A Bowling Birthday Blast

When Cora woke up Sunday morning, she was seven years old. 

This year, we kept Cora's birthday celebration simple: Bowling with the family and our closest family friends (who live locally!). No school friends, small guest list, and dinner and cake at our house afterward.

Cora loved it, and now that she's seven, she was such a help Sunday getting our house ready for company. She cleaned her room beautifully, and even made my bed!

Brooke, Maya and Natalia and Lucas and Liana all took part in the bowling.

Now, even the baby sisters are all looking like bigger girls. They all will be four in 2014.

Cora gives Violet a hand, while Uncle Bill aims for a strike.

Cora helped make and ice her cake.

One of Cora's favorite presents was the Furby, an electronic alien animal toy that talks and moves. Cora wanted one after playing with one at Brooke's house, and Nan and Pop fulfilled her wish.

Happy Birthday, Cora, our beautiful seven-year-old. We love you!

Birthday Weekend Fun

Cora's birthday weekend started after school on Friday, with a trip to Scooter's Jungle.

Colleen and her family met us there, and we saw several other friends there too.








For dinner, we planned to eat out at Pei Wei, and Colleen and Rigo came too, but the place was packed. Instead, we ordered our food to go, and enjoyed dinner at our house.

On Saturday, Stace and Cora went out to breakfast together. He likes taking one of his girls out most Saturdays, one at a time, usually to Carl's Jr. This time, it was a special birthday weekend treat for Cora.

Then, we went over to Meadows Park. I roller-bladed, Cora rode her bike, Violet rode her balance bike, and Stacey jogged. Then, we played a bit of family football.

Cora is very excited to be 7!

The girls have been sharing Cora's room most weekends. Here they are, on Cora's last night of being six.

We will miss six! Cora has really come into her own this year. She loves school, loves her friends, loves her family, and enjoys reading and physical activity. She's still strong-willed and determined, but most of our days are not as challenging as they were a few years ago.

Jetting Off

On Monday I flew to another Woodward factory in Rockford, Illinois, as part of a process and product benchmarking exercise. I've taken a few trips around the country and even up to Montreal, in Canada, before but this was a little bit different. A bit special.

I got to fly on the companies corporate jet.



A work friend and I drove to the far side of Burbank Airport to a small private terminal. We were greeted by the pilots of the seven passenger jet and told we could board when ever we liked.
No check-in, boarding passes, security or departure lounge hassles. I didn't even have to show any ID.

The plane was amazing. Comfortable leather seats, wood veneered interior and a fully stocked galley, with snacks and drinks.



The take off and landings were really smooth and the flight went by with very little turbulence.

When we landed at Rockford it was cold and snow covered. It was a good job there was a car that was at the bottom of the steps when we got off the plane. Talk about the rock star treatment. During the day it was about 12 degrees F (-11 degrees C) with temperatures in the evening getting down to about 7 degrees F (-14 degrees C).

Also on the trip were the operations director and manager, the engineering manager, the continuous improvement engineer and the leader of our facility.

The next day, Tuesday, was spent at the Woodward plant were I toured the shop floor looking at their assembly, test and machine shop processes. In the evening we all went for a lovely meal at a local Japanese restaurant.

More snow in the night, which was still falling after we ate breakfast, meant a careful car ride back to Rockford airport on Wednesday morning. Lucky for us we had a chap on our team who had previously worked at Woodard Rockford for a few years and was used to the driving conditions.



Our next trip was a short flight to Traverse City, Michigan,where we were given a tour of a company that supplies parts to Woodward and has some good examples of automated assembly techniques. 
When we were finished we went back to the small airport where we re-boarded our plane and headed to North Platte , Nebraska, for a re-fueling stop, before flying back to Burbank.














This was one trip I will never forget. Especially when I'm waiting to get through security and the customs line with a million other people when coming through LAX. How will I cope?

Another Week in Review

This Week in Review format is working, so here goes again.

On Tuesday, I met up with three of my bridesmaids, Melanie, Kelly and JT. It's a great feeling to spend time with friends with so much shared history, and now to all be in the mommy stage together.

I'm holding Jonah, JT's 1-year-old, and Sienna, Melanie's 3-month-old, while her two-year-old Heather is staying close. Kelly's got her hands supporting 6-week-old Noah, and Callie and Violet are playing.

I've written already about our Pioneer Club fun on Wednesday. On Thursday, with no more gymnastics class, Violet and I met Colleen and Liana at the library for story time.

