The Opera

We went to the Opera last night!  A girl from our ward is in USC's production of The Tempest, and got tickets for us!  Another girl in our ward agreed to babysit, so last night we got to go on a nice long date (operas=long).

(Waiting for the opera to start)

This opera is the same words as the Shakespeare play, but set to music.  However, they did leave out some lines, including one of my favorites!  But it was still excellent.  The music was especially amazing in the last scene.  

I'm so grateful for the two girls in our ward that made it possible for us to go, and I'm also grateful that Glenn is such a good sport!  I wouldn't say that operas are really something he is interested in (at all), but he had a good time and said he enjoyed it.  

Glenn had a birthday

As you can see, Glenn's parents came to visit us for Glenn's birthday!  It was on Saturday, and Scott and Terri were here from Friday night to Monday morning.  On his birthday, Glenn and Scott went to the USC football game (USC won, just for Glenn, I'm sure!) which took up most of the day.  But in the morning, we had french toast, and in the evening we went out to dinner at Yang Chow's, a delicious restaurant in Chinatown.

In these pictures, it looks as if we are about to eat this delicious pumpkin cake I made, when in reality, we were all too full from dinner!  We all tried a tiny piece, then wrapped up the cake, and I took it to church the next day.  

Can you believe Glenn is 27 now??  So old!

Our first trip to the flower district

Glenn's parents are coming today!  And Glenn's birthday is tomorrow, which is the reason for their trip.    I thought it would look festive to have flowers this weekend, so yesterday Violet and I ventured into the flower district!

It is always a little stressful to explore a new place downtown, because you never know what parking is going to be like, or exactly where anything is.  But this trip went perfectly!  We found a good parking spot and a really big flower market you could enter for free.  

It was so fun to see all the different kinds of flowers, and we found exactly what we wanted: bright yellow marigolds!  I figured Terri is the only one who will appreciate the flowers, besides me, and yellow is her favorite color.  

The best part is, they were so inexpensive!  Only $1.50 a bunch, so we bought two bunches.  Thus, we have an elephantine flower arrangement on our table.  Seriously, it is as tall as about one and a half Violets.  Also, I tried to arrange them, but they look pretty lopsided.  But sometimes your mom isn't there to arrange flowers for you, and you just have to do your best!

They smell so good and are so bright, they make me happy every time I see them!

Persimmons

Did you know persimmons are in season?  We snatched some up at the farmers' market yesterday!

And guess who loves them? Violet couldn't get them in her mouth fast enough!

This is the face of a girl who charmed all the vendors at the farmer's market and has a face smeared with strawberries to show for it. (But it was already getting dark when I took this picture, so it is hard to see how messy she was.  By the way, it was only like 4 o'clock when I took the picture, dumb daylight savings.)

Frosting cookies

On Halloween, we got together with the other moms and kids from our ward and decorated Halloween cookies.  It was really fun, and Violet even decorated her cookie a little bit, although she definitely ate three times more frosting than she put on her cookie.  After her initial attempt to frost, I would decorate her cookie, and she would eat everything off of it, and then we'd start over.  Until she ate the actual cookie, and then we were done.

My friend Brittany took these pictures.  Thanks!  And also thanks for letting us make a huge mess of your house!  (Violet had a great time with the sprinkles, and the evidence was everywhere.)

Braids

Notice anything different about Violet??

She has braids!

And in my completely un-biased opinion, her new hairstyle is just about the cutest thing in the world.  (Until her hair gets a little longer, the braids are not very sturdy.  They only look this cute until the first time she rides in her carseat, and then they look pretty ragged.)

Popcorn Popping

The other day I was singing Popcorn Popping with Violet, and she did all the actions before I could even get to them!  I was so impressed, because I don't even sing that song with her that often.  Last night, we video taped her doing it, but Glenn kind of had to hide behind me so she would do it instead of being distracted by the camera.  So it is kind of hard to see her at the beginning.  Happy Friday!