back and tired!

We have been away camping in Yosemite for the past week. We just rolled in tonight and have a ton of work to do - why is camping so much work? We had a lot of fun and we can't wait to share but it will have to wait - we are way too tired.

a want or a need?

I never knew this fabulous machine existed and now I want, no, need one. Really, I do need one. Think about all the shirts I make and pay a small fortune to have printed through Uberprints or the local print shop here. I am sure this would be a money saving device. I could become a famous tshirt designer and sell my shirts throughout the world - we'd be rich! See, this machine would make us money - now I really must have it.

let the countdown begin...

Can you feel it? Have you seem what is happening in the stores? Halloween is coming. I ran across this today and it makes me happy. I must pre order.

partied out

No pictures with this post because I am feeling too tired to download photos. Friday was Emily's HSM birthday party. It went well and all the screaming girls seemed to enjoy it. Saturday we celebrated Fete Day. That party was much more subdued then the night before. I will post about each party it just won't happen today.

I was looking forward to a quiet Sunday with no guests but that changed when the missionaries told me at church that we had them for dinner. I only had to tell myself a few times to "just keep smiling" Luckily I had plenty of food left over from the weekend so we threw together a meal and had a nice visit with the missionaries. We even ended up inviting a neighbor over to eat as well so the whole weekend was full of entertaining.

kids say the darndest things

Grammy Baker was nice enough to watch our kiddos the other night while Derek and I went to the concert. It was Monday night so she had singles FHE at her home. The kids were in another room playing while she was having family night. At one point Luke went to the kitchen doorway and peeked in to see what Grammy and her friends were doing. The kids said that when he came back this is what came out of his mouth...

"There's a bunch of grandma's out there with freakily large hair and one grandpa with freakily bald hair"

When we heard this we nearly laughed ourselves silly - "freakily large hair"? Sooo funny!

pioneer children sing as they walk, or bob for apples

Still catching up with summer activities...

Pioneer day was held a week or so early this year, I think because of our youth conference pioneer trek. The kids had fun, Derek was a star, and I tolerated the heat.

Derek was asked to "be in the band" this year. Every year for pioneer day we have live music. Derek was asked to perform a few songs this year. While he sang I got to play groupie. He did a great job of course and I wasn't so bad either cheering and taking pictures of my rock star hubby.Emily, Nathan and Luke had fun running around with friends and playing at all the game booths. The kids were thrilled when they got to come home with goldfish that they won. Derek and I had a feeling that the fish might not live long (maybe the 1 inch thick layer of dead goldfish in the pool at the booth contributed to our uneasiness) Sure enough the tears flowed the next morning when not one, not two, not three but all 4 of the goldfish were found in the morning "sleeping" Emily and Nate were fine with the flushing ceremony but Luke was a sad little guy.The other fun booth was bobbing for apples. It was hilarious to watch all the kids try and get those pesky wet apples out of the bucket. I have to admit I was a little grossed out by the thought of all the gombu in the water. Any ideas how to spell gombu? Spit and snot were flowing - yuck, it gives me the heabies now just thinking about it.I have failed to mention Megan in this pioneer post. She was not busy with the booths, pleeeeease, she is 13 and was quite happy hanging out in packs with her friends.

more blogging catch up

Going to the Squeeze concert reminded me that a few weeks ago Derek and I went to a concert at Mission Viejo Lake with some friends of ours, the Wrights. We saw Rocco Deluca and the Burden. Max Wright knows the drummer from when he worked at Nordstrom with her. That's him, with the arrow.

Max outdid herself like always. She made yummy boxed dinners for all of us and she even made homemade cookies for the band - cranberry oatmeal - they are seriously amazing. I need to get the recipe. Max always does everything with such an attention to detail - I appreciate the great evening she put together for us.

It was a fun night and the lake is a great place to see concerts. We sat Pat Benatar there last summer. It's a great location and is always a fun summer activity.

a summer fete

Deanne, one of Derek's cousins has introduced us to a new holiday - Fete Day. We are going to see if we can't pull it off this Saturday because we can always use a good excuse for a party. If anyone else is interested in throwing a shindig - go for it and then leave a comment on Deanne's blog and let her know how it went.

Here is what I am planning for our summer fete...

I'm setting up outside, by our fireplace. We'll have a rug laid out with pillows and we'll also use our outdoor furniture - the plan is to set it up like we did for our divination classroom at the HP party. On the coffee table outside I am setting up a fondue spread so that we can sit around the table and stuff our faces. We'll have chocolate fondue but we'll also have ice cream cake because that's the rule for fete day :)

I still need to pick a color. I think I might go with blue since the boys have a blue rug in their room that I can use but I still haven't decided.

For our activity...I'm not sure. I don't really have any ideas for this yet.

So there you have it - our plans for fete day. Now go plan your own and invite some friends and family over for a Saturday full of fun and memories.

oops, here's the video!

80's flashback

So Derek and I are off to the Greek Theater tonight to see us some Squeeze - one of Derek's all time favorite bands.

For those of you unable to make the concert tonight sit back and enjoy this video complete with really cool 80's girls dancing in the background - love the 80's girls, they make a good video great.

