Friendly Dinner Date

 We spent a lovely Saturday evening with Rob, Michelle, and Brooke, with dinner at Chi-Chi's in Simi Valley and playtime at a nearby park.

The girls had fun together at dinner, after Cora got over the indignity of not getting to order juice with her meal.

 When it came time to pay, Rob and Stacey had fun with the waitress, throwing in their "mancards" and asking her to split the bill between them.

Rob gave Stacey his mancard last year. It's provided plenty of laughs.

 Then we took a short walk to a big park, where the girls ran out some of their energy.

Violet expended so much energy, she needed help getting back to the car.

A milk before our drive back home...

It's always nice to see these friends!

Disney Fun

 For my dad's birthday, my parents went to Disneyland, and took Violet Mae along with them. They would have taken Cora as well, but she already had plans to attend Vivian's birthday party.

They spent their day in California Adventure, where Violet somehow acquired a pair of glowing Minnie Mouse ears on a headband.

 Violet got to meet Elsa and Anna this time, after spending time in Olaf's winter wonderland, which featured real snow and sledding(!).

Ice cream for dinner? On a Disney day, why not?

Violet offered a joke while eating her ice cream:
"What is Mickey's favorite treat? Mouse cream!"

Birthday Crazy

 March is the month of birthday parties for our girls!

This weekend we attended three parties, and there are several more on the calendar next weekend (not to forget Grandpa and Auntie Mel's March birthdays!).

On Friday afternoon, Cora helped Vivian ring in the Great Eight at the Ice Station. When the party continued at Vivi's house later, Stace and I grabbed a quick date night. (Violet was celebrating Grandpa's birthday at the Happiest Place on Earth - more on that later).

On Saturday morning, Violet and I went to the 5th birthday party of her preschool and church friend, Izzy. Here, Violet is playing a balloon-stomping game, where the children try to pop balloons tied to their friends' feet, while keeping their own balloon intact.

Violet was the big winner!

Izzy had a "Frozen"-themed party, and one option for the guests was watching the famous film while they ate their birthday cake.

Later on Saturday, Cora attended David's 10th birthday party, at MB2 Raceway, where the children raced go-karts.

Talk about fun!

Cora's race times in the second race weren't as good as the first; mainly because she kept waving to her adoring fans.

Cora was one of just a couple of girls invited to the bash, not that she ever minds that. Cora proudly calls herself a tomboy.

She was a little nervous about driving the car at first, but absolutely loved it.

A Special Reunion

When I was 10, 11, 12 years old, my favorite friend was a freckled strawberry blonde named Claire. We shared many playdates, sleepovers and birthday celebrations. We also worked together on a mystery novel of sorts - me the budding writer, and Claire the developing illustrator

We lost touch as we went on to high school, though I heard snippets of how she and her family were doing - her father's continued success as a directing animator for Disney, their years in Paris, marriage, children.

Claire is now a respected artist in her own right, with a successful Disney career of her own. This past Saturday she hosted a launch party for her first illustrated children's book.

I was honored when she reached out to invite me to attend, and further touched when she rushed over to give me a hug, some 20 years after we'd last seen each other.

The launch party was packed, with fans of Claire's art, her family's work, Disney, and other longtime friends filling the upstairs at the venerable Vroman's bookstore in Pasadena.

Claire started by drawing some quick pictures as she described the process of coming up with the inspiration for her beautiful book, "Once Upon a Cloud."

Violet certainly enjoyed the talk beforehand, raising her little hand to answer the questions Claire posed to the children. (Cora wasn't able to come, as she was out with Grandma and Grandpa on a whale watch.)

Claire then read an oversized copy of the book, with a couple of dozen children in front, on tiny chairs and on the floor.

 We combined our afternoon in Pasadena with a family get-together with Jenny, Jim, Callie and Jonah.

Their children also had a fun time at the book release and signing party, with a drawing activity, bouquet-making (which ties into the book's storyline), and nibbles.

Vroman's is a very cool bookstore, with this beautiful tile mural outside. We walked down a few blocks to Old Town Pasadena for dinner; it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Thanks to Jenny for sharing her photos of Claire's drawings!

St. Patrick's Day Fun

Cora and Violet had a lot of fun preparing for the arrival of the Leprechauns on St. Patrick's Day. They spent their Monday afternoon making a variety of traps in the playroom, working together well with lots of smiles.

Cora, of course, no longer believes in magical creatures, but she does a great job encouraging her sister to take part in the fun.

