A lesson in weather, at Knott's Berry Farm

Our good friends have the same holiday as we have (all of Thanksgiving week) and we all have passes to Knott's, so we are going there for a few hours each morning. We leave when it starts getting crowded. The weather here in southern California has been sunny and cool. It was 54 degrees at 10:00 a.m., but eventually reached almost 70 degrees later in the day. My California-raised ten-year-old does not seem to understand that sunny is not the same as warm.

She and her friend Colby (also 10 years old, just much taller) wanted to ride the rapids. I got permission from Colby's mom, although she did say she did not want to hear any complaints from him about being cold!

The kids rode the rapids three times in a row! I stood on the bridge and took pictures. The first time, Frances and Colby were alone in the 8-passenger raft. For the next two trips, they were joined by two more kids who were about the same age.

From there, thoroughly soaked, they decided they should go on Perilous Plunge. This is another water ride, with a boat which holds 20 people, and goes down an almost vertical drop. Walking toward the ride, I could see that the entire area was pretty much deserted. Hmm... wonder why?



You can see by their faces at the end of the ride that they are re-thinking the wisdom of their choice. Frances said that there was so much water thrown up by the boat as it hit the pool, she could hardly breathe!

Both kids were shivering, and were thankful that it was time to leave the park and get some lunch. Frances was thrilled that the car had been sitting in the sun, and was toasty warm inside!

Competition season is over....

... and I have mixed feelings about that! I love the competitive and performance aspect of gymnastics. Frances is not thrilled with competing, but this year at her new gym, she has made incredible progress, which has been a lot of fun. At the state level meet, she was 4th on vault (9.475), 5th on bars (9.250), 4th on beam (9.300), 3rd on floor (9.250) and 4th All-Around (37.250). Not her highest scores on any event, but quite a respectable end to the season. We are hoping that she will move up to level 5 (and I am praying that she continues to love gym!). She is genetically a good match for this sport, and people say she has a great deal of potential. But I can't make her want it...

The change of seasons in So Cal

I love our backyard tree. It's one of the reasons I bought this house. In the summer, the entire backyard is shaded by our Chinese Elm. However, when fall arrives, our tree takes it personally! We arrived home one afternoon, following a day of Santa Ana winds (hot, dry, very strong gusty wind) and found both our front and back yards covered in leaves. The girls were great about helping me to rake and sweep. We just about filled our yard trash container, and had a fun time doing it.

Halloween 2011

Hard to believe that three years ago, we had just stepped off the plane from China with little baby Abigail...
This year, Frances decided that she wanted to be a waffle for Halloween. I asked one of the really artistic, crafty ladies at work about what I might use for the costume. She suggested upholstery foam, so we visited a re-upholstery shop near home and bought a few yards of the foam. The hardest part was figuring out how to draw the squares so that they would be uniform in size as well as symmetrical. I am not a math-girl, but I am compulsive, so it had to be done right. I finally figured it out to my satisfaction, and with an exacto knife and some spray adhesive.... voila! A waffle.

Abigail was much more easy-going about what she wanted to be. She was fine just looking through her dress-ups and finding the princess dress that was the least "scratchy." Add to the dress a pair of sparkly silver sneakers and a soft tiara (both of which she already had) and she was a pretty pink princess.

We went to a "Fall Festival" with friends on the Saturday before Halloween. It was about 80 degrees, which just seems weird for Halloween weather. But we put on some sunscreen, and the girls played games, jumped in a bounce house, and Abigail rode a pony.

This year, Abigail drew a picture of what she wanted her jack-o-lantern to look like, and I tried my best to carve her little pumpkin to match the drawing. This year, Frances asked if she could help carve the big pumpkin, and because we use a relatively safe, serrated "pumpkin cutter" rather than a standard kitchen knife, I agreed. She did a great job, with minimal advice from me, and she is always a big help in separating all of the seeds from the pulp. Frances loves to eat pumpkin seeds, and is willing to do the work to get them! I cook them in a little olive oil and garlic. Yum!

On Halloween night, we went to Old Town Orange, as has become our tradition. We have friends who live there, and we all have a pot luck, as well as helping stock the treats (there are literally thousands of trick-or-treaters in that neighborhood). Both girls went out trick-or-treating, although they did not go together. Abigail went out first with Lori, and I took Frances a while later. When Fran & I returned, both girls handed out candy, and then I took Abigail out and Fran went with Haley. We all had fun, but got to bed late!