Shorecrest Senior Prom

Shorecrest's Senior Prom was on Memorial Day weekend, Saturday, May 26th.  It was held at the EMP in downtown Seattle.  It was an absolute gorgeous day.  Mid-70's which made the outdoor pictures even more beautiful and enjoyable to take.  The students opted to have their pictures taken at Gas Works Park.  In all the years I've lived here, it was my first experience at that park. 

All of the girls received wrist corsages since they all wore strapless dresses.

Kenedee, Kati and Beth 

David and Kenedee

Beautiful Seattle Skyline.  Not a cloud in the sky and tons of boats out on Elliot Bay.

David and Kenedee, Austin and Beth, Kati

What a nice group of Seniors.  Okay, well David is a Jr, but that's okay.

After parents took pictures, the group of 14 of them went to the Melting Pot for dinner.  I've always wanted to go their but too expensive for my taste.  Melting Pot is a restaurant that serves fondue.  Since it was walking distance to the EMP where prom took place, David told me the Melting Pot had a prom special that night.  From dinner, they all walked to prom.  After prom ended, Kenedee and David and Austin and Beth enjoyed a limosine ride back to Austin's place in Edmonds, compliments of Austin's parents.  I guess it was even upgraded and they got a stretch hummer limo!   Does it get any better then that?

Tessa's 21st Birthday

Well I tried to download a picture of Tessa and I can't figure out how to get her out of the horizontal position.  Need to figure that out before I can post her picture.  Any ways, Tessa is now the big 21!  She has been in love with "Batman" for several years now, so I made her a batman blanket since she is always cold.  With the help of dear friend Kathy Griffard and her cricut machine, I also put together a Batman dry erase board with options for changing out the background.  She loved it.  Her choice for dinner celebration was at Azetca.   

 

The evening of her actual birthday she spent it with friends of course. They went to the Rock Woodfire Grill. She had asked me to purple cupcakes with blue frosting, the #21 in Purple icing and pink sprinkles. Kind of an odd array of colors but I granted her wish. I think she enjoyed her day. 

Ireland Trip - Day 12 Time to Come Home:(

Sunday, March 25th.  What a brutal day.  My room mate Mary was on flight 1 which meant she had to do her wake up calls at 2:30 AM.  Once she was awake, so was I.  She tried really hard to be quiet as she could, but once I'm awake, I can't fall back asleep.  I was worried I'd sleep through my alarm.

I was on flight 2, which meant wake up calls for me began at 4:30 AM.  No one got much sleep that night.  We had our closing ceremonies the night before which meant  a late night to begin with, then on top of that, Sunday was daylight savings and we all lost an hour of sleep.  We were in Athlone which was about 2-hours from Dublin.  We had to check out of our hotel (Sheraton Athlone) by 6 AM.   Flight 1 already departed.  They had to check out at 4 AM.  Making sure about 75 students were awake, fed and out the door by 6 AM was extremely challenging.  But we did it.

As we were trying to leave the hotel, there were a few very drunk Irishmen trying to get on our bus.  They were getting a bit physical with our bus driver.  The driver almost had to call authorities because these men were pushing their way on.  Our driver was trying to tell these drunk men that this was a chartered tour bus and not a city bus.  They were just too drunk to understand.  That was actually the first time on the trip that I saw anyone that drunk. 

We had now been on the bus for about 15 minutes we were just getting on the freeway when I noticed that Keven Alred the Pipe Band instructor wasn't with us.  Most of our travels he sat right behind me and I can't believe none of us noticed he wasn't on the bus.  I usually sat up front since I had to take attendance.  Sitting up front also helped with motion sickness.  I made the comment quite loudly, where's Kevin?  Everyone looked around and then we realized we had left him at the hotel!    

