5-28-2010 Friday - School Projects Due...

Shera had three projects all due on Friday this week - just before Memorial Day wouldn't you know... Luckily, the teacher helped them space it all out with little chunks through the month of May. Here, she is working on her invention project. It was pretty involved, but she loved doing it!

Shera created a lunch sac that you either put in the refrigerator or the microwave before you put your food in it. Then it keeps your food cold or warm.

Luke also had his book report diorama due on Friday. He read the The Magic Tree House's, "The Revolutionary War on Wednesday". He made General Washington crossing the Delaware. It was really two empty taped toilet paper rolls crossing blue cellophane and cotton balls! You get pretty desperately creative locating materials at 10pm the night before!

5-25-2010 Tuesday - Messy Messy...

Noel's Mia Maid church group had a really fun activity the other night. They all wore white t shirts and splattered each other with paint to wear for girl's camp this summer! They ran around chasing each other in the park and got messy messy messy!!!

5-24-2010 Monday - The Star!!!

Luke is "Star of the Week" this week.
He got to make a poster of himself with his family, friends, and activities he enjoys.
His favorite things:
Color: Red
Number: 8
Vacation: New York City
Food: French Fries
Animal: Tarantula

5-22-2010 Saturday - Rummage For Sale

Noel's pep squad had their first fundraiser last Saturday. We gathered clothes and odds and ends and then met 6am. All the funds we collected went directly into her account. It was a great chance for Noel to get to know the girls in her squad.

5-21-2010 Friday - "The Killer Season"

Holly was in her advanced Drama's murder mystery dinner theater show last Friday. The actors improvise the show and involve the dinner guests throughout it. Holly played the role of "Tiffany Sweetcake", a southern belle who co-anchored the radio station KRIP.

Tiffany Sweetcake insists that Valerie Vain spits out the pills she is taking. Soon after, Tiffany is given Valerie's position as co-anchor on the KRIP t.v. news. Shortly after, Tiffany dies from poison in her drink during a toast to the new season.

After inquiries and other evidence and facts are presented, the dinner guests write down the who, how, and why of Tiffany's murder. Tiffany then came back out and told everyone the answers. We wrote a really good hypothesis but didn't get it right. However, when the show was over, some of the kids who read the answers said that ours was actually better than what they had come up with and they wanted to change it. But Mrs. Harris said they had to keep the original answer... Oh, well... But Holly did a great job being a southern belle with her acting and accent!
By y'all!!!

5-20-2010 Thursday - Shera's the big 1 0 !!!!

We celebrated Shera's DD Birthday today! DD means "Double Digit" in my language. LOL She is now really truly 10 years old! Time goes waaaaay tooooo faaaaast!!!!

Shera made place cards, chose where we all sat, and wrote down our menu for tonight.

Dinner Time!!!

All of Shera's favorite foods, on plates of her favorite color.

All of Shera's beautiful presents
(except for one hidden in a special place)!

Trying to get Shera to pose for another picture ~ so silly!

Her favorite present (the hidden one) ~ a guitar with an amplifier!
Another Taylor Swift???

The first brother and sister...
Two years and ten days apart...

The second brother and sister...
Just shy two years by eleven days apart...

Grams with sweet Sasha ~

I found letter candles and customized Shera's name for her cake! Her name is so unique, I've never met another "Shera" before ~ you can never find her name on a keyring or anything! BTW ~ "Shera" means "Tiger" in the Hindi language in India. "Shera" also means "Light" in the Aramaic language which is what Jesus spoke.

Yummy Chocolate Texas Sheet Cake!
Happy 10th Birthday Light Starr!!!

5-19-10 Wednesday - Brace Yourself Holly!

Yes, Holly got her braces on again. She is preparing to have jaw surgery next spring when she comes home from BYU. She took it like a trooper. Hey, at least she didn't have them on for most of high school.

5-15-2010 Saturday - Holly's Prom Night!!!

Holly and Robyn were asked to their senior Prom by Louie and Drew. The boys asked them when were sent on a scavenger hunt picnic.

Drew's always a kidder...

The dazzling couples ready to go. It's so weird that everything this year in high school is Holly's last, so we just want to relish it all!

The limo was totally color coordinated and decked out with balloons, Martinelli's, candy and even personalized facial tissues for the girls! Way cute!!!

Louie and Holly playing telephone in front of their restaurant, Five Crowns. Then it was off to "The Grove" for their last dance!

Holly and Robyn said it was the best dance ever and that they had soooo much fun!!! Afterward, they came back to the house and went in the spa and ate snacks.
Thanks boys for showing these girls such a good time!