While we are on the subject of the 80's...who thought to bring the 80's fashions back? We are seeing it in a lot of stores. Do we really need oversized t-shirts with sashes, stir-ups, slouchy boots and big bangs to come back?

golf, anyone?

Please check out this golf tournament that will benefit lil' Abby. If you are interested in learning more about Abby and her family click on her link at the right of our blog.

we're all in this together

we'll actually Emily and I are in this together with maybe a bit of help from Derek. We have been working on Emily's birthday party coming up this Friday and we're going with High School Musical for a theme - could there really be another theme? Come on, she's turning 11.

We are keeping it pretty basic or as basic as my over active party brain will let me. I know that a lot of people are planning HSM parties for this Friday so I thought I'd share some of our ideas so that others can steal them if they want. I'm all about stealing for the greater good of a party.

Here are the invites we came up with...

These were so easy to make. I found megaphones at a local party store for less then a dollar. i hot glued them to cardboard cake rounds from Michael's and the hot glued on the shredded paper (I was trying to get a pom pom feel) I printed all the invite information on to a iron on transfers that you can find at any office supply store and then ironed it on to felt cut into the shape of a pennant. That was then glued to a dowel and stuck in the megaphone. I printed out a big collegiate letter with each guests name and then tied it to the top of the dowel so that everyone invite was personalized. These pictures happen to shoe two letters at the top because it was for a set of twins. The fonts I used were walkway black and varsity and cane probably be found at dafont.

These invites could easily be turned into decor for the party. Instead of all the invite info you could put wildcats, etc.

We are doing our party outside so we can show the movie on our big screen. Before the movie we are serving dinner and playing some games. Dinner will be cafeteria food - boxed milk, pizza, bagged burritos, tater tots, not sure what else. I found spork, napkin combos packaged in sealed bags at Smart and Final - I love them and they look so cafeteria. I am serving food on red cafeteria trays that I found a Target.

I'm still working on games. I found plastic cell phone filled with candy that I am adding guests names to. I will hide them throughout the party idea and guests will have to find their phone. I will have some tie in to Mrs. Darvis (you know the home room teacher/ theater gal that hates cell phones) I'm still thinking about other games.

A bit before the movie starts we'll pull out the popcorn machine and movie candy and settle in t watch the East High crew dance and sing.

missing some summer fun

I haven't been the best about posting our summer activities. The plan is to spend the next few days going through photos of what we've done this summer and post them but somehow my best plans always fall to the wayside so don't hold your breath.

A few weeks ago the kids and I went to the Sawdust Festival. I used to go as a child with my mom so a couple years ago we started taking the kids. Local artists showcase their work and it is fun to see what they create.

Everyone's favorite part of the festival is making your own pottery. The last time we went the girls and Nathan (Luke was too young) made vases. During the firing process Nate's vase broke :( Here is what the girls created..I have these displayed in our front room and have been anxious to get back to the festival to have the kids make more pottery to add to the collection. Here are pictures of this years creations...

Nate creating his vase
Emily and her bowl
Luke making his first vase - he is so happy to be old enough
Megan creating a bowl
the kids work before the glazing and firing process

We haven't picked up their pieces yet but we all can't wait to see them. I love this summer activity!

thinking of susan

I never finished posting pictures of Austin.

While Derek was there on business I was visiting with my friend Susan. Susan and I met my junior year of High School. She and Lisa quickly become my dearest friends - we spent the last few years of high school together and roomed together at college.

Susan is an amazing person and it was so fun to be able to spend time with her and her family. She took us to some great Austin locations but what meant more then visiting some cool places was being with her. Thanks Susan for the great few days we spent together!So one of the cool places we went to was the world's largest urban bat colony. Every night people hang out to watch the bats fly out from under the Congress Bridge. We didn't have a great vantage point and the night was overcast but we were still able to see some of the bats.
Susan's family also treated us to the Salt Lick. Talk about some good barbecue - it was delicious! If you ever plan a trip to Austin, I would recommend going here. Derek was in beef brisket heaven.
Derek at the Salt Lick

We also went to dinner with Susan and her girls at a place called the Hula Hut. It was on Lake Austin and had a fun atmosphere and good food.

It really was a fun trip. It could have only been better had we been able to stay longer. I would have loved more time with Susan and more time to see Austin.

potter pics

I keep getting requests for pictures of our Harry Potter party. I only took a few since I was busy with party prep but I will get the photos I have posted soon.

My brother took a bunch that you can see here. Thanks Ryan for taking them and let me know if you have a problem with me posting them here.

love these shots...

love this guy!

Utah is my photography heaven. There are so many buildings, textures, locations, etc to use in photographs it's unbelievable. We were busy with the family reunion so I wasn't able to explore much and take photographs. We definitely need to plan extra photography time into our next trip to Utah so I can get pictures of Derek and the kids.

On the drive home we did make a quick stop by a railroad. I wasn't comfortable pulling off to the side of the road and having the kids walk down the railroad (besides they were not dressed in the clothes I would have preferred for this picture) Derek got to be the model and I love the shots I got. Technically they're not the best shots but I still love them because Derek looks so handsome in them.

the photo above looks like an album cover to me