The Fun Begins Here!

So we're set. With the price of gas and the energy used to load up 12-15 kids to go on a field trip, why not bring the fun to daycare. Last year I purchased an Astro Jump for the business. Best business purchase ever! This year was the new playground and water slide. At any rate, I'm by far the coolest mom on the block. We seem to attract every stray child wondering the neighborhood:) My back yard is a disaster, but the kids are having a fabulous time. I'm glad Kyle's still young and small enough to enjoy the new toys as well. Unfortunately there's a weight restriction on the water slide, so I can't go on it. 80 lb. limit. What a bummer! Let's just hope for continuous nice weather so that I can get my monies worth!

Family Reunion 2008

So you've all seen the movie "Footloose" right? Back in the 80's.... Well that movie was filmed in Lehi, Utah where my mother was born and raised. After 25 years of not seeing my cousins or extended family, my mother took it upon herself to host a family reunion last weekend. It was amazing. My mom went over the top and did a fabulous job. My entire family made the trip from WA. There were over 200 in attendance. Friday's activities included bowling at Jack & Jill bowling Lanes in American Fork, UT. Needless to say, I had to use the bumpers and well as the metal roller that allowed the ball to stay in the lanes. I think my score was a whopping 62 points all together. It took us almost 3 hours to play one game since we were all too busy visiting. Later the evening, my cousin opened his office for us all to gather as we ate and enjoyed the music of a fabulous DJ that taught us all sorts of line dancing. He had no idea that Tessa could dance and when the swing music came on, she took over the dance floor. They DJ even danced with her. It was pretty cool.
The next morning was brutal. We had to check out of our hotel room about 5:30 AM so that we could be on the golf course at the base of the canyon by 6:15! I've never golfed before, but I played along for the fun of it and enjoyed it so much, that I think I'm going to take up lessons. I only lost 3 balls the whole day:) Immediately following the golf tournament, we all met at the Lehi Pool and park where we had all sorts of games and activities and fabulous food and fun. Seeing my cousins that I used to spend every summer with, just brought back hours of conversations and memories. It was so hard to leave that evening.

Ryan Dancing?

So I realized that after I blogged about Kenedee, I should mention that for Tessa's birthday the end of May, we enrolled her in more private dance classes. She is taking Salsa with Ryan. I thought it would be a good idea for them to take it together so that they could have some father/daughter time. When dancing, they get along fine, otherwise...not so much. Tessa is too much like her father which he doesn't see. At any rate, Tessa said that Ryan is a great dancer, but she herself isn't into the Salsa so much. It's only a 1-month class, so we'll continue with other types and see what she likes. Her favorite type of dance in Swing. In fact, at our daycare sock hop, she and a dance partner from school performed for everyone. I wished I could say that she got her dance moves from me, but that would be lying:(
She also did some dancing at her choir concert the other night, but I forgot my camera so you'll just have to take my word. She loves to dance but I wished we would have started her many many years ago.

Betty Crocker's Competition

Kenedee is my mini-baker in the family. She enjoys cooking, but loves to bake even more....wonder where she gets that from?
For her birthday a couple of weeks ago, I signed her up for a 4-week cake decorating course through Wilton. In order for her to take this class, I had to sign up as well, bonus for me!! The first week was just spent orientating us on the tools from our starter kit and explaining what we were going to accomplish during the month of June. Each week our assignment is to bring in a pre-frosted cake and we'll learn a new technique during class. We have plenty of class time to work on our creations. This is Kenedee's first cake. I think she's a natural and has already expressed interest in future classes. Hers definitely looks better then mine because she got to use MY cake turner while I opted to use a tray. I think I had better purchase another one so that mine turn out as nice as hers. Watch our progress over the next few weeks.

Brand New Kitchen 1-Year Anniversary

So you know I'm stretching for ideas to blog about when I have to come up with something from 1-year ago. Trust me, it was and still is a big deal for me. When we moved into our home April of 2000, we knew immediately that an updated kitchen was going to be forthcoming. It only took 7 years for us to decide to make that financial commitment to have a new kitchen installed. For us the deciding factor was when all the appliance stopped working, one by one. I was getting tired of cooking all my meals in my daycare kitchen downstairs and never able to spend time upstairs with my family. I'm sure we could have found a cheaper option, but we chose to use Kitchen Plus out of Bellevue because they guaranteed completion within 2 weeks. We had a few issue's like most people do with remodel work, but for the most part, I love my new kitchen. We've yet to have a party to invite all our friends over. Soon:)

So today marks the 1-year anniversary of the new kitchen.

My Annual Daycare Party

As many of you know, every year I host a daycare party for all my clients as a thank you for their business and loyalty. It's generally a huge undertaking, but I love to host parties and really enjoy watching the families get to know one another. This was my 9th year having one. The first party I held was back in 2000, right after we moved into our home. For the first couple of years everyone came to my place and we just BBQ'd and I would rent an astrojump for the children. Within a couple of years my business grew large enough that I was no longer able to accomodate the group in my back yard. Since then, I now reserve the church building and use all the facilities it has to offer. I'm always looking for new theme's so that I can change it up a bit, but since I invest in so many decorations, I do try to get a couple of years worth out of each theme. This year was a sock hop. I had 87 guests in attendance. I think it was the biggest turn out I've ever had. I always serve dinner and provide entertainment for everyone. This year my neighbor DJ'd for us and he did an awesome job! I also had a really good friend provide the photography so that I didn't have to do it myself. After it's all said and done, the planning starts for our next party!

Shannon's Twin.

So yes, this is the same old me, just trying to look younger. This is how it started, I woke up one day and realized that I have some serious grey hair. Not just a few stands, but several. And since the famous Melain (our hair stylist, speaking on behalf of many) decided to move to Maple Valley, might as well be Egypt, I had to do something in order to solve this problem. Also, I was just getting tired of the same old highlights, thought I'd go back to dark. I had it colored just like this the day before we left for Florida, but by the time we returned the sun had faded it. Anyways.... my natural color is really dark brown, so hopefully it won't fade to much. I think I'll keep it this way for awhile, Ryan loves it.