Weekend Work and Play

Melanie had her biggest wedding of the year on Saturday, and Stace, Violet and I helped. 

The wedding was at a Simi Valley venue we've worked at before, but this time it was only warm, not hot, so that was a blessing.

All done!

Stace worked on hanging the blue trumpet flowers. 

I loved this venue, more than the super fancy beachy venues we've helped at. (Not that this wasn't equally fancy or expensive...just more to my taste with old world charm.)

On Sunday, Stace and I went to the annual Cowboy Festival, and made sure we saw more music than we have been able to watch the last few years.

In the vendor area, we watched this artist burning a design into a hat. Violet would have enjoyed that.

Below, we have part of the living history area.

A new corner of the festival at Hart Park featured the Western town set Violet and I saw during a Halloween event in Newhall. It was a perfect addition, and many people were taking photos. This was one of the great things about former festival host Melody Ranch: you were walking around a replica Old West town.

Also over the weekend, I saw two plays with Christina. We saw an amazing musical called Ride the Cyclone on Friday night, and a psychological thriller called Wait Until Dark on Sunday, after the Cowboy Festival. Both were great!

Spring Break

It's Spring Break week!

I was happy to have tea with Christina - with her working nearly full time, we don't see each other often enough. It was great catching up at a new tea room on Main Street in Newhall.

In the evening, I had dinner with Christina, Tiffany, Liz and Melissa.

Meanwhile, Stace has caught the cold that went around our family, and was sick enough to need to stay home! Very unusual.

Thankfully he recovered enough to be able to attend the Stereophonics show he and Jim had tickets for, also at the Wiltern.

We spent part of a day on a tour of New York Film Academy, an acting conservatory and college she's considering for the future.

It was a great afternoon, followed by some shopping in a part of Burbank with a lot of vintage stores - and Porto's! - an L.A. favorite Cuban bakery. I picked up goods for dinner and a nice coffee.

 NYFA had an amazing library with film scripts and movies - you can take out a script, and there were hundreds, and watch the film after reading through the script. Great way to see how things come together, and what changes are made.

Violet got a pair of pants she'll wear to Ren Faire at a thrift store in Burbank. The girls are spending this week getting their outfits ready - while watching shows, they're creating their own chain mail jewelry.

On Thursday, Colleen and I got together with the girls and went thrifting. We ended up going to a few stores, and also to San Fernando Coffee Co. 

Stace and I got out to see Cats, the Musical, at the Canyon Theatre Guild. Our friend Jill was one of the lead cats. 

We also went to the Cowboy Festival for a couple of hours, getting our favorite peach cobbler and watching a bit of music.

I also went through some of the stuff that had been under Violet's bed, and discovered my collection of cloth diapers. The ones that were in good shape, I was able to send to a mama who covered the shipping cost. Hopefully they can get some more use.

Stace got the cat treats out, and, surprise, found himself popular.

JT and Jim and the kids stopped by on their way home from Yosemite on their spring break. Callie had fun with Winston.

Cowboy Festival

Our Saturday with Emily in town was a busy one. After hiking, we went home and got ready to go to the Cowboy Festival. In her years of living here, she never went to the fest, so it was nice to introduce her to one of SClarita's highlights. 

Here, we're having the famed and beloved peach cobbler. 

 

Stace and Violet came, too, and also Ellie. Mel and Nick were working, so my parents were babysitting, but were also volunteering at the festival, so we had her for a few hours. It was so fun to see the festival with a young child again, who wanted to be there (unlike our dearest Violet).

Here, we're checking out Heritage Square and the old houses and assorted other buildings. 

There were children's crafts and activities, and free carnival games. Ellie used the Nerf gun to shoot at targets...

...and took part in the ring toss.

Action shot! See the ring in the air above the bottles?

We shared some dinner along with the cobbler, and then went to the nearby Newhall art gallery where another show opening was taking place, before heading home for the evening.

Weekend Things

Some bird met a bad end in our yard. I don't think this was from our cats - they don't pick apart and eat birds!

