Homecoming 2014

Friday was homecoming and like always (well, like always when we have a high school student) we turned out to support them. (And march in the parade.)

Alison wasn't feeling well, so she and I stood on the sidelines and watched everyone come by.

Kristen and Russell walked with the elementary school:

And Kristen tried to eat her friend, Lucas...

And Caitlyn walked with the choir. They dressed up

and did a little choreographed dance


and basically had a good time.

We even went to the game (even though we don't have a marching band student!), and stayed through until halftime. Kristen was enamored with the high school mascot, and asked to go talk to it.

Afterwards, she came back and said, "The bear is very sassy!"

It was a fun evening.

Making Cake

So in our ward now is a semi-professional cake decorator (who's quite talented), and I got the idea to ask her if she'd be willing to teach the girls the basics of cake decorating for one of our Primary Activity Day meetings. She, thankfully, had a clear spot on her calendar, and said yes.

The girls had a great time. She had baked everyone their own individual cake, and they got to frost it, and then she taught them a bit about tips and designs, and then they went to work. They did well for their first outing as well: only one big frosting bag blowout, and that came from our decorator's daughter. :-)

Both Alison and Kristen had a good time, and the bonus?They got to eat their cake! (And they shared, but only a little.)

Ah, To Think That Glasses are Fun

It's one of those things that people who don't wear them all the time can experience, I guess.

High School Choir Concerts...

... are different than middle school ones. In all the best ways. We did discover that choir people take concerts seriously, and start lining up before the doors even open:

We were highly entertained for the next hour and a half. I only recorded Caitlyn's songs, though, so you'll just have to imagine the fun that was the other four choirs' performance.

Their opening song was the entire choir program doing Seize the Day, from Newsies.



I'm sorry it's so dark and you really can't see the actions. I was kind of lame and tried to get Caitlyn, even though there's no lighting on her. Next time, I'll just film the stuff in the light and not tell you where Caitlyn is. :-D

Caitlyn's in the Women's Chorus, which is just a nice way of saying "all the freshmen girls". After this year, you have to audition to get into the choir program, so Caitlyn won't have to deal with girls who aren't that interested in being serious about music. That will be wonderful.




Yes, Caitlyn sang soprano on that one; her teacher doesn't believe in assigning them one part and having them stick to it. She moves them around to different parts on different songs. Which is actually quite interesting.

And Caitlyn's alto on this one. You can actually hear her. (She said that's because everyone around her, with the exception of Hannah, the brunette who is standing behind her, refused to sing.) Sorry it's fuzzy at first. I promise it'll clear out.



Next up, is the Christmas Concert, which everyone says is one of the best of the year.

42 Isn't That Bad

I had a nice birthday. I made a yummy cake

(yes, it's crooked. I'm not a professional.)

And opened some presents before heading out to book group. I got lots of cards

(My favorite was Alison's homemade cake.)

Alison and Kristen pooled their money and got me another minion

I'm told that now I have three, I'm officially collecting them. So you know.

And we bought ourselves a new camera to replace the one that I've hated for more than a year. (It's only a year and a half old. It never was a good camera.)

It was a happy birthday!

Some Pictures from Lawrence

I get a text about once a day from Megan, and from what it sounds like, she's doing well. (They tell me at work that once a day means everything is good.) She sometimes sends pictures of things that are going on around campus.

The view from her window:

She found a Quidditch game:

and a store downtown with a Diagon Alley display

She won dorm bingo:

And went to a football game, in which she offended her roommate by declaring that the marching band was the sole reason for going. (The marching band isn't half bad, she says.)

Ah, college.

The Difference Between a Good Haircut and a Bad One

Is two weeks. Right?

Thankfully, both of the girls who got them last week like them. Short hair is a thing around here.

And in case you didn't notice, the front of Alison's hair is blue. She's VERY happy with it.

Its good to have cute hair.

A Trip to the Zoo

Friends University usually has a back-to-school retreat for faculty and staff and their families. In the past -- like, every year since we moved here -- it's been at Eberly Farm, which has a most awesome zip line and really good ribs. Plus bingo.

This year, however, they decided to have it at the zoo. On the upside: free admission to the zoo! On the downside: it was really hot (nearly 100) that day, and the food was... less than stellar.

We wandered around, nominally looking at animals, but mostly looking for the misters and fans they set up so we could cool off.

Our favorite was this one:

We all got good and wet.