Our principal was on our bus.  He was going to extend his stay for another 5 days since he's from Ireland and had family to visit.  He rode with us to the airport, and then would rent a car and go about the rest of his trip.  Mr. Hagarty (Pat) called one of the teachers from flight 3 and asked her to give Kevin a wake up call.  Needless to say, she wasn't happy about getting woke up either!  Flight 3 were the sophomore's.  They got to stay an extra day since they arrived a day later then the rest of us due to state testing. The call was made and Kevin was woken up.  Needless to say, he will never live this one down.  Turning a huge tour bus around isn't easy.  The streets in Ireland are so narrow and many are one-way.  It was challenging getting back to the hotel to get Kevin.  We were already on the freeway and the next couple of exits were closed down to construction.  We had to drive about 10 miles before we could get off the freeway and head back to Athlone to pick up Kevin.  He was waiting sheepishly in front of the hotel when we arrived about 30 minutes later.  Once on the bus, we all said, "Good morning Kevin" and then...everyone went silent.  Kind of a joke.  Trust me, it was hilarious!

We still had a 2-hour commute to get to the airport, check in, go through customs and depart at 11:15.  By the time we arrived at the airport at 8:15 AM, I had already been awake for 6 hours and we still have 3 hours before our flight left.  Checking in and going through customs took forever.  THEN, on top of that....I was the unlucky one that was pulled aside for a strip search.  Okay, not a full strip search, but no one else got that special treatment.  Why me?  Do I look like a terrorist? seriously!

Our plane before departing from Dublin.  It was indeed a beautiful day.  We all over dressed and regretted it.  11:15 AM depart Dublin for Philadelphia US Airways Flight #723. 

After everyone loaded the plane the the door was closed, the stewardess was in on our joke.  She got on the intercom and said, "Is there a Kevin on this flight?"  We were all laughing, clapping and just enjoying the harrassment.  Poor Kevin. 

We finally get on the plane and for 7.5 hours back to Philadelphia was the longest flight of my life. It was extremely rough flying over the Atlantic. No one could sleep, passenger's were very nervous and for once I sat through 3 movies just so that I couldn't focus on the flight itself. The $5 for ear buds was the best money spent on the entire trip. I just kept praying we weren't going to crash. All I could think about was getting back home to Ryan and Rocky.

Have arrived safely, (barely) to Philadelphia at 1:55 PM.  Just gained 5 hours back.  Now we have a 4 hour layover before leaving Philadelphia for Seattle.  US Airways Flight #78.  (There's Kevin looking at me)

Students frantically trying to finish 8 days of homework before going back to school tomorrow.  Yes, Kyle was one of those students.  We had just called Ryan at this point to inform him we were at least state side now.  It was early morning for him.  He was getting ready for church I believe when we called. 

Long wait at the airport.  Everyone is over heating.  Many students wore their new Aron sweaters because they were too bulky to pack.  Everyone was sweating. 

We finally board our plane and yet another 6 hour flight back to Seattle.  This flight, we all slept.  Just about every person on the plane.  I was surprised that I could sleep that long without waking up in those uncomfortable seats.  We arrived back in Seattle at 9:07 PM, just gaining 3 more hours.  Between daylight savings and going through a couple of different time changes, my body couldn't really tell what time it was.  Was just glad to be home safe to Ryan.  Rocky rode with Ryan to the airport.  Rocky was so excited to see me.  He was crawling all over my body and kissing me.  It was awesome.

Kenedee's Senior Portraits

Kenedee graduates from high school next month.  June 17th to be exact, Father's Day.  Due to getting our order in late, we just received her announcements last week in the mail.  Now it's just a matter of getting some pic's developed so that we can put a photo in with her announcements.  I was just going through pictures and thought I would post her favorites.  She's very photogenic.  These were taking in August 2011 from our friend Rebecca Davidson. 

During the photo shoot while at Hamlin Park, Rebecca's car was broken in to and who ever did it, took a lot of Kenedee's personal items.  What was supposed to be a happy photo shoot, ended up being a long night.  Rebecca drove up from Gig Harbor to take these pic's and ended up driving our Avalon back home since her car was filled with broken glass.  Wouldn't have been so bad except she had brought her 3 children with her and we weren't about to let her drive a car full of glass and children for 1 1/2 hours on the freeway. 

Kenedee's 18th Birthday

Today I can legally kick Kenedee out of the house if she upsets me!  lol.  It's her 18th birthday.    Our family has a tradition like I'm sure many do, birthday person gets to choose their dinner, whether its their favorite home cooked meal or dining out.  Just like last year, Kenedee chose Beth's Cafe on Aurora.  (Tessa introduced us to this shady establishment a while ago.)  It's a different dining experience but great food with enormous size portions.  They are known for the 12 egg omelet.  I guess this place is open 24/7.  It never closes!  Which could explain why it never gets a good cleaning.    Kenedee's boyfriend David joined us as well as Tessa and Spencer of course. 

