English project

E has been working for weeks on this pillow case she's creating as a project based on the book, "Matched," for her English lit class. Last night she finished the top of the pillow case and now she's working on sewing the rest of it together. The project is due Thursday.

Bird watching

With the weather getting warmer we're able to open the windows during the day. The cats like sitting by the screens to watch the birds play in the back yard and to feel the breeze.

Surprise visit

B's friend, L, stopped by today on his family's way back to Ohio after his parents performed last night in Iowa. Andy and I had know idea they were coming by today, but E apparently knew from L's brother a couple of weeks ago. B had his friend, IB, over too and the three played video games, went to the playground across the street at their old elementary school and talked Andy into giving them $20 for dinner at Pete's. L said, "It's a special occasion." Kind of was. We haven't seen L since last summer. He does look a little older though he still screams the same when he's playing video games. :)

E spent a couple hours with L's brother, M, before he went to visit some other friends. The boys are on their way back to Ohio tomorrow.

Sweet 16 party!

E had her Sweet 16 party today. She invited five friends over. The initial plan was to take the girls mini-golfing, but Andy went on an all-day golf outing and took the Buick so I didn't have a vehicle to fit them all in. E had suggested other dates for the party when Andy would have been here, but the other girls were busy with lots of activities. So instead of golfing they tie-dyed T-shirts in our back yard. Fortunately, the weather cooperated.

Then they all sang "Happy Birthday" to E and ate cupcakes because her friend, A, had to leave to baby-sit.

After a while they made individual pizzas using Trader Joe's refrigerated pizza dough. Pretty tasty. Then they retreated to the basement and watched "Mulan" and played Apples to Apples.

While the girls were downstairs I decorated E's party favors. She plans to give the four that are spending the night a giant Hershey's Kiss. I wrote a little note for each one and attached it with ribbon.

Big test for B

B's teacher recommended him for geometry as a freshman so he can skip the advanced algebra class. This morning, he had to go to the high school to take a test to ensure that he's ready for geometry. He asked looked over the study guide and his textbook this morning before the test. He needs an 85 percent to get into the class.

Camping

I went to the high school after class today to take E's camping gear to her. She's going on an overnight trip with the school's Environmental Club. The students had been debating all week whether to go on the trip. Because of last week's flooding rains, the campground was still reportedly muddy and they thought it might be cold. They decided to rough it since they've been waiting to do this for two years and go! And today was in the mid-60s so hopefully the ground dried out a bit and it will stay warm enough overnight. The club's adviser told the kids to pack light - she had a small overnight bag, a pillow, sleeping bag and a grocery bag with her gym shoes and clementines (to share for breakfast) in it. Each student was asked to bring something for Saturday's breakfast to share with the group. They're supposed to return to the high school around 10:30 a.m. so there won't be time to make a fire in the morning. No fire, no cooking. That really limits the breakfast choices, especially since one girl immediately volunteered to bring Pop-Tarts.

B and L were off of school today for an Institute Day so L and I did a little shopping. We found her two nice dresses at Burlington Coat Factory, where we hardly ever go. Here's one of them:

Hiding

August recently found a new hiding spot. He loves to lounge on the piano bench. Good to know at least someone is using the piano. Hint, hint, E.

A good deed

The church's Middle School Youth Group cooked dinner tonight for the local homeless shelter. B and his friend, IR, went and our fearless organizer said she'd put L to work so we brought her along too. The kids made meat mostaccioli, vegetarian mostaccioli and salad. B chopped onions and cooked the meat, IR grated a lot of cheese and did dishes, L chopped everything she could find (and successfully scared all the adults in the room) and helped to make brownies.

Tomorrow night E will go with the High School Youth Group to serve the dinner at the PADS shelter.

Working girl?

E had a job interview with the Park District this afternoon to possible work in the concession stand at the pool this summer. The hours are flexible, which is good because she's got a full summer planned. Best part is that she could walk to the pool and it would be a great way to get some real world work experience, not to mention some money! She's supposed to hear next week whether she gets the job. I love that she dressed up for the interview, and even printed out her resume to give the pool manager. Good luck, E!

A treat they love

Our cats have refused every treat we've bought them, and we've tried a few. E suggested last weekend to buy a grass kit that grows really fast and then cats eat it. Sounded a little odd to me, but all week it's been growing and we finally set it down in front of them. They were eating it up and even pulled some out by the roots. I took it away after a few minutes, not sure how much they're supposed to eat at a time. Supposedly it helps with their digestion and lets them pass their hairballs and not spit them up. That would be a good thing.

