Scrapbooking

Girls' weekend

Let the girls' weekend begin!

Top scorer!

This is E when she returned from a golf match against Marist High School last night. She was the low scorer on her team with a 42, and in golf, the low score is the best score. The team's usual top scorer got a 43. It's the first time in her four years on either the junior varsity or varsity teams that has happened. The OPRF team won the match (yay!) and they all went out to Peppo's to get sub sandwiches for dinner. E said it was excellent and the "guts" were delicious.

A girl and her cat

Adorable

L's Comic Con pictures

L took a camera to Comic Con on Saturday and took a few pictures of people at the show (she asked before taking their photo). Half of the fun of going to the show is dressing up as a comic book/move/TV show character. Recognize any of the characters?

1st day of 7th

L got all dressed up for the first day of seventh grade wearing a cute dress, leggings and boots. Here's to hoping it's a good year!

Ready for school

L made a mess out of the living the other day as she attempted to organize all her school supplies. School starts tomorrow!

Comic Con

L and her friend, J, pose in their "Dr. Who" dresses before leaving for an afternoon of fun at Comic Con. L is so excited!

Golf shirt '14

E thinks this year's golf shirt is very similar to last year's. The style is similar, but it looks more like the sophomore shirt to me.

L's special lunch & dinner

L has been asking forever to go a nearby train restaurant that recently opened. She wanted to see how similar it is to PC Junction, which we visit every time we're in Door County. With the oldest two back to school already, we decided to go yesterday for lunch. She decided the service is slower than it is in Door County, but the restaurant was cleaner and she loved the food, though the train wasn't as impressive. And after all of that, she came home and made our Thursday night dinner - pizza cupcakes made with crescent rolls.

L's turn at the challenge

One of L's classmates nominated her for the ALS bucket challenge yesterday so she had to gather up her neighborhood friends, use someone's porch and have Andy pour the cold water over her head before a group of young onlookers.

Just another day

My senior and sophomore

First day of school!

'Snazzy' golf bag

E went to school today to mentor for the freshmen, or as I like to say, terrorize the freshmen. Tomorrow is the first day of high school for everyone else! After school, coach handed out the new golf bags - so new they still had the tags on them. E described it as "snazzy." She also got her beloved golf jacket back. She got No. 1. And coach told her she's a co-captain. He didn't mention it at Saturday's meeting and she's been wondering about it all weekend.

... and one more

Today we prepared the ALS challenge for B's friend, B. He was challenged to it yesterday by IB. L filled the bucket with water and it was full! He got soaked. The video is pretty good but I'll just post the "before" picture.

Next ...

B's friend, IB, stopped by this afternoon and since he hadn't yet completed the ALS water challenge that E challenged him to yesterday, we helped him out. I poured the water and E filmed it on his phone. Here he is waiting for me to dump the water on his head.

ALS Challenge

E was challenged by a teammate on her golf team to take the ALS Challenge - pour a bucket of ice water over your head, film it and share it on social media within 24 hours of the challenge, or donate $100 to the ALS Association. We filled a bucket with ice water and poured it over her head. That was kind of fun. B filmed it on her phone and Andy filmed it on my camera. Afterward she went inside to take a nice, warm shower.

Dinner by L

L surprised me yesterday afternoon by announcing that she'd like to make dinner. She picked a chicken potpie recipe so we had to run to the store to buy a refrigerated pie crust and frozen mixed vegetables. Dinner was a little later than usual because L was out playing with friends instead of in the kitchen cooking, but it was worth the wait. She said she'd like to make dinner for us every Thursday night. That's an offer I can't refuse.

Senior year starts!

E went to school today and picked up her books, schedule and new ID. She's a senior! Hard to believe she was just a freshman a few years ago. Her senior schedule includes AP physics, English (literary experiments - the students call the class "feelings"), AP calculus, gym, Japanese, civil engineering and architecture, and philosophy. She also began golf tryouts yesterday and shot an impressive 86 on an 18-hole round. It was the second lowest of all the girls.

Guard cat

Our neighbors had a package delivered to our house when they weren't home the other day. I brought it in, Muffles sniffed it for a while, then decided to guard it.

Sophomore schedule

It's chilly today and threatening to rain so I drove B to school to get his new ID and class schedule and to have his yearbook picture taken. He's taking American history, pre-calculus, gym, English literature, chemistry, graphic design (a computer course) and Japanese. He seemed pretty happy with everything when he got back into the car for me to drive him home. I think he likes when school is in session so he can see his friends every day. I wanted him to show off his ID (with the picture they'll use in the yearbook) when I took this photo and he wrapped the lanyard around his neck. Goofy boy.

School supplies

L and I stopped at the store to pick up a few (more) school supplies that were one sale and L just had to have these erasers. The package claims they're the "world's best eraser." We'll see about that.

Oh, yeah

Muffles must have been tired of E texting. He laid down right in front of her and it worked. She put down the phone and petted him.

Senior picture day

E went to Concordia University to have her senior pictures taken. Here she is changing her earrings. So glad we found an outfit in the store she liked and another we were able to put together with what she had at home.

Curled cat

Art, a movie and a walk

Today was L's last day of her wheel-throwing art class. She'll get to bring home her projects in a few weeks. After her class, I dropped her off at R's house. They walked to Lake Street, had lunch, did a little shopping and ended up at the theater to see "Guardians of the Galaxy." L said it was pretty good. No sooner than I brought her home, B's friends were ringing the doorbell. L loves when B's friends stop by. It's usually unannounced and she manages to convince them to take her on a walk - probably in exchange for her leaving them alone later if they intend on sleeping over. Here they are walking through the neighborhood:

High school boys are fascinating, at least to seventh-graders.

What a deal

E and I were running some errands yesterday morning when she asked to stop in the Goodwill Store to see whether they had any ice skates for sale. She bought herself a pass to the local ice-skating rink and has been renting skates for $3 each time she goes. She found a pair of skates at the store for $5 and took them to a local store this morning and had them sharpened for $7. What a deal. She even made her own laces out of cord she bought at the craft store.

Happy Gotcha Day!

It was two years ago today that we adopted August and Muffles so L had to make them party hats to celebrate "Gotcha Day." (We think their birthdays are in June since they were at least six weeks old when we adopted them. Oh, and it was our 24th anniversary. We celebrated with a kids-free dinner at Vivere in The Italian Village.

Lots of fun

Andy had a busy day today. He and E got up early to golf, then he took B, L and her friend, R, to a nearby mini-golf/go-kart place in the afternoon. We took R home and he talked his mom into letting L go with them to a party. Andy had to stay up till 10:30 p.m. to pick L up, and when he got there she wanted to stay longer! He brought her home and then she wanted to stay up with B and his friends, IR, IB and B, who were sleeping over. My little night owl loves a good party.

Doritos Loaded

L's latest food fascination is the Doritos Loaded from 7-Eleven. They're basically cheddar cheese triangles coated in Doritos and melted like a cheese stick. She gets deals sent to her iPad every day and today's deal was buy the Doritos Loaded and get a free Pepsi. She couldn't resist.