WORDFUL WEDNESDAY

Do you remember the old wives tale about not drinking coke while eating Pop Rocks?

Well, so much for THAT theory!

These girls are still alive and kicking!

Be sure to visit 7 Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday

I HEART FACES-PLAY

This weeks theme: PLAY

I love this picture that I took of my nephew when they were here visiting a couple of weeks ago.

To see more "PLAY" themed pictures, click here.

BIRTHDAY PARTY WAS A HIT!

For the record, I just want to say that I'm pooped out!

But, it was all worth it in the end!

My daughter had her best buds there, and they all had so much fun together! They all got to the hotel on time, and they wanted to go swimming right away. It was perfect because there was hardly anyone there at the time so they practically had the pool to themselves!

Here they all are! Actually, we were waiting for one more girl to arrive, and she finally showed up when they went down to the pool. There's my girl, second to the right!

Here is the sugary snack table! This wasn't even all of it! I also had those humongous plastic pixie sticks for the girls, and soda! Surprisingly, it didn't make them any more hyper than they already are.

I put her poster board (which they all signed), two bowls of chips, and cupcakes that I made on one of the end tables in the front room.

AND OH MY GOSH! I asked one of my friends to make her a white fondant cake so I could decorate it with the custom cookies I ordered from Amanda! Isn't it awesome???? The red stars spell out "Miranda."

I decorated the other end table with Miranda's cake, cookies, and goodie bags that she gave to all her friends. Everything is so coordinated! Love it!

This was supposed to be the original topper on her cake, but as you can see, it cracked down the middle. My friend tried to fix it, but we decided to just add the other cookies. Isn't that just awesome????

Here was the first swim of the afternoon!

Here is a view from our room on the 3rd floor.

Night swim, after dinner! I was so thankful because my husband brought our dinner to us. I didn't have to go out and get it myself. The request was Chinese food, and it was yummy!

I wanted to take a fun picture of the girls showing the necklaces that Miranda picked out for them, from Tilly's. And the couch they're sitting on turned into bed. THEY ALL managed to sleep on there together!

And I had this room ALL TO MYSELF!! It was like I was on vacation!! Those silly girls took off the comforters because one of them watched a show about how those things are so dirty! LOL

Another view! This was actually in the morning (7am'ish) after the girls took another 6AM swim!


Gotta love the breakfast buffet!!


Mmm.mmm!

Here is Sarah & Miranda eating breakfast. It was so early still. And yes, that is Veronica in the middle there. My husband asked if she could stay the night with us because he had to be at church by 7:15 in the morning. I got to cuddle with my snuggle bug that night!

I have tons of more pictures, but then it would be a huge post! The girls also played a couple of games. I made up a game called "Who Knows Miranda Best," and and they also played freeze dance. That was hilarious! And, I also bought two prizes for whoever won those games.

I tell ya, this was such a fun thing to do for the girls. Everything we needed to entertain them was there. If I was to take her and her friends out to dinner somewhere, it would be the same amount as the hotel room. I highly recommend doing this for your teens!! They will love it!

TODAY IS THE DAY!

It's my oldest daughter's big sleepover party today/tonight at The Embassy Suites! I'm so excited for her! I spent last night putting together her thank you goodie bags and I have to say that she picked some really cute things to give to her girlfriends! They will each get two bags. The black gift bag is filled with a journal, nail polish set, a bag of ring pops, a bag of pop rocks, picture frame, and the cutest lollipops. In the smaller white favor boxes (which I got at Michael's), she picked a necklace from Tilly's to put in each of them.

Here is a picture of the goodie bags for her friends!

Also, I received the awesome cookies from Amanda, at I Am Mommy/I Am Baker! You HAVE to click on her link and see all the cookies she made for Miranda! I just have to say that IT MATCHES THE THEME PERFECTLY, and she even duplicated the font on the cookies exactly how it is on the plates! It's even more amazing in person!

My good friend is making a white fondant cake, so I can't wait to see that too!

In addition to that, we bought tons of snacks, plus I'm also going to make cupcakes, and I'm so thankful that my husband will bring our dinner (Chinese food was my daughters request) to the hotel for us!

I'm sure it's going to be a fun night with her and her friends and I'm sure I won't get any sleep!

