Spring Break, Week 1

We started off our two-week spring break with a friend-field trip to Placerita Canyon. The girls and I picked up pizzas and Cooper and Wylie, and met up with Sue and Jen and their kids.

As I figured, the kids had a great time running around exploring, while the mamas chatted.

For two mornings in the week, Cora and some of her friends were invited to take part in a leadership/mentoring program organized by Cooper and Wylie's mom, Pam. She's a high school teacher. It was a good experience for the kids, both the younger ones and the nearly grown ones.

After Tuesday's leadership academy, we took Big Violet with us, and later met up with Jen and some of the boys for lunch at the Habit. 

On Wednesday, we got together with some of the same kids for hiking at Towsley Canyon.

The kids stopped by these California poppies to admire them, before Cooper came back around the corner to show off a dead lizard.

Boys!

After Thursday's leadership class, a big group of us took the kids to an awesome park in Saugus. It was fun watching these big fifth-graders playing like kids ought to play, no screens in sight.

It was a warm enough day that ice cream was calling our name (and a big Coke for mom) before we headed home.

Thursday evening, we met up with Grandma for a couple of hours at Magic Mountain.

Friday was hot enough that we had friends over to swim. The pool hasn't been heated yet, so it was quite cold, but did the kids complain? You know they didn't!

They discovered, after turning on the hot tub, that someone had poured bubble solution into the water. Uh oh! Well, April Fool's Day was around the corner.

What a fun week we had!

Air Show

We went to the Los Angeles County Air Show in Lancaster this weekend, where we saw some beautiful planes like this B-17 Flying Fortress as well as many other WWII bombers and fighters including the Spitfire, P-51 Mustang, B-25 Mitchell, and the P-38 Lightning.
Stace was happy to show us the JSF F-35 Lightning. One of his main projects is the assembly and test of the aileron actuator. See Violet's hair? It was super windy, and that wind was cold.

Stace is pointing out the actuator his company designed and builds for this V-22 Osprey. Woodward's hydraulic power units convert the V-22 from vertical to horizontal flight.

Here is a de Havilland Vampire, a British jet built in the early 1940's. The Vampire was the first jet plane to cross the Atlantic Ocean. It was also the first jet aircraft to take off and land on an aircraft carrier. Of the 10,000 built, only 22 Vampires are left flying today.

Our eyes were fixed skywards for the always impressive F-22 Raptor air display. The power and technology that allows this plane to pull off the most amazing maneuvers is incredible. Mom and Dad came, too, as an air show ticket was our birthday present to Grandpa.

Besides the planes outside, there were some fun and educational activities inside the tents. The engineers from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman were on hand to show the children examples of the technologies used in the aerospace business. 

Here, Violet is looking through the virtual reality glasses to see exactly what a F-22 Raptor pilot would see on a flight from his cockpit.

The girls made flying crafts to put into a wind tunnel,to see how how different designs would catch the air and fly out of the top.

Violet watches hers fly upward.

The girls also used the Snap Circuits to make electrical circuits to light up bulbs and activate buzzers.

Here's Stace explaining to Cora how the flight controls operate on this helicopter rotor head model.

Rain = Green

We've not had a very rainy winter, but the past few weeks have brought us a few inches. The girls had fun walking out of school with their umbrellas open the other day.

This week is full of half-days and parent-teacher conferences, as we get ready for our two-week Spring Break. The girls are doing well in school, according to their teachers.

The rain has brought some lovely green to our local hills. On Friday, my friends and I took a nice walk through the valley in the Summit neighborhood, on our way to our weekly coffee together.

On Saturday, JT, Jim and the children came up for a visit. We took them to Placerita Canyon for a walk.

The kids loved playing in the stream, what little there was of it.

Stace and Jim checked out the old oil drilling equipment and info board.

Then it was time for dinner and drinks - Stace has gotten into making Black Velvets when we have friends over.

Violet loved having a friend over - she and Callie spent hours in their Calico Critter world.

Wizard of Oz

Our little Scarecrow shined like a superstar this week in the school's traditional production of The Wizard of Oz.

 

Wizard is now an after-school program for second-graders, rather than an in-school activity for first-graders, as it was when Cora took part. Cora's first-grade teacher, Mrs.Vasquez, runs the whole thing, teaching two casts after school for the past two months.

Violet has loved her experience, and practiced after school twice a week because the main characters went to both weekly practices.

Violet really did an outstanding job as the Scarecrow. She performed her lines well, stayed in character, and sang with her solo with a sweet, clear voice. We are so, so proud of her!

After the play, the children received the bricks we helped make - Stace cut and painted them all, while I and the girls helped a group of moms and kids with pasting on the photos and tying on the tags.

Here's the cast from Violet's production!

The children did a dress rehearsal for the school on Monday, and Cora was very proud of her little sister! All this brought back happy memories from Cora's time in Wizard, when she was Dorothy.

Snow Day

We've been wanting to play in the snow this winter, and this weekend it appeared to be our last best chance - a storm in the week brought snow to the local mountains, and we had a free afternoon on Sunday.

We drove up to Frazier Park with my parents, and thankfully found enough snow to play in, in an area just before the CHP started requiring chains.

We found this cute little hut, which appeared to house pipes, to keep them from freezing over. We thought it made a nice photo opp.
(Violet didn't agree.)

 But Violet did have fun making snow angels.

Stace is such a harsh father.

Everyone had fun sledding.

It was a great day together!

On our drive back down the mountain, we stopped at the Flying J service station, for fuel and hot chocolate. Who did we bump into, but the Vasquez family, who also spent time in the snow!

Mrs. Vasquez is directing Violet in the Wizard of Oz next week, so we've spent a lot of time with her lately. But we didn't share our plans to go to the snow, or to the Flying J!