty cold mornings. The tomato plants in the garden have died, and some other tender plants have died or gone dormant. The leaves have continued to fall beautifully all around the yard.
We got back Cora's preschool pictures from CDL 2 recently. Cora has really been enjoying preschool a lot. She especially loves playing with Talia, Jessica, and Melissa, among others. Cora is very social and really enjoys all her friends there. But one of her favorite things to do is to play super heroes with Vincent. There are always so many fun things planned to do there and Olivia never wants to leave when we drop off Cora for the afternoon. There is a song that Cora learned there called "Slippery Fish" that she loves to sing at home and Olivia now sings and does the movements right along with her. Cora has learned a lot of new songs that I had never heard before and it's fun to see her try to teach them to Olivia. The themes lately have been harvest related. They grew pumpkins, beans, sunflowers, strawberries, etc. in a little garden plot and planters. They have tasted different apples and nuts, and have roasted pumkin seeds and made peanut butter. There are 2 class guinea pigs and there have been an assortment of different animals in class; frogs, spiders, earth worms, tomato horn caterpillers, chinchillas (a parent has a petting zoo), they even had some butterflies that emerged from chrysalises.
Cora has been going to ballet class on Monday mornings. This is the third time she has started a ballet class and it's going very well this time. Her good friend, Emily, is in her class and was the reason we chose to try this particular class. Cora's teacher is Miss Brigit and Cora really likes her. The class is at a smaller studio than her previous classes were, this one is at the Kinetics Performing Arts Center. Last week was a viewing day and the parents could come into the dance studio to watch the class. Normally we have to wait outside in the waiting room or on the porch and can watch through a window. They do some warm up stretching, practice ballet positions, do some work at the barre, and then they have some fun dancing time. On this particular day they got to dress up like cowgirls in bandanas & cowboy hats and dance around the room on stick ponies. Then they dressed up in pink tutus and pretended to be dolls, Miss Brigit would put them into positions that they would try to stay in, then when she went to sleep on the floor, the dolls came to life and danced all around the room. At the end of class they did their rainbow dance, where they dance around the room with a colored streamer in their hand, Olivia even got to join in on this dance. Cora's favorite dance is when they put painted silk scarves on their backs and dance like butterflies. In the first picture below, Cora is the first girl on the left; she's hugging Emily during the rainbow dance.
Last Friday, the school put on a performance (Cora's first) at Windchime in Chico, an assisted living residence. Cora's class did their rainbow dance, wearing little blue tutus and holding ribbon streamers. They start off inside a gauze cloud suspended from a hoop held by Miss Brigit. The rainbows then break out from the cloud and dance around the room, I think only 3 other girls from her class were there. Cora was in her element, she danced and leaped all around and had a terrific time! She was so precious, she wasn't shy at all and was dancing all out! I had my video camera and thought I caught it all on tape, but alas in all the confusion (Cora's class went first and Olivia had been crying right before it started) I managed to not push the record button and then only caught the very end of her performance. She was quite the little performer, bowing and smiling. She also thought it was very special to get to see Miss Brigit someplace other than at class and kept hugging her whenever she saw her. After the performance was over, the girls gave cards they had made to the residents, Cora was a little shy about this, but she gave her card to a woman who was the great grandmother of one of the other dancers. As everyone left and the place cleared out, Cora wanted to dance some more and got out and danced around, Olivia even joined in.
