Put another candle on your birthday cake...

Yesterday we had dinner at Vicky's house to celebrate Brian's, Kevin's brother, birthday. We hadn't seen Brian, Amanda, Lilly and Jackson for a while so it was fun to get together to visit. The kids have grown like crazy! Lilly is quite the girlie girl and loves pink and princesses. Jackson has two main expressions: a big smile, or a very serious look that says 'somebody is up to something here and I'm going to figure out what.' Too cute!

We had a fun time and a delicious dinner of grilled pork chops, potato casserole, green beans, corn, and of course, birthday cake. Lilly helped grandma make the birthday cake and was very proud of her creation. First, getting the table ready for the big celebration:Next, making sure all of the candles are lit:She even helped dad blow out all the candles on the cake:Yep, it was a tough job, but now we're all ready for birthday cake!

Pumpkin Update

It's been just about 5 weeks now and the pumpkins and veggies are growing like crazy!

Kevin and I are both very excited by the progress and can hardly wait until mid-summer to reign in some of the veggie harvest. The lettuce is leaf lettuce and will be ready before then; hopefully we'll have enough to make it through the summer - we'll see. There are quite a few flowers on the tomatoes right now. If luck is with us, they'll stay on the vines and turn into lots of delicious tomatoes. As for the pumpkins...I'm hoping we have jack-o-lanterns everywhere come Halloween!
Veggies, looking good!



Look who else has been enjoying the Pumpkin Patch:
Yep, Miss Slippers and Miss Daisy enjoy roaming around the patch watching the pumpkin vines grow. Slippers typically lays behind the patch while Daisy, being a cat, pretty much enjoys it from wherever she wants to =)

Community Concert & Festival

As with most school districts these days, my school district is having budget woes. We've had them in the past, but the outlook for next year is pretty dire. A large number of teachers and several classified staff were given layoff notices earlier in the spring. Not good.

To help offset some of the burden, each of our schools have been thinking of different types of fundraisers. During the month of May, our school participated in a Jog-a-Thon, Penny Wars, and a Community Concert and Festival. The concert/festival was held last Sunday afternoon from noon to 5:00 p.m. Nearly every staff member from our school participated by running a booth, helping to set-up or donating goods for the event. It was a HUGE success!

The event was quite an undertaking. We had a number of booths with carnival type games, activities, food, music, drama and drill team performances and a silent auction. After just four short weeks of planning the festival - something we've never had before - we raised $15,000.00!!

Kevin and I ran the 'Decorate - a - Cupcake' booth. Our Home Economics class baked the cupcakes and made the frosting, while Kevin and I provided colored sugars, sprinkles and candies in every color and form you could possibly imagine. Never having done this before, we brought a TON of supplies with us - about 20 pounds in all. To say that we over estimated would be a bit of an understatement; though it seemed like we used a lot, we still came home with about 13 pounds of candies and sugar!! However, the booth was a huge success. At the end of the day, we sold all but 5 cupcakes - not too bad at all!



We had some amazing items in the auction - including a handmade guitar from our guitar making class, a gorgeous watercolor created by a former student, a Tony Hawk signed skateboard deck and boxing gloves signed by Manny Pacquiao:

Our custodian, German, had the great idea of going up on the roof of the school to take a few ariel shots. So cool!


With all three fundraisers that we held during the month of May, our school raised $78,800.00. We're all pretty blown away by that amount - especially in such a short amount of time. While it won't save everyone's job, it definitely will help.

Zac Brown Band at the Hollywood Bowl

Oh.My.GAWD.

Saturday night we had the extreme pleasure of attending the Zac Brown Band at the Hollywood Bowl. If you've seen them - you know; if you haven't they defy explanation. I was a bit concerned because, though I'm a huge fan, Kevin has only heard two songs - maybe one time for each song. My concerns were laid to rest after the very first song -- Kevin loved them!

These guys are all amazing performers. Kevin said that 'Zac Brown was the worst musician on stage ... and he is great!' What does that tell you about the other guys? The fiddle player - holy cow - AMAZING!

On the way home we 'deconstructed' the concert and both agreed; you know how sometimes you say that a band is better on the record (or CD, actually) than they are in person? Not these guys - they are FAR BETTER in person than they are on the record. Honestly, I can't praise them enough. They were amazing. The musicianship of this band is phenomenal, their harmonies will blow you away, and their lyrics are killer. They really paint a picture that you can feel.

Guess you can tell that we enjoyed the concert, eh? Here are a few photos (photos Orange County Register):

Gig!!

Kevin had another gig this past Saturday night. The guys sounded GREAT! Take a listen...

If you're ever in town the first Saturday of any month, come on by the Gem City Grill and hear Frater Band live and in person!

Our Ninth Annual Weir-Hosted Mother's Day Brunch

Flash back to last weekend: it was glorious! Lots of sunshine and warm temperatures. Just perfect for brunch alfresco. Flash forward to yesterday: not so much. Unless, of course, you like dining outside in cool, drizzly temperatures. We don't.

Sooo....this year, Mother's Day brunch went with Plan B: inside where it was warm! Even with the rushing around to get everything decorated and set up inside, everything was just perfect. The food was delicious; the company, divine.

Kevin and I always have so much fun putting this little event together. This year, I decided to do something fun and make my own "Edible Arrangement". I thought it turned out great. One caution, though ... when your guests begin to remove the skewers from the arrangement, make sure they do so all the way around and not just in one spot, otherwise it's likely to tip over! Luckily we didn't have that happen, but there was a threat of it there for a while =) Making the arrangement is a bit time consuming, but not at all difficult. Here's a little peek:


I thought it turned out kinda cute - and it was fun to make.

Here are some of the other photos of the day:Boo! Hiss! Rained out =(Plan B...looking pretty good!



If you ask two particular teenage boys what their favorite part was, you'll hear 'REAL bacon and hot chocolate with LOTS of whipped cream!' If you ask the mommies, I hope they'll say that their favorite part was the love with which this event was created. Mom, Vicky and Debbie, we love you very, very much and hope that your day was as special as you are!

New Growth

Well the garden had a great week last week. It got lots of sunshine and water and, as a happy result, the lettuce seeds began to sprout and so did the pumpkin seeds!! Everyone keeps telling me that the pumpkins will take over once they start growing. I hope so. The area where they are planted could use more foliage and I'm hoping that, come fall, we will have lots and lots of pumpkins!!

Here's a peek at what's growing in the garden:
The two pictures above are the pumpkins just yesterday (Sunday), and the pictures below they are today


Crazy! Yesterday there were 3, today there are about 7! Here are the other veggies and herbs:

Just look at these two Ja'moes. They have so much fun playing together and chasing each other around. They're hilarious! Kevin says one of his favorite things is to see me sitting on the couch with Slippers curled up at my right hip, Daisy sitting on my lap and the three of us nodding off to napville. Awwww, how cute! ;o)