We had enough leftover lamb from Easter, that I threw it in the freezer and then made this lovely Lancashire Hotpot with it. Oh yum!

The Queen's English car show took place Sunday, and Stace and I enjoyed walking around. SO MANY cars this year!

Cora wanted new makeup for her upcoming show, so we went to the makeup store. This consultant was so fast at transforming her! Wow.

We went to the Cowboy Festival, but this year it was held on Main Street in Newhall instead of Hart Park, or Melody Ranch. Good for the businesses on Main Street, but not good in general, in our opinion. Just felt like a Western-themed street fair with food trucks. Meh.

BUT, most importantly, we got the Cowboy peach cobbler - a perennial favorite. Still delicious.

Cousin Fun - Cowboys and Softball

 We are so excited to have Karen, Martin, Ben and Chloe with us! We've been looking forward to their visit for a couple of years now, and here they are!

They flew into San Francisco a few days ago, and have traveled down south, taking in the sights. They arrived in SClarita on Friday evening, and it was so fun showing them our home and having dinner together here in California.

On Saturday, we started our day with Violet's softball game at the park.

 We then moved on to the Cowboy Festival - I was so happy it happened to be this weekend. We wandered around the vendor booths, listened to music and watched the historical activities like the blacksmithing here.

 And, we ate! Gotta love the peach cobbler a la mode.

Cora was successful in both of her tries at throwing the ax into the cork target!

This fiddler was awesome! He entertained us while we ate.

It was a warm day, and we were all tired when we got home in the early evening. We rested and watched a movie before having a simple dinner at home.

Cowboy Festival

We had fun at the Cowboy Festival on Saturday, where the girls were greeted at the entrance by the amazing rope guy who's been at every festival that I can remember.

After checking out all the shopping booths, we chatted with the Native American man about flint arrowheads.

We then moved over to the axe-throwing area. It's harder than it looks.

The blacksmith was interesting to watch, too.

We also watched the Messick Family Singers, a Newhall group we love to see because they're talented and they're a part of our community. Cora really loved listening to them, and wanted to meet them afterwards.

It was warm enough to need a cold Slurpee after our Cowboy fun. And because our girls will only be 7 and 11 for a few more days, I had to get a photo of them in front of 7-Eleven. Aren't they sweet?

Cowboy Festival

We had a great time at the Cowboy Festival on Saturday afternoon, after a full morning of softball and birthday partying.

For the second year in a row, the festival was held at Hart Park, because Melody Ranch again was in the middle of filming. We didn't go last year, but with a super cheap Groupon deal this time, we were excited to check out the new location.

Many of our favorite characters were still there, including the trick roper who tied up Cora.

Many vendors were set up along the edge, but without the cover of Melody Ranch's Western facade, that part felt more like any craft fair or swap meet.
Still, the park's expansive grassy areas and huge shade trees were welcome in the afternoon heat.

We checked out the various re-enactors, with the Civil War camps, wigwams, and blacksmith's setup. 

The girls were excited to see the children's activities, complete with archery, a quick-draw gun fight, gold-panning and ax-throwing.

Yes, I said "ax throwing."
It was harder than it looked, but Stace got the hang of it, as you can see in this photo and video clip.

Oh, and there was music! While the girls panned for gold just behind the seating area here, Stace and I enjoyed this string trio.

We were steps away from Heritage Junction, and the historic homes were open for touring. The girls enjoyed playing with old wooden toys on display inside the Edison House.

Here, the girls are inside a tiny schoolhouse.

We then went to the food court, where we met up with my parents and had a late lunch.

As always, we loved the peach cobbler, which we ate while listening to an outstanding band.

The girls weren't interested in listening to an hours' worth of music, so they went just outside the seating area to play in the grass.

Soon, we saw they'd made up their own baseball game. They broke up small sticks to use as balls, found a bigger stick for a bat, and took turns pitching and hitting.

It was absolutely adorable, just like those sepia photos I've seen of the boys playing makeshift stickball in the big city alley. I was so proud of them, finding such a great way to play together (with no fighting!).