The girls got to use instruments - Liana banged her sticks together, while Violet insisted on rubbing the ridged surface together.

 Then we went into the children's area, where the girls enjoyed playing computer learning games and selecting books to check out.

 Then we ate lunch out, and the girls were very, very silly.

 Later Thursday, it rained. Yep, it actually did! We're in the mist of an official drought, so getting any rain is cause for cheering and donning the raincoats and boots.

 On Friday, Rigo and Liana came by to drop off an tiny bicycle for Violet. They had been given two of the same size. Violet fun up and down the driveway, before we took off the training wheels. I didn't want her getting used to riding with them on; we know from Cora's experience that soon Violet will be able to go straight from the balance bike to the two-wheeled pedal one.

 Later Friday, Violet and I walked to get Cora, and we checked out the construction on the school campus. A new building will replace some aging portables; Violet has enjoyed seeing the construction equipment over the last month.

Violet wanted to try Cora's scooter, and she actually did very well on it. Our baby is less of one each passing day - she can reach the bathroom lights, now too.

Pioneer Club Cheer

Pioneer Club on Wednesday was a lot of fun for the girls.

In Cora's Voyager class, the children planned a Valentine's Day party for the parents.

We decorated (and ate) cupcakes, had other snacks, wrote out "love coupons," made a craft, and spent quiet time with a parent in a cozy reading corner. It was a nice time for the kids and parents alike.

Cora's coupons included "I will be nice" and "I will rollerskate with you."

 Meanwhile, Grandma helped out in Violet's Skipper class, at the request of Miss Morgan. The lesson was on grandparents being a part of the family, and my mom read the script very well to the class.

 It also happened to be an end-of-unit award night, and the Skippers told all the parents how they can have joyful hearts and happy faces.

 Morgan is a great teacher and Violet loves being a Skipper.

 Cora was honored for her upcoming birthday with a sticker and crown.




















She loves her teachers, Mrs. Egami and Miss Cassie. She is enjoying this year of Pioneer Club very much.

After all the children received their badges and displayed what they learned, they sang. Cora especially loves this part, putting a lot of effort into singing the songs and correctly doing the dance and hand motions.
Thanks, Grandpa, for the photos!

Cora's Zoo Trip

In the zoo me and my Mommy and Daddy and Violet see lots of animals!

The ocelot is really interesting.it likes to hide sometimes from people. it is really scard!
  

This is me standing next to a whaterfall.

I like to see the meerkats  they are so cute .I love them.

 

We like to see the tiger. if you see one in the wild just freeze!I got a nice picture dont you thingk?

The giraffes are really cool! I love the giraffes.I love the long necks on them.Giraffes eat a lot of leavs 

 

The peacock is really cool ! I love it.because I like it when it fans its feathers. It is a fabulous sight to see!This is a male peacock! female peacocks feathers are duller then males.

By Cora 

Fairies, friends and farewells

 Time for another Week In Review post, for the week that closed out January 2014.

On Monday afternoon, we went to the mall to meet Auntie Mel, who wanted to take Cora to the Disney store to get her a little something to thank her for helping Melanie with her reel.

Cora was very excited to make this trip without Stace and me, so we took Violet to the play area. Violet was able to negotiate these swinging step stool things, and very proud of herself.

Later, Cora returned, with a plush fairy doll. Because Disney had a special sale going on, she was able to buy Violet a fairy doll for $1 of her own money. Such a sweet big sister! Violet was thrilled.

 Tuesday was a fairly normal day - Violet and I went to Mom2Mom, and we went out for ice cream as a family in the evening.

On Wednesday night, I had a special treat - JT and I met at a Spanish restaurant about halfway between our homes, where she treated me to a birthday seafood paella and sangria! We left the dads in charge, and all went well. It was fun to get together just like we did all those years ago, when we both were single, just-out-of-college friends.

On Thursday, Violet and Liana had their final gymnastics class. Colleen and I had bought Groupons for five months of classes, and they both enjoyed it. But, Stace and I decided to not make the monthly commitment.






Violet made Coach Shannon a card, and I was impressed with her drawing of her coach. This is the best drawing I think I've seen her create; she included hands with fingers, and feet with toes.

On Friday, I got to help in Cora's class. She and her classmates spent some of their recess time using/playing with thermometers. Cora took hers to the classroom sink to bring the temperature down with the cold water.