FRIDAY PHOTO FLASHBACK

I started "Friday Photo Flashback" because I have so many pictures from my PRE-digital camera days. I thought it would be fun to scan them and share them here with you. I'm having so much fun doing this, that I would love for you to join me, too! So dig out the photo albums and put your scanner to good use! Don't forget to sign in to MckLinky so we can all visit and comment on each others blogs!

1998

This was taken back when we were visiting my brother in-law, and we were celebrating someones birthday at a lake. I just love this picture of Gabe, Isaiah & Miranda. The kids are so little there, and Isaiah was so into Superman, and all those superhero characters. Look at his little red cape!!!

GRADUATION DAY!

I wanted to share a few pictures from this special day!! It's so weird to me that I will have a son in HIGH SCHOOL this fall!! Whoa! Yes, he will still be homeschooled, and from what I heard, it is much more intense than middle school!! But, I'm so thankful for this K-12 program. It really has been a huge blessing for us!

Our ticket to get inside. We ended up not even needing it since it was pretty much first come first serve!

California has the largest amount of students in the CAVA program. I believe the announcer said at least 12,000! Whoa!!

Isaiah is on the left side, second row from the front, 4th person from the left in the long sleeve white shirt.

Here's a better shot of him getting ready to receive his diploma!

I think it was blurry because I started clapping! I almost cried, but got distracted when his friends, and all of my family started SCREAMING for him!

We ended up at Red Robin for lunch. This wasn't my first choice, but the restaurant I thought was going to be nice ended up being just a small taqueria! Goes to show how pictures can be very deceiving! Here's Isaiah with two of his buds, and my daughter also invited one of her friends. I wanted to point out that Isaiah's friend on his left looks like he's upset, but he's really not. He ended up getting sick that morning. I didn't know how bad it was until after lunch. Poor guy!

Here's a picture of the kids with my in-laws. It was such a blessing that they drove down from Nevada to be there for Isaiah.

And one last picture of all the kids!

WORDFUL WEDNESDAY

This is a picture from my son's 8th grade graduation.

They asked all the graduates to write a sentence or two about what their goals were in the future. So, when they called their name, the announcer would also read what they wrote.

I knew this advance, so we were all trying to help Isaiah come up with some ideas on the way to the ceremony!

We (including his friends) came up with some pretty interesting "goals" for Isaiah!

Of course, this was all done for laughs!



I'll share some of them with you....

"My goal for the future is to have a goal."

"My goal for the future is to be the best video gamer EVER!"

"My goal for the future is to wake up before noon."

"My goal for the future is to go home and play my XBOX 360."

"My goal for the future is to just get through the next year."

And finally, the one he ended up going with was, "My goal for the future is to study hard and to do well in school."

You go, son!! I know you can do it!!

Be sure to visit 7 Clown Circus for Wordful Wednesday

HAPPY 8TH GRADE GRADUATION!

I can't believe my eldest is graduating from 8th grade TODAY-this morning!

This is such a huge accomplishment for him, and for all of us! When we started homeschooling 9 years ago, I couldn't imagine this day! I'm so proud of him, I could scream!

Two years ago, I switched our curriculum for a totally different homeschool program (K-12). This program was a blessing in disguise and took over many of the responsibilities I had, such as lesson planning, purchasing curriculum FOR FIVE CHILDREN, and also help when we need it. In addition to that, they also hold graduation ceremonies for 8th graders and high schoolers (separate of course). For a homeschooling mom, this means so much to me/us. In fact, when I told Isaiah that he was going to be in a graduation ceremony, his face immediately lit up. If there was just one thing that I would miss for him (being homeschooled), it would be for him being able to take part in a graduation ceremony. This is such a huge blessing!

Unfortunately, my mom has to work, so she can't be there, but my in-laws, my sis in-law, Isaiah's two buddies, and one of Miranda's friends will be there with us to celebrate this joyous occasion!!

All the hard work, crying (even yelling sometimes..I won't lie), perseverance, and diligence paid off!! I'm so glad I didn't give up, but I know I couldn't do it in my own strength. God gets all the glory for this!!

Isaiah, I'm so proud of you!!! This is YOUR day!!