A Day At the Museum

This is one of the coolest places in our city. It's an old (10 story?) warehouse or something that has been changed into a huge children's (and adult's) museum. It's made up of amazing climbing structures that take you from floor to floor, giant slides that take you many stories down, one even goes from the top to the bottom in a winding slide, a circus performed by local kids who learn at the circus school there, and many other super cool things. You could spend a couple days there and probably not see everything.

We went with our new friend, Bella. She is the niece of a co-worker of Richard's. She spent a few days hanging out with us this summer because her aunt thought it would be more fun to play with us than sit at the office while she worked all day. She was right. We had fun with her.

Shalyn turns 17

Shalyn moved in just in time to have her birthday with us.
She wanted red velvet cake.

We went out to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse. Yumm! Then home for cake.

She got swim goggles from Richard. This girl can rock some goggles.

Adorable.

Meet Shalyn

Who is Shalyn? She's that cute girl in the yellow dress. She is our new houseguest for the next year.
Here's the story: She's a senior this year. Her family moved away. She's Maddie's friend. They hatched a plan. She lives with us now.
It's going very well. She's fun to have around. She misses her pets badly. No, we're not getting one just for her.

Harry Potter Opening Night

Everyone got into the spirit of HP for the midnight showing of the final chapters. Maddie and Shalyn went with friends and Emma and I went with other friends. Can you tell who everyone is?
(Sybill Trelawney, Minerva McGonagall, and Hogwarts student)

Kiara turns 16

And who is Kiara? She is Maddie's adorable friend who used to be our neighbor. They've moved away, but those two have been able to find a way to get together a few times since the big move.
This summer, Kiara got to spend a month with us. It was a surprise for Maddie and what a wonderful surprise it was.

Kiara turned 16 while staying with us. She designed the cake and I made it for her. We had a party with some of her friends. Low key, but a fun get-together.

Fine Arts Awards

This was a cake Maddie's friends made for the event. It's vegan.

Maddie received many awards on this fine evening. Several denoted her progression through the International Thespian Society (ITS). It's kinda like the Oscars for high school.

Maddie with her friends.

Maddie's friend who saved the show by stepping in to fill a part with one day notice. We love him for that, and also just because he's so cute, and nice, and talented.

Maddie and her friend won first place for a dramatic speech competition.

Ellie's Baptism

Ellie was baptized last week. She was very excited. Some of that excitement may have been that she got to share the day with her BFF, Izzy. And thank goodness she did. Izzy's mom just happens to be really talented at putting together cute invites and programs and nice finishing touches that I usually don't even think of. Thank you, Izzy's mom. :)
It was very nice because my parents and Ellie's older sister, Ryan were able to come. We thought the other grandparents were going to make it too, but were surprised with a last minute realization that that wouldn't be the case. But, that is another story. Maddie was also absent as she was in a show that night.

Grandma M did make Ellie a nice little baptism dress though. It turned out very cute. Not only that, she made Lauren and Ellie each a new "Easter" dress. Lauren is wearing hers in the picture above. I made Ellie and Izzy's "baptism" dresses. They went to the fabric store together and picked their patterns and fabric. Their fabric is matching, just different colors. I made the cupcakes. The day turned out well. The important thing is that Ellie is now baptized and thrilled to be so. She's so excited to be working on Faith In God goals and trying hard to always choose the right. I'm so proud of her.

Easter

On a super cold, blustery, wintery April day, our subdivision held its annual Easter Egg Hunt and Activity Day. It's very handy because it's basically held in our back yard. There were pony rides, face painting, jumpy houses, burgers and dogs, and the Easter Egg Hunt. There must have been enough eggs filled for around 60+ kids, but because of the weather only about 8 kids (in my kids' age range) were there and I brought 4 of them (2 friends). They ended up rolling the wagon over to the yard area and using that as the "basket". They filled the wagon with candy filled eggs. Literally hundreds of eggs were in there. Thank goodness they decided to drop most of them off at the neighbor friend's house. We only ended up with about 80 or so.
We tried something different for our eggs this year. I colored small pasta and rice and we decorated blown eggs by gluing the pieces on. As it turns out, this project requires more patience than most of my kids had. The younger two ended up just covering their egg in glue and rolling it around in the pieces. Whatever. It was fun and different from the same ol', same ol'.