5-13-2010 Wednesday - Busy Week & Lots of Cookin'...

Yes!!!

Luke is finally a real cub scout!!! Of course, he just found out what the scouts are all about at last Thursdays' meeting...

One month ago:
Me: "Luke! Guess what? You get to start going to Cub Scouts in a few weeks when you turn 8 years old!"
Luke: "Oh Boy!!!" "What's that???"
Oh boy, was I laughing! But I guess that's what you get when your home is filled with girls and performing arts stuff.

Holly sang her last solo at the MVHS Spring Choir Concert.

I've tried to be careful with the quality of food I buy. I always try to get organic and free range. I want to be able to read the ingredients of what processed foods I get too. I like Henry's and Trader Joe's and I don't buy overly processed meats if possible, especially after seeing the movie, Food Inc. I talk a lot about this during our meals and inform Jeff and the kids of the good foods they are eating. Last week, I got up in the morning and came down to this box of crumb donuts and note - - -
now how could I pass this one up???

Saturday night, I made about 60 homemade fortune cookies for my Relief Society lesson the next day.

They were pretty time consuming especially because you have to learn how to fold them and they are extremely hot on your hands while doing it. There is definitely a learning curve to these things. But they tasted fantastic! Much better than the store bought ones you get at the chinese restaurants!

My lesson was on reading the scriptures and revelation so I put this special "fortune scripture verse" in each cookie.

Sunday morning we were busily filling each mini Chinese take-out box with a fortune cookie - the next thing I knew Luke was helping me a little too much! He had hand cuffed me to the drawer handle! My patience was being tested at this point... Perfect for my lesson!

But the baskets of cookies turned out great and everyone loved them!
I was pleased with the lesson too!

It was so pretty, I had to take a photo of the delicious flan I made for dessert last Sunday too.

5-9-2010 Sunday - Eight Is Great On Mother's Day!!!

To share your 8th birthday on Mother's Day can be a real bummer for a little boy,

but Luke handled it pretty well overall...
We sort of split up the day. I got to choose breakfast - Belgian Waffles with strawberries and real whipped cream. He chose a manly man's dinner of steak, mashed potatoes and gravy!

Then we opened way too many gifts for me, but I'm not complaining!

After church, Grams came over and we celebrated a little more with her gifts.

Luke had a surprise visit from one of his favorite people, Andrea Mendenhall, who made this amazing "8 is great" candy gift. She actually came the day before - it was nearly gone by the next day.

Then it was Luke's turn to open up some fun cards and cool gifts!

He got a bunch of balls and water toys for the pool this year.

And then he got a specially made cake just for him! Luke wanted a pink cake this year - don't ask... And since I had already made him a big jungle cake for his birthday party with his friends, I ordered this one from the bakery.

But I had to do something besides just pink - so I added spiders and webs which is one of the main topics he talks about these days! And of course an "8 IS GREAT" written on the big web! Betcha never saw a cake like this before - huh???

That's what the bakery said too as they took a ton of pictures of it!

5-9-2010 Sunday - JV Pep Squad Song Tryouts!!!

It's been a really crazy week with Noel having Pep Squad tryouts for MVHS. They had to wear Mission's colors to the practices which are red, white, and gold.

Noel tried out for Junior Varsity Song. The girls mostly dance in Song and all of them who tried out has had years of ballet, jazz, and hip hop practice.

Noel met Ellie Brull a week ago and they worked together on their dances and cheers. On Saturday morning, Ellie came over for a final practice in our garage. Then I took them to Mission and dropped them off! I got a call a few hours later and found out Noel, Ellie, and two other girls had a call back to dance again. That should be a good sign, right??? Then the waiting began... And the analyzing of everything that had happened at the tryouts... And the questioning if she is really good enough... We had to wait until today at 11:30am - nearly 24 hours - until it was posted on the MVHS website.

Yes!!!! Noel made it!!! She is one of eight freshman and sophomore girls on the JV Song Team! Ellie made it too! They were so excited and called each other right away!
Congrats Noel!!!
Can't wait to watch you next year!!!

5-5-2010 Wednesday - Music For The Children

Last night, Holly performed for a benefit concert called, Music for the Children. It is part of the RSO (Rising Star Outreach) program to help leprosy-affected children in India who are cast out of normal society and live in leprosy colonies. There are over 700 leprosy colonies in India.

Brian Jackson and Kenzie Coe (left) put the concert together. Over 120 people attended the free concert. They raised $1,500 and all of it will go to the children!