It's been  was a pretty mellow day for her 18th birthday.  She said only 3 friends at school remembered.  I sensed she was feeling a little on the "low" side.  I feel bad, but what can ya do?  David walked her home from school and spent the evening with our family.  After dinner we came back to the house for dessert.  Kenedee's never been a huge fan of sweets.  Definitely not a cake lover at all.   All she wanted was boring Neapolitan ice cream cones.  

David and Kenedee looking through their menu choices.

This is David and Kenedee in the back parking lot at Beth's Cafe. It's a painted wall that makes for an great back drop. Last year Kenedee and Kyle had their picture taken there.

Ryan and I got her a Kindle Fire for her birthday gift.  A nicer gift for a special birthday.  She wanted one and I think she'll get a lot of use out of it.

Krista's Baby Shower

This past Saturday on May 12th, I hosted a baby shower for my friend/esthetician, Krista Martindale.  Since this was her only shower for baby Zoey, it was very well attended.  I didn't know any of the guests except for Sandra.  Everyone was either from Mike's family or clients of hers that have followed her since she left InSpa.  30 guests had RSVP'd that they were coming. That's a lot of adults in our home. When we learned that many were planning to attend, we decided to use the whole house instead of just the upstairs.   

I wish I had taken pic's during the actual party, but was busy being the hostess so everything I have here are pre-party.  A couple months ago, I offered to host a baby shower for Krista.  She was thrilled and immediately excepted the offer.  Since baby Zoey is due July 4th, we figured mid-May was the perfect time. 

She had wanted a pink elephant theme, but we were unsuccessful in finding online invitations with a cute elephant.  We ended up choosing a different style, but I didn't tell her that I was on a mission to stick with the pink elephant's.  It was more difficult then I thought.  The first thing I found for her with pink elephants were these really cute onsies.  So between the onsies and elephants, I combined the two and was able to come up with some cute decor. 

We decided to have all the guests enter through the daycare entrance which is my downstairs kitchen.  I had it spotless and well decorated for the party.  Since I didn't know anyone that was coming, I had pink elephant name tags for everyone to fill out. 

When I learned we were going to use the downstairs too, I panicked.  I didn't know how I was going to decorate the daycare room.  My dear friend Kathy Griffard helped me out.  With her handy dandy cricut machine, she made die cuts for me.  (I told her that I would gladly exchange a home cooked meal if she would help me with creating the decor)  She totally came to my rescue.  I showed her the cute onsies that I had purchased and so from there, the creativity began.  She die cut for me elephants and onsies.  It was absolutely perfect!  We had the elephants towing a line of onsies.  I changed out my daycare bulletin board for a baby theme wall.  It worked out very well. 

Upstairs on the dining table, I had on display a diaper cake that I had made.  It was the first one I had ever done.  I think it turned out well.  Believe or not, those were the only diapers she received.  Mike's step-mother gave her 4-months of diaper service though.  (Totally awesome, yet expensive gift)

For the dessert, I made Spiked Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes.  They were gorgeous and tasted delightful, so they say.  I didn't eat any since they had Raspberry liquor in them.  Not much, but the frosting had a wee bit more.  They sure smelled delightful.  I also made elephant sugar cookies with a raspberry flavored buttercream.  I wanted to paint them like the stars and moons, but ran out of time.

I also provided a few cupcakes that weren't spiked as well, just in case.  Krista wanted to serve mimosa's to everyone.  Once everyone arrived and had their name tag on and their drink in hand, I had everyone go into the daycare room where I had 30 chairs set up in a circle.  We all introduced ourselves and how we knew Krista.  I then explained how the party was going to go.  (It's that whole RS thing in me.  I can't help it!)

We then went upstairs where I had a full spread luncheon planned.  I served chicken croissants, egg salad sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, my homemade potato salad, pasta salad, strawberry-spinach salad.  Also had a fresh fruit platter and fresh assorted veggies.  I forgot to take a picture of the cold raspberry soup!  It was so pretty and displayed in mini desserts dishes. 

