Prom...and more!

No, we are not crazy enough to allow our newly turned 14-year old go to Prom!  It was 2nd Chance Prom and Mike and I went.  The Young Women's organization (YW) at church put together a wonderful night called "A Night in Italy".  We came all dressed up, had our choice of a beautiful corsage (which the YW made themselves), had nearly professional photos taken (see below - the YW painted the backdrop cloth, too), ate awesome Italian appetizers, dessert, drank Italian sodas, and had great music to dance to.  We were reluctant to go at first, because Mike and I aren't big dancers, but we wanted to support Jessie and all the other girls and their leaders.  So, we bought the tickets and went.  The purpose of the event was to raise money for a super activity - retreat the YW wanted to go on later this summer.  As far as I know, they raised enough money - yeah!  Anyway, I'm not giong to lie and say that Mike and I wore out our dancing shoes, but we were there long enough to enjoy some socializing, to increase our heart rate a bit, and to snuggle up close for a few slow dances.  It was a great night!

Swimming Lessons:
Abby is currently taking swimming lessons on Wednesday afternoons.  You know it's Wednesday because Abby puts her swim suit on first thing in the morning and asks every half hour (or more) if it's time to go yet.  Below are photos of her painting in her swim suit and then Abby during her swim lessons.

Basketball is still going strong:
Yesterday was a nice day, so Ben set up basketball clinic for himself in the cul-de-sac.  He drew out some sprint lines and a couple dribbling courses.  I was at a church thing in the morning, but once I got home and we had lunch, I had to get out there for him to show me how they worked and then to try it out myself.  I'm glad that he's still working hard on improving his skills and playing hard.  He says he wants to be in the NBA some day.  Below are photos of the courses he drew in chalk and then Ben showing me how the different courses work.

Room Make-Over

For Jessie's birthday, we redecorated her room.  She picked out a quilt and we went from there.  Jessie did a lot of the work herself because she is using the work as one of her projects for her personal progress award for Young Women's.  So, she sewed new pillow covers for all her throw pillows, helped sew the valences, put together her new shelving unit in her closet, and she covered her bulletin board. It also took her quite a bit of time reorganizing her things (like carefully packing away all her Breyer horses...).  It was fun working with her, knowing that her room would look so much better once we were finished.  There were also a few projects I did on my own, to surprise her.  After the kids had left for school and Abby was at her Thursday play group, I got to work putting her room together (everything she worked on was put away, waiting for her birthday to come).  I couldn't wait for Jessie to get home from school to see the final project.  Fortunately, she LOVES it! 

Before:

 After:  We got the bed frame free from some friends who bought a new trundle frame for their daughter.  It was antique white, so I spray painted it white.

I made her necklace holder by taking a wreath and wrapping it with brown fabric, adding little hooks evenly around the edges to hold the necklaces, and adding cute flower embelishments. Jessie painted the frame of her corkboard bulletin board white, then covered the cork board with three of the fabrics used on her throw pillows, then bordering it with brown satin ribbon.  We changed out the 3 flower pictures with 3 of the coordinating fabrics used on the pillows for the other piece of artwork (top).

Jessie working on the bulletin board a couple weeks ago:

Here is a close-up of all the pillow covers she sewed.  The big blue one is fleece and it was all tied.  The other 3 pillows are envelope-style covers that can be removed and washed.  The very front pillow is a ruffle pillow.  My cousin, Amy, made a cute ruffle pillow and told me to go here: http://jonesdesigncompany.com/create/5-days-of-favorite-projects-day-3/ to find the tutorial. We loved it so much, that we decided to make valences to match.

 You can see here the bottom of the valence has the same ruffles as the pillow.

 I had a hard time finding a cute new lamp, but found this plain white one and then made it cute by making a pom-pom clip for the shade and rossette flowers for the base that I made with more of the coordinating fabric (good thing I bought more than I needed for the pillows, cuz we found lots of uses for the extra fabric!).

Before:

 After (sorry about the back lighting, I should have closed the blinds):

Good-bye Breyer horses...hello photos and pretties...  The "Family" sign under the shelf is actually vinyl lettering that will rub onto the wall, but I didn't want to put it up permanently yet, in case we decide to paint.  The dots were made with card stock that I purchased at Ben Franklin and then used their die-cut machine to cut the circles.  I then used Modge Podge glue to put them on the dressers.  Jessie really loved the dots!!

 Jessie didn't really have a place for her stud earrings, so I made this earring holder out of a block of foam and covered it with fabric.  Now you just poke the earrings into the foam and they stay put.

 

Before:

 After:  Amazing what a little rearranging of books and knick-knacks can do to make a shelving unit look so much better!

Before:

After: We added the hooks and the sign above the mirror is also vinyl that we'll eventually put on permanently later.

Lastly, I coved this wooden J with fabric scraps and modge podge.  I sure am glad Jessie loved her room. She says that the dots on the dressers and the lamp are her favorite things.   Is it too much to hope that now that it looks so nice that she'll keep it super clean and tidy?  (probably...)

Look Who's 14!

It is Jessie's birthday today.  Happy Birthday, Jessie!  We had our Easter Dinner with Mike's family on Monday evening.  We really enjoyed the Australian Lamb roast (at least the kids did until they found out what they were eating!!!)!  For dessert, I brought angel food cupcakes to be served with fresh sliced strawberries and cool whip.  So spring-like and yummy!  We took the opportunity to celebrate Jessie's birthday with Mike's family.

