the white house at the right time

In the air, over the head, on any play, a Seahawk will read today. During Dr. Seuss Day, Cayden's class got to have a Seahawk player visit.  He obviously thought it was really cool! http://www.seahawks.com/videos-photos/videos/Seahawks-Celebrate-Dr-Seuss/453f03eb-fa65-411b-8c9d-2f50bb3648b7

I am all for the "rally in the valley."  One reason we moved here, and stay here, despite Randy's long commute is the school district.  I don't want an increase in taxes but I am in favor of the upcoming bond for our district.  Vote YES!!! Tahoma rated as top learning investment Tahoma School District has earned a reputation for academic excellence and is among the top 10 percent among Washington school districts on annual state assessments. But a new, independent examination of school districts throughout the state and the entire nation indicates that Tahoma also is among the best at providing a great education for each dollar spent ( Tahoma Website, 3/2011).

or New York.  Madalyn's honor choir performed their spring concert and she sang a little solo line in the song "I'm the King of New York" from  the Disney musical Newsies.  She was confident and clear and most importantly...on tune!  My little "M's".

 It was a bit O'the Irish at our house on St. Patrick's...and the day before St. Patrick's.  Since Randy and I were going to be mia deep in the Emerald City until the late wee hours on St. Patty's, we had our Irish meal the night before at our "Rainbow Tavern." In this month's Family Fun mag. some super creative person must have been staring into a bowl of yogurt covered pretzels, imaging what it looked like, much like I look at the clouds to see shapes, and saw a shamrock. Seriously, super creative. So we got our bowl of yogurt pretzels and made some shamrocks too!  A classic Irish menu: Irish soda bread, great green items, a fruit  "rainbow" (a tradition we added last year...a bowlful of skittles has been a traditional stand in rainbow), and of course corned beef.  This year we put ours in the oven instead of the crock pot and I liked it so much more.  It was more tender and this year, for the first year, there wasn't any left over!  The k...

Cheers goes out to Makayla and her JV squad - 1st place in Division. "Rah, Rah, Rah." Madalyn and I spent Saturday at the competition watching Makayla.  We left early to get our front row seats.  It was Makayla's first cheer competition.  She did great, as did all the girls.  So fun to watch.  However, there is something to be said about getting older.  I think I would have liked the music turned down a bit.

 Every year the Institute, and now the YSA (young single adults), host The Sweet Meet.  Basically a Valentine's dinner and dance. The twist is dessert is made by the guys.   The gals then vote on the desserts by dropping in tickets to a box or bag placed in front of the Valentine inspired dessert, of course not knowing who made it (but really, I think a few did!).  A ticket for each dessert is pulled out and "whala" you have a date and a dessert for the evening. The rest is up to cupid! Pictured above is what we made.  Fruity and fresh.  While I spent most my time in the kitchen helping with dinner (and thinking never do catering, never do catering), I stepped out to help with the judging. Naturally, chocolate desserts got extra points in my book. There were some pretty good entries. One year, somebody made a love bird's cage out of Twizzlers. Nothing quite that spectacular this year. However, flavored chocolate was new this year. Afte...

Cayleb's valentine invitations.  Loved these! Copied the cute idea from a suggestion on http://www.eighteen25.blogspot.com/ .  Cayleb was so excited to pass them out.  He carefully cut out the copies faces of his classmates, glued them on the back and then taped on a Valentine's, stretchy monkey. Thoughtfully, he selected pink for the girls and blue for the boys with a few getting green.  At this point in February, we were so cupcaked out!  So instead of putting cupcakes in my cupcake holder, I put yogurt dipped pretzels, chocolate covered almonds, and chewy, red hearts. Red, white, and chocolate!   I was picking up photos at the Costco photo center, when the lady handed me a stack of our Christmas cards.....three months later! Back in December when I went in to pick up our Christmas card order, the clerk couldn't find it anywhere so reprinted them while I shopped for a 50 bag count of chips, 10 lbs. of semi-sweet chocolate chips, and toile...