Welcome To First Grade

...Continued from yesterday:

    Thursday got off to an early start for my youngest grand daughter, who joined Pinky Poo and myself in the living room at 6:15 am where I was doing some writing and Pinky was doing some hanging with me.

    Soon the rest of the family was up and about the morning's chores.

     Then it was off to school again.   

...where some of the big kids were playing tether ball before the bell.

      After we dropped the girls off at school Tom and I took a leisurely stroll back home, admiring, as always, the flora and fauna along the way.

      Birds of Paradise

     When lunch time rolled around I suggested to Tom, since it was our second-to-last day, that we return to Manhattan Beach,

...for lunch at an eatery called The Kettle.

     And when the end of the school day rolled around we walked back to the school to pick up the girls at their classrooms,

...where, thanks to the perennially fair weather, backpacks can be hung outdoors on hooks outside the classrooms.

    Our youngest grand daughter was having a hard time during the walk home,

...whimpering that she'd had a long, hard, day, that she was tired, that school was too long and there was too much homework. To which her older sister replied with a sigh, "Welcome to first grade."  Big sister then endeavored to cheer up little sister, saying, "When we get home, how about if we make you some limeade?"
      Now, I had not only never made limeade before; I'd never even made lemonade that didn't come from a mix.
       But my grand daughter assured me that she'd show me how it was done when we arrived home.
       First, she directed us to pick some limes from the lime tree in the front yard.
       Then she procured a pitcher which she filled with ice,

...and water.

     It was my job to cut the limes out of their skins,

...after which the skinless limes were stirred into the ice water.

    Then it was time to add the sugar which, I was informed, was the key to making the limeade delicious, as opposed to so-so. If too much or too little sugar was added the limeade would turn out so-so. However if just the right amount was added, I was told,  it would be delicious.
      So we add the sugar a little bit at a time,

...tasting as we went along,

...until it was pronounced delicious.

    So delicious and  refreshing was our limeade that it gave us all a nice mid-afternoon lift, which put us more in the mood to get some chores done,

...and get the homework out of the way,

     When my daughter arrived home from work she proposed that, as all the chores and homework were done, we go down to the beach to play for a while then have dinner out.
       So we did.
       We arrived in time for a breath-taking sunset,

...though the beautiful, surreal purple haze that hung in the sky was, sadly, the product of the wildfires that were burning to the north of Los Angeles.

     We played  in the sand and the surf with the other beach-goers while the sun set.

     When it was dark we walked up from the beach,

...to a little restaurant called Pit Fire Pizza,

...where we shared a variety of healthy options.

     Then we headed for home.

Epilogue:    
     On Saturday morning, October 26, Tom and I left warm, sunny Los Angeles, and by late Saturday afternoon we were back in Columbus, where the weather was cold and rainy.
       However we decided to make the best of it and headed over to a local spot called The Gahanna Grill where it was warm and cozy,

...and nice inside.