you're gonna want this...

Someone at the blog class I taught mentioned that she heard you could turn your blog into a book. That got me interested so I did some searching and found beautiful books done by Blurb. I have not looked over their entire website but what I did see was amazing. The books are amazing and just imagine having your blog entries and pictures preserved in a hardback book. I am sure the prices can get a little pricey but I personally think it is a worthy investment for your family history.

Take a look at the site and tell me what you think. Would you spend the money on a book like this to preserve your blog to paper? Or are you happy having it all at your finger tips on the internet?

like father like son

Derek is really jacking up the kids.

So we have these teeth and many more lying around the house. Why you ask...remember we are all about Halloween so we have various sets for different costumes. One of these days I'll have to post pictures of Derek with all his different costumes and teeth.

Back to these pictures...what have we done?!?!
When we were getting ready for the HSM party Luke wanted to try the teeth. Are these not the funniest? The teeth were obviously way to big for Luke's mouth which made this all the more funny and Luke hammed it up just like his daddy. I will have so much to explain to Luke's wife when he gets married - my apologies to her now, whoever she is.

i got my head in the game now

So it is time to catch up on all of the events I haven't been posting about. Although I'm thinking only some of the events will get a post - lets be realistic. I am so far behind I'd have to spend weeks catching up.

As you may recall, we used the High School Musical 2 premiere as Emily's birthday party. We did the movie set up in the backyard (see previous posts if you're interested in seeing the set-up) and had dinner and played a few games before Troy Bolton and the rest of the crew danced their way into our hearts.

Dinner was served in the East High cafeteria by some fantastic cafeteria workers. I made aprons for Derek and I to wear and we completed the ensemble with hair nets. Derek took it one step further by inserting his always funny Billy Bob teeth. I'm not sure Emily's friends knew how to take it. Emily has had to live with those teeth and her dad's silly antics so she is already immune to him however I think her friends may be scarred for life.
The meal was a gourmet feast - yeah, right! Mac and cheese, tater tots, cookies, hot dogs - I did throw some fresh fruit in there for something healthy to offset the other garbage.
We had East High water bottles. Just a hint...personalizing water bottles is an easy thing to do and packs a lot of punch when it comes to parties. I print out whatever design I want on the computer, run the paper through my Xyron and slap it on the bottle. No Xyron? No worries, use spray adhesive, tape, whatever.
Each chair had a pennant with the girls first initial. The table was set very plain. I wanted the red cafeteria trays to stand out.
The take home gifts (didn't get a picture) were small photo albums that Emily and I turned into yearbooks. I downloaded a bunch of different pictures of the cast and then added pictures from the party. I also added autograph pages. During commercials the girls could sign each others
yearbooks.

for jodie and anyone else that cares

We finally saw Hairspray and we LOVED it! I haven't laughed so much in a movie in a long time. The casting was perfect, the music fun, the comedy hilarious...it was great!

If you are lame like us and still haven't gotten out to see it you should. You won't be disappointed unless you hate musicals, people in drag, politically incorrect comments, and great dancing.

Was this mother not the funniest character ever? We were laughing so loud in the theater because of her. See what a "devil child" can turn us mothers into.

time to get serious

I know, I know, I keep saying that I will update this blog yet days go by with no new posts. Now I really need to buckle down and update because my blog class is in a week. I need help with something...can anyone tell me how I can link all the blogs I read daily and get an update on who has updated their blogs? Did I even word that right? I believe there is a way to see on one page who has updated and who hasn't. Is this true? It would lessen the amount of time I spend catching up on everyone's life and I would like to share it with my class. Anyone? Anyone?

all things halloween

I think my fingers are permanently black from all the spray painting I have been doing this week. I have sprayed it all...flowers, frames, candelabras and more. Nate has been a big help spray painting I just hope I am not creating a tagger - look for his work coming to a freeway near you!

Today I have been busy working on costumes, running from fabric store to fabric store. Megan is easy. She is going to wear the gypsy costume she wore for her medieval faire at school. Nate is going to be Frankenstein because I found some killer shoes at Goodwill for $7.00. They are black, huge and clunky - totally perfect for Frankie. Emily is going to a pirate and I think we have convinced Luke to be her side kick. My hope is to have the costumes done in the next couple weeks - we'll see if that actually happens.

Does anyone else do anything fun for Halloween? We'd love to hear what you do.

we are back on schedule

Love this picture of the kids on the first day of school - just had to share it.

So we finished the first week of school. We are happy to be back on a schedule although the mornings have been a beast. Everyone has managed to get up early with out too much drama but I think we are all struggling with the sound of the alarm clock.



The kids are all happy with their teachers and so are we. Emily seems to have made the transition into middle school easily and our hope is that it will continue to be an easy adjustment for her. Middle school is one of those scary rites of passage that can send even the strongest parent into bouts of worry and fear - now think about the poor kid facing the peer pressure halls of doom. The whole thing has drama written all over it. We are just glad that all seems to be going well and that with Megan and now Emily we seem to have passed the first scary week of 6th grade with flying colors.

attention all bloggers...

I need your help. I have been asked to teach a blogging class for the women at church. Not sure why, as evident by my lack of posts lately, I am not the best blogger out there. Anyway, here is what I need...

please answer some of these questions and feel free to share whatever else you think would be good for me to teach.

• why do you blog? for yourself, to keep in touch with family, other?
• how often do you post?
• what do you post about?
• what cool things have you learned to do on your blog? post video, have music playing, etc?
  
• what do you wish other bloggers did on the blogs you read?
• are you worried about having too much info out in cyber space?
• anything else you want to share?
• if you were taking a blog class what would you want to learn?

Thanks for the help. I am hopping to get my posts updated soon. It will look really bad if I teach the class and I haven't posted for a month :)