Radio Show

Ashley performed in a radio play called "The Horrors of Spider Island."  Its a special kind of format where the cast meets together in the morning and spends the whole day rehearsing and then performs later in the evening.  She and a couple of her friends did it together and she had a great time.

Ashley was "Kate" one of the girls who is shipwrecked on an island then attacked by giant spiders.  The show was set in the 1960s and based on one of the campy horror features of the time.   It was a cute show and Ashley did a great job.

Ashley's Birthday

At one time, Ashley's birthday was in the summer.  Now with the earlier starts, she is actually in school on her birthday.  Here she is wearing a her birthday dress just before she leaves for school.

One advantage of being at school on your birthday is that your friends decorate your locker:

Her main gift from us was a new bowling ball:

She had a birthday party later that night.  It was pretty simple.  She invited a few friends to the Hollywood Palms Theater.  It is one of those movie places that serves you dinner during the movie.  She and her friends went to see the movie "The Giver"  After dinner and the movie they all came back to our house for a bonfire in the backyard.  It was really easy and I think they all had a fun time.

I found "Ashley" cokes for everyone to drink

She had an oreo ice cream cake too

2014 First Day of School

WOW!!!  School started so early this year - August 18th to be exact.  It still feels like summer to me.  In fact, I think we all just wanted to ignore the fact that school was starting.  We didn't really even do any school clothes shopping.  We did have a nice dinner and Father's blessings the day before school started but that was the only fanfare we could muster.

Ashley is a Sophomore this year!  Time is flying by.  I'm pretty sure she is going to be crazy busy, but it will be all good stuff.  Ashley likes high school a lot and I'm grateful for that.

Paige is in 5th grade this year.  The last year of elementary school.  Now, that is weird to think about!  

Another change this year is that with Riley's move and the fact that I'm not babysitting our neighbor's kids this year, she goes to the bus stop all by herself without the usual entourage.  Paige's friends at our bus stop where a year older than her, so they all have moved up to the junior high.   She's the only 5th grader at her stop with a bunch of kindergarten and 1st graders.  Fortunately, she does have friends who ride her same bus, so she just has to patient with all the little kids at the bus stop.

Anyway, both girls had a good first day and there is no looking back now!

It's Time for Driver's Ed!

What?!  Ashley started driver's education this month!  In Illinois you can take driver's ed in high school when you are 15 1/2 or at age 15 if you take it privately.  Originally, we planned to have Ashley take it in school beginning in January.  However, she could not fit driver's ed into her schedule so she had to take it privately.  It costs a little more to do it privately, but this was really the best option for us.  We decided to do the class during the summer so she wouldn't have to go to school all day and spend 2 hours each night in a class.

After a month of classes 4 days a week, she has officially finished the "classwork" portion of the program.  As soon as she turned 15 she went and took the written portion of the driver's test at the DMV so she could get her learner's permit.  By law, in addition to being 16, she has to hold her permit for at least 9 months and have 50 hours of driving with a parent before she can get her driver's license.

taking the test

she passed!

Now she has to do go out driving with an instructor.  Before she starts doing that, Dave and I want to spend a little time practicing with her first, so she can get more comfortable behind the wheel of a car.  It will basically be a whole year before she can have her actual license, but it's good to get the class finished now and leave her with lots of time to practice.  Hopefully when she turns 16, she will be ready to get her license.  I'm eagerly anticipating it, because I definitely want her to be able to drive herself to Seminary every day!

Summer Activities Round Up

As summer comes to an end, here is round up of some random things we did for fun:

First up, church youth activities:
An awesome woman from our stake came and gave a "Color Me Beautiful" presentation to the YW.  It was pretty fun and great to learn about what colors look best on us.

Paddleboats

Geo-caching and Bonfire

The girls and I also enjoyed a lot of Sonic runs - especially on $1 Slushie Day

Also look who took first place in their bowling league?  Paige's team got 1st place trophies.  Paige also won the Most Improved Bowler Award and got a trophy for the 2nd Best score.

Ashley fell into a slump at the end of the season as it became clear that she needed a new and heavier bowling ball.  It's a good sign that she was improving enough to need better equipment, but it takes time to adjust and make sure you buy the right ball.  She had to suffer through the last few weeks of the season as she worked with a pro to determine what kind of ball she needed to buy.  It was frustrating for her but you can't just go out and buy a $150 ball on whim and then find out it wasn't the right one.  Anyway, she now has a new ball (called THE HAMMER) and will probably end up needing a second ball for spares---wow, it's getting expensive!  Paige is excited because we are going to give her Ashley's old ball.  We will have the holes plugged and re-drilled to fit Paige's hand.

Summer is not complete unless you take at least one trip to the waterpark.  Ashley and Paige both went with friends.  I didn't get any pics of Ashley but here is Paige with her friend Hailey.

Andy's Frozen Custard.  We also tried a (new to us) frozen custard place.  It was yummy!  I got a raspberry Italian ice with vanilla custard.  

 Paige got something called the "Jack Hammer"  It is basically custard and brownies with core of hot fudge down the middle.  Have Mercy!

How about some unflattering pictures from our Parable of the Popcorn family home evening?  Paige taught the lesson which included a lot of trying to throw and catch popcorn in our mouths.

Go Karts!

So Un-FUN

I thought I should take a break from my day to share with you how much fun it's been around the house.

Paige has a friend over and I told her instead of playing Minecraft they should do some real crafts or something.  We have a ton of half-used and even unopened craft kits.  Of course, I should have known the reason they were unused is because without a doubt Paige is NOT a craft person.  She doesn't have the patience for it, PERIOD.  She gets easily frustrated and bored.  Basically, after practically throwing a tantrum in front of her friend (who happens to like crafts) craft time was over.  Of course it didn't help that of the 25 project options, she picks the hardest one to do.  Oh well, glad that's over!  GRRR.  Anyone wants some craft kits?

That fun has been followed by Ashley reading and annotating Beowulf all day.  It's a summer reading assignment for her upcoming English class and since school starts in 5 days, it's time to get that baby finished.  English and literature are not Ashley's favorite subjects and honestly, I'm not a fan of Beowulf either but, "PUH-LEASE!" I'm sick of hearing about how much you dislike this ridiculous book.  What's worse than reading Beowulf?  Listening to your kid complain about reading Beowulf.

Well, that's my complaining for the day.  I will now go find some chocolate to eat.

18 Years

Dave and I celebrated our 18th anniversary this year.  Dave forgot.  I reminded him the night before.  Our anniversary was on Sunday and I had to speak in Sacrament meeting.  We spent the whole day before at the Dunes.  Basically the days before were pretty busy and so we just let it go.

On Monday, Dave came home a little early from work and took me and the girls out to dinner.  We went to Sharko's BBQ.

We didn't get gifts or anything, but I made a big purchase earlier that I'm going to consider our anniversary present.  We have a nice theater near our home that every year runs a Broadway series.  This year there are four shows---Cats, Mary Poppins, Tommy and Les Miserables.  I've seen Mary Poppins and Les Mis, but I really do want to see all the shows.  I'd been thinking about buying seasons tickets for months.  I mentioned it to a friend and she'd been thinking the same thing.  So she got the ball rolling and a bunch of couples bought season tickets together.  So now we have four upcoming date nights with friends---that should make up for a forgotten anniversary.