Twins

For some reason during a week in April we had a lot of twinsiness at our house. Richard and Ellie dressed in their Angels gear for the Father/Daughter day a school.

Then, a few days later, I was in my usual caual attire and next thing I know I have a mini-me.

And so, on that same day, Lauren and her friend decided to be twins too. How fun!

Talent Show Winners

Maddie and her friends won first place at the high school talent show! It was sooooo good. They sang "I Know It's Today" from the Shrek musical. Of course, Maddie was the part of young Fiona. It just sounded so great! There were some talented kids there, but this performance was pure entertainment. The cash prize of $150 was split between them. They were some cute and happy girls. Way to go, Maddie!

Wacky Hair Day

Lauren made quite an impression at her school when she showed up like this for wacky hair day. She was thrilled with it. She found out that it wasn't the best hairdo for playing limbo though. :)

Several people have asked me how it's done. Here's the trick: Gather the hair you want for the spike, grab a wad of egg whites and blend it in (especially at the roots), comb into place again, blend in a bit of hair glue (got 2 B glued brand), work quickly and get your spike perfect, hold while you blow dry on low cool until it is stiff. Repeat with all spikes. It may take some time. Be prepared for that.

St. Patrick's Day

My kids love to get into the spirit of St. Patrick's Day. It was a beautiful day and they were having fun. I love Lauren's shamrock skirt.

Honk Jr.

Emma has just finished her musical, Honk Jr. It is the story of the ugly duckling. It's actually quite cute. Emma played the part of a flight attendent goose. She did a great job. Her song was very cute and well-done. Her moment in the spotlight was shared with her friend Kassidi. They were the lead geese. Her other friend, Anna, was Mother Duck. My little girls really liked this show and have been singing some of the songs almost non-stop. ". . . You can play with your lunch before you eat it. . ."

Clue, The Musical

Sadly (and lamely), this is the only photo I have of the musical that Maddie just participated in. Yeah, she's not in this photo. I do have some thumbnails that I stole from Facebook of her, but I can't seem to get them on here.
Anyway, the show was cute. Different. Well done. Maddie was in the chorus and did a great job. If you've never seen this musical, or heard of it, the cool thing about it is that it calls for audience participation and it has something like 29 different possible endings, depending on what the audience picks. Also, you are playing the game as the show goes along. They hand out a clue sheet with the program and you can actually be solving the game as the show continues. It's a pretty cool concept for a show. If I find some better pictures I will add them to this post later.

Homecoming 2010

These are Maddie's besties.

This is Maddie's very good friend, Sam.

Already with the shoes off and the evening had just begun.

This past weekend was Homecoming for Maddie. She went with a group of friends (not a date) which seems to be the way of it these days. I actually quite like that. Unfortunately, we had a big horse-riding adventure planned for the same evening. This left Maddie out of that and I wasn't there to help her get ready and take pictures and stuff. But, such is life. Everyone is so very busy. She looked adorable and had a great time with her friends.

Maddie's Birthday

This post is late in coming, but Maddie has turned 16! No, she's not dating. No, she's not driving. And it's all okay. (Just thought I'd get those out of the way right up front because everyone asks.)
She had a fun party here at the house. Lots of friends came. They played games, ate food, listened to music, and sat around the fire pit. She got flowers (because I remember Ronda gave me flowers when I turned 16 and I thought it was so cool), cutie balloons, and a Twilight themed birthday cake. (It's supposed to look like Bella's cake. I fully intended to do a three-layer cake, but once I got started, realized that that was A LOT of cake. I couldn't imagine what we would do with all of it, so I stuck to just two layers. It's not an exact replica, but pretty good for a beginner. I still haven't quite figured out how to get the corners squared with the fondant. I bet I could have done a better job if my cake were styrofoam like the movie cake was. But this post is supposed to be about a birthday, not a cake, so. . .anyway. . .) Yay! Hopefully she will get a license soon and she can start doing some of the driving. She's so busy and that keeps me busy too. Aint she cute?

(I hired this nice lady to be a stand in Mom. She's a lot more photogenic than me. Thanks, Jacque.)