Violet's Pre-Birthday Fun

As we like to do, Violet celebrated her birthday for a while.

After her party on Sunday, she went to school on Monday as Star of the Week, complete with fancy poster.

She had some lovely presents to open, and with her fabulous reading skills, she enjoyed reading all her cards.

Grandma had to work during the ice skating party, so she and Grandpa took Violet out Tuesday after school for a special trip to the mall. Violet got to choose a piece to paint - a fairy!

She also got a chance to play at the play area, and choose a new tsum tsum at the Disney store.



















Then, Grandma and Grandpa brought her to us at McDonalds, where we were having dinner with a roomful of school friends and teachers. It was the annual McTeacher night, and we got to see Mrs. Hawthorne and lots of friends.

Violet opened her gift from Grandma and Grandpa, which included this outdoor light-up cat figure.

Also in the run-up to Violet's birthday is Melanie's birthday! We celebrated with her over the weekend, too.

Skating Into 6!

 We had a few ideas about what to do for Violet's 6th birthday.

But when she created a small, girl-only guest list, and I got an email from the Ice Station with a birthday party discount code, having her party there made all kinds of sense.

After all, she loves ice skating, and Cora also had her 6th birthday party at the Ice Station.

So, on Sunday afternoon, we gathered with a few of her favorite friends to celebrate together.

 Cake choice was easy for this girl - chocolate, of course!

 Here's the group before headed downstairs to get our skates on.

 Unfortunately, this is the best photo I have of Violet skating at her birthday party! For shame!
But, Grandpa couldn't stay for the skating part - he had to take Cora to her softball playoff game.

Yes, you read that right - Cora couldn't skate at Violet's party, because she had a playoff softball game, which was scheduled less than a week before the party.

Cora was crushed, but handled the disappointment as well as she could.

Here are the young skaters during their 15-minute lesson - Vi was one of the few with skating experience, and she looked very good on the ice!

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!).

Friends

When Aunt Patty was with us for the Color Run, she and Cora went up on the hill, Cora's favorite place to play.

Aunt Patty helped her make a teepee from long sticks in the canopy of a huge oak tree (not the oak in this photo, but another nearby). This became the perfect tree house for our outdoorsy girl.

Cora wants to visit her tree as often as is practical, and whenever friends are over, she begs to take them.

Here, she shows her friends Vivian and Violet (along with "little Violet") her creation.



















We had Patrice and her kids over on a recent Friday after school, and they loved the hideout, too.



















Friday afternoons are the best! We have a group that usually heads over to the park for lunch; someone will pick up $5 pizzas, and the kids all play and have fun.

Tidbits

Lizards. They are everywhere! But why, oh why, are they in my playroom???











Morgan hosted a Mom2Mom girls' night out (or night in, since it was at her house) over the weekend. We had a great time eating, drinking and painting.

Because I already have a painting with two birds up in the house, I decided to paint a Star Wars scene as a backdrop for Cora's new Star Wars shelf.

It's not the best painting on earth, but the look on Cora's face when I showed it to her made it seem like it was. She had Star Wars stickers that were the right scale for the painting - perfect!

Not to be outdone, Stace printed out Star Wars scenes, and he and Violet pasted one to cardboard for a set for her Star Wars tsum tsums. They also built a cardboard vehicle.

The tree behind our house has been in failing health, and big branches have been falling off. Our neighbor had it trimmed majorly, which was good, but sad that our morning shade over the playroom is gone.








A children's consignment sale produced a bumper crop of fantastic new shoes for Cora, and me as well, for about $40. Cora got pairs of Clarks, Toms, New Balance, Keens and a pair of pink sandals. I found a barely worn pair of Skechers and Sanuk flip flops. 

Stace and Cora had a dinner date not long ago, at Rubios. We both love having these special times with our girls.

A Day at the Races

A few weeks ago, Jimmy had the idea of going to see the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Once a year, they shut down the streets of Long Beach and turn it into a a racing circuit for one of the legs of the Indy Car racing series.







Keith at work was also interested, so bright and early on Sunday morning, we headed to Long Beach.

Keith and I met up with Jimmy on our way there, and we went to Long Beach in one car.

When we arrived, the Indy cars were taking part in their practice session as we made our way to our seats along a section of the course. We had picked seats that were on a hairpin bend. We had great views of the cars coming into and out of the tight corner, and up towards the start/finish straight.

As luck would have it, there was also a huge screen just to our right (top photo), so we were able to watch the racing as it progressed around the circuit. Before the main 80-lap Indy Car race, there was a sports car race, with everything from Aston Martins to Bentleys, Porches to Ferraris.

The Indy Car race was very exciting, with the lead changing a few times. The weather was gorgeous, sunny but not too hot. A fun day was had by all.

A Grand Day Out

 Over Spring Break, I had a few ideas that didn't come to fruition. One was a trip to the pony rides and Travel Town at Griffith Park; we haven't seen the ponies since Violet's third birthday party, and we haven't been to Travel Town since Cora was 2.

With Stace off to the Long Beach Grand Prix on Sunday, I thought I'd take advantage of a day off school with the girls and take them to Griffith Park.

Juliana, Maya and Natalia met us for the pony rides, and the girls had a great time together.

 Violet rode on the medium-paced smaller ponies, which trotted for one lap and then walked for a second lap.

 Cora and Maya were tall enough for the "big ponies," which also trotted one lap and walked a second time around.

 Natalia wasn't feeling her best, so Juliana took her girls back home after our pony-riding fun. My girls and I then drove around the hill, past the L.A. Zoo and Gene Autry museum, to Travel Town.

Here, numerous old trains are on display, and we rode on a small train around the perimeter.

A building displays some very old cars, like this circus train wagon.

We had a great time looking around; it was one of those lovely days out together that only could have been improved if Stace had been with us. But, we knew he was also having a grand time.

On our way back home, we stopped for an early dinner at IKEA, where we hadn't shopped in a few years. Upon entering the cafe, Cora and I both were flashing back to the many meals we shared there when meeting my friend Melanie, back before Cora was in school. She and I both felt nostalgic, and a little sad, that so much time goes by so quickly.

After dinner, the girls entered the free IKEA supervised play area, and I did a little quick solo shopping. Then we headed home, where we met up with Stace and exchanged our stories from our day.