Game night

We had another game night at church tonight. B brought his friends, IB and IR. They played a game, Catan, with two church members for three hours before the night was over and everyone was leaving. IR said the game could go on for days!

E played cards, checkers and Guess Who with a friend and L played Life and Uno Stacko with her friends.

Snow?

This was the view when I opened the front door to get the newspaper. Snow in April?

Rain day

Since yesterday afternoon some towns have gotten up to nine inches of rain. It stormed all night and it was pouring again this morning. The elementary school canceled classes because the buses can't get here. Some expressways are flooded and lots of school districts have closed. E had school though.

Academic Fair

L had her last Academic Fair tonight at Irving. She did a great job explaining her topic to the parents who stopped by and received a "4," the highest grade possible, on her display board. Lots of the younger students commented on the "hanging penguins."

She also participated in the Egg Drop. She hastily put her contraption together in the morning - a tennis ball container with a couple of my unused kitchen sponges in it. Her egg broke, as we all expected. She did much better last year.

Daffodils

My daffodils are finally blooming. It's been a rough, wet, cold spring for them. Last year they bloomed a month earlier - exactly. Weird.

This afternoon I reached a new high score on Swiped. I was in Level 20 when I lost. I took a picture of the score, then checked the high scores on the game to see by how many points I beat my previous high score. Apparently, I didn't hit "submit" so the game never registered my new score, which was 207,120 points higher than last time. Ugh! At least I took a picture to prove to the kids how high I got.

Sweet 16!

Today is E's 16th birthday! Andy measured her on the bathroom door as we do for all three kids each year on their birthday. Looks like she's grown an inch in the last year.

This afternoon she and Andy went out and played 18 holes of golf. How many girls do that for their Sweet 16 celebration?

Tonight we went to the restaurant of her choice - Ruby Tuesday - for a family dinner.

Let's eat cake

E's 16th birthday is tomorrow but we decided to bake her cake today and cut into it before she goes to babysit for some neighbor kids. E chose a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and put the white sprinkles on it herself. Make a wish!

Too cute

Finally, a decent picture of August and Muffles together.

Finally done

L finally finished her project for next Tuesday's Academic Fair. It certainly helps the appearance by using the Cricut to make the letters, the printer to create the copy and my scrapbooking tools to try to make straight cuts. I love how she decided to mount the penquins on the board.

Big concert

Tonight was L's choral concert at the high school. The four schools that feed into Julian performed, then the sixth-grade chorus from the two middle schools, then the four schools that feed into the other middle school, then the seventh- and eighth-grade combined chorus, and finally, all of the students together. The auditorium was packed. We weren't supposed to take pictures because some kids don't give permission for that (parents today!) but I figured the faces on this picture are so small no one could possibly identify any kid. L is somewhere in the top left of the picture.

Censored

E was all excited when Andy's latest Golf Digest arrived the other day and actually had a woman golfer (gasp!) on the cover. She had to flip right to the cover article and read it and was laughing about the short outfit the golfer was wearing - not regulation length for the high school girls, that's for sure. Any way, we thought it would be funny to cover her clothes up with a Post-it Note and write "censored" across it.

We patiently waited for Andy to get to the page and see it. And when he did, he laughed. Apparently he's the only person in the world who reads magazines articles as he flips through the magazine so it took him a long time to get back to where the cover article was. Who does that? I thought everyone flipped through a magazine when they got it, then went back later and read the articles. Right?

Pretty kitties

The latest pictures of Muffles and August:

And just one of them together:

Recital No. 2

L had her second singing recital this afternoon at Pilgrim Church. Her first was in November. This time she sang Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You" and Pink's "Less Than Perfect." She did a nice job and didn't have any microphone problems like she had last time. We went out for a nice Mexican dinner afterward. Hopefully Andy will load the video from his phone soon and I'll post that too. She just had to get a new dress for the recital and talked me into looking at the Juniors section at Penneys. We found this cute aqua dress with a black lace overlay for only $10. So cute (even though E, the dress-hating girl, said it was too short. What?)

Cat interference

We bought the cats a new hideout while we were at Target today. B took on the challenge of putting it together but he got totally frustrated that the cats kept sitting on it while he was constructing it. He finally got it together and they do like it. One would hide in it and the other would pounce on him. Hours of fun.