Jessie before blowing out the candles:

 Such a cute picture!

 Jessie loves big over-sized college sweatshirts right now!

For Jessie's birthday, we redecorated her room.  Her decor that we were updating was from about 9-10 years ago.  It was definitely time.  I got her room all set up for her while she was at school today.  I was so excited for her to come home.  (see Room Make-Over post for more details.)  Jessie requested orange chicken for dinner and a lemon poppy seed cake for dessert.

 Another over-sized college sweatshirt.  She is in heaven now!

Things about Jessie right now:
1.  She and her BFF (next door neighbor) Sarah are nearly inseperable.
2.  She loves music and often is found bopping to her iPod.
3.  I never understood why kids were always texting their friends, but now Jessie is the same way.  All I can say is thank goodness for unlimited texting!  I guess it's better than talking on the phone and using all our minutes...
4.  She is learning to play the piano.  She had to get a new teacher (previous teacher just adopted a new baby and can't do lessons any more) and starts next week.
5. B-O-Y-S - what more do I need to say?  No, there really hasn't been too much drama - yet!
6.  Jessie still walks the neighbor's dogs every day after school with Sarah, for her job.
7.  Jessie has made the Honor Roll every semester since 6th Grade.  She's currently taking 9th grade Algebra (in 8th grade) and will receive High School credit for it at the end of the year.  Keep up the good work, Jessie!
8. Jessie will be going on Pioneer Trek in June.  She'll have the opportunity to experience first hand what the Mormon pioneers went through crossing the plains to Utah pushing/pulling their handcarts (however, she'll still be in WA).
9.  Jessie has really gotten into photography since she got her own camera at Christmas.  She loves taking photos and has captured some really cool objects as well as photos of herself and her friends.  I think she's planning on taking a photography class as one of her electives sometime in High School.
10.  High School - yeah, she's already got all her classes for next year submitted.  Crazy!  In 2011, Jessie will be starting High School and Seminary.  Where has the time gone! 
Jessie I love you! 

Football and Easter

Josh is playing flag football through the Boys and Girls Club.  Here he is at his last game.  His team is the Seahawks.

 Trying to get open for a pass:

 Here he is playing Center:

Saturday, the day before Easter, was a beautiful day!  Our neighborhood put on an egg hunt again.  Here is Josh and Abby showing off their good egg hunting.

That night, Jessie attended a Best of EFY (Especially For Youth) conference and dance.  Being a few days before she turned 14, she got permission to attend.  She had a great time.  I'm pretty sure she is already looking forward to the next dance...

 Easter Sunday.  Jessie, Mike, and I all spoke during Sacrament Meeting at church.  We then came straight home to take naps and play quietly all day, because many of us were still a little under the weather having been sick all week.  We postponed Easter dinner with Mike's family until Monday night.

Since the kids were sick all week leading up to Easter, they finally colored eggs later in the day on Easter, once we had some naps.

The Easter Bunny left this cute game for the kids.  You build a tower with colored rabbits and plastic discs.  Roll a die and and then remove a rabbit according to the color on the die, without making the tower fall down.  It was fun.

Sun...Spring Break...Jessie

So, it's been a little while since my last post.  I'm bad about getting out the camera unless we're actually 'doing something', and we haven't been doing much...so not many photos.  Now that the weather is looking up (I hope!), we should start getting out and about more. 

These first photos are of Abby and Josh on a sunny day (after many, many, many, not so sunny days....).  It was also pretty windy so they tried their hand at flying the kite and then played frisbee, which actually ended up not working very well in the wind.

Spring Break 
Now, we fast forward to spring break this last week.  The weather wasn't the greatest - it poured all day Monday (we stayed home), Tuesday was dry and cloudy (we ran errands), Wednesday it rained and hailed in the morning at home, the sun came out while we were in Seattle (at the Pacific Science Center and the Star Wars exhibit [and we ended up running into my cousin, Amy, and her family!]), and then it hailed again in the evening while we were in Renton celebrating Mike's brother Jeff's birthday (eating yummy seafood from Ivar's and playing pool)...CRAZY!  Thursday (Jessie got a hair cut, the boys hung out at the Boys and Girls Club, we played outside, I played in my first Stake Woman's Basketball game in the evening) and Friday (we played outside, Jessie saw a movie with friends, dentist appointments) were not too bad .  So, our week was actually not especially exciting, but we kept ourselves busy enough as to not drive each other too crazy.  So, here are a few photos from our trip to the Pacific Science Center and the Star Wars Exhibit.

Abby in the dinosaur area.

 Josh next to the edible bug dinner.

 Ben and Jessie fooling around in the gift shop.

 Ben loves snow troopers!

 Jessie was excited to see Chewy.

 My happy (I know they really don't look it...) family!  :) 

Now, to my third subject - Jessie...

Jessie got her own camera for Christmas and she has used it to take lots of cool photos (people and objects).  These are some photos that she actually took of herself.  Most of the photos she edited the color, etc. using a progam called Picnik. Some days, I look at her and can't get over how grown up she is looking (she'll be 14 in a few weeks...)!