Violet went to bed excited to wake up to a trapped leprechaun, so she could get his stash of gold.

But after bedtime, the leprechaun struck, and dismantled all the traps without leaving any gold! So unfair.

Thankfully, Violet took it all in good fun in the morning (meaning, no tears!), and both girls were willing to eat their cereal with green milk.

That evening, we had corned beef and cabbage, though Stace will still insist we don't celebrate the patron saint of Ireland.

Cora's Whale Watch

 I went on a whale watch with my Grandpa and Grandma last Saturday.

We saw so many animals. 9 animals!
Last time I only saw dolphins and seals. Well I will tell you what I saw on the whale watch.

We saw 2 baby great white sharks. One we only saw it's shadow but the next we saw the whole body. It was very big!!!
I was not scared but glad to be in a boat! 

I also saw a oil tanker out to sea I even took a picture of it.

Look how small the boat is next to the oil tanker!

Oil tankers get oil from the bottom of the sea.

 Next we saw dolphins leaping up and out of the water. One even swam under the boat!

The water was so clear so I got to see the dolphins swimming under the water!
It was so cool.




  

 This is me standing on the deck with my Grandma.

This is were we saw all of the animals, sharks and all. we also saw sea lions,seals,and some different kinds of sea birds
pelicans,seagulls,even baby ducks!

I also put my hand out to catch the water that was at the side of the boat spraying up out of the water.










We saw 9  whales! We saw their fins and we also saw their spouts. One was so close to our boat that we saw the body!  The waves were so clear, and one swam under water and then jumped back up! One was really, really close to a little boat that was next to us, but we had to stay 10 yards away. I wanted to be a little bit closer.

There were lots of mountains behind, so it made a pretty scene with the whales jumping up. We saw the barnacles sticking to the whales when they were close to the boat. We also got to the islands out to sea. Last time, we got to go all the way around them, but this time we went halfway. We also saw caves in the rocks at the islands. The way the water sprayed out of the rocks was so cool.
The whale watch took three hours - two hours to go, one hour to get back.

Fun with Friends

 Let's see, what have we done this week?

Mom2Mom, helping in Cora's class, a long walk and breakfast at Dink's - let's stop there for a moment. Thursday is my walking day, with Christina and Melanie, and often Christina's twin Tiffany and our friend Melissa. This time, we went all the way to Granary Square for coffee and breakfast.

Later on Thursday, Melanie, Violet and I went to the dry cleaners, to meet up with the lady who does a lot of our family's alterations.

She remade my wedding dress 12 years ago, and now she will do a lot of work on the dress I'll wear in Melanie's wedding. Oh, the joys of being five-foot-nothing.

On Friday, we went to the park with friends after school for a picnic lunch. Also, my friend Sara (a photographer) took some lovely photos of Cora.

Here, we have Hailey, Alli, Cora, and a pair of Emilys.

The girls wanted the fun to continue, but Emily's little brothers needed a nap. It was the perfect time for an impromptu playdate at our house.

They ended up getting the blender out for smoothies, but then just crushed ice and drizzled it with juice drink concentrate. Yep - homemade snow cones!

Snowy fun

The girls have been itching to play in the snow, and we wanted to make it happen this year. This weekend, a bit of the white stuff remained in the San Gabriels from a storm last weekend. Since it's March, we figured it might be our last chance to do a bit of sledding this year, so on Sunday, off we went on the 90-minute drive.

As we got closer, and the snowy mountain tops came into view, Violet exclaimed, "There must be a billion of snow!"   Not really... but there was just enough.

We drove past the town of  Wrightwood and saw people playing on the side of the winding mountain road with their sleds, but didn't find a great spot to stop.

Plus, we needed a restroom after the long drive, so we kept going till we hit the Grassy Hollow Visitors Center. What a find! Restrooms, great parking, and a field-trip worthy display of taxidermy animals from the surrounding mountains.

The naturalist or docent lady pointed us toward the "hollow," a two-minute walk from the center, with enough snow for all the safe sledding we desired.

 Isn't he cute?

No, we didn't build him. He greeted us when we walked down a snowy path to another sledding track.

 Here's the little guy Stace built.

 Violet liked him better with a pine cone hat.

It was such a beautiful day! Nice to spend some time with my mom, too, who loves these outings even though she hates the cold. Dad had to stay back home because Benny has his puppy training classes on Sundays.