After we spent about 45-minutes upstairs eating, we then mingled downstairs for games and gifts where we had more room to sit.  The shower lasted a few hours.  She received so many gifts I didn't think the party was ever going to end. 

It's my own fault that I cause clean-up to take so long, but I refused to use paper products. I got out the crystal dishes as I wanted everything to look as elegant as a baby shower could possibly get.

By the end of the day, I was truly exhausted.  Took about 4 hours for clean up.  Mainly because I had to wash everything by hand.  I don't regret at all.  The shower went very well.  Everyone was so nice and appreciative that I hosted a shower for Krista.  All the hard work involved with the details were all noticed.  I tried so hard to make it as nice as possible and not leave out any details. 

Bountiful Baskets!

So my dear friend Torrie, told me about Bountiful Baskets a few weeks ago.  Am I crazy because I look forward to my produce pick-up every Saturday?  Or do I just have no life...

So here's how it works, there's a one time sign up fee for $3 and then after that you can place an order every week if you want to.  Bountiful Baskets is a food co-op.  They post what they will have available on Monday's at noon.  If you wish to order their standard basket, which is a surprise every week, it's only $15.  What's so awesome about this, is that you may end up with produce you wouldn't typically purchase which forces you to try new things.  So far there has only been 3 items that have shown up in my baskets that I have never purchased before.  Beets, artichokes and a large jicama.  

They will continue to take orders through Tuesday but if you wish to add any extras on to your order, you'll want to do that on Monday's before they run out.  Extras are first come first serve.  Last week I ordered 8 lbs of strawberries for $11.  They were beautiful. 

They also had available for sale, fresh tortilla's.  Only $10.50 for so many tortilla's, that I was giving them away.  White Corn and flour. 

Because I still have so much produce on hand, I gave my last order to my mother as part of her Mother's Day gift.  She loved it!  Since Ryan and I have gone vegetarian M-F, this has been awesome.  We plan to start juicing soon.  Hopefully that will get even more vegetables in our system.   

Moon and Stars Special Order

During the course of our Dublin Dollar Fundraising, I became friends with several other parents in our community as we met on a regular basis to plan fundraising events.  One gal I met early on is named Barb Swan.  She was the parents that kept track of all the hours the students worked at each fundraising event.  Barb was also the head chair of the LFP Farmer's Market that was held mid-July that I couldn't attend due to my family reunion.  I just supplied Barb with all my baked goods and she made sure they were well taken care of.  Since then, Barb recognizes my passion for baking and has placed several personal orders over time.  Her first personal order was a blackberry pie for Christmas Eve dinner. 

After I returned from Ireland, Barb had asked me for another special order.  She is hosting a book club party at her home this evening and wanted my baked goods. 

The book that they read is titled "Night Circus".  Never heard of this book before but she wanted cookies that tied in with the book.  She requested Moons and Stars.  Hoping for black and white frosting, easier said then done however!    

She had asked that I individually wrap 14 of them for hostess gifts.  Also asked me to put my name and number on them for advertising.  She said that most of the ladies she's invited to book club tonight are all women who enjoy hosting parties and spend money on catering.  She thought that maybe she could drum up some business for me.  Very thoughtful of her

So these cookies were a bit more challenging then I thought.  Definitely a learning process.  For the stars I used a sugar cookie icing like I use for my gingerbread boys.  It has Karo Syrup in it which gives it a shine and smooth surface.  However, I had to hand paint the icing on every cookie to get the tips of the stars and the nose on the moon.  The border that I initially planned to do didn't work out at all.  Spent a couple of hours trying to figure out how I was going to finish off the edges of each cookie and make it look nice. 

BTW- black frosting is terrible to work with.  No matter how much black you use, when starting with a white base, you end up with gray.  I fought with the black for hours and ended up having to stick with the same black icing in used initially and just thicken it a bit.  I ended up tracing around the moon.  There was no other way.  So yes, the starts are fancier.  I also hand painted glitter on each star as well to give it a sparkle.  All and all, these cookies took me about 2 days to produce but if doing it again, would be able to do it in half the time.  Don't think I really made anything off this order with the time I invested.  Maybe next time;)